Television producer Garry Marshall recently wrote a book, My Happy Days in Hollywood: A Memoir (2012). In promoting the book he has talked about how his work on Happy Days was his favorite favorite work (as opposed to the often contentious work on Laverne & Shirley).
Some of Marshall’s revelations include that Fonzie was based on a friend of his from summer camp. Also, Nathan Lane auditioned for the show. Recently, I discovered something else interesting about the origin of Happy Days.
Do you remember the television show Love, American Style that ran on ABC from 1969-1974? The hour-long show featured different stories and casts each week. For awhile Love, American Style was on the same nights as The Brady Brunch, The Partridge Family, The Odd Couple, and Room 222. While reading about some of these shows recently, I was surprised to discover that the series Happy Days got its start on Love, American Style.
According to Wikipedia, in 1971 producer Garry Marshall had the idea for a sitcom featuring teenagers growing up in the 1950s. He created a pilot called New Family in Town, featuring many of the characters and several of the stars that would later appear in the Happy Days series. There were a few exceptions. In the pilot, Harold Gould played the father Howard Cunningham and Susan Neher played sister Joanie.
But no network was interested in the pilot, so Marshall sold the show to the producers of Love, American Style. That ensemble series then ran the pilot as a segment. The segment was retitled for the show as “Love and the Happy Days” and ran in early 1972.
After the network saw the success of the Broadway play Grease and the movie American Graffiti (1974), they remembered the Happy Days pilot and bought the rights. Happy Days ran on television from 1974-1984. One of the reasons Ron Howard got the part in American Graffiti was because George Lucas saw him in the original pilot.
If you are interested in seeing how it all began, below is the opening of “Love and the Happy Days” from Love, American Style. If you have never seen Love, American Style, though, I should warn you that if you view the opening you might have the song going through your head the rest of the day.
What is your favorite episode of Happy Days? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)
2 thoughts on “Happy Days on Love, American Style”