A-Z GUIDE TO MOVIES AND TV SHOWS PARODIED BY MAD, CRACKED, CRAZY, ETC. UP TO 1996. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. SPOILERS AND OTHER NON-SEQUITURS, TOO. SOMETIMES THESE THINGS HAVE WORDS OR SITUATIONS WE DON'T USE ANYMORE. YOU KNOW, 'CAUSE THEY'RE OLD.
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Here's the second of three posts parodying Happy Days. Cracked was known for doing a show several times whenever there were cast changes, or just to exploit a trend.
THE SAPPY DAYS
Cracked #118, August 1974
a: John Severin
The first was from its first season when there were still exterior shots and the show concentrated more on the adventures of Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and Potsie Weber (Anson Williams)
Happy Days was partly inspired by American Graffiti and also starred Ron Howard. The show was full of anachronisms and had more as time went on. The parents were Marion (Marion Ross) and Howard (Tom Bosley), and his sister Joanie (Erin Moran).
Early on, there was an older brother Chuck that appeared on occasion and wasn't always played by the same actor, eventually he was written out. He didn't have a steady girlfriend early on either. That came much later.
The Fonz (Henry Winkler) started out as an occasional supporting characterbefore becoming the breakout star. The leather jacket wasn't his trademark yet. TV censors wouldn't even allow it except when he was riding his motorcycle because they thought it was too thuggish.
FONZERELLA
Cracked # 135, September 1976
a: Sigbjorn (John Severin)
Soon the Fonz, based or James Dean or Marlon Brando, was the main focus and lived above the Cunninghams with them relegated to the background. The show took place in Milwaukee, but Levittown was close enough, since it could have been any suburban town.
Another Godfather reference to another of the top five media events of the decade.
John Severin was always plugging "Krimson" in his comics around this time. Maybe it was one of his kids' bands.
HAPPY DAZE
Cracked #144, September 1977
a: Zimmerman (John Severin)
Lori Beth (Lynda Goodfriend) was Richie's on-and-off girlfriend that eventually became his wife. Ralph Malph (Donny Most) was another part of the gang. Once the show started having the malt shop as a set rather than a location, the Cunningham parents showed up more often.
A show can't be about teenagers forever. Eventually the characters have to graduate high school and go to college. Hamburger U. is a real place. It's not a four-year college that gives degrees, just a six-month course to prepare you in managing a McDonald's.
Joanie sometimes referred to her friend Jenny Piccolo who you never saw. The Fonz called the Cunninghams Mr. and Mrs. C. and despite being a greaser rebel was the moral compass of the show.
Potsie, Richie, and Ralph had a band. The Fonz called the malt shop bathroom his office.
From Cracked #140, March 1977, If King Kong Made Guest Appearances on TV art by Howard Nostrand.
HAPPIER DAYS
Cracked #189, September 1982
a: John Severin
By this time, almost all the original cast had left. Since the show was 20 years earlier chronologically, they stopped using fifties tropes by then. Fonz was still on the show but was now co-owner of the malt-shop with "Big" Al (Al Molinaro). Chachi (Scott Baio) started out as a mini-Fonz, then became a heart throb in his own right. He and Joanie had their own series, Joanie Loves Chachi for a few months, then went back to this one. Jenny Piccolo (Cathy Silvers) was originally the friend you didn't see like Norm's wife or the naked guy from Friends. Roger (Ted McGinley) was nephew of the Cunninghams, the Cunningham parents were still there. Ron Howard left the show and Richie was always referred to but his girlfriend and later wife was a regular character.
They actually did do a show in one of the first two seasons where Richie Cunningham meets Howdy Doody and everyone mentions how they look alike.
I always wondered if, since the show took place twenty years earlier, when it was originally on people my age didn't see it as nostalgic but just a few years ago. I still have most of the same furniture I had twenty years ago and still forget there's no longer a World Trade Center.
The third part is tomorrow. There are even more Cracked articles with Happy Days and Crazy has a couple versions too.
UPDATE:
Bananas Looks At TV (reprinted from earlier issue, c. 1980)
w: Jovial Bob Stine
a: Sam Viviano
From The Last Episode of... in Bananas #48, c. 1981, by Stine and Viviano
From Isn't It Time That..., also in Bananas Looks at TV
From More TV Moments We'll Never See in Bananas #61, c. 1983
Happy Days was originally about the Cunningham family in the fifties. It started as a single-camera show and eventually took place on sets filmed in front of--as they reminded us every week--in front of a studio audience. The Fonz, who started as a supporting character, became the star of the show. Eventually they gave up the conceit of nostalgia, having seventies hairstyles and fashions, and it was just a show that happened to take place twenty years earlier.
The show was so huge and parodied so much I've broken this post into three parts.
CRAPPY DAYS
MAD #187, December 1976
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Angelo Torres
Richie (Ron Howard)'s sister was Joanie (Erin Moran) and his parents were Marion (Marion Ross) and Howard (Tom Bosley). When the show started out, they were always dropping fifties cliches but ran out after about three or four seasons.
Ron Howard started out as a child star and as a teenager was star of American Graffiti, a movie that also took place in the fifties, and originally this show. [Yeah, chronologically, American Graffiti was 1962, but the fifties really began with the debut of Elvis on TV and ended with the JFK assassination.] After the first two seasons they had Arthur Fonzarelli a/k/a "The Fonz" (Henry Winkler) live in the garage above the Cunninghams.
Snooky Lanson was the star of Your Hit Parade, a radio and then television show that featured the popular songs of the day, when songs were popularized based on the sheet music rather than the recording.
The malt shop where they hung out was run by a man name Arnold (Pat Morita), and Richie and Fonzie's friends were Potsie (Anson Williams) and Ralph (Donny Most)
Fonz would hit vending machines and make free things come out or make jukeboxes work by hitting them. He referred to the bathroom as his office. "Sit on it" was their big catch phrase, an attempt to make something sound like a dirty word.
It wasn't as much about the fifties as it was about "the fifties". Initially, it wasn't all rock 'n' roll on the soundtrack, they sometimes used Patti Page or Teresa Brewer in the background, but evolved into only using doo-wop for the bridge music that they made up. Beach movies didn't really exist until the mid-sixties.
Occasionally they had cameo appearances by well-known fifties celebrities, so the appearance of Milton Berle was a parody of that. It kind of looks like Redd Foxx without a mustache in the final two panels, and he's called 'Sanford", but he's too young. Did Angelo Torres not know he was an old man and only use his 50s comedy albums for reference? I have no idea what the significance of the T-shirt is. The others are George and Louise of The Jeffersons, and Florida and James Evans of Good Times.
From TV Disclaimers We'd Like to See in #180, by Lou Silverstone and Jack Davis. National Geographic was what teenagers had before porn existed because they sometimes showed nude natives and 3.2 beer was what kids had access to in some states because of its low alcohol content. I think that's supposed to be David Cassidy but it looks like someone in their mid-thirties.
SLAP-HAPPY DAZE
Goose #2, October 1976
a: Jack Bartlett
Goose only lasted three issues and claimed to be adult. It wasn't exactly mature, and it had the same formula as all the other MAD imitators, 52 pages on newsprint. There were no names, but it looked like most of the same contributors as all those other magazines.
I'm not sure who did the art for this, at first I thiught Tony Tallarico, but naaaah.
They felt the need to parody phrases here, so "A-A-Ay" became "E-e-e-e" and "be cool" became "be hot"
Margie Hart was a burlesque stripper at Minsky's.
SNAPPY DAYS
Car Toons #99, July 1977
w & a: Errol McCarthy
DA MOUTH INTERVIEWS DA FONZ
Sick # 112, October 1976
a: Nonoy Marcelo (miscredited)
FONZIE FOR PRESIDENT
Sick #113, December 1976
w: Mike Pellowski
a: Nonoy Marcelo
Laverne and Shirley, in addition to being a spinoff of Happy Days, often appeared on each others' shows. Lenny and Squiggy were regular characters on Laverne and Shirley.
From More Obscene Phone Calls in Sick #114 by Mike Pellowski and Jerry Grandenetti. Obscene calls seem to be a thing of the 70s like pay toilets that were talked about in comedy bits more than actually existed. I don't know who got off on calling numbers at random and saying dirty things or panting if a woman answered. I guess the Gamergate of its time?
That's not all. There's more tomorrow. We're only a third of the way through with Happy Days parodies.
