SAPPY DAYS (part 2)

HAPPY DAYS
1974-1984 ABC

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