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| (left to right) Ron Howard, Don Most, Anson Williams, and Tom Bosley on Happy Days. |
Happy Days had a major image problem in 1980. The nostalgic ABC series had been on the air for seven seasons by then, and the show's core character, Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard), had graduated from high school, entered college, and aged from his teens to his early twenties. Richie's pals, Fonzie (Henry Winkler), Ralph (Don Most), and Potsie (Anson Williams), had matured along with him.
But the show's look really didn't reflect those changes. After all, Richie was still living at home with his parents and still frequenting the local teen hangout, a hamburger joint called Arnold's. During its early seasons, Happy Days went out of its way to ape George Lucas' American Graffiti (1973). and Arnold's was the sitcom's answer to Mel's Drive-In from the movie. By the seventh season, numerous TV critics were complaining that Richie Cunningham was trapped in eternal adolescence, never being allowed to grow up. Some columnists, apparently not attentive viewers of Happy Days, seemed to think Richie was still a teenager in high school after seven years!
The show had a radical solution to the problem: torch Arnold's. Burn it to the ground and rebuild it as a college hangout. This kind of thing happens from time to time in pop culture, generally when someone desperately wants a makeover. Remember the video for "Freedom '90" by George Michael in which the jukebox from the "Faith" video blows up and George's iconic leather jacket is torched? Happy Days did the same thing a decade earlier with the episode "Hot Stuff." They even destroyed a jukebox. (Fonzie's leather jacket thankfully remains unscathed, though.)
Does this result in a good or even great episode? Or is it all just too painful to watch? Find out when my cohost and I review "Hot Stuff" on These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast.