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| Lynda Goodfriend, Anson Williams, Ron Howard, and Don Most on Happy Days. |
When That '70s Show premiered on Fox in 1998, the very first episode was set in the year 1976. I always thought that was a shortsighted decision on the part of the producers. They could have started the series in 1970, but I guess they were impatient to get to late '70s stuff like Star Wars, leisure suits, and disco dancing. The nostalgic sitcom ran for eight seasons and 200 episodes, but it only managed to cover about three and a half years in the lives of its characters. What choice did they have? If time had progressed naturally on That '70s Show, the final season would have been taking place in the year 1984!
Happy Days had a similar dilemma, but they handled it somewhat more gracefully. In its early days, the show's raison d'être was pure 1950s nostalgia: sock hops, hula hoops, jukeboxes, malt shops, and plenty of early rock music (Bill Haley, Fats Domino). The scripts are often deliberately vague when it comes to mentioning years, but judging by the pop culture references in the dialogue, the first season of Happy Days seems to take place in the mid-1950s.
Over the course of its eleven seasons, the series covers about a decade in the characters' lives: 1955 to 1965. The changeover from the 1950s to the 1960s happens sometime in the sixth season, though it's barely acknowledged in the dialogue. In the later seasons, nostalgia becomes much less important to the show. Apart from Fonzie's leather jacket and the occasional oldie on the soundtrack, you could be watching any 1980s family sitcom.
Maybe the writers of Happy Days got bored with the 1950s and '60s occasionally. I mean, how many jokes about Dwight Eisenhower can you do? During the seventh season, which takes place circa 1961-62, the show abandoned its usual format for an episode called "The Roaring Twenties." Legendary actor Pat O'Brien (of Angels with Dirty Faces fame) guest stars as Uncle Joe, a garrulous old coot with fond memories of speakeasies, jazz music, and gangsters. This sets up a long flashback sequence with all the Happy Days actors playing 1920s versions of themselves.
Does this little experiment work? Find out when we review "The Roaring Twenties" on These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast.