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| Henry Winkler on Happy Days. |
Happy Days was in real trouble at the start of the 1983-84 television season. Not only was it getting shellacked in the ratings by NBC's The A-Team, it had been rudely ousted from its 8:00 timeslot in favor of a new show called Just Our Luck starring comedian T.K. Carter. When a long-running show is kicked out of its normal place on the network schedule, that's generally a bad sign for its overall health. To make matters worse, the sitcom's budget had been cut and several cast members had been let go. The remaining regulars must have known the show's future was in serious jeopardy. (Time to polish up the old resume?)
The show had been in a similar situation nearly a decade earlier during the 1974-75 season. At that time, it was getting beaten badly by CBS' Good Times and was in line for cancelation. But producer Garry Marshall wouldn't surrender! Instead, he retooled the show and turned it into a massive hit, bigger than it had ever been. No such comeback was in the offing in 1983. Marshall had already started directing feature films by then, and his surviving Happy Days cast members were getting older. Besides, the TV landscape had changed. Happy Days was old hat. Its time had passed.
Even if Marshall and company couldn't save their show, they could still have fun with the time they had left on the air. This week on These Days Are Ours, we review the Season 11 premiere episode, "Because It's There." It's a classic Fonzie adventure in which the beloved mechanic (Henry Winkler) once again has to prove himself by performing a ridiculous motorcycle stunt. You can find out what we thought of this episode by listening to the podcast embedded below.