Podcast Tuesday: "Shady Acres, Grandma" or "You Dropped a Nussbaum on Me"

Frances Bey and Henry Winkler on Happy Days.

The backstory of ace mechanic and ladies' man Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) kept changing on Happy Days for the simple reason that no one behind the scenes had ever planned out who this character was, what he had been through, or what he would eventually do with his life. It all just sort of happened haphazardly over the course of 11 seasons, with the writers reinventing and redefining the character as they went along and retconning parts of his past as they deemed necessary. 

The character of Fonzie wasn't even part of Happy Days' original pilot in 1972. He was only added by network decree after the success of the movie American Graffiti (1973) and the stage musical Grease (1971). Those stories featured tough greaser dudes, they figured, so Happy Days should have one, too. In his early days, Fonzie had an air of mystery. He was a man of few words whose life was deliberately kept vague. But then, America fell in love with him, and we wanted to learn a lot more about him. The show obliged.

Eventually, some basic facts about Fonzie's past emerged from the ether. He had been abandoned by both his parents -- first his father, then his mother -- at an early age. How early? It varies from episode to episode. But it definitely happened. The writers are sure of that. At some point in his teen years, he struck out on his own and has been living independently ever since. 

In the 10-year interim between his abandonment and his independence, Fonzie was raised by his kindly Grandma Nussbaum. We actually got to meet this sweet, elderly caretaker in a classic 1975 episode called "Fonzie Moves In." Lillian Bronson played her in that show, then retired from acting after a 30-plus-year career. We didn't see much (or any) of Grandma Nussbaum for a few seasons after that, but Fonzie frequently mentioned her and kept her alive in our imaginations.

Finally, in Season 9, we got a whole episode about Grandma Nussbaum, appropriately titled "Grandma Nussbaum." With Lillian Bronson unavailable, the role went to Canadian character actress Frances Bey, who went on to numerous iconic film and TV roles in the decades that followed. You may know her from Seinfeld, The Middle, Happy Gilmore, or numerous David Lynch projects. Who knows? Maybe Happy Days was the big break Frances needed in her career.

Was it worth it to bring Grandma Nussbaum back onto our screens after nearly seven years? Find out on the latest installment of These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast.

I love watching people fail

An attempted hit goes wonderfully, wonderfully wrong in David Lynch's Mulholland Dr.

I don't know who you are, but I'm probably rooting against you. I realize how that sounds, and it's not something in which I take pride. But it's true nevertheless. If you exist and you're not me, I kinda want you to fail and fail hard. Wow. That sounds so ugly. It's not something I can control about myself. That's just how my brain works. Keep in mind, there are limits. I don't wish disease, death, or dismemberment on anyone. I don't want you to get pancreatic cancer or lose an eye in an explosion. I'm a monster, sure, but I'm not that much of a monster. When I say "fail and fail hard," I mean stuff like unemployment, divorce, and bankruptcy. Oh, and public humiliation's always good if it's happening to someone else. I wouldn't want you to get terminally depressed over it, because then we're getting into "disease and death" territory. But your team losing in the quarter-finals or your son flunking out of college? Oh, hell yeah. Sign me up for some of that.

I cannot tell you how much pleasure I got from the utter collapse of Brazil in the World Cup. I'm far from alone in this. We wouldn't have that marvelous world schadenfreude otherwise. Or Fail Blog. Or most of what's on TV right now. That's pretty much what comedy is: laughing at the other guy's misfortune. Once we enter the realm of fiction, all bets are off. Since the characters don't really exist and aren't truly suffering, it doesn't matter what happens to them. The worse the better, as far as I'm concerned. And that includes disease, death, and dismemberment. Take David Lynch's Mulholland Dr. (2001) as an example. In one of the movie's best scenes, a surfer-dude-looking blonde thug named Joe Messing (Mark Pellegrino) pays a visit on his giggly, long-haired, low-life pal Ed (Vincent Castellanos), who sits behind a cluttered desk in the most pitiful, decrepit office building in Los Angeles. Neither of these guys is very bright, and both are worthless sleazeballs to boot, so what happens to them in this scene is especially delightful.

So much delicious failure in such a short amount of time. And I love how whiny Joe gets. "Oh, maaaannnn...."

David Lynch's "Blondie"

David Lynch's Blondie

Ever wonder what would happen if director David Lynch were a guest writer on the comic strip Blondie? Probably not. But I have. Specifically, I was inspired by this utterly bizarre installment of the long-running family comic. Presented above is my estimation of what Lynch would do with this venerable strip. It seems like it's been a while since David's had a new feature. If he can't get the financing, maybe it would help if he would agree to do an adaptation of a familiar cartoon... like, say, Blondie. Scoff if you must, but I think it would work.

(today's zomby) AND A SINGING ORANGE!

To paraphrase C. Montgomery Burns: Oh, Zomby, will you ever win?

But speaking of the legends of animation...

Forty years before the Annoying Orange

It's strange what sticks with you from childhood. For years, I have been haunted by the memory of a particular stop-motion film from Sesame Street. The clip in question involved an orange who comes to "life" and sings the famed "Habanera" aria from Georges Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen. A little research turns up the fact that this clip dates back to Episode 277 from November 9, 1971 -- almost exactly 40 years ago. A YouTube clip attributes the film to Jim Henson, but I could find no confirmation of this. In any event, the film aired regularly on the show for years, warping the minds of several generations in the process.

Here's the notorious clip:



There's an eerie, David Lynch-eseque quality to this film, heightened by the quasi-futuristic synthesizer music. I personally remember loving this as a kid, but also being sort of scared of it.

Others, meanwhile, were apparently scarred for life by this clip. (Warning: NSFW language!)

(today's zomby) AND A COUPLE OF FAKE DAVID LYNCH TRAILERS

Sorry, readers. I saw that parrot hanging upside down from its perch and my mind could only go to one place. Here's a version of the "Dead Parrot" sketch you maybe haven't seen a dozen times already, one recorded live at a Secret Policeman benefit concert for Amnesty International:



And here's a lesser-seen live iteration of the famous "Cheese Shop" bit:



Meanwhile, the idea of doing the punchline for today's Zomby upside down put me in mind of director David Lynch. (And did you know Lynch totally had his own comic strip? So we have something in common! Sort of.) Lynch's directorial style is so distinctive and familiar that he can be fairly easily parodied by anyone who knows how to edit. Here are two of my favorite ersatz Lynch trailers. Please do enjoy them, perhaps with coffee and donuts.

A field guide to the many Karl Maldens in Ziggy's life

One thing that doing Zomby!!! has taught me is that, with the possible exception of David Lynch's The Angriest Dog in the World, Ziggy is the most repetitive cartoon feature in history. The same few scenarios are repeated over and over to the point of madness: Ziggy watches TV, Ziggy goes to a restaurant, Ziggy gets backsassed by animals, etc. I've seen several scenarios repeated multiple times, and I've only been doing this for about two months now.

In addition to these repeated scenarios, I've also started noticing generic character types that keep cropping up. Of course, I've already pointed out the generic female functionaries. But I've recently become aware of an equally-important stock character in the Ziggy-verse: the generic Karl Malden-type guy. The beloved character actor Karl Malden may have passed away at the age of 97 in 2009, but his spirit lives on through the lumpy, bulbous-nosed, often-balding men who haunt Ziggy on a daily basis.

Check it out: