Podcast Tuesday: "The Young People of Today, Am I Right?"

Tom Bosley voices Harry Boyle (center), a harried suburban dad on Love, American Style.

There are two basic types of classic sitcom dads: the grouchy, cantankerous ones who yell at their kids and the calm, reasonable ones who say things like, "Gosh, I'm very disappointed in you." In the early days of TV, most sitcoms had the second type. Witness such series as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-1966), Leave it to Beaver (1957-1963), My Three Sons (1960-1972), and Father Knows Best (1954-1960), all of which had even-tempered patriarchs. Danny Thomas started to change that with Make Room for Daddy (1953-1964), and by the 1970s, we were finally ready for Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) on All in the Family (1971-1979).

Meanwhile, over in the world of animation, Hanna-Barbera shows like The Flintstones (1960-1966) and The Jetsons (1962-1963). were allowed to have agitated, grousing husbands and fathers. You could say that Fred Flintstone and George Jetson made the world safe for Harry Boyle, an overworked, overstressed suburbanite voiced by Tom Bosley on Hanna-Barbera's syndicated series, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972-1974).

As it happens, the pilot episode for Wait aired as a segment on ABC's comedy anthology Love, American Style (1969-1974). Yes, this was the same place where the Happy Days pilot had aired back in 1971! This week on These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast, my cohost and I give our opinions on that pilot. Click below to hear our take on "Love and the Old-Fashioned Father."

Podcast Tuesday: "How to Cheat at Bowling"

Tom Bosley and Patricia Carr on Happy Days.

Toward the end of its fifth season in the spring of 1978, Happy Days went on hiatus for a couple of months. In March and April of that year, only one semi-new episode aired -- a rather modest clip show called "Richie's Girl Exposes the Cunninghams" -- and even this was scheduled in an out-of-the-way Friday night time slot rather than the sitcom's usual Tuesday night berth. The reason for the popular sitcom's mysterious, weeks-long disappearance was a sad one. Jean Eliot, wife of actor and Happy Days patriarch Tom Bosley, had died. Trouper that he is, though, Tom came back to finish out Season 5 and was his usual, jovial self on-camera. Viewers may never have even suspected anything was wrong.

There's a happy coda to the story, though. Two and a half years later, Tom married a Los Angeles actress named Patricia Carr, and the two stayed together until Tom's death in 2010. Patti even guest starred on a Season 8 episode of Happy Days called "Howard's Bowling Buddy." As you may have guessed, Patti plays the title role: a ten-pin temptress who tries to steal Howard Cunningham (Tom) away from his wife Marion (Marion Ross). 

Does she succeed? Is the episode any good? Find out when we review "Howard's Bowling Buddy" in the latest installment of These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast.