Plot
Set in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the series revolves around teenager Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and his family: his father, Howard (Tom Bosley), who owns a hardware store; traditional homemaker and mother, Marion (Marion Ross); younger sister Joanie (Erin Moran); and high school dropout, biker and suave ladies' man Arthur "Fonzie"/"The Fonz" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler), who would eventually become the Cunninghams' upstairs tenant. The earlier episodes revolve around Richie and his friends, Warren "Potsie" Weber (Anson Williams) and Ralph Malph (Donny Most), with Fonzie as a secondary character. As the series progressed, Fonzie proved to be a favorite with viewers and soon more story lines were written to reflect his growing popularity. Fonzie befriends Richie and the Cunningham family, and when Richie left the series for military service, Fonzie became the central figure of the show. In later seasons, other characters were introduced including Fonzie's young cousin, Charles "Chachi" Arcola (Scott Baio), who became a love interest for Joanie Cunningham.
The series was originally spun off from "Love and the Happy Days," a one-episode teleplay on the anthology series Love, American Style. Happy Days itself spawned the hit television shows Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy as well as two non-hits Joanie Loves Chachi and Blansky's Beauties (the latter featuring Nancy Walker as Howard's cousin). The show is the basis for the Happy Days musical touring the United States. The leather jacket worn by Winkler during the series hangs in the Smithsonian Institution.
Read more about this topic: Happy Days
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)