Happy Days influence on Pop Culture

I remember the phrases that were on the show and phrases that the show spawned after it went off the air…like “Jump The Shark” and the “Chuck Cunningham Syndrome” (more below on them)

I watched Happy Days as a kid and even got the theme as a single. The show first aired in 1974 and finally came to a halt in 1984. Ever since then it’s gone into syndication.

Happy Days was centered around Ritchie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and his friends and family but the Fonz (Henry Winkler) character soon eclipsed Ritchie. The show portrayed 1950s life as a teenager but it did mirror the problems all teenagers encounter.

Fonz was everywhere in the seventies. Kids at school would do the hair in the mirror thing. If I only had a nickel every time I heard “heeeeyyyy” I would be a rich man. T-Shirts, lunch boxes, notebooks, and anything “Happy Days” could be printed on was… Phrases included Sit On It, Exactamundo, Bucko, and more became popular…Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah!

Two more phrases came because of the show. Jump the Shark and the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome but more in them in a minute.

Richie had some understanding parents… Howard and Marion Cunningham were always there with a solution and he had a sometimes bratty but typical little sister Joanie. His best friends were Potsy and Ralph Malph who would mostly get Richie in trouble.

Happy Days also spawned a number of spin-offs, including the hit shows Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy. We won’t discuss Joanie Loves Chachi…no that didn’t happen.

In the Seventies, a 50s revival was happening at the time and this show certainly added to it. Movies like Grease, American Graffiti, and The Last Picture Show were hits also.

Now some fun stuff.

Jump the Shark – A definition… “(of a television series or movie) reach a point at which far-fetched events are included merely for the sake of novelty, indicative of a decline in quality”

This originated from Happy Days. It was the episode where Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water-skis. This was way outside the original storyline of the show. If you want to know which one…Season 5 Episode 3 of a three-part episode storyline.

The Chuck Cunningham Syndrome – One of the definitions I found…  occurs when a character in a television mysteriously vanishes from the show. No write-off, no death, not even a passing explanation of what happened to the character.

This originated from Happy Days. Poor Chuck was Ritchie’s brother and he is in a total of 11 episodes in the first two seasons. After that, we never see nor hear anything from Chuck again. Did aliens abduct him? Was he in the Witness Protection program? Was he a spy? Was he a figment of the family’s imagination? Did he grow up to be Alice Cooper?

This is where “Jump The Shark” was born…Yea, a guy from Milwaukee is going to water ski and jump a shark…with a leather jacket on.

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

32 thoughts on “Happy Days influence on Pop Culture”

  2. I talk about Chuck Cunningham from time to time, in the context of being an author. I remember that his last appearance consisted of going upstairs … and we never saw him again. Figure out how to dispose of a character if you decide to write them off-stage. Chuck could have, for example, gone away to college or any number of other things. Instead, one is left to think he’s tied up in the attic.

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    1. Thank you… I wouldn’t think it would take that much effort.

      It can’t be that hard to develop an exit plan for characters on shows… throw an occasional reference and that’s all it would take. I never understood it.

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  4. Originally the second ‘main’ character was supposed to be Potsie. I just can’t see that. I always found it interesting how some shows just wrote out characters like Chuck Cunningham- never to be mentioned again… Andy Griffith was great on that- his wife was only mentioned once in passing… other than Aunt Bee- no relatives to speak of.. his first love interest in the show-Ellie just disappears from the show never to be mentioned again… etc. back to Happy Day’s- Winkler was like 30 years old playing the Fonz- and he looked older..

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    1. Yea I don’t Potsie being able to carry that part at all. It’s funny how Winkler is nothing like the Fonz at all. I mean who could be but he is so gentle.

      Mash did a pretty good job on writing characters out…whether we liked how they did it or not…they usually did.

      How hard can it be to write a character out and just to mention them from time to time on down the line?

      Andy Griffith…loved Ellie and most of Andy’s girlfriends but I have to admit. I know this is sacrilege but Helen Crump was one of the least ones I cared for…

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      1. Good point on MASH– and I was going to write that about Helen- I always call her Helen Grump.. A lot of nice ladies liked Andy-and he goes for the difficult one.

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      2. Thank you Hans…a kindred spirit in the Helen Grump group. I really liked Mary Simpson but she was only on one episode…but many of them were great.

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      3. They were playing Mayberry R.F.D. every morning in May as part of Mayberry Month-on ME TV–and I forgot how Mayberry became like a different town from Andy.. Yes they would have characters in their for an episode on Andy- and you’d never see them again. It’s like they disappeared from town. It wasn’t THAT big of a town!

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      4. There were a few recurring ones but yea…it was like they were in Los Angeles or something with the people just disappearing. Earnest is one I always wondered…why not bring him back to spice up things? The Darlings also. Near the end Andy and RFD turned into almost just another show…save the familiar characters.

        I admitted my Helen Crump dislike…the first mayor I liked…he was bumbling but underneath it pretty nice. The second one….Stone…maybe he was written that way on purpose but geez… I couldn’t find a thing to really like about the guy.

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      5. Agree on the mayors of Mayberry… I also notice that when Barney is out on the street and does something stupid and there is a crowd around- its the same old guys..who seem to serve no other purpose than make fun of Barney. No other role in the show… and Barney’s middle name has changed over the course of the show- and on one he was cousin’s with Andy….. the more I think of it Mash really was good about keeping the story real.

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      6. Oh yes I remember those older guys. Burt Mustin was one of them. They would goad him to do something…like he needed goaded.

        .I guess back then they never thought it would be seen as much but they did know it would be in syndication…right?
        I think also Andy Taylor’s house doesn’t keep the same address.

        I just watched the Pickle episode for the 40th time yesterday.

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      10. I liked her a lot also. Andy said they didn’t have a good chemistry I believe…I thought it was fine.

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      11. Interesting… Knowing what I know about Griffith, she was probably too bubbly for him. He may have played a nice, affable guy on TV but, he certainly wasn’t like that in reality. Makes him a good actor, tho…

        Reminds me of the first time I saw Val Kilmer interviewed on Letterman. Great actor…becomes his characters. In person, totally devoid of personality. It was a horrible interview. He is SO out there. Joaquin Phoenix…same thing. He showed up on Letterman (did you see it?) where he had a beard and was chewing gum. The interview was not going well and Letterman made a crack about “…maybe I’ll come to your (Joaquin’s) house and chew gum…” to which Joaquin took the gum out of his mouth and stuck it under the ridge of Letterman’s desk. Joaquin, later, claimed he was “in character” of the musician he was becoming (a rapper?). I know his background with his family being involved with The Children of God cult.

        Whew…I just went completely off topic. Sorry…

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      12. That was when he claimed he was a hip hop artist? I do remember that.
        I didn’t know about him much then and I was wondering what the hell is wrong with this guy?

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  6. Great post! I loved the show in the day, especially Fonzie. Man, it’s so much a part of our generation, it was a theme in one ‘Friends’ episode (Phoebe goes into labor and has a doctor who’s obsessed with the show and the Fonz which makes them all nervous).
    I remember I had a Happy Days novel too back then- merchandising was everywhere.
    I only just fairly recently found out that the phrase ‘Jump the Shark’ came from it and I’ve never heard of the Chuck Cunningham syndrome -but it makes sense. I often wonder what writers are thinking when things like that happen … why not say “hey, got a postcard from Chuck today! He’s in Malaysia! What a guy” or something, or make a “very special episode” of Chuck’s funeral….

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    1. Thanks Dave! I’ve had it unfinished in my drafts for a year.
      Chucks funeral lol. Yea how hard could it be to plan an exit for a character? After that just mention him once in a blue moon.

      Yea I remember the lunch boxes most of all and kids trying to be Fonzie. My favorite part of Fonzie was fixing things with a knock… like a jukebox.

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  7. I liked the theme song but, I always like the original opening…the record slowly moves into place, the needle comes down and “One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock…”

    I remember something about Erin Moran going all weird for awhile and refused to have anything to do with the rest of the cast. She was part of the lawsuit with CBS.

    The Chuck Cunningham syndrome showed up on Sabrina:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabrina_the_Teenage_Witch_(1996_TV_series)#Season_1_(1996%E2%80%9397)

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    1. I mean how hard is writing someone out? I understand in Happy Days a little…they never would guess we would be talking about it over 40 years later but shows after that? They should know.

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