No sitcom in history dropped in quality as dramatically as Happy Days.
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DrakeStraw — 9 years ago(June 04, 2016 12:23 AM)
I'd have to disagree. The final season of
Laverne & Shirley (1976)
was an even sharper decline. Shirley wasn't there at all, but her name wasn't removed from the title. You might say HD had a longer steady decline.
DrakeStraw
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gargantuaboy — 9 years ago(June 04, 2016 10:34 AM)
But Laverne and Shirley was never great like Happy Days was. Not even close. In fact I really can't even remember a single memorable moment on that show. MeTV airs it right after Happy Days and I can't believe how awful it is, and Lenny and Sqiggy just make the show even worse, so YES, it was as awful if not worse than Happy Days but it was never really that good to begin with. "HAPPY DAYS" was wonderful and became horrible and that was my point.
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Kotter7579 — 9 years ago(June 04, 2016 10:55 AM)
Great post gargantuaboy. I agree, and it wasn't until subsequent viewings of seasons 4-7 that I realized just how far the show had declined after a few short years.
I didn't realize that the show was declining before season 8! There are many threads on this board that talk about all the weak aspects of those later seasons, and yet now I'm realizing that the first couple of seasons were really the only ones that were worth it and true to what the show originally was.
Others noticed that around the time Mork got there too, and everybody had to have a catchphrase, it became almost a cartoon and a caricature of itself.
The other poster mentions Laverne, which really that is an argument for another time and doesn't even come close to this shows decline. Saying that L&S was bad in the end, ok, but that does not make this show a great one during all those later years which we are now finding were pretty weak.
So: a realistic, down to earth show..which is completely off the wall swarming with magic robots?! -
gargantuaboy — 9 years ago(June 04, 2016 12:56 PM)
You know, it's been so long since I've seen those awful Mork episodes, so I went on youtube and watched a little, were any of those supposed to be dream sequences? Could the show really have gotten THAT stupid? There was actually a tv movie about 15 years ago about the making of Mork and Mindee, yes there really was a TV movie that stupid, and it showed the actual moment where Gary Marshall mentions the Mork character to another executive as they are walking through the studio and there is an actor playing Gary Marshall and he says "My son loves Star Wars and he says there should be a Martian on Happy Days!!" It's hard to read that line and not laugh but apparently that really was the reason. They just must have been out of ideas and by that time they just tried ANYTHING.
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kaydie-fee — 9 years ago(June 04, 2016 04:27 PM)
The first episode Mork appeared in was a dream of Ritchie's, his other appearance (I think there was only one other Happy days episode with him)I'm sure he was supposed to be real, I truly have no idea why they thought a telekinetic time traveling alien would be a good/acceptable character to put in a show about teenagers growing up in the 1950s that was supposedly rooted in reality
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Kotter7579 — 9 years ago(June 11, 2016 09:16 AM)
Hilarious and accurate posts!!
Even if it was along the lines of Gazoo, why bring a many-years-old element of a cartoon show that was good but not great, to a show like Happy Days?!?! A show that was #1 in the country by 1976-77 and appeared to not have to resort to such antics as an alien.
So: a realistic, down to earth show..which is completely off the wall swarming with magic robots?! -
InherentlyYours — 9 years ago(October 02, 2016 04:58 PM)
Have you ever really tried watching an episode of Mork and Mindee? It's absolutely dreadful to say the least.
I agree. Well, if you have the audience howling with laughter, it makes you think you're missing something. I never liked Robin Williams in general. (the spastic unintelligible speech is supposed to be funny, ok) Actually Pam Dawber had the missed career. -
iamthehorseface — 9 years ago(June 18, 2016 02:52 AM)
The reason they believe it was because Robin Williams was a superstar at the time and everybody wanted a piece of him. All anybody then or now ever cares about is a big paycheck and that's it. I watch Mork & Mindy when I was a kid but I can honestly say since it's been in reruns for the last 25 years I don't think I've watched a single episode after its run was done. I still watch Happy Days on Me-TV sometimes when I shuffle through the episode's end find one I like.
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crypticanomaly73 — 9 years ago(October 14, 2016 04:32 AM)
Not sure what year the show was up to when Mork turned up but it would have made slightly more sense to tie it in with the first trips to the moon. Still a bad idea but at least relevant to the era.
Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it. -
iamthehorseface — 9 years ago(June 18, 2016 02:49 AM)
I agree Laverne & Shirley was terribly awful along the lines of maybe Three's Company which along with Happy Days we're all on the same night for a couple of years. Tuesday nights on ABC. Believe it or not the train wreck that Laverne and Shirley is it was the number one show on television for two years of its run.
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InherentlyYours — 9 years ago(October 01, 2016 10:17 PM)
Laverne and Shirley was unfunny and silly, and Happy Days was not witty enough. Was the awful Mork * Mindy also produced by Garry Marshall? I think he appealed to the central U.S. suburban folk who were not demanding.
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I_Love_Hutch — 9 years ago(October 02, 2016 03:18 PM)
Unlike you, who is completely demanding and entitled. Only Lucy is good enough to meet with your approval. How superior of you. If Lucille Ball met you IRL, she would have zero patience.
I thought I was gonna die! - Roseanne Roseannadanna -
crypticanomaly73 — 9 years ago(June 15, 2016 02:34 AM)
The Fonz's popularity pretty much killed the series, they started to focus everything around him and even gave him magical powers. Then it no longer looked like the era it was set in and became a cartoon.
It became a kids show when in the beginning it could be pretty dark and serious at times.
Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.
] — 4 years ago(February 07, 2022 10:02 PM)