The last episode of Happy Days

[LKellerIII]

Happy Days 'time-warped' slightly, to the mid-60s, not the present day. The confusion results from the fact that the producers never really bothered to make the show 'look' and 'feel' like the '60s, as they'd done with the '50s setting of the earlier seasons. (There were a couple of throwaway lines about Gilligan's Island in one episode...Fonzie and Mrs. C, in separate scenes, asking Mr. C why the Professor couldn't just build a boat ;D)
In the final episode, Chachi wore a T-shirt advertising the Rolling Stones '1965 Tour', and I thoughtt hey actually pinned the show down to 1967 in one of the later seasons. They certainly never acknowledged any of the 'not-so Happy Days',like November 22, 1963, anyway!

I wasn't a regular viewer of Happy Days, but I know that it's very common to play fast and loose with accuracy when you're doing a period-piece movie or TV show, whether comedy or drama.

In another thread, somebody mentioned the 70s long hair styles worn by Hawkeye and BJ in M*A*S*H.
That not only wouldn't have been seen in the army in the 50s, it wouldn't have even been seen in the army of the 70s and 80s, when the show was being produced. But I assume Alda and Farrell were allowed the long hair because they didn't want to be seen in public with military hair cuts.

You often hear people use expressions and slang that didn't exist in the year the show was set. It's typical to hear popular songs that are too new. Cars are also a big screw-up. I remember seeing a movie set in World War II with a 1955 Chevy army staff car. Pre-war cars looked nothing like 50s cars.

 

[jwk1979]

Happy Days 'time-warped' slightly, to the mid-60s, not the present day.

I think you missed my point. "Present day" would have, at that time, referred to the mid 1980s, right before the show finally went off the air!

The other sticking point about Happy Days (other than the fact that they were the original shark-jumper) is that, at some point, they "time-warped" into present day, which at that time would have been late-'70s-early-'80s.

This next quote made the same point that I was trying to make, probably even better than I did.

The last few years of the show, especially after Joanie and Chachi started a singing career, featured hairstyles, behavior and even the music that was more synonymous with the early 1980s than the early-1960s.

Some of the accesories that Howard Cunningham was wearing the last few years seasons of "Happy Days" were definitely more in line with early to mid '80's Fasshion Trends than those of mid to late '60's. Case in point, the glasses and watch Tom Bosley wore on many episodes. His glasses were Metal Rimmed frames, very stylish in the '80's. Horn Rimmed frames would have BEEN the FASHION NORM for a MIDDLE AGED MAN in the 1960s. And he wore a DIGITAL WATCH, very stylish and modern in the 1980s, but it didn't EVEN EXIST in the 1960s. A man of Howard Cunningham's age would have worn a TRADITIONAL ANALOG WATCH during the 1960s.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Happy Days 'time-warped' slightly, to the mid-60s, not the present day.

I think you missed my point. "Present day" would have, at that time, referred to the mid 1980s, right before the show finally went off the air!

The other sticking point about Happy Days (other than the fact that they were the original shark-jumper) is that, at some point, they "time-warped" into present day, which at that time would have been late-'70s-early-'80s.

This next quote made the same point that I was trying to make, probably even better than I did.

The last few years of the show, especially after Joanie and Chachi started a singing career, featured hairstyles, behavior and even the music that was more synonymous with the early 1980s than the early-1960s.

Some of the accesories that Howard Cunningham was wearing the last few years seasons of "Happy Days" were definitely more in line with early to mid '80's Fasshion Trends than those of mid to late '60's. Case in point, the glasses and watch Tom Bosley wore on many episodes. His glasses were Metal Rimmed frames, very stylish in the '80's. Horn Rimmed frames would have BEEN the FASHION NORM for a MIDDLE AGED MAN in the 1960s. And he wore a DIGITAL WATCH, very stylish and modern in the 1980s, but it didn't EVEN EXIST in the 1960s. A man of Howard Cunningham's age would have worn a TRADITIONAL ANALOG WATCH during the 1960s.

Didn't you know that Cunningham Hardware had an arrangement with Texas Instruments as a new technology portal using Milwaukee as a test market. The serial number on Mr. C's digital watch was "1".

But seriously, I was like you yelling "bulls**t" when I saw the digital watch. Henry Winkler was a guest on "Late Night With David Letterman" just after the debut. Letterman asked Winkler about complaints viewers had regarding the modern day things showing up in a nostalgia program. Winkler said something to the effect that people should, "get over it" and enjoy the show.

The ultimate Happy Days time warp revolved around a stretch of a spinoff called "Blansky's Beauties". Mr. C's Cousin Nancy, played by Nancy Walker, shows up out of the blue on Happy Days on her way to Las Vegas. "Blansky's Beauties" took place modern day but characters from Happy Days made cameos. Taking a wide guess, I believe Fonzi hooked up with Doc Brown and they developed the Flux Capacitor and placed it on Mr. C's De Soto thus making time travel possible. They didn't need plutonium, Fonzi just hit the side of the Flux Capacitor when the De Soto reached 88 MPH and time travel happened.

 

[LKellerIII]

The time-warp thing is nothing new. As a kid, I was a fan of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films. All of the classic Conan Doyle stories were period pieces - taking place in the 1890s to just after the turn of the 20th century. But some of the later films moved up to the (then)current day - the 1940s. Since all media was about the war effort - they wanted Holmes and Watson involved in fighting the Nazis. Rathbone's last Holmes film was made in 1943.

According to his fictional biography, Holmes was supposedly born in 1854. He looked remarkably youthful for an 88 year old.

 

[nightfly61]

Same with M.A.S.H early '70's hairstyles. What were they thinking? None of the cast (not even prisoners) looked like they were in a war. They looked too healthy & cheeks were too rosey.

 

[onairb]

Happy Days 'time-warped' slightly, to the mid-60s, not the present day.

I think you missed my point. "Present day" would have, at that time, referred to the mid 1980s, right before the show finally went off the air!

The other sticking point about Happy Days (other than the fact that they were the original shark-jumper) is that, at some point, they "time-warped" into present day, which at that time would have been late-'70s-early-'80s.

This next quote made the same point that I was trying to make, probably even better than I did.

The last few years of the show, especially after Joanie and Chachi started a singing career, featured hairstyles, behavior and even the music that was more synonymous with the early 1980s than the early-1960s.

Some of the accesories that Howard Cunningham was wearing the last few years seasons of "Happy Days" were definitely more in line with early to mid '80's Fasshion Trends than those of mid to late '60's. Case in point, the glasses and watch Tom Bosley wore on many episodes. His glasses were Metal Rimmed frames, very stylish in the '80's. Horn Rimmed frames would have BEEN the FASHION NORM for a MIDDLE AGED MAN in the 1960s. And he wore a DIGITAL WATCH, very stylish and modern in the 1980s, but it didn't EVEN EXIST in the 1960s. A man of Howard Cunningham's age would have worn a TRADITIONAL ANALOG WATCH during the 1960s.

Didn't you know that Cunningham Hardware had an arrangement with Texas Instruments as a new technology portal using Milwaukee as a test market. The serial number on Mr. C's digital watch was "1".

But seriously, I was like you yelling "bulls**t" when I saw the digital watch. Henry Winkler was a guest on "Late Night With David Letterman" just after the debut. Letterman asked Winkler about complaints viewers had regarding the modern day things showing up in a nostalgia program. Winkler said something to the effect that people should, "get over it" and enjoy the show.

The ultimate Happy Days time warp revolved around a stretch of a spinoff called "Blansky's Beauties". Mr. C's Cousin Nancy, played by Nancy Walker, shows up out of the blue on Happy Days on her way to Las Vegas. "Blansky's Beauties" took place modern day but characters from Happy Days made cameos. Taking a wide guess, I believe Fonzi hooked up with Doc Brown and they developed the Flux Capacitor and placed it on Mr. C's De Soto thus making time travel possible. They didn't need plutonium, Fonzi just hit the side of the Flux Capacitor when the De Soto reached 88 MPH and time travel happened.

Scott Baio was on 'Blansky's Beauties' shortly before he joined 'Happy Days'. Technically, he wasn't playing Chachi, but it wasn't much of a stretch.
Pat Morita played a wisecracking, Japanese short-order cook named 'Arnold'...so that might as well be the same character.