January 15, 1974: "Happy Days" Premieres

Top row, left to right: Henry Winkler, Tom Bosley, Anson Williams.

Bottom row, left to right: Donny Most, Erin Moran,

Marion Ross and Ron Howard.

January 15, 1974. 50 years ago: Happy Days premieres on ABC. The situation comedy is designed to ride the nostalgia wave for the 1950s, and becomes one of the most successful shows in the network's history.

The show was set 19 years in the past: When the show began, it was definitively in 1955; when the show was finally wrapped up in 1984, characters were wearing T-shirts that said, "Kinks '65 World Tour."

The show was based around the Cunninghams, who lived in a suburban part of Milwaukee. Howard (played by Tom Bosley) owned a hardware store downtown. His wife, Marion (Marion Ross), was a housewife. They had a pair of teenage children, Richie (Ron Howard) and Joanie (Erin Moran). They often found it difficult to change with the times, but they were good parents, never going too far and alienating their kids.

(Originally, there was another son, Chuck, played first by Gavan O'Herlihy, then by Randolph Roberts. He appeared in only 11 episodes over the 1st 2 seasons. In the show's final scene, Howard mentions his 2 children, not 3. The character's disappearance gave rise to the term "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome," used to describe TV characters that disappear from shows without an in-universe explanation and are nowhere to be seen or mentioned again.)

Richie has 2 best friends: Ralph Malph (Donny Most) and Warren "Potsie" Webber (Anson Williams), and they're typical suburban 1950s teenage boys, discovering that they're not quite cool enough to have the adventures they want.

Never in the history of television has a "breakout character" more succeeded. Enter Arthur Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler), a.k.a. "Fonzie" or "The Fonz." He was the coolest man on television, with his perfect hair, his T-shirt, his leather jacket, his motorcycle, and his mannerisms. Catchphrase? He had "Sit on it," which, in hindsight, sounds like a safe way to say, "Shove it up your ass." But the Fonz was so cool. How cool was he? He was so cool, he didn't need no catchphrase: He just gave a thumbs-up sign, and said, "Ayyyy!"

He was so cool, he could get any girl he wanted. He was so cool, he would walk into Arnold's, the local malt-shop hangout, and turn on the lights by pounding his fist on the wall. He could start the jukebox the same way.

In spite of his "hood" image, Fonzie showed the elder Cunninghams sufficient respect, to the point where Marion considered him part of the family, and Howard let him rent the room above the garage. He looked after Richie, and, later, Joanie.

Arnold's was owned and operated by Matsuo Takahashi (Pat Morita). He bought it from a man named Arnold, and kept the name when he realized how much it would cost to have the name changed to "Takahashi's." In Season 4, Arnold's was bought by "Big Al" Delvecchio (Al Molinaro). In spite of the name, he was not a mobster, and became an extra father to the show's "kids."

Eventually, Richie got a steady girlfriend, Lori Beth Allen (Lynda Goodfriend), whom he married. After Season 7, in 1981, Ron Howard left the show, to focus on his directing career. Don Most (as Donny now preferred to be called) also left. They returned to for a reunion episode in the final season, and in the final episode.

So, rather than cancel the show, the writers shifted the focus from Richie and his friends, including the Fonz, to Richie's sister, Joanie and her friends, including the Fonz and his younger cousin, Charles "Chachi" Arcola (Scott Baio), whom Joanie dated, and finally married in the show's final episode, on July 19, 1984.

The show never really recovered from the shift from the focus on Richie to the focus on Joanie. Such a moment in a show's history -- often attributed to a marriage, a birth, a death, a major character leaving, a shift in location, and so on -- is often called "jumping the shark." The expression comes from the finale of the 3-part Season 4 opener, "Hollywood," when the gang goes to Los Angeles. Fonzie makes a water-ski jump over a penned-in area with a live shark in it.

Except Happy Days was still high in the ratings for another 4 years, until the Richie/Joanie shift. So the show's "Jump the Shark Moment" was not when Fonzie jumped the shark.

In 1976, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams guest-starred. Penny was the sister of series creator Garry Marshall, and had previously played recurring characters on The Odd Couple and Chico and the Man. Cindy -- as well as eventual Three's Company star Suzanne Somers, Jaws star Richard Dreyfuss, and Star Wars icon Harrison Ford -- appeared with Howard in the film American Graffiti. Their appearance proved so popular, a spinoff was created, Laverne & Shirley, also set in Milwaukee in the late 1950s, before moving to Los Angeles in 1981 (1965, show-time, and that was their "shark-jump"). 

In 1978, Robin Williams guest-starred as an alien, Mork from Ork. His appearance was so popular, it led to a spinoff, taking place in the present day, Mork & Mindy, which lasted 4 years. Another spinoff, Joanie Loves Chachi, in which those characters left Milwaukee to become stars in Chicago, failed as much as the characters did, and they returned for one more season, reconciling and marrying in the final episode.

Pat Morita died in 2005, Tom Bosley in 2010, Robin Williams in 2014, Al Molinaro in 2015, series creator Garry Marshall in 2016, Erin Moran in 2017, Penny Marshall in 2018, and Cindy Williams in 2023. As of January 15, 2022, Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Marion Ross, Don Most, Anson Williams, Lynda Goodfriend and Scott Baio are still alive.

Anson Williams was not related to either Cindy Williams or Robin Williams. He was, however, related to the inventor of the anti-choking maneuver: His birth name was Anson William Heimlich.

Top 10 TV Thanksgiving Episodes

"What are you, an animal?"

UPDATE: Through Thanksgiving 2023, I see no reason to change this list.

Honorable Mention. Barney Miller, "Thanksgiving Story," November 24, 1977. Mental patients have escaped from a private hospital, and are loose in an automat. Yes, they still had automats in New York, even as recently as 1992.

10. Home Improvement, "Thanksgiving," November 25, 1997. The Taylors are invited to watch the Detroit Lions' annual Thanksgiving Day game from a luxury box at the Silverdome. Tim is given a tour of the stadium, and, being himself, he manages to black out the building. Rodney Dangerfield has a cameo as another guest of the Taylors' skybox patron.

9. Bewitched, "Samantha's Thanksgiving to Remember," November 23, 1967. Aunt Clara accidentally transports the family back to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, to observe the first Thanksgiving.

Except that it's the period where anyone in Massachusetts who behaved improperly was considered a witch. So who goes on trial for witchcraft? Not Samantha, who actually is a witch, but Darren. And Samantha ends up using her witch powers to prove him innocent.

8. Full House, "The Miracle of Thanksgiving," November 20, 1987. It's Danny's 1st Thanksgiving without his wife, and his daughters' 1st without their mother. He wants to make it extra special.

But Grandma Tanner can't make it. So Danny, Joey and Jesse want to make a reservation at a restaurant. Older daughters D.J. and Stephanie insist that they all make the dinner together at home. Hilarity ensues -- until they realize that baby Michelle finally realizes that Mommy is not coming back.

7. Happy Days, "The First Thanksgiving," November 21, 1978. Marion is unhappy that the rest of the Cunningham family would rather watch football on television than help with the dinner, so she tells them her version of the story of how the Pilgrims and the Indians came together for the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621.

The various actors play period-specific versions of themselves, including Henry Winkler playing "the odd one," who seems to already be in good with the Natives. Because, even in the era of King James I, the Fonz is just that cool.

6. Cheers, "Thanksgiving Orphans," November 27, 1986. Everybody's got some reason or another to not spent the holiday with their families. So Diane invites them all to dinner -- at Carla's. Norm brings a huge frozen turkey, and when it takes forever to cook, Carla calls it "Birdzilla."

Bored and hungry, a food fight starts, which ends with Diane throwing a pie at Sam. He ducks, and it hits Norm's late-arriving wife Vera instead. As a result, Vera, making her 1st onscreen appearance after all her mentions, still doesn't show her face. She is played, uncredited, by Bernadette Birkett, the real-life wife of Norm's portrayer George Wendt.

5. ER, "Great Expectations," November 25, 1999. Carol goes into labor on Thanksgiving Day, and it gets complicated. This is the debut episode of Maura Tierney as Abby Lockhart.

4. The West Wing, "The Indians In the Lobby," November 21, 2001. For reasons of political correctness, this episode is sometimes referred to as "The Butterball Hotline." Two Native Americans refuse to leave the West Wing lobby until the President (or someone high up in the federal government) hears their grievance.

Josh has to both get to Florida, where his widowed mother is after moving from Connecticut, and convince a Georgia prosecutor not to seek the death penalty for a 13-year-old boy who killed his teacher.

President Bartlet tells everyone who will listen (and when your boss is the President, you will listen) how his family turkey is cooked, but is reminded that an improperly cooked turkey might kill his guests. "I'm not saying that's necessarily a dealbreaker." So Charlie tells him that the Butterball company has a hotline for answering cooking questions, and the President calls it, pretending to be a private citizen. He is also very annoyed that Bruno has taken a poll on where the First Family should spend Thanksgiving.

The previous season's Thanksgiving episode, "Shibboleth," is often held up as one of the best Thanksgiving episodes any TV series has ever had. I like this one better.

If you would actually like to call the Butterball Hotline, the number is 1-800-288-8372. Or, 1-800-BUTTERB(all). Be advised, though, that, just as Bartlet did, you may have to wait, as there are a limited number of operators/experts.

3. WKRP in Cincinnati, "Turkeys Away," October 30, 1978. Why did this air right before Halloween, instead of right before Thanksgiving? Anyway, Mr. Carlson thinks dropping turkeys out of a helicopter is a great Thanksgiving promotion. Live turkeys.

"As God is my witness," the Big Guy says, "I thought turkeys could fly!" Spoiler alert: Wild turkeys can, but domesticated, farm-produced turkeys, bred for human consumption, can't.

The top two aired on the same night, on the same network, NBC. Number 1, at 8:00 Eastern Time, one week before Thanksgiving, was immediately followed by Number 2 at 8:30.

2. Friends, "The One Where Underdog Gets Away," November 17, 1994. Ross and Monica's parents are going on a cruise for Thanksgiving, so instead of going to Long Island for the dinner, Monica decides to do it herself, at her apartment in Greenwich Village.

Joey can't spend Thanksgiving with his family on Staten Island, because an acting job he got goes awry. Chandler hates Thanksgiving because of something that happened as a boy.

In the middle of preparations, the Underdog balloon breaks away from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and they all go up to the roof to see it. When they get back, they discover that they're locked out.

Later Thanksgiving episodes would show Ross and Monica renewing their football rivalry (the Geller Bowl, competing for the Geller Cup), a confrontation between a pregnant Rachel and a high school rival (played by Jennifer Aniston's then-real-life-husband Brad Pitt), and a flashback episode that showed why Chandler hates Thanksgiving, how Chandler inspired Monica to lose 100 pounds, and how Monica's revenge for Chandler calling her fat not inadvertently cost Chandler a toe.

1. Mad About You, "Giblets for Murray," November 17, 1994. One of my very favorite episodes of any TV series, on any subject. It also aired an hour before the Seinfeld episode "The Mom & Pop Store," so that was one great night of television comedy.

Paul and Jamie are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time. Their families are driving them nuts. They admonish the Buchmans and the Stemples for their behavior, and remind them that they're adults and that they know what they're doing. Then they discover that Murray the dog has eaten the turkey.

So they have to get a replacement turkey. The one they actually serve is the 5th try. With each try, more family members learn the truth, until Paul's mother is the last to know -- and, normally a shrew who treats Paul like dirt and hates Jamie, she comes through in the end: "What? I never had a mother-in-law?"

The 4th turkey also proves, as had WKRP 16 years earlier, that turkeys don't fly.

Robin Williams, 1951-2014

In the immortal words of Mork from Ork, "Shazbot!"

Robin Williams is dead. He was found at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area. It appears to have been a suicide, following decades of struggles with alcohol, drugs and depression. He was 63.

He was one of the funniest men alive, until he wasn't.

He didn't really have a connection to sports. Although the opening montage to Mork & Mindy did show him and Pam Dawber on the goalposts at the University of Colorado's Folsom Field.

And there was this scene, from Good Will Hunting.

Then there was this riff, imagining if golf had never been invented, and then, instead of 500 years ago, an insane Scotsman were to invent it now.

In his 1st appearance as Mork, on Happy Days, he told Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) that Ork wanted an Earthman. This being late 1950s Milwaukee, Richie was afraid Mork was going to kidnap Hank Aaron of the Braves. And Mork said, "No, we'd have to trade the whole planet for him," before saying it was going to be Richie.

That show was already a generation in the past. And Hank Aaron, thankfully, is still alive. Robin Williams is dead.

Mel Brooks and Tony Bennett were on Johnny Carson's 1st Tonight Show, 52 years ago; they're still alive. Robin Williams was on Carson's last; he's dead.

Too many good people have died this year. As much as anyone, including my father, who died a few weeks ago, Robin Williams made me laugh.

Thank you, you nut.

UPDATE: Robin's family had him cremated, and scattered his ashes over San Francisco Bay.