#Happy days movie opening series
Ron Howard wasn’t looking to do another series he had recently enrolled at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with the goal of becoming a director. RON HOWARD SIGNED ON TO AVOID GOING TO VIETNAM. Test audiences reported that COOL made them think of cigarettes, however, so producer Carl Kleinschmitt suggested, “How about calling it Happy Days? That’s what we’re going to show.” 3. THE SERIES CREATOR WANTED TO CALL IT COOL. The series didn’t sell, and the pilot ended up as a vignette on Love, American Style-“the dumping ground of failed pilots” according to Marshall. He put together a pilot about a Midwestern family that just purchased their first TV set (the first one in the neighborhood!) and how the teenaged son planned to use it as a chick magnet. Marshall told them that he knew nothing about flappers, but he could write a show about the era in which he spent his teen and young adult years-the 1950s. When Garry Marshall was first approached by Paramount executives Michael Eisner and Tom Miller in 1971 to create a new sitcom, they envisioned something set in the 1920s or ’30s. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SET IN THE 1920S, NOT THE 1950S. To paraphrase Pratt & McClain, these Happy Days facts are yours and mine we hope you’ll share them with your friends. It lasted longer than its many spinoffs, including Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy, and it is the only show thus far in Nick at Nite history to dethrone I Love Lucy as that channel’s top-rated show. Happy Days ran for 11 seasons, making it one of ABC’s longest running series.