Editing Happy Days (section)

=== Production and scheduling notes ===
* [[Jerry Paris]], who played next-door neighbor Jerry Helper on ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' and directed 84 episodes of that series,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jerry Paris |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0661577/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821105625/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0661577/ |archive-date=August 21, 2019 |access-date=August 20, 2019 |website=Internet Movie Database}}</ref> directed every episode of ''Happy Days'' from season three on, except for three episodes in season three ("Jailhouse Rock", "Dance Contest", and "Arnold's Wedding").<ref>{{Cite web |title=Happy Days Season 3 Episode Guide |url=http://www.tv.com/happy-days/show/270/episode_guide.html?season=3&tag=season_dropdown;dropdown;2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215130846/http://www.tv.com/happy-days/show/270/episode_guide.html?season=3&tag=season_dropdown;dropdown;2 |archive-date=February 15, 2009 |access-date=June 10, 2010 |publisher=TV.com}}</ref>
* Producer and writer [[Bob Brunner]] created Arthur Fonzarelli's "Fonzie" nickname and his iconic comeback phrase, "Sit on it."<ref name="variety" /><ref name="dspy" /><ref name="thr" />
* Beginning in September 1979 until the show went out of production, reruns of the show were [[television syndication|syndicated]] under the title ''Happy Days Again''.
* ''Happy Days'' was produced by Miller-Milkis Productions, a teaming of Thomas L. Miller with former film editor Edward K. Milkis, which became Miller-Milkis-Boyett Productions when Robert L. Boyett joined the company in 1980, and was the first-ever show to be produced by the company's most recent incarnation, [[Miller-Boyett Productions]], which followed Milkis's resignation from the partnership. It was also produced by Henderson Productions and was one of the popular shows produced in association with [[Paramount Television]].
* In its 11 seasons on the air, ''Happy Days'' is the third-longest-running sitcom in [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s history{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} (behind ''[[The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet]],'' which ran 14 seasons, from 1952 to 1966), and one of the longest-running primetime programs in the network's history. It is also unique in that it remained in the same time slot, leading off ABC's Tuesday night programming at 8:00&nbsp;p.m. [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern]]/[[Pacific Time Zone|Pacific]] (7:00&nbsp;p.m. in the [[Central Time Zone|Central]] and [[Mountain Time Zone|Mountain]] zones) for its first ten seasons. That half-hour became a signature timeslot for ABC, with ''[[Who's the Boss?]]'' instantly entering the top 10 when it was moved from Thursdays and staying in that time slot for six seasons, followed by the equally family-friendly sitcom ''[[Full House]]'' (another Miller-Boyett co-production). That sitcom also hit the top 10 immediately after inheriting the Tuesday at 8:00/7:00&nbsp;p.m. slot and then stayed there for four seasons.
* ''Happy Days'' also proved to be quite popular in daytime reruns; the show joined the [[ABC Daytime|ABC daytime]] schedule in September 1975, airing reruns at 11:30&nbsp;a.m. ET (10:30&nbsp;a.m. CT/MT/PT), being moved to 11:00/10:00&nbsp;a.m. in April 1977, paired with ''[[Family Feud]]'' following at 11:30/10:30&nbsp;a.m. It was replaced on the daytime schedule by reruns of its spin-off, ''Laverne & Shirley,'' in April 1979.
* [[CBS]] programming head [[Fred Silverman]] scheduled the ''[[Maude (TV series)|Maude]]'' spin-off ''[[Good Times]]'' directly against ''Happy Days'' during their respective second seasons in an attempt to kill the ABC show's growing popularity. In a way this move backfired on Silverman, as he was named president of ABC in 1975, thus forcing him to come up with a way to save the show he tried to kill the year before. After having knocked ''Happy Days'' out of the top 20 programs on television his last year at CBS, Silverman had the series at the top of the [[Nielsen ratings]] by 1977 (see below). ''Good Times'' was later ended in 1979.
* Ron Howard later revealed that many of the exterior scenes filmed in ''Happy Days'' were actually shot in [[Munster, Indiana]].
* The official series finale ("Passages") aired on May 8, 1984. But there were five "leftover" episodes that ABC did not have time to air during the regular season due to the [[1984 Winter Olympics|Winter Olympics]] and the spring run of ''[[a.k.a. Pablo]]''. Four of these aired on Thursday nights during the summer of 1984; the fifth ("Fonzie's Spots") aired on September 24, 1984.

==== Production styles ====
The first two seasons of ''Happy Days'' (1974–75) were filmed using a [[single-camera setup]] and [[laugh track]]. One episode of season two ("Fonzie Gets Married") was filmed in front of a studio audience with [[Multiple-camera setup|three cameras]] as a test run. From the third season on (1975–84), the show was a three-camera production in front of a live audience (with a cast member, usually Tom Bosley, announcing in voice-over, ''"Happy Days'' is filmed before a live audience" at the start of most episodes), giving these later seasons a markedly different style. A laugh track was still used during post-production to smooth over live reactions.

Garry Marshall's earlier television series ''[[The Odd Couple (1970 TV series)|The Odd Couple]]'' had undergone an identical change in production style after its first season in 1970–71.

==== Sets ====
[[File:Happy days 1976 fonzies apartment.JPG|thumb|left|180px|Richie and Fonzie view his destroyed motorcycle in his living room, 1976. Fonzie's apartment was over the Cunninghams' garage.]]

The show had two main sets: the Cunningham home and Arnold's/Al's [[Drive-In]].

In seasons one and two, the Cunningham house was arranged with the front door on the left and the kitchen on the right of screen, in a triangular arrangement. From season three on, the house was rearranged to accommodate multiple cameras and a studio audience.

The Cunninghams' official address is 565 North Clinton Drive, [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]].<ref>''Wilcox's Soaps & More TV Character Address and Trivia Book'' (2004)</ref> The house that served as the exterior of the Cunningham residence is actually located at 565 North Cahuenga Boulevard (south of Melrose Avenue) in Los Angeles,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-08-21 |title=Iconic Movie and TV Houses of L.A. |url=https://www.laweekly.com/slideshow/iconic-movie-and-tv-houses-of-la-5023914 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190111234058/https://www.laweekly.com/slideshow/iconic-movie-and-tv-houses-of-la-5023914 |archive-date=January 11, 2019 |access-date=January 11, 2019 |website=LA Weekly}}</ref> several blocks from the Paramount lot on Melrose Avenue.

The Milky Way Drive-In, located on Port Washington Road in the North Shore suburb of [[Glendale, Wisconsin]] (now [[Kopp's Frozen Custard]] Stand), was the inspiration for the original Arnold's Drive-In; it has since been demolished. The exterior of Arnold's was a standing set on the Paramount Studios lot that has since been demolished. This exterior was close to Stage 19, where the rest of the show's sets were located.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

The set of the diner in the first two seasons was a room with the same vague details of the later set, such as the paneling, and the college pennants. When the show changed to a studio production in 1975, the set was widened and the entrance was hidden, but allowed an upstage, central entrance for cast members. The barely-seen kitchen was also upstaged and seen only through a pass-through window. The diner had orange booths, downstage center for closeup conversation, as well as camera left. There were two restroom doors camera right, labeled "Guys" and "Dolls". A 1953 [[Seeburg Corporation|Seeburg]] Model G jukebox (with replaced metal [[pilaster]]s from Wico Corp.) was positioned camera right, and an [[anachronism|anachronistic]] "Nip-It" pinball machine (actually produced in 1972) was positioned far camera right.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
[[File:Happy days at arnolds 1975.JPG|thumb|Potsie, Richie, Fonzie, and Ralph Malph at Arnold's, 1975]]

In 2004, two decades after the first set was destroyed, the ''Happy Days 30th Anniversary Reunion'' requested that the reunion take place in Arnold's. The set was rebuilt by production designer James Yarnell based on the original floor plan. The reunion special was taped at [[CBS Television City]]'s Bob Barker Studio in September 2004.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 7, 1954 |title=Shows |url=http://www.cbstelevisioncity.com/shows |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713152856/http://www.cbstelevisioncity.com/shows |archive-date=July 13, 2011 |access-date=June 4, 2014 |publisher=CBS Television City}}</ref>