Happy Days - 15 Shocking Secrets From Producers

Happy Days is one of the greatest shows of all time Gary Marshall created the show and he introduced the world to Richie Cunningham Potsie Ralph Malph the fond Joanie and chachi the show made people feel nostalgic for the good old days of the 50s and the 60s people loved the scenes in the malt shop and Fonz's leather jacket even offends didn't feel nostalgic they still enjoyed the comedy in the show if you're a fan of happy days you're in for a treat we've tracked down some little-known facts about the show facts first presents Happy Days 15 shocking secrets from producers before we get started make sure you subscribe and click that notification bell so you don't miss a single video happy days almost had a different name when Gary Marshall first developed the series he wanted to call his post he figured that since the characters on the show were cool the name was perfect like on many shows Gary brought in a focus group the focus group loved everything but the name of the show they said that the title cool wasn't working for them in Gary's book with me when it's funny Gary said that the test audience thought that cool would be about Eskimos who smoked gary went back to the drawing board and he came up with the name happy day it's a good thing he did because it's hard to imagine the show being called the clue plenty of spin-offs happy days was such a huge success that plenty of spin-offs were created a few of the most successful were Laverne & Shirley Mork & Mindy and Joanie Loves Chachi out of the blue and bland skis beauties were spin-offs of characters who had made their introduction on happy days the problem with out of the blue was that due to scheduling with the network out of the blue aired before the main character premiered on happy days it was a week after the show premiered that the character appeared on the Happy Days episode chachi sells his soul the spin-offs were so popular that there were animated spin-offs created the Fonz and the Happy Days gang was popular there was also Laverne and Shirley in the Army which was later named Laverne and Shirley with special guest star the Fonz there was also a cartoon version of Mork & Mindy each of the animated shows are based around the characters when they first appeared unhappy David there was one spin-off that didn't take off Suzi Quatro was a musician and an actress and she played leather Tuscadero on Happy Days she was offered a spin-off revolving around her happiness character but she turned it down Anson Williams sang to be allowed to use popular 50s songs was very expensive the show didn't really have the budget to get the rights to use many songs so they came up with a plan B rather than using real songs and music groups they had Anson Williams aka Patsy sing some of the songs that played in the jukebox at Arnold's most fans had no idea that it was him singing and it saved a lot of money in production costs Fonzie's leather jacket when Fonzie made his first appearance on happy days he wore a windbreaker rather than his signature leather jacket the execs at ABC thought that if he wore a leather jacket it would make him look like a hoodlum Gary Marshall knew that the windbreaker wasn't working so he spoke to the execs he asked that Fonzie be allowed to wear the leather jacket and scenes with his motorcycle because the leather was safer on a bike they agreed so Gary made sure that all of Fonzie's scenes take place beside his motorcycle later when Fonzie became incredibly popular the ABC execs allowed him to wear his leather jacket with or without the motorcycle the windbreaker went back to the wardrobe where it remained for the rest of the series Micky Dolenz was almost Arthur Fonzarelli before Henry Winkler landed the role of Arthur Fonzarelli Micky Dolenz was considered Mickey was one of the Monkees and he was the front runner when Mickey spoke with the Washington Post in 2013 he said that he remembered the audition but didn't remember seeing Henry Winkler there Henry says he remembered the audition and remembered seeing Mickey there as soon as he saw Mickey Henry was sure he wouldn't get the part fortunately he did because it's impossible to imagine anyone other than Henry Winkler playing Arthur Fonzarelli aka the Fonz Weezer's Buddy Holly al Molinaro was the actor who played Aldo Vecchio in 1994 he reprised his role for the band Weezer when they were filming their video for the 1994 music video for Buddy Holly they asked al to star in the video where the band performs at Arnold's driving during his part in the video al gave a shout to his hometown the band was from LA and Al said they are from Kenosha Wisconsin most of the Happy Days gang was also in the video but not in person the band sliced original footage from the show into the video Happy Days the musical in 2007 Happy Days the musical opened in Burbank California the show is such a hit that later it ran in New Jersey and then Connecticut it was such a hit that the show became a touring production in 2010 the show stopped touring around the u.s. in 2014 they began touring in the UK Robin Williams is incredible audition Robin Williams auditioned for the role of Mork an alien who abducts Ritchie the episode took place in 1978 and the title of the episode was my favorite orchid during his audition the show's producer told Robin to sit down Robin turned to face the chair and then sat on his head instead of his behind when he did this he got the role immediately Robin played worked so well that spin-off Mork and Mindy was created this is what helped Robins career skyrocket the 2011 lawsuit in 2011 cast members Anson Williams Donny most erin moran Marion Ross and Tom Bosley 's widow got together and filed a lawsuit against CBS and paramount pictures which is the network that owns Happy Days they filed the lawsuit because they weren't paid merchandising revenues for the show they were particularly upset about not being paid for the Happy Days theme slot machines the group asked for ten million dollars in the lawsuit according to the New York Post each actor agreed to a settlement and they were awarded $65,000 it wasn't the 10 million dollars they wanted but all were reported to have been satisfied with the settlement Fonzie's motorcycle goes to auction on happy days Fonzie rode a 1949 triumph trophy tr5 motorcycle in 2011 it went up for auction as part of Bonhams classic california collection the bike was expected to sell for between 60,000 and 80,000 dollars even though it wasn't in working condition everyone was shocked that the bike never sold it still listed on the bottoms website if you want to buy it you might be able to you should just expect to spend some good money the 20s and 30s when paramount first approached Garry Marshall to write a show for them they wanted to taste that in the 20s or 30s told the execs that he would be better suited to write in the 50s and 60s since that's when he grew up the initial pilot that he rode wasn't picked up but when he pitched happy days they loved it the rest is history Ron Howard almost passed on the role of Richie Cunningham when Ron Howard was first offered the role of Richie Cunningham he initially turned it down he told Gary Marshall he didn't want to play a teenager for the rest of his life Gary promised that during the show's run all the boys would graduate from high school this was enough to convince Ron and he accepted the role the external shot of the house is located in Los Angeles happy days was set in Milwaukee but the house used for the exterior shots was in Los Angeles the address is 565 North Cahuenga Boulevard la California if you're in the Los Angeles area you should take a drive by the house it looks the same as if it has been frozen in time Henry Winkler was terrified of motorcycles Henry Winkler's character loved his motorcycle in real life Henry was terrified of it and the scenes where Fonzie is riding his bike Henry isn't actually driving it he would sit on the stationary bike that was attached to a moving truck Henry never once actually rode the motorcycle Henry Winkler couldn't read his audition script Henry was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was 31 years old when he read for the role of Fonzie he couldn't read the script during the audition he made up his own lines Henry told the producers that he did it so they could see the essence of the character he promised to read his lines as written in the future and he got the part [Applause] which one of these facts was most surprising to you let us know in the comments and be sure to subscribe to fats first for more great videos [Music] you

Channel: Facts Verse

Views: 513,159

Keywords: facts verse, happy days cast then and now, happy days - where are they now, what happened to the fonz, what happened to the cast of happy days, what happened to fonzie, richie cunningham, joanie cunningham, richie cunningham happy days, joanie cunningham happy days, happy days facts, happy days behind the scenes, happy days bloopers, fonzie, erin moran, ron howard, henry winkler, shocking secrets, shocking secrets from producers, happy days, happy days last episode

Id: T93SvxqL1Yw

Length: 8min 41sec (521 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2020