Happy Days
Intro
Jukebox plays. Girl spills the drinks all over the police because she got frightened. Girl’s hair gets caught in the convertible top. Two kids start kissing and fall out of the car.
All the Way-1
Fonze is cleaning his bike and two girls fawn over him. The boys gather around to check out a hickie. The boy’s talk to each other about girl and talk about how she has a reputation, she dates a sailor. The date consists of sitting at the ice cream parlor and Richie read out loud from a book to make him see older. Rich get to baby sit with Mary Lou. Mother tries to talk to her husband about her son because he seems worried. Father blames it on growing pains and then talks about how he is upset because he will be shorter than his sons. The Fonze snaps open all the hooks on the bra. Richie goes over to Mary Lou’s house expecting to go all the way. Mary Lou wants to talk, Rich seems stumped. Mary Lou turns down the lights and says that they can talk any time. Mary Lou plays with her hair and gets close to Rich as he reads a seductive part of the story. Mary Lou asks if he wants to neck. Rich sticks a piece of gum in his mouth and then spits it out. He tries to kiss Mary Lou and he kisses funny. He tries it again and then they give up and play chess. Mary Lou doesn’t know how to play and when explaining how to play she just grabs the king and says I win! The next day the boys at school pressure Rich into saying that he had sex. Mary Lou wants to see Rich again. Rich talks his father about his lie that he told to his friends. Mary Lou is not bothered by the teacher fondling her and trying to get her bra unhooked, or her bad reputation. Fonze got a date with Mary Lou because of her reputation that she slept with Rich. Potsey said there are two types of girls, those you marry and those that have reputation.
The Lemon-2
Rich drives his dads car and is insulted by the girls. Rich has 100 dollars saved and him and Potsey wants to get a car with him. Dad watches wrestling and is upset that it is fake. Mother takes her daughter to the kitchen. Rolling den of iniquity is what pops calls the car. Mother is on Rich’s side, says that it would be nice to have a second car in the house. Father says he should finish college and get a good job so that he would have good reliable car. The boys buy a piece of junk car and the dad is not impressed. Mother is impressed by the car and calls it interesting. The boys are so excited about the car but it dies. The girls are excited about a date set up on sat night with the boys. They try to fix the car. Potsey practices for the date, how to put an arm around a girl and gets caught by Fonze. They pick up the girls and go to the dance, they are late but they make it, for the last 10 seconds. All four are disappointed. Potsey starts to kiss in the back, Rich tells the girl that he respects her as a person and then tries to kiss her. The wheel is digging into his hip and then the horn starts to go off. They pull all the wires out. The girl’s father calls Richards father and says that his daughter is still out and it’s after midnight. The father tries to go back to bed but mother won’t allow it. She insists that he go look for Rich. Howard looks at the dinner and speaks to Fonze. Fonze is worried about his reputation but tells Howard where the boys are. The boys tried to fix the car but fail. The car drives into the lake and the girls go with it. The girl’s father comes over to collect his daughters. Rich learned an expensive lesson. Father’s best friend is mother, mother says that her best friend is the milkman, everyone at the tale looks appalled but then she laughs and says, see I can joke too.
Richie’s Cup Runneth Over-3
The boys played a joke on the waitress, she quits. Potsey is excited about the wild party that is planned for a bachelor party. The waitress screams that the manikin is following her, she will come back to work there, and she always quits. Richie tries to get out of seeing aunt Betsy and tells his dad the he wants to go to the bachelor party with marines. Dad lets him go but tells him to take it easy. The boys drink milk so that they wont get drunk. He boys get the party and there is so much beer and the marines give them cards that have that have naked ladies on them. The marines start playing drinking games, the boys take swigs of olive oil to try to not get drunk. The boys get drunk after all. A woman pops out of cake she is blonde and wears a marine outfit. The dancer tells jokes and dances on the table. Richie gets a ride home from the lady that popped out of the cake. Richie is upset because he doesn’t know what to do because the girl brought him home, so he’s not sure if he should kiss her. Richie lies down and the bed starts doing flip-flops. He gets sick. His little sister is excited that he’s drunk! He’s grown up in her eyes. Mother thought it was the flu, and is upset that he got tipsy. Father is supposed to be the one to take care of Richard, mother takes care of the mumps and measles. Both mother and Richie wonder if father is ashamed of him. Hopes that Richie has learned that drinking does not make him a man. Mother comes in to check on Richie after he falls asleep. Both parents excuse his behavior as growing up.
Guess Who’s Coming to Visit-4
Eating French fries and kissing when they get to the middle. A guy accidentally squirts ketchup on the girl next to him, all over her face. There will be a drag race, Ralph is called a chicken because he said drag racing is against the law. The girl makes a cheer and Fonze is annoyed. Fonze mimics the waitress. Richie is talking to another guy’s girl and gets a shoulder shove. Jonnie twirls the baton while the boys play basketball. Richie gets beat by his older brother. Josie decides that she doesn’t want to be a baton twirler she wants to be a basketball player. Posey stays over at Richies house. Mother makes jokes about fathers high school sports career. Potsey wants to sneak out to see the race at midnight. The family sits around the black and white TV and watches the program together. Rich thinks it’s too risky to sneak out. Potsey uses the fact that he has a crush on a girl that will be at the race so they sneak out to go. Mother brings up milk and cookies and finds the boys missing. The little sister tells the parents that the boys went to the race. Rich talks to the girl and she likes that he smells like after shave and not like her boy that smells like gas. Rich starts the race just as his father pulls up. Father, Richie and Potsey along with a lot more students get taken down to the station. The sergeant calls all the parents. Mother and the little sister are waiting up when they get home, the little sister is waiting up to what happened to Richie. The Father gave him the punishment of grounded for life. Mother comes in with Howard following, she talks sense into him. Richie is only grounded for two weeks. Instead of drag racing they arm wrestle and Fonze winds. There are only two kids left that did not get grounded, they meet. It’s a nerdy girl and a fat boy, they dance.
Hardware Jungle-5
Dancing scene at the hamburger joint. The guys play a joke on the fat kid by making all the salt come out. Double dates are very popular. The fat kid plays the joke back on Richard. There are mirrors in the men’s restroom, the guys go in just to fix their hair. Mother is making dinner and Howard comes home with a sore throat. Father is offended when mother does a cho cho train noise to get him to open his mouth. Marian puts a wool sock around his neck and fixes him Brandy, Howard is embarrassed. The doctor comes over to the house and tells him that the tonsils have to come out. Howard is scarred, and can’t miss keeping his store open. The night of the dance Richie has to keep the store open for his dad so he returned the tickets to Fonze. Mother packs father a suitcase. Jonnie tells father there is nothing to be scarred about but ends up frightening her father. Mother needs help to close he suitcase. Mother makes it so that Richie can now make his date but now he has to get the tickets back again. Mother tries to assure father that there is nothing to worry about. Pessimistic neighbor at the hospital makes father uneasy. Richie locks the door in the store and they get locked in. Richie breaks the front glass in the door and stays in to wait for the repairman to come. The repairman went to the rock and roll show too, Richie has to wait alone. Earns his fathers respect by staying at the store and missing his concert.
The Deadly Dares-6
The boys are at the sock hope and can’t get a date so they try to join the Demon gang. Richie and Potsey ask Fonze for help to get into the club. Mom irons Richie’s pants, father helps his daughter paint by numbers but he doesn’t like the way she paints, she keeps painting the wrong numbers. It looks horrible but mother says very nice dear. The boys go to the initiation brought by Fonze. Potsey tells a knock knock joke to get into the club. They pass the first step but they then have to do 6 things to get in. The first thing was to do prank calls. The second was to kiss the waitress. The waitress screams and says 50 people attacked her. The third joke was to steal the principles hairpiece. Then they start singing the American amble in the middle of the movie theater. They tied the cop’s shoelaces together. He fell on the waitress and she screamed that all men are animals. The boys have to dress up like girls. Mother is working with her daughter to make a ginger bread man. Mother helped Richie dress up like a girl. Father was upset that the boys have to go thru all this, all he had to do was eat goldfish. The little sister is grossed out and goes to hide her goldfish from her father. At the sock hop Fonze dances with Richie and starts to blow in his ear. Fonze grabs another girl and pulls her hair a little and smells her. Potsey is dancing with Richard. After everything they decide they don’t want to be demons after all. The little sister jonnie is annoying and kicked out of the room by her father and her older brother.
Fonzie Drops In-7
Playing basketball at lunch, Potsey gets a B+ on the history test. Fonzie hangs out with the high school kids at lunch. Richie asks Fonze if he would come back to school to finish. He would be the only person who was a high school drop in. Fonze and Richie go to the principle to ask if he could go back to school. Fonze makes the principle promise to drive properly before he will fix his car. Mother finds out that father doesn’t like the sandwich she makes him and says that the wife is always the last to know. Joni is excited to get to school early because she is going to find out where babies come from. There is a book and everything, mother is upset and says that she will drive her to school and they will have a talk along the way . Fonze comes back to school, he rearranges the class so that all the women sit next to him. The teacher gets help from Fonze because he quiets the class down. Richie does Fonze’s homework for him for a week. Fonze sends a girl off to find him to four-leaf clover, then he gets her to do his homework. Fonze is late for dinner. Fonze took fathers chair, mother days that it is just fine. Mother starts the conversation. Fonze says things at the table that are inappropriate. Fonze tries to get richie to cheat on the test, so that Fonze can pass. He blames Richie for getting him into this and tells him that it’s his duty to help him out. Richie won’t help Fonze cheat on the test. Fonze put notes in the girl’s sweatshirt in front of him and on the windowsill outside. Fonze is not mad at Richie, he passed the test without cheating. Fonze drops out not because he’s dumb but because he’s cool. Fonze keeps the exam he passed, he’s proud of himself. The whole family becomes aware that the littlest girl in the family is growing up.
The Skin Game-8
The group of guys are excited to hear about the one that just went to the strip joint. Richie has to answer the phone and get a shopping list from his mother. Richie missed the rest of the story. Potsey wants to get fake id’s so that they can go to the strip joint. Father read time magazine and opens a jar for mother. Father can’t get it open and mother opens it with ease, she attributes it to the idea that he must have loosened it for her. Mother goes to bring up milk and cookies but then she scares away pockets and Richie doesn’t get an id card. Father starts talking to himself after all the kids get up and do their own thing. Richie can’t borrow his brothers id but Potsey finds him one but he has to pass to be 25. The boys go to the strip joint. They both get in using the ids the strip joint was a dancing lady, chewing gum, looking somewhat ridiculous. The boys order beer. Richie says that the girl looks bored. She looks like a peacock, she starts to juggle balls. Everyone there is wearing a suit. Richies father is at the strip joint. Bubbles is in black dress, a blue scarf and long white gloves. Potsey is disappointed that bubbles didn’t take it all off. The boys try to sneak out, then Richie is upset because his father was at the striptease joint. Howard saw Richie at the strip joint and he told his father that he used a fake id to get in the joint, his father takes the fake id and grounds him for a week. Richie asked his father if mom knew that he was there. Father said that mother knew everything and he had to go there with that particular client every time he came to town. Bull makes the world go round – Fonze
Analysis
I had never watched this television show previously to this project, I picked this show to watch because it was very popular in its day. While watching Happy Days I was astonished at some of the underlying content of the show. This is not what I expected the material to cover based on the time that this was aired. Large female character roles were minimal but there were several references to them in every episode.
Almost every episode there was a storyline based around getting a girl to hook up with one of the boys in the group. There was a lot of underlying sexuality in the show. In the first episode, the first scene started with all the boys rushing to check out the hickie that one of them had just received. The episode went on to be about going all the way with the girl that had given the hickie, Mary Lou. Come to find out that she only kissed boys despite the reputation that she had been given. It was disturbing that Mary Lou was not at all bothered by the reputation that she had been given. There was even mention of the coach trying to get with her, that also was not something that was bothered about. Mary Lou ended up going out with three of the boys in that circle of friends because of her reputation of being easy. The second episode is all about Potsey and Richie trying to get a car so that they can go up the hill and make out with some girls. The girls in this episode are very eager to participate in this event. They are almost as equally excited as the boys to be able to go dancing and finish the evening by making out, but that is as far as it goes. The eighth episode was one that I was most socked by as far as content is concerned. The episode is about the boys struggle to obtain fake id’s so that they can visit the local strip club bar so that they can supposedly see a woman take all of her clothes off. They order two beers because that is the policy of the club, they are only 18, and continue to watch the show. They succeed in doing so but are disappointed because in the end the woman still has clothes on and the dance was not as exciting as they were expecting. Richie gets caught by his father, the id is confiscated and Richie is punished by being grounded for a week. I was so blown away by this because now in present day, beer can only be bought by a person of age 21 or over, to have a fake id is a federal crime punishable by prison time, and going to a strip joint is heavily demonized. Granted, the strip joints today do have women that are completely naked, however, if one got caught even doing the first two offenses there would be police involvement. The father was very easy going about the things that Richie got into trouble for, the longest amount of time he got grounded for was for two weeks. That punishment was given because he snuck out, went to an illegal drag race (which was the most demonized offense in the show) and the police took him in, his father had shown up to come get him and got to be taken to in the police car to the station as well. The boys played a lot of jokes on people and that was one main source of comedic relief in the show. A main target seemed to be the waitress at the diner. There were several cases when she was scarred, made fun of, even sexually assaulted (according to the definition of today) when the boys ran up, grabbed her and kissed her on the mouth. This was seen as fun kids stuff and was acceptable.
There was not one sophisticated woman in this entire show. Even when there was a woman who was made to seem elite she was concerned more with powdering her face, putting on lipstick, and being almost dollish. Every woman in this show was seen to be simple, most definitely, men were of superior status and were seen to be smarter than women. The mother in the show relied on her husband to do most everything, she did not have a job, nor were there any cases where she had any friends. Mother trusted father to take care of Richie when he came home drunk, her duty would be to take care of him when he was actually sick. Mother was assigned the roll of telling her daughter about sex. This show seemed to be very open to sexuality, to a certain degree. It was very acceptable that the boys were always looking for a date, and hoping to score. However, the double standard is very apparent when Potsey claims that there are two types of girls, there are those that you marry and there are those that have reputations. Overall the show was very degrading to women, the rolls that they had in society were trivial and dumbed down.
-Nichole
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