Love American Style is where it started. An episode titled "Love and the Happy Days" of course only a couple of the original actors were brought back for the TV series. And in the LAS version, there was no Fonzie. Only Ron Howard---Marion Ross and Anson Williams returned for the series. Joannie and Howard were played by other actors.

I remember watching this episode when ME-TV ran it recently. It centered around the Cunningham family being one of the first in their neighborhood to get a TV and had a viewing party celebrating it. Richie agonized inviting a girl over his best friend Potsie. :)

Happy Days was also helped along by the success of the movie "American Graffitti". When that movie was so successful TV networks looked to capitilize on the nostalgia craze it started. And someone remembered this segment from "Love American Style" and thought maybe we can make a series out of that.

It originally was a Pilot on it's own. It was not made for Love American Style. It was a pilot that was passed on, to develop as a series. Many filmed unsold pilots were used for LAS in addition to scripts that were produced just for the series.

Yes as Marvo301 points out, the success of American Graffiti, prompted a second look at the unsold 1971 pilot. It was created by Gary Marshall.

Garry Marshall and ABC recast the unsold pilot to turn Love and the Happy Days into a series. The original title of the series was a New Family in town. The title was changed to Love and the Happy Days when it aired on LAS.

“Love And the Happy Days” ran a full 30 minutes?