I was wondering was Happy Days still able to maintain their top ten spot in the ratings during Richie's and Ralph's last season? I rather not know what the ratings were after both Ron Howard and Donny Most left.

No!! It finished number 16 in the ratings for the 1979-1980 season,although it was clobbering NBC and CBS in the ratings!! The 1978-1979 season was the last time it finished in the top 10 for any year!! After the 1982-1983 season, The A-Team crushed Happy Days in the ratings and fell out of the top 25 altogether after that!! Afterwards,although the show was having mediocre to respectable ratings,they probably knew that the 11th season was going to be the last one!!

Originally posted by BravesFan712002
No!! It finished number 16 in the ratings for the 1979-1980 season,although it was clobbering NBC and CBS in the ratings!! The 1978-1979 season was the last time it finished in the top 10 for any year!! After the 1982-1983 season, The A-Team crushed Happy Days in the ratings and fell out of the top 25 altogether after that!! Afterwards,although the show was having mediocre to respectable ratings,they probably knew that the 11th season was going to be the last one!!

It's hard to believe that a show can be number 3 the previous season and fall to 16 the next. I wonder why, there wasn't any changes until the 80-81 season to Happy Days so for it to drop like that it must have had competition at 8pm on Tuesdays nights during the 79-80 season

Perhaps society changed. Shows that were popular in the 70s just couldn't hack it in the 80s. As society gets more complex, shows either have to change or get cancelled. After all, I Love Lucy was huge in the 50s, but people wouldn't like it nowadays cause there's no gratuitous sex and violence.

Originally posted by SOLOMON


It's hard to believe that a show can be number 3 the previous season and fall to 16 the next. I wonder why, there wasn't any changes until the 80-81 season to Happy Days so for it to drop like that it must have had competition at 8pm on Tuesdays nights during the 79-80 season Sheriff Lobo was on NBC at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday and another show California Dreams(??) was on CBS at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday too!!! And both shows were ratings busts!! Confirm about that CBS Show as well!!! So Happy Days didn't have any REAL competition until The A-Team in January 1983