11th season

[Chachi'88]

as I said I love all 11 seasons, apart from the 10th but I must say that the 11th is what I find less "happy".

I do not laugh at all, there are several episodes that made me cry that made me laugh.

do not find that the tone of the series is more gloomy in the season? "

- Separation of Joanie and Chacha
- Fonzie leaves home Cunningham
- Joanie is a teacher but everything goes wrong, the first is harassed by a student and then if it must do with a drugged.

why all these things happen so sad?

but the other episodes I have seemed more serious than usual.

I am also pleased to see the series in a more serious and mature but it is really too sad!

[robyrob]

yeah, I loved the last season, but there were a few too many serious moments, and I think we got way more than was bearable of the Joanie-Chachi drama - they should've focused on them being together and having more FUN moments

[anglemark10]

That seemed to happen quite frequently to long-running comedy series during the '80s and '90s. Episode plots became serious toward the end of their runs.

[Scoobiedoo30]

The 11th Season was my favorite season as well.

[Chachi'88]

is not my favorite (I prefer the first 9) but I also liked the 11th,

as i say that the vote will give 6

[dave insinga]

ok its a different tone than say RICHIE MEETS MORK but it also showed the show ,the characters grew up. we all did, in that season don't you think that if fonzie said"'sit on it ".would have looked stupid.i enjoy this show mainly because i grew up with it, the characters grew up .this was such an important season.

[Chachi'88]

but in fact! is as beautiful every season - the 10.

I put 6 but is more for some episodes that I have not liked but then neither are there many large!

[Edster2973]

I suspect the tone of the show got more serious for a few reasons. I don't know if I'm right, but I'd bet I'm far from being wrong.

Firstly, after being on the air for that long, the ratings for the show were probably not as stellar as during the early years, so the writers came up with some dramatic stories that would hopefully hook more viewers, or, at the very least, keep them from losing more.

Also, inevitably, the writers probably ran out of original ideas and wanted to avoid doing rehashes of past stories, so they had the characters mature as the series aged. That's why it's believable when Fonzie has a steady girlfriend or when he adopts his son. He grew from whence he came. No way could you have him acting the same way he did in the early years. It's not a natural progression. People evolve and change.

By the way, when I say it's believable that Fonzie had a steady girlfriend/adopted his son, I'm not saying it was preferable or better than the early years. All I'm saying is that it was believable. I'd still prefer the earlier years of course. Then again, in Season 11, Fonzie and Ritchie have a very powerful moment when Ritchie tells him how much he loves him and Fonzie gets all teary eyed. No, it's not better than what went on before, but you still buy it. There's growth there as well as depth. You cry along with them because the characters, while fictional, feel real. The depth and growth work in that respect.

Lastly, and I think it's pretty credible, by the end of the series, many of the cast had left. The ones remaining probably were also on the fence as to whether they wanted to continue. After doing a show for so long, actors don't want to be typecast as one character, so they tend to move on. Knowing this, the writers probably crafted more dramatic material so that the actors could flex their acting muscles and show that they had other talents besides the ability to make us laugh. Actors in general worry about what projects they could be missing out on by staying with a show that is past its sell-by date. That's why many will leave a good show in its prime because they want the audience and the-powers-that-be to know that they're versatile actors and are capable of being chameleons.

When asking these questions about the show, try thinking like a writer, actor or TV station manager and you'll probably be able to answer the many questions you have yourself. Hope this helps.

Ed

[Chachi'88]

are okay!

I liked very much the final in which Fonzie invoked a child, definitely better than where he is engaged in place.

and also the episode where Richie back (but do go to become a Hollywood screenwriter was an idea to Ron Howard? that Richie wanted to do what we do in life because he had devoted to the character?)

and beautiful marriage of Joanie and Chachi

[Wreckless]

More serious episodes in the final season, but still a great, HD season

[Dr. Thong]

With the departure of Ron and Donny in 1980, HD began it's long, drawn out decline. It stopped being HD when they left. It became a different show, with weak, pale imitation characters (Roger, for an example) replacing the originals.

Also, in real life, Henry Winkler was 40 years old or close to it. Watching those later episodes now, it comes off as kind of creepy that he's still wearing the leather jacket and trying to pick up teenage girls. Or even girls in their early '20s.

Plus, you had the breakups of Fonzie and Ashley and Joanie and Chachi, which started the season on a down note.

HD had clearly run out of gas. The actors who'd been there since the beginning were there because it was a job and they needed work. I'm sure some of them probably wanted to leave, but having been typecast, their prospects for getting another series were probably slim. That's just speculation on my part, but I think it has some validity to it.

Any show that runs as long as HD did usually runs out of steam about midway through the run: There are only so many fresh situations the writers and producers can come up with. Even some of the episodes in the seventh season were weak (the episode where Fonzie fights the devil for Chachi's soul) and the show would have declined even if Ron and Donny had stayed.
Although I think it wouldn't have been as bad as what we got.

The show ran it's course and was cancelled. They had 11 years, about four of which were excellent and three others that were pretty good. And four other seasons that are best forgotten.

[anglemark10]

Dr. Thong, you mentioned that storylines in the seventh season were getting weak, and I completely agree with that. However, I feel that the show was revitalized the following season as they had new characters to write for, and the focus switched to Joanie and her friends as opposed to Richie and his friends. When Happy Days used to air on TV Land, I always looked forward to the "post-Richie" episodes.

Also, I could be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that most of the cast would have liked the show to continue even longer than it did.

[Dusty's Fan]

Originally Posted by Dr. Thong

Also, in real life, Henry Winkler was 40 years old or close to it. Watching those later episodes now, it comes off as kind of creepy that he's still wearing the leather jacket and trying to pick up teenage girls. Or even girls in their early '20s.

When the series began, Fonzie was in high school, making the character no more than 18 or 19 years old at the time -- if even that. Presumably each season marked another year in his life, if we follow what was done with Laverne & Shirley where each new opening depicted a new year. So the character of Fonzie was no more than 30 at the end. I have to disagree with anything appearing "creepy." Winkler certainly looked about the same as he did years earlier, and it's clearly implied that he is NOT middle-aged!

Can you give an example from the later seasons where Fonzie is making an attempt to "pick up teenage girls?" I don't see anything wrong with a 30-year old going out with college girls. A friend of mine is married to a guy 15 years older than her!

You have been consistently very clear that you have a dislike for the later HD seasons, to which you certainly have the right as your opinion. You have even stated that the series should have been cancelled earlier, to which I disagree as we would have been deprived of some good shows. But to imply that the Fonzie character was some sort of creep goes a little too far -- this was not a reality show, we all knew that Winkler portrayed a younger guy. And he pulled that off very well.

[Dr. Thong]

Originally Posted by anglemark10

Dr. Thong, you mentioned that storylines in the seventh season were getting weak, and I completely agree with that. However, I feel that the show was revitalized the following season as they had new characters to write for, and the focus switched to Joanie and her friends as opposed to Richie and his friends. When Happy Days used to air on TV Land, I always looked forward to the "post-Richie" episodes.

Also, I could be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that most of the cast would have liked the show to continue even longer than it did.

That's cool that you think that way. I just feel personally that the new characters were weak and not very compelling. It just became a different show to me, that's all.

But if you got enjoyment out of it and felt that it was creatively renewed, then great. You got another four years of entertainment out of it.

[Dr. Thong]

Originally Posted by Dusty's Fan

When the series began, Fonzie was in high school, making the character no more than 18 or 19 years old at the time -- if even that. Presumably each season marked another year in his life, if we follow what was done with Laverne & Shirley where each new opening depicted a new year. So the character of Fonzie was no more than 30 at the end. I have to disagree with anything appearing "creepy." Winkler certainly looked about the same as he did years earlier, and it's clearly implied that he is NOT middle-aged!

Can you give an example from the later seasons where Fonzie is making an attempt to "pick up teenage girls?" I don't see anything wrong with a 30-year old going out with college girls. A friend of mine is married to a guy 15 years older than her!

You have been consistently very clear that you have a dislike for the later HD seasons, to which you certainly have the right as your opinion. You have even stated that the series should have been cancelled earlier, to which I disagree as we would have been deprived of some good shows. But to imply that the Fonzie character was some sort of creep goes a little too far -- this was not a reality show, we all knew that Winkler portrayed a younger guy. And he pulled that off very well.

When the show began, Fonzie was not in high school. In fact, it was well-established that he'd dropped out by that point. I always figured Fonzie was a couple of years older than the other guys. I think it's safe to assume that.

As far as examples of him trying to pick up younger girls, he would walk into Arnold's, snap his fingers and a gaggle of girls would surround him in nearly every episode. Arnold's was primarily a hang out for the Jefferson High crowd, so need I say more?

And while Winkler may not have been playing a middle-aged character (and I never said he was playing one), he clearly was approaching middle age in real life and had even gotten a little pudgy. He was very apparently not some twenty-something any more.

And they also made the Fonzie character very nerdy as the years progressed. This kind of started during the Ron Howard years and accelerated during the final seasons. Fonzie stopped being cool for the most part and just grew tiresome. I think having him in a steady relationship with Ashley was a good move and long overdue, but they junked it in the final season for some unknown reason.