The second season of Happy Days was where the series took on its most familiar form for the majority of fans. As with the series' short debut season (16 episodes that aired in the first half of 1974), Ron Howard's Richie Cunningham was still at the center of most of the plots, and was still a slightly naive if good-natured kid from a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the mid-1950s (one episode specifically puts the action in 1956, in the second Eisenhower-Stevenson race). But across the second season -- which had a full-run ...
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The second season of Happy Days was where the series took on its most familiar form for the majority of fans. As with the series' short debut season (16 episodes that aired in the first half of 1974), Ron Howard's Richie Cunningham was still at the center of most of the plots, and was still a slightly naive if good-natured kid from a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the mid-1950s (one episode specifically puts the action in 1956, in the second Eisenhower-Stevenson race). But across the second season -- which had a full-run of 23 shows -- the writers did their best fine-tune the series and, based on audience reactions, moved the character of Arthur Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler), aka Fonzie, aka The Fonz, into the orbit of Richie's life on a regular basis. Richie's family, headed by Howard Cunningham (Tom Bosley) and his wife Marion (Marion Ross), were still near the center of most of the stories, but over the course of the season Henry Winker's Fonzie gradually became an ever-bigger part of the action in each episode. As ABC and production company Paramount Pictures had discovered, audiences liked Ron Howard's Richie, but they loved Winkler's Fonzie for the energy, disorder, and excitement, as well as the broader comedy that he brought to all of his scenes -- Winkler, in turn, began to broaden his approach to the character, maintaining some of the mystery that shrouded him in the prior season but balancing it with an outgoing persona. Thus, Season Two was where audiences began to warm to the character in all the right ways and the series as a whole. Fonzie was at the center of several shows, including "Guess Who's Coming To Christmas", which featured one of Winkler's most beguiling performances. Other shows dealt with such rites of teenage passage for Richie as buying a car, and moving out (temporarily) from his parents' home, but these didn't define the program as well or easily as the ones where Winkler was center-stage. The overall humor was un-strained if not too ambitious, but the players were all appealing and audiences seemed to respond well to the new direction of the series. (In the first episode of the next season, Fonzie would move into an extra room attached to the Cunningham home, and the new formula would be wholly in place).Most of the shows in this season seem surprisingly innocent in retrospect. Happy Days would occasionally tackle programs with serious subjects, such as racism, but generally it resided in the "safe" world of 1950s America, and the American situation comedy of that era. In a way -- although creator/producer Garry Marshall would probably dispute this -- Happy Days was almost a counter-active to Norman Lear's topical-based brand of sitcoms, which ruled the airwaves in those days on CBS, embodied by All In The Family, Maude, The Jeffersons etc. Those shows could raise a viewer's blood-pressure with their frequent conflicts over serious issues and political disputes, including the Vietnam War. With rare exceptions, episodes of Happy Days were usually more of an escape from those kinds of worries for 30 minutes at a stretch. Other changes came to the series, in tandem with the process of building up Winkler's role and character. The writers were also compelled to gradually reduce the presence of Richie's older brother Chuck (played by Gavin O'Herlihy and Randolph Roberts -- which shows how infrequent and unimportant a presence he was by Season Two) to near-nonexistence. By the third season, he had disappeared from the series, and tater in the run of the show, Tom Bosley's Howard Cunningham would specifically state that he had two children, meaning Richie and his younger sister Joanie, played by Erin Moran -- Chuck had, essentially, been "retroactively un-created." And the characters of Richie's two friends Potsie Weber (Anson Williams) and Ralph Malph (Donny Most) were built up, especially as foils for Fonzie, at which both actors excelled. With all of the actors in place and the scripts moving in...
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Add this copy of Happy Days: Season 2 to cart. $3.92, very good condition, Sold by Goodwill of Colorado rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, UNITED STATES, published 2007.
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Add this copy of Happy Days: Season 2 to cart. $4.51, good condition, Sold by Books From California rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Simi Valley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by Paramount.
Add this copy of Happy Days: Season 2 to cart. $4.74, good condition, Sold by Goodwill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillsboro, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2007.
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Good. May have very light or no surface scratches. Case and cover artwork are included but may show minimal signs of wear. If applicable: Digital copy or ultraviolet codes may be expired or not included. Slipcover may not be included.
Add this copy of Happy Days: Season 2 to cart. $9.86, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Movies rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2007.
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Add this copy of Happy Days: Season 2 to cart. $9.94, very good condition, Sold by Salzer's Records rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from ventura, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2007.
Add this copy of Happy Days: Season 2 to cart. $19.99, new condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2007.
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