Major blast from the past

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/videoclips/loveamericanstyle.mpg

why can't things be this campy anymore??

Whoah! Anson Williams, aka Potsie, was on Love American Style? I never knew until know that the TV show 'Hapy Days' had some roots in 'Love American Style.'

I can remember watching the show as a youth, but I was likely oblivious to much of the sexual innuendo at the time - I was 11 when the above clip was shown.

When my family watched the show, our television set was a black and white one. I remember us sitting there, watching the introduction fireworks in black and white, thinking .... oh, how wonderful it would be to have a color television, so we could see the fireworks in color. (We said the same thing during the Disnet intro.)

A few years later, when we did get the color television, we soon realized that much of television still sucked.

But if the show 'Love American Style' did come out on DVD, I might buy a copy, as it would be way interesting to see how the attitudes towards mainstream television sexuality compares to what is available today.

Vern

When my family watched the show, our television set was a black and white one. I remember us sitting there, watching the introduction fireworks in black and white, thinking .... oh, how wonderful it would be to have a color television, so we could see the fireworks in color. (We said the same thing during the Disnet intro.)

It's funny that you should mention that ikitnrev, I was just having this conversation with my girlfriend not that long ago. I'm almost 40, my family didn't have it's first color TV until around 1978. My girlfriend, who is just a few years over 30 could not for a moment fathom that concept. I had to explain to her that even though color TVs did exist it wasn't that uncommon to have a black and white set in the 70s. As a kid, I didn't know any better so it never bothered me, and yeah I was also watching 'The Wonderful World of Disney' every Sunday night (after 'Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom') in glorious BLACK & WHITE.

I remember that episode when it was originally shown. Yes, Happy Days was actually a spin-off of Love American Style. It was first shown as one full episode and was set in the 40s rather than in the 50s. I don't remember a whole lot else about it. As I recall, it was about a family in the 40s that had just gotten their first television set. I could be wrong, it was a really long time ago' like around 1971 maybe.

There's an episode of Love American Style that has a brief exterior shot of Sam's Seafood in Huntington Beach.

http://www.samsseafood.com

The episode was about a guy who became telepathic whenever he ate fish and he used this ability to help his friend get women.

So -- who can name all the TV shows that were "Happy Days" spin-offs?

Mork and Mindy
Joanie Loves Chachi
Laverne and Shirley

Any others?

On 2006-03-14 04:38, cynfulcynner wrote:

So -- who can name all the TV shows that were "Happy Days" spin-offs?

Mork and Mindy
Joanie Loves Chachi
Laverne and Shirley

Any others?

The Karate Kid 1 & 2

How about the characters that disapeared? Richie's older brother Charles "Chuck" Cunningham, Fonzie's cousin Spike and Leather Tuscadero, (Pinky's little sister, played by Suzi Quatro).

How bout them? But what I really want to know is how many people here still had black and white televisions as the main TV in their house in the mid 70s. Am I the only one here that was deprived of that luxury back then?

My family had only black-and-white sets until at least 1976. If there was a show we especially wanted to see in color, like "The Man From UNCLE," we'd go visit friends who had a color TV that night. Although I didn't mind black-and-white, there were a few minor drawbacks: (1) in later years when I had to describe a film to somebody, I was unable to tell them if it was in black-and-white or color; (2) I was delayed in getting a feel for which decades of film had color vs. which decades had black-and-white, (3) some things were misleading, such as the one swimsuit scene I thought was a nude scene because the swimsuit was the same gray shade as the body. Oh well.

In a similar vein, I never owned an air-conditioned car until 1987.

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-03-14 10:11 ]

Another Happy Days Spinoff.
Blansky's Beauties
Well, there's some debate weather it's a true spinoff or not

http://www.jumptheshark.com/b/blanskysbeauties.htm

hehe, good old black and white...my step-father thought color was 'cheesy and cheap' looking, so he didn't get us a color TV until the old B&W one died and there weren't anymore available, so he HAD to get color. I was already moved out of the house, so it had to have been after 1973 sometime. I was poor and didn't even own a TV of my own until 1982, and yeah, it was a big ol' color set...25" swivel floor model - tres chic for the time...lol.

amiotiki

We had a B&W TV that I remember, so it was probably into the 70's. I remember watching Batman and they had the 'now in color' star burst and I didn't understand why it wasn't in color for me?? I also remember FINALLY getting a color tv, and being pretty surprised that the Munsters and Addams Family were still in B&W. I was a little slow on the science curve :wink:

I don't think I owned my own color tv until I was in my late 20's. I took a crappy little B&W to college and only got 2 channels and finally bought one from a friend who was moving back to Philly in about 1998. My nephews have 2 giant tvs in their 'playroom' to play video games on and they think they're archaic because they weigh about 200 lbs. They bug my sister to get them flat screens... (I cut this post off cause my boss walked up, I had to finish that sentence in this edit :wink: )

Also - I totally remembered the Love American Style theme song and sang right along, and the intro, with the fireworks, but can't for the life of me remember anything about the show. I'm sure I watched it, the theme and intro are embedded in my brain.

"You're the mayor of shark city, people think you want the beaches open."

[ Edited by: mrs. pineapple 2006-03-14 15:23 ]

For whatever reason, I don't know why, I guess the booze hasn't totally wiped out my long term memory, but I can remember alot about that very late 60s early 70s era and I do remember seeing 'Love American Style'. I actually saw an episode recently at the Museum of Television and Radio and even though I remember that it was usually three 'vignettes' that made up the show, I forgot that they ususally had a one minute skit when they came back to the show after a commercial. An example would be a hot girl finding a place to sit in a park. As she takes her jacket off to sit down, a guy comes up and supposedly playing the 'gentleman' helps her off with her coat...and then takes off with it leaving the hot girl standing there astonished, of course followed up by an outburst of uproarious canned laughter.

If you were a really young kid, like all of four or five years old back then, it was in my opinion a pretty interesting time to be getting your bearings about the world, especially if you had the TV and the radio around all the time like I did. There was so much tripped-out colorful stuff around that your little had to process like 'Laugh-In', that crazy NBC Peacock animation they would run to announce that the program was 'in living color', and all of those trippy commercials. I didn't know what to make of it, but it was pretty cool. Wouldn't trade that for anything now.

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2006-03-14 14:35 ]

When I was a kid if anything new and improved was on sale my parents grabbed it immediately. We were the first on the block with a microwave oven and a Panasonic VCR that weight about 20 pounds at the time (I still have a recording of the late show of Easy Rider I taped in the late 70s around here on it) and one of those 2 ton combination TV, record player, cassette player units. But even with all this splender our house was located in the neutral zone and one of the only areas in the state with out cable access, so one day a friend of mine invited me over to watch the movie Rocky on his set on HBO and I was taken back watching the film on a black and white set about the size of a 12 inch computer monitor. That movie always reminded me of a 40s film so I hardly noticed. Later during the broke college student period he became one of my roommates and that damn black and white set moved in with him, I think it finally gave out from being pounded on the side of it too many times.

we were Black and white TV family into the 70's. Folks said there was no need to purchase a new set when this one worked just fine. Also no cable back then. I watched color TV at the neighbors house.
Those giant satellite dishes were just coming out when I met my husband, and I can remember his dad buying one for the back yard. It was crazy! This thing WAS the backyard! I was massive. The controller box was big and bulky too, but for awhile it was cool to be able to watch all those shows. It was to be short lived though, as dishes got smaller really fast, and having to purchase what you watched came to be.
Was love American stle on at prime time when it was first out? If so, my folks must of been watching some cop show or animal program, casue I never saw that or Courtships of Eddies father until it was on during the after noons if I happened to be home sick from school.

Yeah 'Love American Style' was definitely a prime time show. Don't remember what time or what day. The only thing I can remember as far as day and time from back then was that 'The Brady Bunch' and 'The Partridge Family' were on back to back on Friday nights starting at 8. Don't remember which came on first, but how's that for a prime-time line up?

Love American Style also featured a trademark brass bed and when you see a few episodes you can never look at a brass bed anymore without thinking of that show

On 2006-03-15 11:08, donhonyc wrote:
Yeah 'Love American Style' was definitely a prime time show. Don't remember what time or what day. The only thing I can remember as far as day and time from back then was that 'The Brady Bunch' and 'The Partridge Family' were on back to back on Friday nights starting at 8. Don't remember which came on first, but how's that for a prime-time line up?

ohhhhh yeah. That was big night for me, I was 6 or 7 and was allowed to stay up until 9 o'clock to watch! My love for the Brady's has been duly noted in Brady Hawaii thread. That reminds me, I'm getting that onto my netflix queue.

I think I remember seeing LAS during daytime reruns during college. Which may explain why I can't remember any details, I may have done some bong hits back then. I don't remember.

Chuck, the older brother? Huh?

I remember being so excited to see I Love Lucy on the new COLOR set. What color is that lovely gown? Now I'll know! Imagine my dissapointmnet.

Didn't the expression in THE Industry..."Jump The Shark" originate from Happy Days? Meaning when a show gets desperate and goes with some crazy story line. Like when the Fonz jumped a shark on his bike.

You really do learn something new every day. Even if it doesn't matter... I always thought Happy Days was a spin off of American Graffiti, but it was the other way around! Huh.

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I found a neat site for retro-modern looking TVs called Predicta. Seems funny that so many of us are in that flat-screen, big TV mode and with some of the new technology making our old sets obsolete...this company is a refreshing find.

I have an email into them to see if I can get a brochure with some technical specs and pricing. Wouldn't it be neat to watch Hawaii Five-O on one of those tubes. :)

EDIT...I found this post, so have emailed Mr Predicta to see if he will stop back by TC and post updates about his products.

FATIMA BLUSH: Oh, how reckless of me. I made you all wet.
JAMES BOND: Yes, but my martini is still dry.

[ Edited by: VampiressRN 2007-09-23 20:14 ]

The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC

I was fortunate to have experienced the transition from all B&W TV broadcasts to all color TV broadcasts. My family got a color TV fairly early on. I think we got it in 1958. Definitely had it by 1959. Very interesting times.

During the B&W days, first off, TV didn't last around the clock. I forget what time the last show was on, but at some point late at night when the networks didn't have any more stuff to put on, they'd play the Star Spangled Banner and immediately after that you'd either get snow (signal cut off) or a test pattern (camera pointed at a calibration design). It would stay that way until the next moring when regular broadcasting would pick up again. This effect continued well into the color days.

I can't recall when round the clock broadcasting started being in effect. Definitely a network competition. Wheatever one network would do, the others would have to match it. I do recall in the 70's (maybe 80's) though when at some point around 2 am there'd be an inspirational word with a scene of waves breaking on the shore, then (for a long time) there was a military inspirational poem (High Flight) with scenes of an Air Force jet climbing into the upper atmposhpere, that was followed by the National Anthem, and then you got the color test pattern (by then all networks were all-color).

I remember watching Disney's Mickey Mouse Club (got to meet Annette—woo hoo!) and later the Wonderful World of Disney in B&W. Then Disney's "Wonderful World" went color, becoming Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. When the Flintstones first came on, they were in B&W. I got to see it change to color. Same with a lots of shows, like the Ed Sullivan Show. When the Beatles first came on the scene it was in B&W. The following year (I think), Ed Sullivan was in color. The Beverly Hillbillies started out in B&W and a couple of years later changed to color. Same with Gilligan's Island, but it went color by its second season (I think).

TV offerings were mixture of B&W and color for a long time. But, the more shows that went color on one network meant that the other networks would follow suit. More and more color sets were being bought. News coverage took a longer time than you might expect to go color. While there were lots and lots of color shows popping up (Bonanza started in color), news braodcasts were in B&W. Kennedy's funeral procession was in B&W.

I just looked this up. On November 7, 1966 NBC became the first 100% color network.

That's weird how the pilot that would become Happy Days first instead became an episode on Love, American Style, and then later became the Happy Days series. I know George Lucas cast Ron Howard in American Graffiti based on his work as Richie in the pilot, but I'm not sure that American Graffiti was exactly spun off the Happy Days pilot. Anybody know?

Well Donho, you hopefully remember where I stand on the Fonz....

Eyyyyyyyyyy!!!

I am a nut when it comes to 70's sitcoms, and I have most of them in boxed set DVDs I am such an addict!!

I got Love Boat, and Fastasy Island, and Three's company, Taxi, Cheers, Bob Newhart, Happy days 1 and 2, and season 3 is finally coming out next month. This is the season (I believe) where Fonzi does the motorcyle stunt with the trash cans, has problems with liver and I believe he may actually jump the shark at the end (or that might be season 4)

I got much more, and I never get tired of them, no matter how cheesy. I hate to admit this, but the theme from love boat affected me musically in a deep and spiritual way!

On 2007-09-24 13:41, The Gnomon wrote:
The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC

I was fortunate to have experienced the transition from all B&W TV broadcasts to all color TV broadcasts. My family got a color TV fairly early on. I think we got it in 1958. Definitely had it by 1959. Very interesting times.

During the B&W days, first off, TV didn't last around the clock. I forget what time the last show was on, but at some point late at night when the networks didn't have any more stuff to put on, they'd play the Star Spangled Banner and immediately after that you'd either get snow (signal cut off) or a test pattern (camera pointed at a calibration design). It would stay that way until the next moring when regular broadcasting would pick up again. This effect continued well into the color days.

I can't recall when round the clock broadcasting started being in effect. Definitely a network competition. Wheatever one network would do, the others would have to match it. I do recall in the 70's (maybe 80's) though when at some point around 2 am there'd be an inspirational word with a scene of waves breaking on the shore, then (for a long time) there was a military inspirational poem (High Flight) with scenes of an Air Force jet climbing into the upper atmposhpere, that was followed by the National Anthem, and then you got the color test pattern (by then all networks were all-color).

I remember watching Disney's Mickey Mouse Club (got to meet Annette—woo hoo!) and later the Wonderful World of Disney in B&W. Then Disney's "Wonderful World" went color, becoming Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. When the Flintstones first came on, they were in B&W. I got to see it change to color. Same with a lots of shows, like the Ed Sullivan Show. When the Beatles first came on the scene it was in B&W. The following year (I think), Ed Sullivan was in color. The Beverly Hillbillies started out in B&W and a couple of years later changed to color. Same with Gilligan's Island, but it went color by its second season (I think).

TV offerings were mixture of B&W and color for a long time. But, the more shows that went color on one network meant that the other networks would follow suit. More and more color sets were being bought. News coverage took a longer time than you might expect to go color. While there were lots and lots of color shows popping up (Bonanza started in color), news braodcasts were in B&W. Kennedy's funeral procession was in B&W.

I just looked this up. On November 7, 1966 NBC became the first 100% color network.

That's weird how the pilot that would become Happy Days first instead became an episode on Love, American Style, and then later became the Happy Days series. I know George Lucas cast Ron Howard in American Graffiti based on his work as Richie in the pilot, but I'm not sure that American Graffiti was exactly spun off the Happy Days pilot. Anybody know?

No, American Graffiti had nothing to do with Happy Days. American Graffiti was about George Lucas memories of growing up in the 50's car culture of modesto.

"Lords of Flatbush" (a pre-Fonz Henry Winkler) came out before Happy days.

On 2007-09-24 17:33, lucas vigor wrote:
No, American Graffiti had nothing to do with Happy Days. American Graffiti was about George Lucas memories of growing up in the 50's car culture of modesto.

"Lords of Flatbush" (a pre-Fonz Henry Winkler) came out before Happy days.

Yeah, I think the Ron Howard connection and the 50's theme make some people think that one was a spin off of the other, but the storylines are too different.

I remember the "Lords of Flatbush." For some reason it didn't do anything for me at the time, but the character definitely worked as the Fonz on HD.

Actually, now that I think of it, there is a major 70's sitcom connection in AG.

Ron Howard-HD
Cindy Williams-Lavern and Shirley
Susan Sommers-Three's company