When TV was having its "happy days"

There was a time when television was still almost entirely in black and white and there were only two national channels in Italy. It was the time when programs covered a few hours a day and the whole family used to dine in front of the eight o'clock evening news. The Internet was still called the Arpanet and was used as a data dissemination system by the US military. And no one had ever heard of streaming, video platforms and so on.

It seems we are talking about centuries ago, yet it is the seventies of the twentieth century. Difficult years throughout the Western world. The United States had emerged shattered from its defeat in the Vietnam War, the oil-producing Arab countries had suddenly raised prices, unleashing the first major energy and economic crisis since the end of the Second World War. Italy had to deal with the years of lead and terrorism, as well as galloping inflation.

In this somewhat gloomy scenario Happy Days managed for half an hour a day to make viewers from all over the world forget their daily problems, including Italy. Starting from 8 December 1977, it became a fixed appointment to stop at 19.20 in front of the TV, tune into what at the time was called Prima rete Rai (today's Rai 1) and watch the entertaining events of the Cunningham family and their court of friends. In a short time the show - today we would say a television series - became a real mass phenomenon. It made you dream with its 1950s provincial America settings, its colours, its cars, the music of Elvis Presley and rock and roll. It expressed a vitality that the Western world seemed to have lost after the end of the economic miracle following the Second World War.

This vitality - which we badly need in years like ours in which sadness is not lacking - is admirably evoked in the volume "Our history" (Minerva Edizioni, pp. 448), entirely dedicated to the world of Happy Days. A book which for the authors, Giuseppe Ganelli and Emilio Targia was born, as well as from the visceral love for this cult TV show, from a simple observation as they write in the introduction: «It seemed incredible to us that there was not, throughout the planet, a reference volume encompassing Happy's history and stories. And so our long journey began, between the present and the past, in the footsteps of Fonzie, Richie & Co».

A journey that turns into a continuous discovery because the story of this famous sitcom, which aired in the United States from January 15, 1974 to September 24, 1984 for 255 episodes, is a great novel played by great characters. Creator of the show was Garry Marshall who later became the director of films such as Pretty Woman. In one of the main roles, that of the "red" Richie Cunningham, we find a young Ron Howard, still far from the Oscar as director of A Beautiful Mind and from box office successes with Rush and Apollo 13. Again: the series represented the debut on the screens of the brilliant Robin Williams and saw a beardless Tom Hanks in one of his first roles.

Above all, the volume makes us understand why this series, which staged an idealized vision of American life at the turn of the 50s and 60s, fueled a sort of fever that quickly infected the entire planet. In the United States, thousands of people lined up for hours outside the studios where the show was being filmed (live!), to watch the filming of Happy Days live. The initial theme song became a sort of "siren song", which attracted millions of people of all nationalities in front of the television screens. And some gestures, some exclamations of the protagonists quickly crept into everyone's life, above all thanks to the character of Fonzie (played by Henry Winkler), the tough guy in a leather jacket, motorbike and heart of gold who became so popular that he still gives today the name of a famous brand of potato chips!

But that's not all: the book is a veritable mine of information, which helps us understand how the great television entertainment machine worked in America half a century ago. The volume, in fact, tells the story of the series since its inception, deepening its journey through the years. We then rediscover the stages of writing and recording the episodes, the choices of production, the approval of the public, the needs of the television networks over the years.

Page after page we get to know the actors, the authors, the production, the sets, the behind the scenes, the audience, the curiosities, the numbers, the awards, the dubbing, the famous phrases, the music, the engines and the exclusive interviews with protagonists of the series.

All enriched by a photographic album that marks the various moments of the actors on the set and with the spotlights off, with the precious images of the scripts, records and many memorabilia taken from the largest collection in the world dedicated to Happy Days, that of Giuseppe Ganelli, one of the two authors of the book. Our journey into the world of Richie and Fonzie ended with a chapter in which personalities from the world of culture, music and entertainment – from Enzo Iacchetti to Max Pezzali, passing through Simona Ventura and Fabio Fazio – talk about their relationship with Happy Days.

A relationship in which nostalgia is always accompanied by the memory of how fun and full of life and ideas those television "happy days" were. If you don't believe it, go and discover some clips on YouTube.