I never liked Happy Days. In fact, I really despised it. With its plastic depiction of the 1950s, its leaden and predictable plots, its galling laugh track, and its loads of irritating characters — from the wooden Richie and his bratty kid sister to the consistently unfunny Potzie and Ralph Mouth to the ludicrously chipper “Mrs. C” — Happy Days was like the Generic Sitcom Producers Union’s effort to produce an anti-All in the Family. For me, at least, the Fonz didn’t change that.
Nevertheless, there was a time during the mid-’70s when you could not talk with a fellow student at Upper Arlington High School without someone sticking up their thumbs and saying “Ayyyyyyy!” During my lifetime, that catch phrase may have been the one that was most likely to be repeated during normal conversation. Needless to say, it got to be painfully annoying.
