begin by saying what Happy Days, the well-known sitcom aired in the United States since 1974 and in Italy since 1977, is not. Or rather what is not. It is easy to understand the title: America is not "bad," America at war and in war, but even that is not worried by political turmoil and some handfuls of young 'Gascon or a little' burnt '. Happy Days sitcom is probably the best known of the history of U.S. programs exported to Italy, and was born as the story of a family of Milwaukee - the Cunninghams - set in the years between the fifties and sixties, happy years (and idealized), wedged between the U.S. efforts: McCarthyism, the Korean War - ended summer of 1953 - and that much of the ponderosa Vietnam.
In particular, Happy Days, is not American Graffiti, George Lucas's film of 1973 between the first evidence of the revival Use the fifties and sixties, film to which the series is often compared, and an America that draws '62, very little "happy" .
That Lucas is an America that is going to look out over the years of lost illusions, well represented by four friends (Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Charles Martin Smith and Paul LeMat) who wander aimlessly in a night like many others, unable to imagine and adults to take a step toward the antechamber of the "dream". American Graffiti is the "prologue" of an America that approaches the brink of a psychological and information environment, the challenge in a nutshell (and thereby almost indefinable) of the thugs and their race car. One goal, one purpose, only entertainment: women, songs of DJ "Lone Wolf" and the violence of a small big city mysterious and elusive.
Happy Days version is rather tame and familiar America before Vietnam. The face of "noble" of a medal in sterling. America is a bit 'of miraculous conformist fifties, the explosion of the middle classes but also del baby boom . Happy Days celebra la famiglia com’era, come non è e come (forse) mai sarà. Papà (Howard), mamma (Marion), due figli maschi (Charles e il più noto Richard) e una femmina (Joanie). Lui possiede un negozio di ferramenta, lei è casalinga, i ragazzi sono poco più che adolescenti .
I problemi dei Cunningham sono i problemi legati al tempo libero ( non grandi problemi) e soprattutto al futuro dei figli. La società del benessere, se è una vera società welfare, therefore allows to plan the future in the best way ...
To understand what it was America in the fifties and as the environment and everyday life influence each other, we report a step History of the United States of America Massimo Teodori (Newton 1996): "Even more important for the 'American Way of Life were domestic movements to metropolitan areas. Endless stretches of single-family homes surrounded by small gardens became the favorite house of the Americans who left the centers cities to live in what is called suburbs, with no civic centers and social facilities, dominated by private existences contained in the center. Automobiles, appliances and monoabitazioni represented, at the same time, the aspiration of the average landed at the social welfare and the limits of his life ... It was in this context, dominant in much of a sense of urban conformity pervaded the entire society ... ".
The Cunningham are surrounded by friends. Within the show the Generations are left behind ( Happy Days is not the Rebel Without a Cause James Dean!). Parents and children (though fans will remember that the eldest son of Cunningham, Charles, appear only rarely and then disappear completely ...), are divided roughly the same friends, or better: the relationships between adults and children are the utmost respect: the parents accepted the company of children and the children did not dare delegitimize the role of parents. Happy family in short, fully justifying the title of the series .
Ralph Malph e “Potsie” Webber, i due amici di Richard Cunningham/Ron Howard (in seguito, come sanno i cinefili, diventato uno dei registi più importanti di Hollywood), sono due tipi un po’ grulli, e sono tutt’altro che teppisti da “notte brava”... Anche Ralph e “Potsie” dunque offrono leggerezza alla sit-com: battute, risate, risatine e condotte un po’ maldestre, narrano di una certa spensierata “felicità”, soprattutto adolescenziale. Lo si diceva negli anni Settanta: una “felicità” che può essere di questa terra e soprattutto di un’America ricca, pacifica e moderna …
Everything so Happy Days? Not really. Cunningham is one of the family show a light, enjoyable, maybe at times "fairy" - the most classic of American dreams - but not a show bland or, worse, insincere. Gradually, within the 11 television seasons - 255 episodes in all - in fact the body will take the shape of a new idol for those who have never stopped loving the "disorder" (even if a disorder is a bit 'soft ). This is the mechanic of Italian origin known as Arthur Fonzarelli Fonzie .
Today, especially in Italy, after more than thirty years no one has forgotten him and who played him, that the New Yorker Henry Winkler. Or because Happy Days has been repeated for an infinite number of times - even now is planning for Mediaset - either because of that Fonzie is an unforgettable figure, indeed the limit. It is rebellious, but also reassuring, it is nice and communication (his catch and his "tics" were famous), and is rational, judicious and "neutral" quanto basta .
Motorizzato-latin-lover carismatico nella sua “uniforme” anni Cinquanta formata da Jeans, stivaletti, maglietta e inseparabile giubbotto (il più delle volte di pelle nera), Fonzie, a suo modo, è anche molto elegante… è il tocco da maestro per l’America dei Settanta, è il cattivo non-cattivo, è la “quadratura del cerchio” all’interno di un magmatico ambiente giovanile. È il “ribellino” che tutti vorrebbero in famiglia. Fonzie è un antiborghese, che sceglie in assoluta libertà la quasi-irreggimentazione family. The witness "living" in open rebellion and that the family can be a normal (happy) third way.
At first glance, is the classic bully fifties, like the young mechanic among the stars of American Graffiti (what will the race car) . But Fonzie is more of a bully and a night owl too. He has no family and "adopt" its (the family, of course, is that of Cunningham) is a romantic rebel who loves freedom, is brave and accept challenges but that is not violent, not a provocateur, not a time waster. Appreciates honesty, is very respected and respects those who respect him. Arthur finally has an unassailable moral (read between the lines): all you need to earn it is, indeed deserve, above all must know how to keep ... In short, Arthur is basically a good, a kind of James Dean (which is his idol), which went to his death and chooses life for themselves and for others. A guy who has noticed that the rebels-without-cause they have a lot to lose. A good family (acquired), for example, with mum, dad and brothers who give respect, affection and understanding .
Fonzie is a nice-and-damn that rather than opt for the hell chose the more "bourgeois" purgatory. Not really a fool would say there ...
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