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Did anyone watch Love American Style? I love it. A bit of trivia: Happy Days was a spin-off of L.A.S. It was called "Love and the Happy Days." Mr. Cunningham was different but otherwise, it pretty much had the same cast.
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I remember watching L.A.S in the late 60's and I even understood most of the funny stuff. Wow, never heard of the spinoff. I thought Happy Days was derived from that hilarious (IMHO) 70's film, "American Grafitti".

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I remember watching L.A.S in the late 60's and I even understood most of the funny stuff. Wow, never heard of the spinoff. I thought Happy Days was derived from that hilarious (IMHO) 70's film, "American Grafitti".
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That is a common misconception because Ron Howard and Cindy Williams (from Laverne and Shirley) were in the film. But, that was the beginning of the 70s, and people wanted to bring back the 50s, (just like in this decade-whatever we call it-people want to bring back the 80s).


Cat

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I thought Happy Days was derived from that hilarious (IMHO) 70's film, "American Grafitti".
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That is a common misconception because Ron Howard and Cindy Williams (from Laverne and Shirley) were in the film.

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Technically, Happy Days was not a spin-off, but a hybrid of a series that never existed and ABC's ideas for cashing in on American Graffiti's success.   The series would have existed, exactly as it did, even if that episode of Love American Style had never aired.

In 1972, after Gary Marshall's fully produced 1971 pilot for "New Family in Town" had been rejected for series treatment, it was, indeed, aired as a L.A.S episode.  

By coincidence, that same year, American Graffiti was a huge hit and ABC was hot to cash in on it.  It's easier and faster to adapt an existing pilot than start from scratch and they remembered Marshall's pilot for "New Family in Town," which was already set in the right era (etc.) and shared a star (Ron Howard) with the movie.   So, ABC contacted Gary Marshall, requested some changes to his original pilot and the resulting hybrid was "Happy Days."  

Later, scenes from the New Family pilot cum L.A.S episode were used as flashbacks on an episode of "Happy Days."  

Quoting:




Technically, Happy Days was not a spin-off, but a hybrid of a series that never existed and ABC's ideas for cashing in on American Graffiti's success.   The series would have existed, exactly as it did, even if that episode of Love American Style had never aired.

In 1972, after Gary Marshall's fully produced 1971 pilot for "New Family in Town" had been rejected for series treatment, it was, indeed, aired as a L.A.S episode.  

By coincidence, that same year, American Graffiti was a huge hit and ABC was hot to cash in on it.  It's easier and faster to adapt an existing pilot than start from scratch and they remembered Marshall's pilot for "New Family in Town," which was already set in the right era (etc.) and shared a star (Ron Howard) with the movie.   So, ABC contacted Gary Marshall, requested some changes to his original pilot and the resulting hybrid was "Happy Days."  

Later, scenes from the New Family pilot cum L.A.S episode were used as flashbacks on an episode of "Happy Days."  

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Thanks for the info. I didn't know all of that.


Cat