Was this Happy Days episode secretly an Elvis tribute?

It aired a few months after we lost the King.

Elvis Presley’s legacy is larger than life, but one of the biggest impacts he made in terms of the entertainment industry was by showing how powerfully lucrative the "youth market" was by selling endless concerts, movies, magazines and merchandise.

After the King of rock 'n' roll passed away in August 1977, it would take years before TV Guide attempted to wrap their heads around how TV responded to this major loss in pop culture.

With a cover story in 1981, TV Guide took a long look at how news programs covered Elvis’ death, but that feature overlooked how fictional TV shows handled the news at that time.

Take, for example, Happy Days, which aired the two-part episode "Fonzie, Rock Entrepreneur" just a few months after Elvis died.

Although it’s never been directly stated, this pair of episodes, looking back, could be viewed as one of the earliest Elvis tributes to air.

In part one, Richie tries to help Leather Tuscadero and her girl group get booked at Arnold’s Diner.

In that episode, Leather’s band plays two Elvis Presley songs, "Heartbreak Hotel" and "All Shook Up."

It’s likely that any fans watching were viewed as being in the same youth market that the King dominated, and Happy Days gave them a chance to mourn his loss by bopping to his hits played by Suzi Quatro.

Quatro famously became a rocker because of her love of Elvis, but she wasn’t the only huge Elvis fan in the room.

Happy Days creator Garry Marshall grew up with his actor sister Penny, who was a card-carrying member of the Elvis Presley Fan Club.

Surely, Elvis hits were blasted in their family home, and later when Garry was in the Army, his very first band cast an Elvis impersonator as their lead singer.

Marshall was always ready to tap into the zeitgeist, and being in that band with an Elvis impersonator became a pivotal moment for Marshall.

He writes in his memoir My Happy Days in Hollywood that it was in that band that he realized he wanted to be an entertainer.

It’s unclear whether Elvis Presley’s death in 1977 directly led Marshall to co-write the episodes for "Fonzie, Rock Entrepreneur," but the fact that it aired a few months later made the Happy Days scenes part of the TV reaction, either way.

It doesn’t matter if you see it as an extension of his legacy, or a tribute to it.

On top of Marshall’s fandom and obvious nods to Elvis in Fonzie’s cool-guy aesthetic, the whole time Henry Winkler played Fonzie, he endured comparisons to Elvis Presley for becoming the next pop sensation to dominate the "youth market."

Seemingly, a torch was passed between them.

In 1977, Elvis Presley’s publicist Earl Wingard told the Daily Press that in Elvis’ early days, magazines "couldn’t come out with an issue without Elvis, just as today, they couldn’t have an issue without the Fonz."

But Wingard said the important difference between Fonzie – arguably the most famous TV character created by Marshall – and Elvis was that Fonzie was a fictional character whom Henry Winkler might one day be able to leave behind.

"I think it’s interesting that Fonzie, with his duck-tailed hair, leather jacket and boots, set in the ‘50s, is the type of character identified with Elvis," Wingard said. "Henry Winkler has encountered almost the same problems as Elvis had with fan recognition, but it won’t continue. At the close of Happy Days, it will fade. But Elvis was Elvis. He could only be Elvis, and there was no way he could step out of that cocoon."

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59 Comments

bagandwallyfan52 22 months ago
It only takes 5 seconds to scroll
Past 10 video clips or less than
10!video clips .
Denny is not forced to watch those
Video Clips and since it only takes
Five Seconds to Scroll past 8 or
10 video clips then Denny has
Nothing To Complain About.
However his foul gutter language is
Terrible and asking are you mental
Is also wrong.
If Denny wants to complain about
A couple of Video Clips then he
Needs to Delete the terrible letter
That he typed with the foul language and asking insulting questions are you mental and then Denny can
Type the same letter again and
Leave out the Foul Language and
Insulting questions.
That 3 letter word that starts with
The letter A is terrible foul language
And nobody on the METV Comment LINE needs to insult other persons by saying are you mental?
Van Baskin insulted several persons
Including.me recently on the
METV Comment LINE.
Al Bundy made fun of the way I
Type and WISEGUY likes to
Make fun of persons and insult persons also. And when that person who said Your comments have nothing to do with this story was
Wrong because METV Viewers
Can say which TV shows that they
Would like to see on METV no matter what the story is about.
A person is lazy if they can't take
5 seconds and scroll past Video
Clips that they don't want to
Watch.Some persons on the METV
Comment LINE like to watch a
Couple of videos on the comment Line and if you don't like the
Video Clips Just Scroll Past The
Video Clips in 5 SHORT Seconds.
Correction
Vaughn Baskin
eddiecantorfan 23 months ago
https://youtu.be/YL4d5kdtUMw
eddiecantorfan 23 months ago
This comment has been removed.
Mark091 denny 23 months ago
I see that your foul language
Comments were flagged with
the yellow flag which is exactly
what you deserve.
You are not suppose to insult
METV Viewers on the comment
line and use foul language and
You are not supposed to call
people mental.
A person whose user name
started with Tex had several
Videos on the comment Line
like Wolfman Jack and Wolfman Mac and several other
Videos and you didn't criticize
that person ..You are not supposed to tell people not to
Post videos and you are not
Supposed to tell people that they can't make several comments under these
articles .Persons can make as
many comments as they want to under these articles.
One Username said that we don't need mean spirited comments on the MeTV Comment LINE .
Using that three letter A word
Is very inappropriate.
How would you like it if
Someone called.you mental?
I'm glad that your awful and
nasty comments got flagged.
Since you like to insult people
you should watch Al Bundy insult people on Married With Children. Remember the old
expression :Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones but words will never hurt me .
Mark091 denny 23 months ago
I hope that METV will DELETE
Your mean and hateful comments .
We don't need you or anyone else making fun of people
And using foul language also
Called gutter language.
bagandwallyfan52 denny 22 months ago
If you want to Complain about
Too Many Video Clips That's Fine You Can Complain about The Video Clips if you want to
BUT you need to Leave OUT
The FILTHY GUTTER Language
With that 3 Letter cuss word
that starts with the Letter A
And you need to LEAVE OUT
That INSULT when you said
Are You Mental?
So please Retype your comments and leave out that
Filthy Three Letter Word that starts with the Letter A and
Leave out the insult are you
Mental and please delete your
Old comments and type your
Comments again leaving out the bad language and leaving out the insult are you mental?
Also did you know that it only
Takes 5 Seconds To Scroll
Past Those Video Clips that I
Uploaded?I timed it 5 seconds
Only to scroll through those 8
Video Clips.
Some persons like those Video
Clips and Some Persons Are
Not Happy Unless They Have
Something To Complain About.
bagandwallyfan52 denny 22 months ago
Some persons are chronic complainers and some persons
Actually enjoyed those 8
Video Clips!!
denny 10 months ago
This comment has been removed.
Deleted 23 months ago
This comment has been removed.
eddiecantorfan 23 months ago
The Happy Days article said that Spike (Danny Butch) made
Fleeting appearances before the introduction of Chachi Arcola Scott Baio and the
Kinship between Spike and
Chachi was not explained.
So Wikipedia is saying that
Spike and Chachi are the same
Person in one place and in another place they say that
Spike and Chachi are two different persons.
So Wikipedia is not always
accurate at all times.
eddiecantorfan 23 months ago
Person's who watch PLUTO TV can
Watch UNEDITED EPISODES of
HAPPY Days on channel 505.
All 11 seasons of Happy Days are seen on Pluto TV .
Other old TV shows.like The
Jeffersons Sanford And Son and
Perry Mason can be seen on
Pluto TV. I can't find The Lone Ranger or The Smothers Brothers
Show which was a sitcom where
Tom Smothers played an Angel
And Dick Smothers worked for
Mr Costello (Roland Winters).
I wish that METV would show
UNEDITED EPISODES of Happy
Days Gilligan's Island GOMER Pyle USMC and Green Acres.
I wish that I could find the
western Black Saddle where
Russell Johnson played Marshall Gib Scott before he
Played Professor Roy Hinkley
On Gilligan's Island.
I wonder if any companies
Make DVRS that will record
Local Channels like VCR s
Used to do.
eddiecantorfan 23 months ago
Have any companies ever made a
VCP(Video Cassette Player) which
Would be similar to VCRs but. VCP
Would Play Videocassettes but there
Would be NO RECORD BUTTON.
With a Video Cassette Player you
Could play tapes but you couldn't
record with blank Videocassettes.
Also on VCRs that TRANSFER
Video Tapes To DVDS:
Can you transfer an 8 hour tape to
8 hours on a DVD?
Is there any way to receive
TV Land and Superstation TBS
And other channels without
Subscribing to Cable TV or
Satellite TV(DIRECT TV and DISH)?Does any companies
Make DVRs that will record
Local Channels on a TV antenna like VCRs did?
Are there DVD Recorders that
If you buy blank DVD will record live TV(Local Channels).
eddiecantorfan 23 months ago
There is an iny article on my cellphone called "Roger Phillips On
Happy Days Should Have Been A
Returned Chuck Cunningham and
It's written by BRIAN CRONIN in a
New Feati called "Something Better"
For POP CULTURE REFERENCES.
Is there a way that I can make a
Copy of that Article?
The Debate of whether Chuck
Cunningham was RETCONNED
Or not will last forever.
I say that Chuck Cunningham
WAS NOT RETCONNED while
Other persons say that Chuck Cunningham was RETCONNED.
In the Video with Happy Days
Creater GARRY MARSHALL he
Says "We are going to have
Chuck Cunningham Just Disappear and we are NOT going to say what happened to Chuck Cunningham and we will see how much mail we get .
We didn't get much mail".
Not one single place in the article did Garry Marshall say that Chuck Cunningham was
RETCONNED because Garry Marshall said that he was going
to have Chuck Cunningham JUST DISAPEAR and NOT say what happened to Chuck.
So a character just DISAPEAR
From a TV show with no explanation does NOT mean
And will NEVER mean that
Chuck was RETCONNED because CHUCK CUNNINGHAM
WAS NOT RETCONNED Chuck Cunningham DISAPERED from
Happy Days with no explanation and Chuck vanished into thin air.
When the character Angela Brown (Ann Marshall) Mrs Brown Disappeared from My Favorite Martian after only 3 episodes NOBODY has ever said that Angela Brown was
RETCONNED because Angela
Brown was NOT RETCONNED
Angela Brown Disappeared from My Favorite Martian with
NO Explanation.
When KC Cunningham (Crystal
Bernard) and Flip Phillips (Billy
Warlock) Disappeared from Happy Days at the end of season 10 of Happy Days nobody ever said that KC Cunningham and Flip Phillips
were RETCONNED because KC Cunningham and Flip Phillips were NOT RETCONNED .
It is entirely possible that the
Writers of this Last Episode of
Happy Days did not know that
Chuck Cunningham was even on Happy Days and that could
Be the explanation on why
Howard Cunningham said that"BOTH" of my children are
married now and Marion and I
have had the joy of raising "2"
Wonderful kids instead of saying that we have had the joy
Of raising 3 wonderful kids.
There is an OUT Take from the
Last Episode where Howard Cunningham said Hey wait !
Where's CHUCK!!!!!
When Eugene Belvin Denis Mandel and Melvin Belvin Scott Bernstein and Moose Barry Greenberg Disappeared from Happy Days with no explanation and when Bag Zombroski Neil J Schwartz
Disappeared from Happy Days with no explanation nobody said that those Happy Days characters were RETCONNED.
When Warren(Jack Burns) and
Emma Brand(Cheerio Meredith)
Disappeared from The Andy Griffith Show nobody said that
Warren was RETCONNED because he wasn't RETCONNED .
When Corporal Nick Cuccinelli played by Tommy Leonetti and Corporal Chuck Boyle played by
Roy Stuart Disappeared from GOMER Pyle USMC nobody ever
Said that those characters were RETCONNED because they weren't RETCONNED.
On Three's Company Lana Sheilds Disappeared from Three's Company with no explanation and on The Big Valley Eugene Barkley Disappeared from The Big Valley with no explanation.
The whole idea of TV characters being RETCONNED
Makes no sense anyway.
When a character like Chuck Cunningham exists on Happy Days it doesn't make any sense
To day later that Chuck Cunningham did not exist on
Happy Days because Chuck Cunningham DID EXIST on
Happy Days and nothing can
Change once a character exist
On Happy Days .
It's not right to write TV scripts
That pretend that Chuck Cunningham did not exist on
Happy Days when he did exist
On Happy Days.
Like I said earlier the writers of
The last episode of Happy Days
Might not have known that
Chuck Cunningham was even
On Happy Days .
A lot of persons liked the character of Chuck Cunningham and didn't like Howard Cunningham Forgetting
That he had 3 wonderful kids.
TV Shows have tons of writers
And since Happy Days ran for
11 seasons the various different
writers might not have known
that Chuck Cunningham was on
Happy Days on seasons one
And two of Happy Days.
Bunny on GOMER Pyle USMC had 3 different last names on GOMER Pyle USMC .
Bunny's last names were Harper Olsen and Wilson.
On The Andy Griffith Show
Clara had 2 different last names -Johnson and Edwards.
I wish that Chuck Cunningham
Had not Disappeared from Happy Days with no explanation because Gavan O Herlihy and Randolph Roberts both did an excellent job of
Playing Chuck Cunningham.
If that outtake of Howard Cunningham (Tom Bosley ) saying where's CHUCK? Is
Available I would like to see
That Video .
ADIOS (the Lone Ranger s favorite word) to Chuck Cunningham who Actually (Lou
Ann POOVIE s favorite word)
was a wonderful character on Happy Days.
On the TV Show called Bachelor Father different writers gave GINGER three different last names :Farrell
Loomis and Mitchell And
Ginger was played by BERNADETTE WITHERS.
Eugene Barkley on The Big Valley who Disappeared from The Big Valley with no explanation was played by
Charles Briles
Different writers of The Andy Griffith Show gave Emma 2
Last names Brand and Watson)
And Floyd had 2 different last names Colby and Lawson.
Then there was Aunt Bee s best friend Clara with 1 different last names Johnson and Edwards and Bunny Harper
Olsen Wilson on GOMER Pyle USMC . Also on GOMER Pyle USMC Suzanne Benoit played
Jane Harper Colonel Harpers (Karl Swenson) daughter on season one of GOMER Pyle USMC and in a later episode of
The show she played Jane Gray
Colonel Grays (Forrest Compton) daughter.
On her third and last appearance on GOMER Pyle USMC her name was changed to JANICE Gray instead of
Jane Gray .Janice Gray took
GOMER Pyle (Jim Nabors)
To A Go Go Club.
Garry Marshall the creater oHappy Days and the creater of the CUNNINGHAM Family gave
Characters Howard and Marion
3 children Chuck Richie and
Joanie .When Garry Marshall
Said in that video let's just have Chuck just DISAPEAR and we are not going to say what happened to Chuck and we will
See how much mail we get we
Didn't get much mail the Garry
Marshall said exactly what he
Meant .Nowhere in that video
Did Garry Marshall say that
Chuck Cunningham was RETCONNED Garry Marshall said that he was having Chuck
DISAPEAR and not say what happened to Chuck.
Garry Marshall knows more about Happy Days and Chuck
Cunningham than Wikipedia
Knows about Happy Days.
Wikipedia was Wrong when they said that Chuck Cunningham was RETCONNED
And Garry Marshall was RIGHT
When he said that Chuck Cunningham DISAPERED from
Happy Days with no explanation and we are not going to say what happened to
Chuck Cunningham.
Always go by what the creater of Happy Days Garry Marshall
Says about Happy Days and do
Not go by what Wikipedia says
About Chuck because Garry
Marshall was an expert on
Happy Days since he created
Happy Days and Wikipedia isnot an expert.
I'm going by what Garry Marshall said about Chuck Cunningham bin that video
And I am not going by the
RETCONNED idea of Wikipedia.
Like I said Garry Marshall knew
More about Happy Days and
Chuck Cunningham than
Wikipedia wolull ever know
About Happy Days and
Chuck Cunningham.
eddiecantorfan 23 months ago
Garry Marshall made Uncredited
Appearances on Happy Days
Playing the drums at least one
time on the episode where everyone
graduated from Jefferson High School and Fonzie graduated from
night school.
Also I wonder if Garry Marshall created all of the characters on Happy Days or if the writers created
some of the characters on Happy Days.Potsie did an excellent job of
Singing All Shhok Up on the season
one episode of Happy Days called
Give The Band A Hand and this episode was the first appearance of
Richie's band.
Does anyone remember Frankie
Milina and the Dukes and Dooley And The Dragons on
Happy Days?
Also I wonder if Elvis Presley
Record Albums or 45RPM Singles are worth money?
Pacificsun 23 months ago
I'm still not sure why they're "wondering" if this was a tribute. What else could it be, given an airdate of about 2.5 mos. after the death of Elvis. Perhaps it's a catchy title, but anything about Elvis is sure to be read even by average fans.
RichLorn 23 months ago
I'm All Shook Up, I feel like a Hound Dog needing a hug like your Teddy Bear. So Don't Be Cruel and Return To Sender, or I'll spend my days hammering a Jailhouse Rock.
Jeffrey 23 months ago
I don't remember seeing it either, the first time maybe parts of it the second or third time.
genie12 23 months ago
I missed the episode the first time, my mom was a big fan of Elvis.
Moverfan 23 months ago
I vaguely remember that episode (I can hear Suzi Quatro singing All Shook Up, but that's about it). The one I remember was when Richie got Fonzie to sing...well, perform...Heartbreak Hotel. He said something about it being a favorite song, then "it's somebody's favorite...it ain't mine!".
Andybandit 24 months ago
Wow, interesting story. Elvis passed away too young.
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