Television has the opportunity to teach a lesson to its audience with each episode, and just because a show is set in the fifties doesn't mean it has nothing worth teaching.

In the 1970s, Happy Days was one of the most popular shows airing on television. Despite the fact that the show focused on life in the 1950s, teens and adults flocked to the series, finding a universal familiarity, and a sense of nostalgia for a simpler time.

But it wasn't just audience members gleaning life lessons from Happy Days. During an interview with The Daily Herald, Marion Ross revealed that she learned a thing or two from her on-screen counterpart. Ross played Marion Cunningham throughout the show's entire run, mother to both Richie and Joanie. A mother of two, Ross revealed that many of the Happy Days plotlines actually influenced her parenting of her children.

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After Happy Days had ended, Marion Ross would refuse new roles that she thought would ''betray'' her image as Mrs. Cunningham

"I was raising my teens during Happy Days," said the actor. "I could use what I learned on the show with my own children. The writers had such a light touch with the problems of teens. Like the time Richie got drunk. If this had happened at home, I would have been devastated. But I liked having that perspective, that all the little tragedies were little learning steps."

But after the show finished its run, Ross actually said that she had little interest in catching up on the show's reruns. "We mostly ignore them," said Ross of watching Happy Days. "We've moved on." 

But just because Ross learned to let go of Happy Days doesn't mean the show's fans have, and for good reason. "People stop me and say, 'Mrs. C., you look so good," said the actor. "It's a dear experience. It should happen to everybody."

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