What Mike's Reading

As I started reading this book, my first thought was – THIS is finally the type of Happy Days story that I am looking for! The focus is primarily on Fonzie and Richie and you could almost hear the characters saying the lines and feel where the laugh track (not a live studio audience yet) would come in.

And there was a reason for that.

This was not an original story! And it took me a little bit to realize it! I kept thinking, this feels familiar. This feels reminiscent of an old episode. And sure enough, it was not only similar to an episode – it was an actual adaptation of a season one episode of the same title! So this definitely counts as a novelization as well as being a tie-in book.

I hadn’t seen the television episode for years, so I watched it last night after finishing the book. Do you know how hard it is to find the first season of Happy Days online? Put it this way – I am not going to tell you how I watched it, but rest assure it was not on any official streaming site. Part of the 2nd season is on Paramount+ and parts of many other seasons are on Pluto for free, but the first season is nowhere.

Well, not nowhere. So, I was able to see it.

The were a few differences between the episode of the book. The episode was 25 minutes long (back before networks forced an extra 3-4 minutes of commercials on you) so I am guessing the book added a B-story to pad things out a bit (the book was only 155 pages so it didn’t pad anything out too much).

I figure the book added the B-story instead of the episode cutting it from the script. It had to do with a girl that Fonzie met in their classroom and him basically wanting to spend more time with her, even though she seemed to have a boyfriend, a mother who did not like motorcycles, and she was only interested in Arthur becoming a new man. A captain of industry.

Things did not turn out that way.

It also beefed up a part of the story where Fonzie was looking for Richie, and young Cunningham avoiding The Fonz because he was afraid he was going to get beaten up for not helping Fonzie cheat on a history test.

The Fonz would never do that.

Oh, and the book made it seemed like a dinner Fonzie had with the Cunninghams was the first time they met. The episode was the seventh of the first season and Fonzie was still in his jean jacket, but I am guessing they had already met at that point. I could be wrong though.

Overall, I loved reading this book because it reminded me so much of the show and the characters I’ve cherished my entire life. And sure, that’s probably because it adapted an actual script – but, who cares!?

I am looking forward to continuing the series, and if you don’t agree with that – well you can go sit on it!