Insight to 78 season

[Moonlight Lady]

David77,

I think it's so cool that you came here to share all your memories.
it's fascinating to find out what goes on behind the scenes of such a great show. I was wondering, was writers block ever a problem on the show and how was it remedied.

[Stormtracker TF]

Originally posted by animalcrackers
David, I'm not saying this because you post here, but "Potsie Quits School" was excellent! It was one of the best episodes. Plus it was one of the rare episodes where Potsie wasn't an idiot. And the scene where Fonzie wore the bags on his feet was very funny. Dang, the HD people should have hired you on.

Yes, That Was An Excellent Episode! I Love It! VERY Funny!

BTW I Watched That Episode Yesterday

[David77]

Hello, thank you, alright, yeah, another $36.00 on the way. I will try to answer everyone's questions all in one shot. The Potsie Quits School song scene: No, I had nothing to do with it. For me, being a serious musician, I was a little embarrassed over how it came out. Originally I had to pick a song from a list of tunes that were public domain. Meaning Happy Days would not have to pay for the rights. I picked the song, Mack The Knife, and wrote words with that tune in mind. (Singing to Mack The Knife) Oh the heart pumps….. Anson Williams had a music career going at that time and he wanted to write his tune which turned out to be Pumps Your Blood. He vetoed my tune. The bags on Fonzie’s feet came from Fred Fox Jr. Fred was really great with visual comedy. He was like a little kid. We needed one more scene to get Fonzie into the bathroom. That was it. I wish they hired me on too!! Ha ha. I was only twenty at the time. When Walter Kempley found out I was twenty it kind of rubbed him the wrong way for some reason. I don’t know why. After he found out how old I was it was very hard for me to get anything passed. Fortunately Brian, Fred and Bob Brunner liked me. I was lucky to get the Potise Quit School episode on the air. When Bob Brunner and Brian left to do Bad News bears they ended the apprentice writers. I didn’t get hired on.. It took two years to get back into writing which leads up to writers block. I deal with it by writing letters to my friends. Letters I don’t even send for the most part. It just keeps me in the flow of writing. I always write with the idea that I am writing to someone or writing for someone to make them laugh. It is all about making someone laugh. When it gets on TV, that someone becomes everyone. That is the cool part.

[Moonlight Lady]

Very cool, Thank you for answering my question.

[David77]

You're welcome Lil Kelso. I like your graphics. I like the one with the flag the best so far.

[Stormtracker TF]

Thank You So Much For Sharing All Of This With Us David77!!!

[David77]

You're welcome Fonz.

[David77]

Casting? I almost missed that question? Did I have anything to do with the casting? No way Jose. Casting was a department all unto itself. Just like the writers dept and the actors dept.
That was Bobby Hoffman's dept. Casting was across the street from the stage and across another street from Gary Marshall's office on the same side. Bobby Hoffman was a great guy. He passed away. Walter Kempley passed away also. Bobby Hoffman had grey hair and always always always wore a greek sailors cap and a light blue denim jacket. He was very friendly. I can remember him standing in the doorway looking out to the street on the lot. He always stood in the doorway saying hello to anyone who walked by. Always had a big smile on his face. Casting is an art just like writing. Casting, coaching. It is very close to directing.
There were a lot of steady extras on Happy Days. The Arnold's gang. The guy in the scene driving the car where the girl's wig is pulled off by the convertable? In the titles? He was/is Walter Von. He was in tons of scenes. That girl with the wig, Her name is Heather. The real tall kid in the background always wore a high school sweater, his name is Carrie Schuman. They never had talking lines because they would have to join a whole other union and get paid. There is the screen extra's guild and the screen actors guild. Two different things. Once an actor speaks it means
more money has to be paid out by the studio. That is why so many actors on Happy days did not speak. Like most of Fonzie's girlfriends. They didn't have the budget. And thanks to Bobby Hoffman Fonzie had his girlfriends! A lot of the girl's in the pictures on Fonzie's bedroom wall were the writer's girlfriends and wives. Al Molinaro owned a credit union in Sherman Oaks, CA in real life. There was a cowboy town right behind my office. I could walk through Dodge city on my lunch break. I did many times. Most of the outdoor sets were actually filmed outside the set builders building. It looks like Fonzie's garage but if you actually go inside there are guys with saws cutting wood for sets. That was one building up from the writers building. Richie, Richie, Richie....Ah yep, yep, yep.

[Stormtracker TF]

That Is So SUPER Cool! It Would Have Been So Fun Have Been There! Yep Yep Yep Yep Yep Yep! That's SO Cool!

[David77]

Thanks Fonz.

[Stormtracker TF]

You're Wecome!

[Cactus Jack]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!! All these facst about this hsow I enjoy reading this topic everyday! Too bad I cant be a part of it cause Im in school and he isnt on on Fridays or the weekends, Well David77, so youll know who I am Im Istillgotit a huge ralph and Potsie fan If you have nayinfo aobut if there are Ralph and Potsie bloopers or just random Ralph and Potsie stuff email at fallonfan01@yahoo.com


PS : I wish I could be a part of this thread

[HappyDays Dude55]

Originally posted by David77
Hello, thank you, alright, yeah, another $36.00 on the way. I will try to answer everyone's questions all in one shot. The Potsie Quits School song scene: No, I had nothing to do with it. For me, being a serious musician, I was a little embarrassed over how it came out. Originally I had to pick a song from a list of tunes that were public domain. Meaning Happy Days would not have to pay for the rights. I picked the song, Mack The Knife, and wrote words with that tune in mind. (Singing to Mack The Knife) Oh the heart pumps….. Anson Williams had a music career going at that time and he wanted to write his tune which turned out to be Pumps Your Blood. He vetoed my tune.

Hey David, TV Land aired "Potise Quits School" twice yesterday .. does this mean you get $72.00? Hey, just think, you could take us all out to lunch! :-) It's too bad you didn't get to write the lyrics to the song ... I thought the one used was good, but "Mack The Knife" would have been funny as well ("Oh the blood flows/and the heart pumps ... "). I noticed that someone else was credited with "Story By" and you were credited with "Teleplay by," does this mean that someone else came up with the basic plot idea & you fleshed out the story and wrote all the dialogue? Were you on the set during the taping? Man, that would have been cool, seeing the actors deliver lines that you wrote!

[HappyDays Dude55]

Originally posted by David77
There were a lot of steady extras on Happy Days. The Arnold's gang. The guy in the scene driving the car where the girl's wig is pulled off by the convertable? In the titles? He was/is Walter Von. He was in tons of scenes. That girl with the wig, Her name is Heather. The real tall kid in the background always wore a high school sweater, his name is Carrie Schuman. They never had talking lines because they would have to join a whole other union and get paid. There is the screen extra's guild and the screen actors guild. Two different things.

It's too bad you couldn't have been an extra in "Potsie Quits School" ... they could have stuck you in the classroom scene or something. But I guess then you would have had to join the union & it would have been too complicated.

Speaking of extras, there's one girl I always notice who's in tons of episodes ... she was the drummer for the band in many shows (particularly when Chachi was not around), and in some shows she's one of Fonzie's girlfriends. She was a really good-looking brunette. Do you know the one I'm talking about?

Thanks again for your participation on here!

[David77]

Potsie Quits School & Extras:
The main idea of Potsie having to think up a song in his head to remember his anatomy was my idea. Being a musician most of the TV shows that I wrote have a music theme. Like Blossom "Guns in school" episode "38 special" which I wrote and I got a part in too (I'm in the band scene playing guitar) Sometimes one person has an idea and it is given to another person. Like the Christmas show where they all bring a tree in to the Cunnigham's? . That was my idea although Beverly Bloomberg got credit. Most of the writers were under contract for 3 scripts a year plus a weekly salary (and to get a parking space on the lot was a whole other big deal where your agent has to actually negotiate it.) I had to park outside the lot across the street and pay. (But that is another story.) Show Biz. "The slimey underbelly of the show business world" Anyway, people crank out story ideas and they are all delegated to different writers. The networks want certain story lines, the producers want different story lines, etc etc. So when it says "written by" or "story by" or "teleplay by" it really doesn't mean squat. They have to assign storys. It is a team effort.
Sometimes a writer will pitch an idea based on a theme or direction the producers want to go and it connects and he or she gets to write it. Other times a writer will pitch and idea and they like it and give it to another writer on the staff who is due under contract to get a script that season. Maybe the other writer already did his three scripts. So that being clear, I had already sold the Fonzie Jacket "Story by" that never got filmed. So in the total picture I did get a story and a teleplay.
There were other people that were Production Assistants like Jim Dunne who got "Story By" on Potsie Quits School. Jim Dunne was an all around guy on the Happy Days Crew. Originally I heard he was Gary Marshall's tennis pro. Gary liked him. So He worked with the actors, he wrote music, he came to writing meetings once in a while. He was just an all around guy. Gary Marshall wanted him to write and his first writing assignment was "Story by". It got him in the union.
He was close with the actors. I didn't have the chance to get
too involved like that on the stage. I was hired stictly to be an apprentice writer. In fact I didn't even have my own typewriter. I had to share one with Allen Goldstien. My agent didn't negotiate a typewriter. Now a days you have to have an agent to get an agent. So that is how it works. I liked the idea of being an extra but it never happened. I didn't push for it. I was a musician. I brought my guitar in and Brian and Fred would hear me play and bring me up to Bob Brunner's office. Bob would say, "I don't know what to do with that, go talk to Anson". It just didn't connect for me at that time. I later worked on other shows but it took years and years. That is just the way it went down. That girl drummer was a steady extra. I don't remember her name but when they say her name on the show, that is her real name. Sometimes Richie will say her name. She was cute, yeah. I talked more with Heather. (The girl with the wig). She would come to the booth and hang out on Friday nights. The other girl was kind of shy.