Garry Marshall’s 1974 sitcom “Happy Days” was a phenomenon. It started slow, but gained popularity over its first few seasons, and eventually lasted a massive 255 episodes over 11 seasons. It would spawn four spin-off shows in the form of “Laverne & Shirley,” “Blansky’s Beauties,” “Mork & Mindy,” and “Joanie Loves Chachi.” One could even debate that the obscure angelic sitcom “Out of the Blue” counts, as it had a crossover with “Mork & Mindy.” The series spawned piles upon piles of merch, attracting a wide audience of kids who weren’t old enough to remember the time of the show’s setting.
Set in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the mid-1950s, “Happy Days” tapped into Boomer nostalgia like nothing before, presenting the past (at least as far as white suburbanites were concerned) as a simpler, sillier, more idealized time. It was about relationship issues, friendships, family, and the act of just hanging out. It’s easy to see George Lucas’ 1973 film “American Graffiti” as an influence, and not just because both featured Ron Howard. Nostalgia for ’50s and ’60s car culture was rolling high, and entertainment makers were keen to exploit it. The show’s popularity rocketed Howard to stardom, as it did its other leads — Anson Williams, Marion Ross, Erin Moran, Tom Bosley, Donny Most, and, of course, Henry Winkler as the greaser-with-a-heart-of-gold, Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli.
But that fame didn’t always come with the correct amount of compensation. Although the series went off the air in 1984, CBS (which took over ownership) continued to make a sizable amount of cash from the aforementioned merch. The actors’ likenesses were used on T-shirts, slot machines, puzzles, lunchboxes, and Funko Pops, and in 2011, they found that they were not being paid properly for it. Reuters reported at that time that Most, Moran, Williams, Ross, and the estate of Bosley sued CBS for $10 million, wanting a cut of the studio’s merchandise profits.
