Get Happy Post 3 (Final)

August 26 2013

From the episodes that I watched of "Happy Days",  I learned quite a bit that will help me with the show. Here in my last "Get Happy"post, I will focus on the setting and the car hop girls (because that is my character). I hope that my character analyses helped everyone out as well!

For starters, I'll give you a glimpse of Arnold's, the high school hang out area. Imagine this: the Juke box is "I'm all shook up" by Elvis Presley, the Fonz is writing in his office (the bathroom wall), the booths are full with chatting high school students, people are dancing in a swing style, Arnold is serving Malts and other types of food, and the old fashioned cars are parked out front. That is the low down of Arnold's.

Arnold's is the most popular place, but also there is Jefferson high school, where all the main characters go to school, the Cunningham house, the hardware store and the mechanic shop where Fonzie works.
The time is the 50's and the show definitively has the feel. They have jukeboxes and phones you have to dial that are attached to the wall.  Everyone is part of the social life. If you want to be seen as 'cool' you need to have some fancy wheels!

What I have learned from this show is that we are (mostly) high school students, carefree looking to have a good time. Richie and his friends are always up to something and the Fonz is always ready to save the day. Richie is growing up and is learning life's lessons along side his best friends.

My character is a car hop girl. From the show I have learned that the car hops sometimes get pranked by the high school students. From the script, I know that the car hop girls do not actually get pranked, but they do sing with Fonzie and Pinky so I'm guessing they are supposed to be portrayed as "cool". The car hops are seen taking the food from Arnold's and bringing it to the cars. During the intro, one car hop spills a milkshake all over a police officer.

That concludes the "Get Happy" Post segment. If you read the whole collection of
posts-congratulations; you get a thumbs up!

See you in my next post, the all new "Get Singing" where I explore give my opinions on the soundtrack of the musical "Happy Days"!

Get Happy Post 2

August 26 2014

Hello again! I'm back with more about the fun characters from "Happy Days" the TV series!
In this segment, I will be talking about Ralph Malph, Joanie, Marion and Howard! So stay tuned for these next fun few paragraphs  about the over exaggerating Ralph Malph, the over the top sweet Marion, the little Joanie and the hardware man Howard.

Up first on our list is: Ralph Malph
The fact that his name rhymes is one clue, but anyone who has watched a few episodes of "Happy Days" knows that Ralph is the silly one. He is the class clown (like it says in the script). Ralph likes to over exaggerate everything. In one episode he lied to everyone and Potsie and Richie found out that he was embellishing the truth. Ralph is not an outright liar, he just doesn't always tell the whole truth. He has red hair just like Richie and is friends with Richie and Potsie.

Second we have Marion
Marion is the sweet housewife of Howard. She is the caring mother of Richie, Joanie and her oldest son who is not in this musical so I won't talk about him. In the play she wants to be someone other than a stay at home mom which makes sense because she is not shallow. Marion is very hospitable. For example when Richie has Fonzie over for dinner, she doesn't mind when he doesn't know his table manors; she still says nice things about him after he leaves.

Our third one is Howard
Howard owns the hardware store, and is the husband of Marion, therefore making him Richie and Joanie's dad. Howard is an understanding father. For example Richie came home drunk one night because Potsie convinced him to go to a Bachlor Party. Howard helped him to bed and didn't yell at him or give him harsh punishments. He is also always getting Richie out of trouble. For example, Richie and Potsie bought a car, but it was in bad shape and it broke down so they were stranded. Howard came and picked them up in the middle of the night. In this picture he is at the leopard lodge, hence the leopard print fez.

Fourth up is Joanie
Joanie is Richie's little sister. She is a whiney and mischievous sort. Joanie takes baton lessons and is really frank with a lot of things, which make her parents say things like: "Joanie, we don't say that." Mind you, my impression of her in the show is that she is a little kid (maybe 13 years old). I'm guessing that the musical is based off of the last season, and I have only watched episodes of the first. My point is that Joanie is probably portrayed as older in the musical. Look at these two pictures, as you can see Joanie ages quite a bit during the show!

See you later with more on the Happy Days series. Next time I will be talking about what I can take away from the show that helps me with understanding my character more. Then my "Get Happy" post series will be done, see you soon!!

Get Happy! Post 1

August 17 2014

Hi everyone! It's Car Hop Michelle here to report on the "Hip and Happening" series of Happy Days! Too much? The lingo back then was so peculiar. This is my first instalment of my fun "Get Happy" Post Compilation. To start off things off, for my birthday I got the "Happy Days" series. I was thinking how awesome that was, because then I can get to know the characters, time and sets better. Also it seems my parents were exited to see the show too, because it was so popular when they were kids. I have watched quite a few episodes since my birthday so I'm just going to give a run down of a few of the characters for my first post.

First up we have Richie Cunningham,
The main character and also the most goody-two shoes of all the characters. Richie likes to wear sweater vests, and has red hair that is always reeealy smothered with hair gel (although it seems everyone's hair was that way). His best friend is Potsie (in the show) and Potsie is usually influencing Richie to do something sneaky. Richie is a really loyal son but he is sometimes influenced to break the rules (mostly by Potsie). Mort of the time Richie is responsible and not a rule breaker. For example, Potsie and Richie had tickets to a rock and roll concert, but Howard (Richie's dad) wanted them to look after the hardware store for a bit before the concert. To make a long story short, they got locked in the shop, broke a window and broke the lock on the door. Richie told Potsie to go to the rock and roll concert by himself  because Richie decided to stay and look after the shop. He also is a smart student because when the Fonz re-inroled into high school for one episode, Richie was convinced to do The Fonz's homework for him. In the end, Fonzie wants Richie to help him cheat, but he doesn't do it. Richie is a nice person, honest, reliable, but also persuadable.

Second is Potsie.
Potsie is (as I said before) Richie's Best friend. Sort of "Cheeky" you might say, with back hair. Potsie is always coming up with ideas to get Richie and him in trouble (not on purpose but it happens anyway). For example, there was going to be an illegal race between The Fonz and some other guy, and Potsie convinced Richie to sneak out and go see it. They got caught by the police and got some long speech by the officer, but that doesn't really matter. My point is that Potsie is a sort of bad influence, but he is still good in essence. Potsie is kind of fun with lots of ideas, good ones and bad ones.

Three times the charm! aaaaay… It's the Fonz!

Arthur Fonzarelli is a mechanic, and a high school drop out. He is the master of cool in the little community. He usually wears a leather jacket and his trademark is "aaaaaaaay" along with the thumbs up or down he gives to other people. He seems to write lots of things on the bathroom wall too. Potsie and Richie are friends with Fonzie. I would say that Richie is better friends with Fonzie than Potsie is. The Fonz never shows weakness, and is constantly cool. He is also quite comical, but not tell a joke kind of funny. For example, he walks by a mirror takes out his comb but then makes a face like "I don't have to do anything to look better I'm already perfect!" then puts his comb down and walks away. I think Fonzies got a good heart too, even though he doesn't show it. When Fonzie told Richie that he didn't care about his test that he passed all by himself, he later takes it out and smiles as though he feels smarter, and he didn't feel really confident in himself before (when it comes to book smarts). He also has been known to not have great table manners according to the Cunninghams apparently pulling a wrench out during dinnertime is not acceptable. HaHa

I hope you enjoyed the first instalment in my Get Happy Post Series. I will be sure to write back soon with more characters and more FUN!!!!!!!