For ten years, from 1974 to 1984, a fictional image of suburban Milwaukee brought the 1950s back to America through ABC's Happy Days. The picture of the world that was painted by this television comedy shaped a whole generation's image of the 1950s. It was world of drive-ins and leather jackets, of cars and girls, but mostly of hanging out and solving day to day problems. It was noticeably not the 1950s of McCarthy and Korea. In the first seasons of the show, a number of episodes focused on specific 1950s topics: electioneering for Adlai Stevenson, Beatniks, rock 'n' roll shows, gangs; but after that, Happy Days settled into its stride to present a more general backdrop of the period, against which the Cunninghams and Fonzie developed as characters.

In addition to Laverne and Shirley and Joanie Loves Chachi, Happy Days spawned a Saturday-morning cartoon show, The Fonz...