Discover the most popular TV show the year you were born

1976: Happy Days

These days are ouuuuuuuurs! Share them with meeeeee. We’re sorry to put the theme song back in your head, because it’ll probably be stuck there for years to come. Happy Days was a sitcom that ran on ABC for eleven seasons from 1974 until 1984. The series was about the good ole days back in the 1950s in the Midwestern United States, following Richie Cunningham (played by a young Ron Howard) and his family and friends, including The Fonz. Ayyyyyyy!

The show started out as a modest hit on ABC, but when the ratings started to fall during the show’s second season, creator Rob Marshall reworked it and focused more on the comedy and on a previously minor character, Arthur Fonzarelli, the coolest biker guy around who dropped out of high school. The show soared to the top of the ratings charts after that, and became the number one television show in the 1976-1977 season. Throughout its 11 season run, the show received several Golden Globes, including acting awards for Ron Howard and Henry Winkler, as well as a handful of Emmy nominations. The show, however, was never nominated for comedy writing.

Happy Days was so popular that it also had several spin-offs that went on to be extremely successful in their own right, like Joanie Loves Chachi, Laverne & Shirley, and Mork & Mindy.