Penny Marshall
Garry Marshall, creator and then part-time writer for "Happy Days", cast Marshall and Cindy Williams to guest on an episode of the show. The installment, titled "A Date with Fonzie", aired on November 11, 1975 and introduced the characters Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney (played by Marshall and Williams, respectively). In that episode, Laverne and Shirley were a pair of wisecracking brewery workers who were dates for Fonzie (Henry Winkler) and Richie (Ron Howard). The pair were such a hit with the studio audience that Garry Marshall decided to co-create and star them in a successful spinoff, "Laverne & Shirley" (1976–1983). The characters of Laverne and Shirley appeared in five more episodes of "Happy Days". In 1982 at the beginning of "Laverne & Shirley"s eighth season, Williams left the show due to her pregnancy. Marshall continued with the show, but it was canceled after the season's final episode aired in May 1983.
Happy's Place
The original program was called "Happy's Hour" which began broadcasting in 1976 on WTVQ, Channel 62 in Lexington, KY, with Tim Eppenstein playing the character of Happy and Mike McMellon providing the voice of Froggie. The voice of Froggie was later provided by Greg Rice. Eppenstein, McMellon, and Rice all reunited in 2011 for the documentary film "When Happy Met Froggie", which reunited the cast and crew of the show. The documentary film also featured interviews with actresses Lana Wood and Morgan Brittany, who made guests appearances on the original television show.
Charles Willer was slated to be the first Happy, but he turned the job down when WFFT asked him to retire his other locally-known clown character, Chuckles the Clown, as a condition of employment. The original Happy was then played by Mike Fry, a television show host-turned inventor. Fry left the show in 1990 to concentrate on the gourmet fortune cookie company he started with girlfriend Kim Harvey in 1988.