10 Amazing TV Shows That Began As Mid-Season Replacements

8. Happy Days

The characters of Happy Days actually made their first appearance in 1972 on the anthology series Love, American Style. Show creator Garry Marshall then sold the pilot to ABC, and the programme was born. Happy Days replaced a show called Temperatures Rising, which despite undergoing two major structural reconfigurations in an attempt to boost ratings, was put on hiatus in January 1974, leaving a spot open for the nostalgic 1950s-era hit. Looking back, there was no real reason why Happy Days wouldn't be popular: nostalgia usually runs in 20-year cycles, and this time period was seeing some serious warm, fuzzy feelings for the 1950s, no doubt as a knee-jerk reaction to the turbulence of the 1960s. Two major things contributed to the show's success at the time. The first was that, only a year before the show began airing, American Graffiti was released, which was not only thematically similar to Happy Days, but elevated former child actor Ron Howard to a totally different level of stardom. The second was the unexpected popularity of Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, who was originally conceived as a minor supporting character but quickly took on a much larger role. Happy Days ran for 11 seasons and spawned five spin-offs (three quite successful, two less so).