“Sit On It” is a put-down expression in Happy Days, said to one degree or another by everyone in the main cast.
happy days. 1. Literally, a period of time that is pleasant, prosperous, or happy. With the economy recovering, it looks like the happy days might finally be coming back.
This week, in 1984, the very last episode of Happy Days aired. That ‘70s show about 1950s nostalgia ran for an epic 11 seasons and spun off several series including Laverne & Shirley, Joanie Loves Chachi, and Mork & Mindy (the present-day setting of which was explained by Mork’s time traveling abilities).
Created by series writer and producer Bob Brunner, the phrase is a variation of “sit and spin” or “sit and rotate”, which implies one should go sit on one’s thumb and rotate; to wit, a euphemistic way of saying, “Shove it up your a**”. Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
What shows were on Happy Days?
Happy Days spawned successful television shows Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy as well as three failures, Joanie Loves Chachi, Blansky’s Beauties featuring Nancy Walker as Howard’s cousin, and Out of the Blue. The show is the basis for the Happy Days musical touring the United States since 2008.
Happy Days resulted in seven different spin-off series, including two that were animated: Laverne & Shirley, Blansky’s Beauties, Mork & Mindy, Out of the Blue, Joanie Loves Chachi, The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang (animated) and Laverne & Shirley with The Fonz (animated).
The series’ pilot was originally shown as Love and the Television Set, later retitled Love and the Happy Days for syndication, a one-episode teleplay on the anthology series Love, American Style, aired on February 25, 1972. Happy Days spawned successful television shows Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy as well as three failures, Joanie Loves Chachi, Blansky’s Beauties featuring Nancy Walker as Howard’s cousin, and Out of the Blue. The show is the basis for the Happy Days musical touring the United States since 2008. The leather jacket worn by Winkler during the series was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution for the permanent collection at the National Museum of American History. The original tan McGregor windbreaker Winkler wore during the first season was eventually thrown into the garbage after ABC relented and allowed the Fonzie character to wear a leather jacket.
Following these changes, Happy Days became the number-one program in television in 1976–1977, Fonzie became one of the most merchandised characters of the 1970s, and Henry Winkler became a major star. The series also spawned a number of spin-offs, including Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy .
Morita left the program to star in a short-lived sitcom of his own, Mr. T and Tina, a spin-off of Welcome Back, Kotter. Morita also starred in a subsequent short-lived Happy Days spin-off series titled Blansky’s Beauties. Al Molinaro also played Al’s twin brother Father Anthony Delvecchio, a Catholic priest.
The first two seasons of Happy Days (1974–75) were filmed using a single-camera setup and laugh track. One episode of season two (“Fonzie Gets Married”) was filmed in front of a studio audience with three cameras as a test run. From the third season on (1975–84), the show was a three-camera production in front of a live audience (with a cast member, usually Tom Bosley, announcing in voice-over, “Happy Days is filmed before a live audience” at the start of most episodes), giving these later seasons a markedly different style. A laugh track was still used during post-production to smooth over live reactions.
Happy Days is an American sitcom television series that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, the series was one of the most successful of the 1970s, a sweet vision of life in the mid-1950s to mid-1960s Midwestern United …
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