Viewers loved the recreations of classic TV sets from shows like “Cheers” and “Martin” in the last Emmys telecast, in January, which is perhaps why the ceremony’s producers went back to that well on Sunday night. It included a 50th anniversary tribute to the classic nostalgia sitcom “Happy Days,” featuring Ron Howard and Henry Winkler in a replica of the show’s diner, Arnold’s.
“Happy Days” debuted in January 1974 but was set decades earlier, in a warm and fuzzy version of 1950s Milwaukee. “‘Happy Days’ did not invent this kind of rosy retrospective memory,” James Poniewozik, the chief television critic for The New York Times, wrote in January. “But as a mass phenomenon, it was the show that split the atom of nostalgia and got us unstuck in time.”
For the 50th anniversary of “Happy Days,” The Times convened a virtual summit of the surviving original stars — Howard, Winkler, Donny Most, Anson Williams, and Marion Ross — to look back on the show.
“I thank God I was part of this ensemble,” Winkler said in that interview. “It is a gift from heaven that fell in my lap.”
Source: Television - nytimes.com
