If you watch Happy Days, they truly adjusted that on the fly. In the first couple of seasons, it was all about Ritchie and the Fonz was just a secondary character. Then they saw how popular Fonzie was and they adjusted the show to center it around him. That is, until he jumped the shark!
Bringing this back to politics, I always loved the scene in Happy Days when they were giving political speeches for the 1956 presidential election outside of Arnolds. Ritchie gives a normal, straight forward political speech for Stevenson, then the Fonz gives one for Eisenhower. Hey, I like Ike..... my bike likes Ike.... and that was the main thrust of the speech. Of course at the end, Ike’s side is handing out hot dogs so everyone (even the Stevens supporters) go over to the Eisenhower side to eat hot dogs and enjoy the company...
yeah it was a much better show at the beginning when the Fonz was on just for a few minutes a show, Joanie was real brat and all Ritchie and his pals could talk about was necking
I was very little at that time. My mom told me later that I liked the Fonz right away. I might have in general liked things the show makers didn’t want me to like as I was on the side of cylons for Battlestar Galactica.
Whatever happened to Richie’s older brother?
I watched the first season or two of Happy Days then turned 16 and got my driver’s license.
That was it for nightly TV shows for about 10 years.