Happy D ays gives viewer a few unhappy half-hours Spinning off the inventive and profitable LucasCoppola production, "American Graffiti," ABC's Happy Days series (Tuesdays, 7 p.m.) is a painful reminder of television's most popular motto: reducto ad absufdum. It is one more example, as if we needed, another, that when TV seeks a common denominator it settles on a syrupy pre -Cambrian slime of intellect. By comparison, it elevates old "I Love Lucy" reruns to art. And more's the pitty, because it is inconceivable that this total waste is necessary. Presumably, when the series was sold, it was sold on the strength of American Graffiti, a reasonably artistic and sometimes humorous look at adolescence in the 1957-63 period. Filled with ron wylie eye of the beholder a careful blend of the common and the profane, the cute, the monotonous, and the insane, American Graffiti, even as it reduced its teenagers to caricatures, fairly represented the personalities and tenets of a culture. -Two Academy Awards Why, when their pilot received two top Academy Award nominations and pulled in tons of money, would the producers of Happy Days opt for a sitcom which could just as easily be retitled Blondie or the Doris Day show! Why? Do Coca Cola and Burger King, the show's sponsors, make such demands on the script, do they steal the energy out of characterizations to the extent where rehashed My Little Margie scenarios are all that can be screened? And, what about those barometers of network placement, the ratings? Happy Days has survived almost six months. Someone must be watching it, presumably all the people who are not viewing Hot L Baltimore (and that's a lot). Do these viewers, whatever their ages, locations, incomes, and related factors (Mr. Nielsen, please supply us with some data), do they in any way believe that what they are watching resembles what was going on in the high school set circa 1961? Great idea Happy Days is a great idea for a television series. That's why American Graffiti made it so big in the theaters. But the movie was filled with the adrenalin, the sweat, and the spermatozoa of a culture. The TV series is Father Knows Best without father knowing best. Accordingly, it is never funny. And, when the material which could be used is considered, the whole production seems clinically, pathologically sick. The Hoapy Days generation is one of the rare watershed generations in American history. They were the 'Children of World War II' or the result of the return of the troops. The television set was a novelty when it appeared in their households. And they were Dr. Spock's first generation. In high school, the Happy Days' generation was the last to seriously get involved with their teams' wonloss records. They were the last to seriously go to the prom. And they were the last to be scandalized when one of the girls didn't return to school after summer vacation because she was ... uh, you know ... pregnant. Last attention to teachers They were the last, also, to pay any attention to their teachers. And after this incubation period, it was this generation, which first provided the raw meat thought necessary for Southeast Asia and then blossomed into all the crazy, wild, beautiful movers and shakers of the 1960s. Happy Days, in ignoring all the real elements of that generation's existence, has stolen their story. More than that, the series has excreted all over their story. This is not exactly a television first. Be is American Indians, public defenders, doctors, homemakers or truck drivers, television has managed to defile almost every role in history or contemporary life by its common denominator approach. Maybe in 1955, television could do nothing else, but it's 1975. TV is still running through the same maze. What kind of anal retentive thinking is that? Series to present Czech film This week's Union Foreign Film presentation . A f 1 1 " . is Black Peter, a iyt4 czecnosiovaician production directed by Milos Foreman. Foreman was one of the principal directors who, along with others such as Miklos Jansco and Ivan Passer, helped elevate the Czech oslovakian New Wave film movement to new artistic heights in the early and mid 60s. Passer also helped Foreman write the script of Black Peter, a gentle comedy and behavioral flftttfi study of a young man's attempts to grow up in the roles that his society has planned tor rum. Black Peter was one of Foreman's first features, made before his later well-known films-Loves of a Blonde, Fireman 's Ball and his most famous, Taking Off, made underground in the United States after he left Czechoslovakia in 1968. Showings are Wednesday and Thursday at 3, 7 and 9:16 p.m. at the Sheldon Gallery Auditorium. Admission is by series ticket. OMETillt I l FEEL 8 in IS L j - my II E.EI 58 Ay & ! -: A t I "4 '"A IUGATI0 Bo!p Plan Lloaningfttl Programs s- C 1Q7C 7CS Gf PQBTUIilTIES IIIOLUDE: WcmsnSpsik "75" ton SaxcstEty Faoly fe!ng fen's bssas Hharity tesrns. '"Growing up Kab" prsranj "Peopb in Prisons" program 2nd Annuil Isdy kmnzzzs Week. . Inter via vs Start Soon interested? Oil ths Uziut Y 472-25E4 cr drop by - 345 Mfzskz Urn ?trT v va vft va. v-v .;:, '-' VA 4.vK "Z. v- &. . ' -:. ': ':--. :-. '::- .;. :.. Va va v.-. HITEEESTED !' tLtiiiijilfcS LYSSES S. GRANT'S BIRTHDAY TODAY WEDS. APRIL 2E1 Sheldon Art Gallery 12th&RSts. presents a special screening of vVETES i if i S If i JOHN CASS WW, u;n' u ij I !l 1 1" i 4 1 April 6 at 7p.m. t y IV Admission $2.00-Tickets available at 6:30 Watch for the opening of this film at the Plaza Theatres on April! 1th. in fwin i'i r iprnrwTTiwini1'! Minimi nw'TirirrinnHrro 11 1 1 I Mm "" mJA 1 A Major UMAN POTENTIAL CONFERENCE il 11-13, 1975 Uacoln, SELF IISTT "For people who want to develop ikcir potential far life." The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Division presents eight world-renowned leaders in self-awareness conference entitled BODYMIND SPIRIT: SELF UNITY. IEi:ffiEilMP -GEORGE LE01IMD 03. KARL PRIBRAM BETTY FULLER r mrni pmnmi lim mBm AL II0AI1S W. WILLIAM SQIOTZ Each leader will conduct general and workshop sessions. tt (Erhard Seminar Training) Th Alexander Technique Gettolt: Theory and Practice lnightt Into Creativity Redefining Encounter Croups Feldsnkrais Body Exercite Organizing Our Gnsciowne Advanco Keghtrcfion iequssted All Sessions to be keid at: R&dhton ComhuskT Hot! 1 3th M Streets Experiencing Life Through Your Body Bioenergetic: Human Energy Fields Your Character Structure end Defenses Experiencing Ourselves as Couples Fantasy os a Tool to Understand Ourselves T'ai chi: Chinese Awareness Exercise Aikido: Mental Physical Exercise Art For Complete Information. Contact: UNIVERSITY EXTENSION DIYlSIOri 51! NEitASKA HALL 90! NORTH 1 7th STREET 'LINCOLN, KBSAS&A felSSS PHOriE:(AS2) 472-217! Wednesday, april 2, 1975 daily nebrskan J page 13 ! i..