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.
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Faoly fe!ng fen's bssas
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'"Growing up Kab" prsranj
"Peopb in Prisons" program
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LYSSES S. GRANT'S BIRTHDAY
TODAY WEDS. APRIL 2E1
Sheldon Art Gallery
12th&RSts.
presents a special screening
of
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JOHN CASS
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April 6 at 7p.m.
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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
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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
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