"Happy Days" is something that could be good but, evidently, has decided to go the familiar route of "Dobie Gillis," "Father Knows Best," "Henry Aldrich" and "Andy Hardy." A ripoff of such movies as "American Graffiti" …, it is set in the fifties and is liberally sprinkled with the songs, clothes and props of the period.

[Richie Cunningham], complete with adorable and understanding parents and siblings, is the attractive naive one, supposedly representing what the network sees as the innocence of the period. [Richie] and his friends seem to spend most of their time trying to make out with the ponytailed girls. The girls chew gum a lot and apparently are turned on most by the size of a fella's car. [Richie] could be—might still turn out to be—charming if he weren't so selectively stupid.

John J. O'Connor, "The 'Second Season' Is Second Best," in The New...