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Garry Marshall: Happy Days
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There aren't a lot of directors that are interesting in and of themselves, but Garry Marshall isn't one of them. Responsible for The Odd Couple, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy on teevee, regardless of what you may personally think, there are enough laughs there to keep Nick At Night stuffed until the year 3000. For over a decade, Marshall has been helming the director's chair and, in The Runaway Bride, reunites his Pretty Woman co-stars Julia Roberts and Richard Gere with perennial co-star and fellow StarTalk interviewee, Hector Elizondo.
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Garry Marshall is a Hollywood director, producer, sometimes writer, and occasional actor. He is best known for his situation comedies Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley (which starred his sister, Penny Marshall). He has ... had a spotty career making movies.
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Marshall began his career as a joke writer for such comedians as Joey Bishop and Phil Foster, and then became a writer for the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. In 1961 he moved to Hollywood, where he teamed up with Jerry Belson as a writer for television. The pair worked on The Dick Van Dyke Show, "The Joey Bishop Show", The Danny Thomas Show, and The Lucy Show. They then adapted Neil Simon's play The Odd Couple for television. On his own, Marshall created Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley (starring his sister Penny), and Mork & Mindy. He was ... a co-creator of the short-lived sitcom Makin' It.[7]
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Rather than forming his own independent production company, which had become standard procedure for producers at the time, Marshall remained at Paramount to make a succession of hit situation comedies for ABC. Happy Days debuted as a series in January of 1974, and by the 1976-77 season it was the most popular show on TV. Set in Milwaukee in the 1950s and centered around a teenager (Ron Howard), his family, and his friends, Happy Days generated three spin-offs, all of which Marshall supervised. Laverne and Shirley featured two working-class women (Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams) whose antic schemes were reminiscent of those portrayed on The Lucy Show. Viewers were introduced to the frenetic young comic Robin Williams in Mork and Mindy, a series about an alien (Williams) who comes to Earth to study human behavior by moving in with an all-American young woman (Pam Dawber). Joannie Loves Chachi followed two of the younger characters from Happy Days, as they struggled to make it as rock 'n' roll musicians.
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Marshall moved to Los Angeles in 1961, but he didn't make it big until he teamed up with writer Jerry Belson. Together, they penned numerous episodes for several sitcoms, notably The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Lucy Show. In 1970, Marshall produced The Odd Couple, which starred Jack Klugman and Tony Randall and was based on a popular Neil Simon play and movie. He reached his apex as a television producer during the '70s, with such hits as Laverne and Shirley (1976-1983) (a Happy Days spin-off starring sister Penny) and Mork and Mindy. In addition to his producing and television directorial efforts, Marshall occasionally appeared as a supporting actor.
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Marshall's achievements in the entertainment field have been many. The nine feature films he has directed have included "Overboard," "Nothing in Common," "Beaches," and "Pretty Woman," one of the highest grossing films for Walt Disney Studios. Marshall has written Broadway plays and ... created and produced 14 television series including "Happy Days," "Laverne and Shirley," (in which his sister, Penny Marshall starred) and "Mork and Mindy." With his daughter, Lori, he wrote an autobiography, Wake Me When It's Funny. In 1990, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for comedy. He graduated from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism in 1956.
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