Race was a complicated issue on TV in the ‘70s. Not that it’s been simple, oh, any other time in the history of the medium, but it was an in-between time when they were trying to have it both ways. Individual series were still largely segregated, but they had to have the occasional very special episode before there were very special episodes to make sure the audience knew the white people on TV were the “good” white people.
That leads us to the 1974 Happy Days episode “The Best Man,” in which Howard Cunningham is visited by an “old army buddy” named Fred who happens to be Black and ends up hosting his friend’s wedding when the couple can’t find a venue willing to serve them. It’s full of opportunities to laugh at nervous but well-meaning white people for comments they absolutely would have made in the ‘50s but couldn’t say on TV until the ‘70s. For example, when Marion Cunningham first meets her husband’s friend, not expecting him to be Black, she’s unloading groceries and holding a watermelon. “We have watermelon all the time!” she defensively stammers, to uproariously studio laughter.
Of course, Mr. Cunningham is the most progressive hardware store owner of the ‘50s, and Richie tells him, “Dad, I sure am glad you’re not gonna let our thickheaded neighbors push you around, I mean, just because all the people are gonna be—” Well, here’s the problem. The writers are clearly very aware they’re writing a show in the ‘70s; again, these scenarios simply wouldn’t play out on TV in the ‘50s. There would be no people of color, and if there were, their interactions would be polite and not discussed. But they throw around the term “negro” like it was going out of style, which it very much was, even back in the ‘50s. By the ‘70s, it was super uncool. Still, they have Richie telling Fonzie in one scene, “I don’t think that they like being called ‘Black.’ They’re ‘negros.’”
Don’t Miss
This isn’t played for laughs, highlighting how out of touch even the hip young Richie is. It’s a learning moment for the Fonz, who resolves to “take any guy as long as he’s cool.”
That moment is hilariously jarring today, but more insidious is the climax of the episode, in which Howard chides his friend, who is reluctant to marry because his bride-to-be wants children and he doesn’t think it’s a good world to bring them into. “You love Carol, and she loves you, and you should have kids, and maybe the kids will change things,” he tells him.
When Fred expresses a desire to move to France because “things are different over there,” Howard counters with, “Oh, so that’s the solution? Just run away?”
Fred hilariously answers, “Yeah?” but it’s not a joke. Howard is presented as having the good and correct position: That Fred should risk his and his future children’s lives when he was barely willing to risk his neighbors’ sass. He’s in no place to say such a thing, and the only way it could be redeemed would be to later see Fred get eaten by the shark Fonzie jumped, which would never have happened in France.
It would also bring awareness to the real problem: racist sharks.
Source link
