The Most Popular TV Show From Your Birth Year (1951-1990)

6. 1977: Happy Days

Nostalgia proved a powerful magnet for American audiences in the 70s and early 80s. Garry Marshall’s Happy Days captured the slick-haired, collar-popped cool of the 1950s. While Henry Winkler’s Fonzie was undoubtedly a bit of a caricature, he was a welcomed throwback in a rapidly changing world (disco?) in the mid-to-late 1970s.

Ron Howard played the straight-laced Richie Cunningham learning the ropes from the Fonz, but it was primarily Winkler’s allure that propelled Happy Days to the top of the ratings chart in its third season.