Happy Days Dad Tom Bosley Dies at 83

Image from source, TV Squad

It's been a rough week for former sitcom parents. First, Leave it to Beaver's mom, Barbara Billingsley died, and now Happy Days' dad Tom Bosley.  When Billingsley died, I ran a clip from Airplane!, because as famous as she was for Beaver, that's what I knew her from.  Happy Days, however, was from my time.

My pop-culture awareness arose at the exact time that the ABC network was coming out of eternal last place with a resurgence of programming, seemingly tailor-made for my generation.  Happy Days, the nostalgia-fueled 50s family sitcom, was the show that started their new era.  It spun off Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy, and was joined by shows like Charlie's Angels, Three's Company, Soap, Love Boat, Fantasy Island and others. If I was watching--and I usually was--the TV set was on ABC.

Bosley's Howard Cunningham holds a place in my childhood memories as "ideal dad," probably like Hugh Beaumont or Danny Thomas did for an older generation.  Happy Days wasn't Shakespeare, but it had a lot of heart, and a lot of laughs. And it should be noted that while Mr. & Mrs. C were kind of a frumpy, middle-aged couple, they were not above getting "frisky."  None of the twin beds or never-seen bedroom for them!  RIP, Mr. C.

[Excerpt]

Tom Bosley, 'Happy Days' Dad, Dead at 83

. . .According to TMZ, family members reported that Bosley died after a staph infection. Bosley's agent, Sheryl Abrams, told the Associated Press that Bosley suffered from heart failure at 4AM Tuesday in a hospital near his Palm Springs home and that he was also battling lung cancer. . .

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