R.I.P, Mr C.

Sad news indeed.  Tom Bosley - Howard Cunningham in Happy Days, and Father Dowling in the Father Dowling mysteries - died today.  He was 83 years old, and died of natural causes so there is nothing unusual or out of the ordinary about his passing.  Even so, it still makes me feel incredibly sad.

I loved Happy Days as a kid; my Mum, my brother and I used to watch it on Friday nights - the one weeeknight we were allowed to watch TV - and for a long time that familiar theme song marked the start of the weekend for me.  I vividly remember laughing along with the canned studio audience, desperately hoping Joannie and Chachi would get together, and being more than a little scared of the Fonz. 

The thing I liked the most, in hindsight, was the innocence of it all.  Until I was far older than I care to admit, I was firmly convinced that "sit on it" was just about the worst thing you could say to anyone. EVER.  At the centre of this moral safe-ground was Tom Bosley, as the gruff but loving Mr C; patriach, devoted husband and father and wearer of terrible cardigans.  He was also, you may remember, the Grand Poobah of the mysterious Leopard Lodge, a Freemasons spoof which confused me endlessly at the time.  (A fez? Why is he wearing a leopardskin fez? And what the hell is a poobah?) 

Tom Bosley was one of only three actors to appear in all 255 episodes of Happy Days; along with Marion Ross, his on-screen wife and Henry "The Fonz" Winkler.   Something I didn't know was that he was also a Broadway veteran, winning a Tony award in 1959 for his role in the musical Fiorello.

 The show always felt timeless; the characters and actors immortal.  Although it is over twenty years since I've watched an episode, I still get a shock when I see clips of Henry Winkler looking like the middle-aged man he now is; and there is still a tiny part of me which refuses to believe that it's little Richie Cunningham directing those Hollywood blockbusters. 

But of course, no one is immortal.  Life moves on, and today feels like the end of an era.  Celebrity deaths are a strange thing.  I had no idea how much of an impact Tom Bosley had had on me until I he had gone.  Here are a couple of clips; one of Mr C at his finest, and the other of those iconic opening titles.