“Hey Mom! I wanna be a Scratch ‘N’ Sniff Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup this year!”
My sister and I were just reminiscing about those store bought Halloween costumes that just consisted of a mask and plastic gown. We could never convince Mom to buy them for us and always ended up making our costumes. I was a “Punk Rocker” for, like, six years in a row. (I used to braid my hair and then paint each of the strands a different color. I thought I was so cool.) Anyway, Kim found an online archive of those cheesy store costumes. Some of these are just unbelievable. Asteroids the Atari game? Chachi from “Happy Days”? Flipper the dolphin? A frickin’ Rubik’s Cube??
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That Vicki the Robot costume was just a little too freaky… She looks so EEEVIL. I had almost completely forgotten that Small Wonder ever existed, but now I’m reminded that every day on Super 55 Fox, after Happy’s Place went off the air, my sister forced me to watch that damn show. If I remember correctly, Fox had two episodes running back-to-back. Argh!
“She’s fantastic, made of plastic,
Microchips here and there,
She’s a small wonder,
brings love and laughter everywhere…”
Please, God… Make it stop!
Oh man, feel the Fort Wayne love. Yeah, Happy’s Place! I watched that show every day after school at my babysitter’s. And Froggy’s Pad in the morning. I remember Thundercats… Detective Gadget… all the classics. I SO always wanted to be in the audience. Remember how they’d always mention what the kids got in their grab bags at the end? My sister told me a few years ago that they’d changed Happy’s, and then eventually that it had gone off the air. That’s too bad. It was like Wayne’s World for the under 10 set.
But Small Wonder was eeeevil. 🙂
I loved Happy’s Place, and I shall never forgive my Mother for not allowing me to go on the show so Happy could ask me my name on camera. Happy was the best, yo! First there was the original Happy, then Cousin Happy, and finally the Last Happy (Brother Happy, perhaps?), who was joined by these weird sidekicks, Chester the Fox (get it?) and Lawnboy the Moron. Heh… That wasn’t his official title, I added the Moron part. And Froggy’s Pad was the best thing to start off my mornings before elementary school. I still get the little themesong in my head sometimes. There was a rumor that Super 55’s old boring newsguy (I can’t remember his name anymore, but when I close my eyes I can still see his awful dark brown hairpiece) used to be the voice behind dear old Froggy… Hmm… I miss it, sometimes. Life was so simple back in those days. =)
Steve Schenk! or Shank! That was him, right?
My sister says Steve Shine. She used to work at the News Sentinel and her boyfriend worked at Fox 55. She says that he wasn’t Froggy, but he *is* a dick. Hmmm.
Hah! That’s right, Steve Shine. I knew it was Steve Something, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember. I can hear his voice in my head, though. He was the newsguy there for as long as I could remember.
But that still makes me wonder, who the Hell did Froggy’s voice? That question will continue to bother me, I’m sure.
Well, thanks to the wonders of the Internet I managed to track down Happy. He’s running a gourmet fortune cookie company (I shit you not). Maybe he knows. Shall we e-mail him? 🙂
Ack! I wonder what he would think about two Indiana expatriots stalking him over the internet just to ask him about the voice behind a really scary frog puppet. But, aw, what the hey? I say let’s go for it!!
Did you ever get the answer to the voice behind the frog? I used to watch Happy’s Place, too. Now I’m living in NC. I did a search of Happy’s Place and your site popped up!
Jule, nah, we chickened out. 🙂
I used to watch Happy’s Place all the time. But what was the point of Lawn Boy? Seriously. I guy who wore a construction helmet and a sweat-shirt with a cereal brand on it just makes no sense. I remember when that frog used to have his own show in the mornings. But if anyone knows of any images i can find of that show, please let me know
Stevie – I don’t remember any “Lawn Boy” from the time I watched it. I don’t you’ll get any images; this isn’t really a “Happy’s Place” fan site. But thanks for joining in.
Ahhhh. Happy’s Place. I had to look it up to see if anyone on the Internet had mentioned it. Mainly, it was to make sure I wasn’t crazy. You know how you sometimes have memories that aren’t really memories? Some sick part of your mind just decided to make it up and mess with you. I had to make sure that wasn’t the case with my Happy’s Place memories. Because, now that I think about it, Happy’s Place is a sick sick memory. Thanks for confirming it. I’m both relieved and disturbed.
Nope, you didn’t imagine it. It does sound like a fake show though, doesn’t it?
Craig Beaverson was the vioce of Froggy. I know it was really a show at 16 I was forced to go along with my clown group to be on the show…but atleast I got to use my clown name and face and not my real name and face….as a kid I used to beg to be allowed to go…never happened until way after I was over it oh well it was a good show and had great cartoons.
Wow, thanks for solving that mystery, Wynter! I think I liked the Steve Shine conspiracy theory better though. 🙂
to add to our fox 55 knowledge base, steve shime’s kids name is evan shine and he is the worlds biggest pot head. my friend was in a drivers training class with a while back, and the kid could barely talk.
kinda sad.
yeah i used to watch happys place too, but not because i liked it, i always thought it was so boreing. but that was back in the day before i got a computer and my first c++ compiler. actually i hated that show but for some reason i watched it anyway…
I actually e-mailed the original Happy when I found his fortune cookie web site. He responded back to the email, and even sent me an autographed picture.With all of this Happy nostalgia, someone should start a web site.
Seriously Vinnie? That is amazing. I always wondered how many Happys there were. I do remember that theme, or atleast one of them, it was an old 70’s song and I can’t who did it or what it was called. I heard it a few years back on some stupid old navy or gap commercial and still can’t figure it out, oh well. Yeah I miss that show, even though it scared me a little.
This is the Cousin Happy! If you want to know anything about the show let me know.
Anyone remeber when the original Happy fell off the Happymobile during the 3 Rivers Parade and broke his leg and they subbed in “Cousin Happy” for awhile….wow, how I love Super 55 Fox nostalgia!!!
I grew up in Ft. Wayne and watched Happy’s Place. One time my mother had a Miami Vice-themed party and Happy (not in makeup) showed up with his hot girlfriend.
The fortune cookie company link doesn’t work. I’d like to email Happy. Anyone have contact info?
Steve Shine was my grandfather’s attorney. Shine apparently mishandled his will and gave him some wrong information just before my grandfather killed himself. It’s a long strange story, but my step-grandmother and four purebred cats were involved.
I was on Happy’s Place when I was 5 yeas old and its still haunts me to this day (I’m now 23)! My grandmother taped it from t.v. so me, my mother, my aunt and cousin could watch ourselves. My mother did a “we’ll be right back” thing with Happy for commercial break. Unfortunatly, my brother taped over the show a week later with a TMNT episode so Happy is gone. I am looking for some archive that might have every single episode for sale or something like that so if anyone has any suggestions, send them to me!
Oh, and I was always told that Steve Shine was the head of the Ft. Wayne mafia
A guy I went to high school with was a technician or cameraman or something at Channel 55, and he once mentioned that when Happy would go through the stack of pictures kids would send in, somehow centerfolds would make their way into the stack, and whenever Happy would say, “Um, let’s skip this one”, that was why.
Channel 55 was a hoot when it first came on in late 1977…It was the first Fort Wayne station to stay on all night (other than when 33 had the Jerry Lewis telethon)…During the Blizzard of 78, Kent Hormann would stand outside and give live weather updates, and get pelted with snowballs the entire time. They used to have their prime time lineup (all old reruns before they were known as “classic TV”) run on a crude character generator…When they showed “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, they didn’t have enough room to type in the whole title, so it would usually just read “A. Hitchcock”. Another buddy of mine swore that once, it read simply “A Cock”…Trippy.
I remember Craig Beaverson! He used to work at Citizens Cable when it did a bingo show in the late 1970s. I also remember Channel 55 during the Blizzard of ’78. That’s when TV was still fun. Fort Wayne sure isn’t what it used to be.
This is Craig Beaverson (aka Froggie). To answer all of the questions youmay have.
1. There were 4 Happys.
1) Mike
2) Cousin. His name ?
3) Adrian
4) Philip
2.Mike fell and blew his knee out while doing a handstand on top of the Happy Mobile.
3. No recordings of Happys Place where saved by 55 or any of us involved with the show. In hind sight that was very stupid.
4. Dagaboy, your friend is wrong, big time, the CG “A Cock” never aired. End of story.
Well that’s too bad that there isn’t recordings of Happys place floating around , back in the 80’s we took our kids to be on the show and my neice took over , Happy had the kids in a line to ask them their names and my neice went around again to see him, well she made her self known that day my son did too, he yelled her name out loud.It was hilarious, the other parents went hysterical, Happy too and said while going to break ‘Its not Happys place today, it’s Amy’s place’.. we lost the tape our Mom recorded it on too bad it was great!
Wow! As a former New Haven resident, I too have memories of Happy’s Place, Steve Shine, Shocker Theatre and the Hilger’s Market commercials (they had a wonderful crop every year as I recall.) Probably because it was the same commercial year after year!!!
I cannot believe that Froggie is on this thread. Did you have to talk different to make your voice sound like that, or is it actually that deep and froggish?
My swim coach was a sports therapist and he either provided physical therapy to Happy after he blew out his knee, or he delivered his knee brace or something like that. As a child at the time, that was exciting news!!
Does anyone recall the programming that was on channel 10 public access around 1989 or 90? I remember this show that was two guys jamming, one on guitar and a guy playing drums who always used these crazy facial expressions to accompany their music. My dad and I could usually watch for 5 or 10 minutes, then would have to change it. That’s all I remember about ACPL channel 10 public access.
whoa…im too stunned to even laugh at this…
Huh. Mike’s comment there led me to do a new Internet search on the original Happy… and whaddaya know, he’s now a toy inventor!
It was cool to read all of your posts.I always joke with people and tell them that Mike Fry is my girlfriends dad.I wish someone would have saved some of the episodes.Coming home from school and watching happy’s place,and waking up to friggys pad,was freakin awesome when we were kids,so it would be cool to see some of them again.
what a great show i saw the website 4 the toys and its got his e-mail add. and phone number
Does anyone remember the name of the theme song?
This topic is probably dead by now but it can’t hurt to reminisce a little myself. My kid was watching a cartoon called Voltron on cartoon network recently and I swore I’d seen it before so I googled it and the people that made it made a show called Saber Rider. Some of you probably remember it being one of the cartoons that were shown on Happy’s Place. Well to make a long story longer I called my mom up and had her bring over a stack of VHS that had been in her garage for almost 15 years. Among them I found to episodes of Happy’s Place from Monday August 8, 1988 and Monday January 15, 1990. Those are really specific date because at the beginning of the episodes Happy uses a monitor to tell what day it is. My brothers and I went on the show more than a few times and it was awesome each time. At the end of the show they gave all the kids a bag of stuff. That was quality television and as I can tell from the other people that posted on here they enjoyed the show as much as I did.
Jack you need to upload those to you tube like right away if you can. Kristine can you contact Jack and let him know he needs to upload the video?
One of the Happy’s lived near me and right across from my friends house. I saw him juggling for his kids…
Well I found some more Happy the Hobo information out so I thought I would share it with the group. This is an article about “Cousin Happy” his name is Chris Danielson and he is a pastor. Here is where I found the article.
http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070226/NEWS01/702260312
Has anyone on here given anymore thought to putting together a Happy’s Place fan site? I have looked all over the web and this seems to be the only place that has any real on going discussion on the topic.
Just wanted to let you guys know that the Happy’s Place theme song was “Give It Up” by KC & the Sunshine Band. Kinda funny, in a sick and twisted way. Ahh, how I miss my childhood 🙁
My grandpa took me to Happy’s Place when I was three. That was in the old old days when Mike Fry was Happy. When he quit, there was a two year wait list to get tickets to the show. He was so over the top and crazy! His sister Deb used to babysit my cousins. Then, when I was in high school, I went to a methodist church camp, and Chris Danielson (cousin Happy) was the keynote speaker. He was friends with the pastor of my church so I got to hang out with him and ask him some Happy’s Place questions. Fast forward to March 2007. I had an interview to work at Lincoln Financial Group, and the guy that interviewed me for the job was Adrian Guenther. Yep, another Happy the Hobo has come into my life. So I work with him now, and he’s a real cool guy. Now if I can just meet this Philip guy I will have met every Happy the Hobo. And no offense to Craig, but I’m kind of disappointed to find out that Steve Shine wasn’t really the voice of Froggie.
I also met Chris Danielson at Methodist church camp. Our church was lodging with his church. Someone let it slip that he was Cousin Happy and it was amusing.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3350196052212016221&hl=en
Wow what an awesome chat. I grew up in the 80’s and had a single mom so we didn’t’ have cable, Super 55 was a channel I new well back then. I always thought the original Happy was kinda cute..LOL and I loved the goofy things he would do. I grew up in a small town called Woodburn and one year at Woodburn Days Happy came out and ate at a huge food tent that was there. My Grandmother was one of the servers and he went through the line and when she served him he reached over the table and kissed my little grandma smack on the cheek. Well I was just coming into the tent to see her and saw the whole thing. Let me tell ya I was like 12 or 13 then and that was a site that I will never forget..LOL!! I miss the old days!I always wondered what Mike Fry looked under that makeup…Time to Google!!
TC everyone!
Mike Fry was of course the true Happy from my childhood, but when I was in high school, a bunch of my friends and I religiously watched the new Happy (Adrian, correct?), who was on with Lawnboy and Chester. I didn’t care about the cartoons at that point, but some of the comedy those guys pulled off was hilarious. A lot of it was borderline subversive — stuff that would go right over kids’ heads or just be too absurd for them to find humorous. It was strange and surreal –somewhat akin to Pee Wee’s Playhouse, but with a far less expensive set and a studio audience. One of the latest memories I have of the show is of Lawnboy standing in a field while trying desperately to give tickets to the show away to cows. His cracking voice had a piteous quality to it that made almost every line he delivered ridiculously funny. One other thing I remember is that it seemed that every time the Goofy Game-O-Rama involved projectiles (Frisbees, Nerf darts, etc), Chester was the MC. This era was very different from the Happy1 days, but it is almost as special to me. Did anyone else out there notice this strange brand of humor? And does anyone out there know the identities of Lawnboy or Chester?
I was on the show back in ’87 because I had won a contest at school. I planned on doing something really cool when he asked me my name and totally froze. I didn’t expect that all of the parents were going to also be in the tiny studio just feet away. Tons of parents I didn’t know. Happy asked me to say “We’ll be right back, babe.” Total nerdville on my part. Ironically my dad ended up on there and came of cool. I always thought my dad would have made a great children’s show host. If I remember correctly my sister was on there too and was scared of clowns.
Gah I miss Happy’s Place, I too used to watch it all the time as a kid, I grew up in Warsaw, Indiana. So I know how it feels also. I wish there was still videos of it around, but sadly non-exist, if anyone has any videos rip and upload them to youtube please.
To respond to CalistoCoon’s post, you may be in luck. I appeared on Happy’s Place twice, once in 1994 and again in 1996. I think i still have tapes of both episodes and I will try earnestly to get these online.
I don’t know Lawnboy’s identity. All I remember is that Lawnboys used to be my dad’s hero….funny.
Has anyone found any information out on Happy (aka Mike Fry)?!?! I wanted to send him an email with a Happy’s place shout-out…not that he doesn’t get enough already!!!
I work @ Super Fox 55 and I can confirm that all shows from the 80’s have either been lost or are w/ people who are no longer work here.
The theme song is “Give It Up” by KC & The Sunshine Band from 1984.
Froggy was played by Graig Beverson who still works here and is the last link left to Happy’s Place @ Fox 55.
If I get a chance I will make vids of shows starting with 1991 but all the footage is on MII tapes & we really don’t use those machines much anymore.
My brother was on the show in 1984 & picked me to say hello to.
If you want to get a hold of Mike Fry try contacting him through his website
http://www.fancyfortunecookies.com
Hi, great string you have here, I was the fourth and final Happy…6 years on the job until I finally ran the show into the ground.
I too grew up watching Mike Fry as Happy, that’s how I learned how to juggle and that was really my only qualification to get the job in the first place. I never made it on the show as a kid but I did meet the original Happy at a basketball game when I was in middle school.
Lawnboy was played by a cameraman named Rick who is still a really good friend of mine, he lives in Louisville where he is one of the top photogs for a Louisville News Team…he’s won a bunch of Emmys for his shooting.
Chester was played by a guy named Paul who I’ve lost touch with…you out there Paul?
Our comedy was a little over the top and we sure didn’t have the audience Mike could capture in his day. We did have a blast though, enjoyed every minute of the show. It eventually got cancelled because people weren’t buying enough breakfast cereal or something like that.
I still live in broadcast range of FOX 55 (formerly SUPER 55 FOX) and have tons of our show skits on VHS. I can’t even get my kids to watch them.
Paul Moring was Chester the Fox. Last I knew, he was running lights at the Civic Theater. Phillip Colglazier (aka the “gay” Happy) is the director at the Civic.
Ok, Kris. Here’s a little nostalgia. Flashback to the blizzard of ’78. Little Kristy is only 10-1/2 mos. old. Daddy, Grandma Vee, & Grandma Harter got snowed in @ Mamaw’s house in Auburn. Your uncle Rick walked to our house on top of the fence by the school because they were worried about us. Your Aunt Deb, Rick & Mike were all snowed in at home. Our neighbor was an oxygen supplier and the county dug out a lane on our street with a backhoe to his house so he could get out and deliver oxygen to someone. The fire department came down and rescued us on snowmobiles. You screamed the entire way to Grandma Vee’s house. Once we got there, it was fun time! You got to play with your uncles and Channel 55 was broadcasting 24 hours a day (only one then). And I remember the guy giving the weather outside! Wow, Happy’s Place & Froggie’s Pad. You poor kids. We should never have had TV.
I can add that Steve Shine is the head of the Allen County Republican party and is often on television and radio talking about Republican topics.
Seeing Kent Hormann’s name reminded me of another part of the Fort Wayne television broadcasting landscape. The fact that WKJG (now WISE) 33 merged into WPTA 21. The major majority of the 33 staff was laid off, while Linda Jackson stayed on to do news but from WPTA’s set. Kent Hormann does sports on WPTA, and Greg Shoup was hired by channel 15.
It may be off topic, but I’m sure there are still a number of people who were involved with the show who are still in the local scene and were affected by this merge.
I also was on Happy’s Place in 4th grade. A friend of mine had a birthday party there and we all went. I wore my parachute pants, a bandana tied on my knee, and my spiked red leather bracelet (yeah, just a bit over the top for a 4th grader). But, because I was SO cool, probably not, I got to do the bump into break and say “We’ll be right back”. We didn’t have a VCR, so my mom tried to take a picture of the TV, but she used a flash and the picture was ruined. FLASH FORWARD 20 YEARS… I have worked in at WPTA/Indiana’s NewsCenter for almost 9 years. I have met Lawnboy/Rick when he was still in town and we were both news photogs. I worked with Adrian after the merger. I know Philip from The Civic. And I work with one of the original Happy’s Place producers here at the station. It’s funny how things kinda come full circle. I too would love to see some old footage. If anyone has any and needs help transferring it, please get in touch, I would love to help.
Dum diddy dum dum dum. diddly doo da
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_7p4CZ6ERY
Thanks for the link!
THANK YOU!!!!!
Dum diddy dum dum dum. diddly doo da
http://www.myspace.com/mikelfry
Hello all, I am totally amazed that I found this. It feels like I struck gold. I was on Happy’s Place 4 times as a kid. I now live in Columbus, OH and these folks here have no idea what they missed. I’m mostly a Mike Fry girl, but props to all of them.
Oh my god. Looks like Mike Fry is having a Happy Jr.!
Check his wife’s Myspace page.
I know you didn’t mean for this site to turn into “Happy’splace.com” (there’s a thought! hmmm…), but I just had to add my slice of the “Happy The Hobo-Cultural Pie”. Long ago in the mid-eighties my nephew Christopher went to a taping of Happy’s Place. At that point in time, he was (a kid) heavily into Michael Jackson. At the point in the show where they asked the kids their names, Christopher mentioned that he liked “the king of pop” and Happy asked him to dance like Michael Jackson. As my nephew paused, I was sitting at home with my Mom and my sister, with my hand over my forehead methodically repeating,”Don’t dance! Don’t dance! Don’t dance! Don’t…” THANK THE LORD, HE DIDN’T!!! Ever since, my nephew and I have been hoping that somehow we could find a recording of that episode to show his wife. If their is ANYONE who has this, PLEASE POST IT ON YOUTUBE!!! I have another story:
Years later after high school (I am class of 1992 from Elmhurst High School in Fort Wayne)an old friend of mine named Jamie (Jamie if you’re out their, I’m looking for you. Read on and you may know who this is, baby-babe!)worked at WFFT Super 55 Fox. This was around 1994. Jamie used to cue up the tapes for commercials as well as other misc. jobs around the station on 2nd shift. At this point Jamie used to go with a friend of mine (who stupidly effed things with her…I wouldn’t have…)and we would always hang out in the studio on the Happy’s Place set. We would go behind the Froggy’s Pad stage and put on pornographic puppetshows using Froggy and any other stuff we could find, to make Jamie laugh. At one point, I recall looking in the piles of kid artwork and coming across those centerfolds another poster spoke of on this site. Well, to make a long story short (TOO LATE!), some of us used to get “anibreated” on the Happy’s Place set (anibreated being a relative term). For those who are in the know, the studio that Happy’s Place was taped sat in the same small studio that Rise With Shine (Starring Steve Shine) was also taped. Every time I was in that studio, I’d go over to the Rise With Shine set and rummage through the endtable that sat next to his chair (from which he would conduct his interviews). Usually, he would keep these blue cards for the next morning’s show. I’d take these blue cards and re-organize them with false factoids and obsurd questions for his guests like: “Do you have any other connection to the local republican party other than a penchant for small shaved boys?” Every morning after I would do this, I’d tape Rise With Shine just to see if he’d slip up and ask one of my planted questions. Usually, he’d just slip the blue cards to the back of the stack and move on with a slightly bewildered look on his face, looking off camera. So, if their is anyone who knows where my old friend Jamie is or how I can get a hold of her, please drop a line. Jamie, if you’re out there, I still live at the same house and you can reach me through my sister, who is listed in the phone book. In case you don’t realize who this is, it’s Steve the comic book artist. You know, the one who used to flirt with you in Mrs. St. Germain’s Journalism room? We worked on The Elmhurst Advance together! I miss the hell outta’ ya’ and would love to touch base with you again and see how you’re doing.
—Steven J.V.
dude.
Kung Fu Cousin Happy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR0TDNvxDEI
LOL oh dear.
I was amazed to find this site.. My little brother and I would watch Happy’s Place every day after school.. we never made it on to the show, but we did see Happy(Mike Fry) at Southtown Mall once, and he wouldn’t give us the time of day, he was to busy talking to the pretty blondes in the food court.. That changed our attitude about the show from that point.. but even still it is a memory from my past and I am all for nostalga (ok so i can’t spell)
Hey! This is Steve the comic book artist again! I have one other Happy the Hobo story I forgot about (then I’ll shut up and you can get back to regular programming). One of the other posts on this site talked about Happy at Southtown Mall picking up on blondes at the food court. I can vouch for this. I met Mike Fry (Happy) twice when I was a kid. The first time was on a Sunday morning at a doughnut shop that used to be on West Jefferson (across from Azar’s Big Boy-Which is now the Shangri-La stripclub…Ahhh Fort Wayne!)called Mr. Doughnut’s. A friend of the family took me and her son to see him. Their was nobody in the place except for some disgruntled older gent who kept looking at Happy like he burned all of his Perry Como albums. Also in the joint was a woman working the counter who seemed amused at him. We got to spend some time chatting up a storm with Happy and he seemed totally cool. Cut to the Southtown Mall appearance. I didn’t even know he was going to be there. I was only there to see a movie with 2 of my cousins (It was the eighties so for all I know, We were probably going to go see either Gremlins or Return of the Jedi for the umpteenth millionth time!!!). He was in the food court talking to this young couple when I walked up behind him and said hi. He remembered me right away and we talked a bit before I had to go to my movie. As for the previous post stating that he didn’t give them the time of day, well that’s unfortunate. I do, however, understand the bit about him flirting with the blondes, though. As I left with my cousins, I looked back and he was chatting it up with 2 high school girls from Wayne H.S. who ran up to him for his autograph. Now that I look back on that, I think I know what the name “Happy” really means because those girls were gorgeous!!!
I’ve been a happy fan for as long as I can remember television. One thing that has been at the back of my mind every time someone mentions the show is during the show sometime in the mid 90’s I swear the music they played when they cut to commercial was the melvins. The first time I heard it I was in shock and none of my friends would believe me and never watched the show to find out for themselves. Can someone please tell me if I’m going crazy or what, the song I think it was is sweetis off the album stonerwitch, it was only a few seconds of it right before the commercials. any help would be greatly appreciated I’ve been trying to prove this for years.
Slight correction regarding Mike Fry’s knee injury. I was driving the Happymobile that night. It wasn’t the 3 Rivers Parade… it was in November and Santa Claus was there. Must have been a Thanksgiving parade, or something to do with lighting up the city for Christmas (remember the big Santa and reindeer on the side of the Fort Wayne National Bank building?). Anyhoo, he wasn’t doing a handstand either. We were zipping back and forth on Main street and he just slipped off. The roof of that thing was slick, and there’s nothing to hold on to.
One other thing I remember from that night. All the local news crews were there, and one of them (I think it was 21) went live just as we were about to pass, so I buzzed them, literally coming within a foot of their reporter. My boss was home watching… he thought it was funny (thankfully).
I’ve got a lot of good 55 stories. It was like WKRP, only with more drinking. They were a professional bunch, but they sure did like to party.
rick miller is who played lawn boy
i met him at a fort wayne wizards game
then he was a camera man for nbc33 news
after they got sold i nevere heard from him again.
Rick Miller was my college room mate at Ball State. He is a great guy. Happy (Mike Fry) is from Huntington and comes back for his high school reunion all the time. My band was on a show with Mike something from “Magic”, it was where they late night movies and instead of commercials they would cut to Mike doing weird stuff with guests. Rick got my rock band on there and we had a pizza eating contest with Little Ceasar. I remember we all had to wear pajama’s. I still have the tape of those episodes. It was weird.
I’m sure whoever owns this board is hoping this will eventually die, so sorry to revive. Never on Happy’s Place, but I don know where all the old footage is 😉
You see I’m Mike Fry’s wife. You should facebook him. He’s there and will give everyone the time of day, even if you aren’t a “hot blond.” LOL…
Anyway a bloopers reel was just uploaded to youtube not too long ago.
Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbunpRVp21I
Hope you all enjoy it! Mike would love to hear from you. He gets emails quite frequently and always replies to them. Whoever is reading, Have a great day!
Wow, thanks for the comment Erin! I had no idea when I posted this random link EIGHT YEARS AGO that it would turn into a total “Happy’s Place” nostalgia-fest. Your husband is an important fixture in the memories of my generation of Hoosiers!
Incidentally, I just realized that the first couple comments from this discussion were missing, making the jump to the “Happy’s Place” discussion really random. Not sure what happened there, but I’ve restored the missing ones.
Awww, those video bloopers were great! I miss Happy’s Place. Thanks, Erin!
This sure has brought back some memories for me. I did some time at 55 too. I remember when Mike was hired. The place turned upside down shortly after the first show was broadcast and was never the same. Everything took second place to Happy. He was on fire and had kids screaming with laughter for years. What an impact!
Mike Fry (the original Happy the Hobo) created his own Facebook fan page, and has started posting great videos and photographs from the show’s heyday. I’ve asked him for some clips of Froggy, too!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Happy-The-Hobo/44222841445
hello fellow lovers of Happy’s Place this is ChesterTfox 🙂 glad to talk to you out there I’m still alive and still have the costume, well preserved. There is so many stories, and wild times. I started 55 as a film shipping editing clerk, and work myself into the posisition of Chester. I do not know if it was a step up, but it was fun times. Thanks for watching the show everyone it’s nice to know we touched so many hearts and souls. Thanks for the opertunity to entertain you.
Did all the Happy fans out there read that Mike Fry passed away last week? Sad news.
(is this thread really over a decade long??)
I saw it. Pretty sad. He was still too young!