Love, American Style
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Love, American Style was an hour-long television anthology which originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974. For the 1971 and 1972 seasons it was a part of an ABC Friday prime-time lineup that included Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Room 222, and The Odd Couple.
Each week, the show featured different stories of romance, usually with a comedic spin. All episodes were unrelated, featuring different characters, stories and locations. The show often featured the same actors playing different characters in many episodes. In addition a large and ornate brass bed was a recurring prop in many episodes.
The show may be best known for its February 1972 episode Love and the Happy Days which became the pilot for the popular TV series Happy Days. That episode was written by Garry Marshall and featured Ron Howard (as Richie), Marion Ross (as Richie's mother), Anson Williams (as Potsie, Richie's friend), among others. Roles played in the episode by Harold Gould (Howard the father), Susan Neher (Joanie, Richie's sister), and Ric Carrott (Chuck, Richie's brother) were played by other actors in the spin-off.
The theme song was sung by the family pop group The Cowsills for the first season. A new version done by The Charles Fox Singers starting in the second season carried on for the remainder of the series, as well as on all episodes in syndication.
Occurrences in pop culture
- It is featured in the movie Dick.
- The rock group Far had a song titled "Love, American Style" on the album, Tin Cans With Strings To You.
- The rock group The Mr. T Experience had a song titled "Love, American Style" on the album, Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood, which contains a brief riff from the show's theme song.
- The movie The Running Man featured a future television studio as part of the set, where posters heralding "Death, American Style" were meant to reflect the cruel, twisted future.
- On That '70s Show, the character Kitty Forman baked three different kinds of fruit pie, to which she remarked, "It's like the opening of Love, American Style in pie!"
- The theme tune was featured in an episode of the American animated series Duckman along with a well executed parody of the opening credits.
- The series was parodied in a host segment during an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
- It is referenced to in The Steve Harvey Show, where character Romeo Santana advices his teacher to "let me hip you to Love, Dominican Style."
- Parodied as Sexual Intercourse, American Syle in Channel102.net's April 2006 prime time line-up.
External link
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