“I found my thrills…”
When Happy Days burst on to Australian TV screens in 1975 nobody could resist the lovable geekiness of Richie, the wisecracking mouth of Ralph or pure dumb nerdiness of Potsie. Everything 50’s was cool again; the cars, the clothes and of course the tunes.
Standing above all though was one Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, AKA The Fonz, AKA Fonzie. This James Dean / Marlon Brando ‘Rebel above the Garage’ superstar of the show could clear a stall with a look, start a tune with a fist, and defeat aliens with a single thumb and an “Aaaayyyyyyy”.
Fonzie rode a motorbike and had a way with the ladies, a jacket that meant business and hair that had its own management. Little Aussie kids couldn’t get enough of the show and the Fonz in particular, so of course he was afforded the greatest honour this country could bestow upon foreigners in the 70’s, an eponymous snack food. As if that wasn’t enough, the show itself was canonised antipodean style with it’s own ice cream.
I remember Fonzies as a cheesy snack similar to Cheetos, complete with all that great yellow snack-dust that clings to jumpers, fingers and mum’s back seat. The Streets Happy Days Ice Cream I can’t specifically recall, so one of you guys will have to help me out with memories of that. The sticker above was a Milk Bar premium, I’m not sure if Happy Days were ever sold in multi-packs. The Fonzies stickers were most likely given away the same way, there are a number of others out there, I’ll add a third example soon.
Henry Winkler (who played the Fonz) continues to appear in film and television to this day, while Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) never really kicked on as far as I know…
Cheers!
Will
The Fonzies stickers came in the Fonzies bag. I remember my cousins had them stuck to their wardrobe.
Cool! So they were actualy inside the bags? Weird.
Thanks for your recollection. 🙂
Cheers!
Will
Yep. I had a Potsie and Fonz one stuck on my my school bag 🙂
I’m trying to find out who made the snacks. I am pretty sure it was General Foods in Australia and Bluebird in New Zealand – the companies that both produced Twisties respectively. Any ideas?
Good question, I haven’t seen a packet since the 70’s so can’t be sure, but they did tatse a lot like cheetos rather than twisties. Who made / makes cheetos?
I remember them but can’t remember what they tasted like. Frito-Lay make Cheetos; but Smith’s/General Foods, who made Twisties in Australia, wasn’t acquired by Frito-Lay until the late 1990s.
I have one of the stickers from the packets still
Hi, I have more than one sticker of the Fonzies…and I have only a photo of the Happy Days ice ceram wrapper
Around the time when Happy Days was at it’s peak, a company brought out these ‘chips’ called Fonzies, in Australia, (we had them at school in Newcastle) and there was an amazing song that went with it
When you get together and you’re having fun
Getting yourself out in the sun,
Looking for something to munch on
Fonzies are number one.
In the winter or the summer time
In the rain or sunshine
When you’re having a good time
Fonzies taste fine
Why don’t you come out and play
Hey hey you’re gonna say
Fonzies are here to stay
Fonzies are OK
But unfortunately, Fonzies didn’t stay!!