From the old "Jump The Shark" website in 2003:
You poor deluded fools. Everything that went "wrong" with Happy Days was actually a brilliantly conceived story arc from day one. It all began when Mr. Cunningham caught Chuck stealing money from his hardware store. He hired a local thug, Arthur Fonzarelli, to have him quietly executed. "Fonzie", as he is known, killed Chuck and dumped the body in one of those big lakes over there. Then he was to leave town and never return. Fonzie blackmailed Mr. Cunningham into letting him stay at their house permanently, otherwise he would expose Mr. Cunningham and prey upon his family. Mr. Cunningham swore revenge. He readily allowed Fonzie to stay, but secretly was determined to destroy him by undermining his persona. This took many years, but in the end he succeeded. In another thread which history will eventually show as being on the threshold of genius, an time traveller named Mork from "Ork" (actually Stockton, CA) arrived from 1980. His sole purpose: to avenge his father's death. Yes, Chuck had a son before he was slain, that was why he was stealing money. Although he was defeated in a spectacular battle against Fonzie at Al's, he tricked everyone into thinking it was a dream. He fled back to 1980 and devised another fiendish plot. He sent a young criminal mastermind named Chachi back in time to infiltrate Fonzie's life. His real goal: to destroy Fonzie, he must destroy the culture around him. Hence the feathered hairdo and other anachronisms. He later also found out that Mr. C originally hired Fonzie to do away with Chuck, so he seduced his daughter Joanie. So between the slow erosion of his soul from Mr. C and the Machiavellian plotting of Chachi, Fonzie was doomed. He grew morose. He eventually became that which he most feared, a washed up middle-aged loser, a mere shadow of his former self. Chachi's agenda eventually doomed everyone around him except for Richie, who escaped.
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