I loved the crap out of this show, though oddly I only watched it as an adult, catching repeats at 4:00 & 4:30 am on some American station a couple years back. I would tape them and then watch them the next day- this show had always fascinated me in overall concept, and I set out to watch the ENTIRE series, getting the hang of the entire thing (it's from this stretch that I was able to re-write what used to be a very minimalist trope-page). And yeah, the first few seasons were the best, and it shifted pretty well to a standard sitcom set-up (both the first two "regular camera" seasons and the early "Three camera" seasons were pretty good for my taste). It was often predictable and a bit hackneyed (the infamous "Fonzie goes blind" episode), but still entertaining, and you can definitely get the appeal for so many '70s kids that grew up with it.
The later seasons SUCKED (the whole "Jump the Shark" season was actually pretty bad), but it was still rather fascinating to watch, for a "time capsule" type thing. And the finale is one of the greatest in television history.
Review #2
I loved the crap out of this show, though oddly I only watched it as an adult, catching repeats at 4:00 & 4:30 am on some American station a couple years back. I would tape them and then watch them the next day- this show had always fascinated me in overall concept, and I set out to watch the ENTIRE series, getting the hang of the entire thing (it's from this stretch that I was able to re-write what used to be a very minimalist trope-page). And yeah, the first few seasons were the best, and it shifted pretty well to a standard sitcom set-up (both the first two "regular camera" seasons and the early "Three camera" seasons were pretty good for my taste). It was often predictable and a bit hackneyed (the infamous "Fonzie goes blind" episode), but still entertaining, and you can definitely get the appeal for so many '70s kids that grew up with it.
The later seasons SUCKED (the whole "Jump the Shark" season was actually pretty bad), but it was still rather fascinating to watch, for a "time capsule" type thing. And the finale is one of the greatest in television history.