Who is Richie Cunningham in Happy Days?

Show

Happy Days

Played by

Ron Howard

First episode

“All the Way”Season 1, Episode 1, aired January 15, 1974

Role

Lead

Network

ABC

Occupation

Teen, then journalism student and Army soldier

Show run

1974 to 1984

Also known as

Richard Cunningham, Richard J. Cunningham, Richie

Richie Cunningham is the wholesome, red-headed son of Howard and Marion Cunningham, forever trying to land a date and stay out of trouble in 1950s Milwaukee. Played by Ron Howard, he is the original lead of Happy Days and the good-hearted kid next door who befriends the coolest guy in town.

On Happy Days, Richie Cunningham's story runs through Arthur Fonzarelli (Best Friend), Howard Cunningham (Father), and Marion Cunningham (Mother).

Other ABC sitcom characters from around the same time include D.J. Tanner (Full House) and Danny Tanner (Full House).

Who is Richie Cunningham?

Richie is the middle child of the Cunningham family, living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his parents Howard and Marion and his little sister Joanie. When the series opens he is a student at Jefferson High, hanging out at Arnold's Drive-In with his best friends Potsie Weber and Ralph Malph and trying to figure out girls, cars, and growing up. He dreams of being a writer and works on the school paper, and later lands a job as a cub reporter for the Milwaukee Journal.

He is the classic all-American teenager of the era: polite, honest, a little naive, and much more comfortable doing the right thing than pretending to be cool. That is exactly why his friendship with Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli works so well. The leather-jacketed Fonz looks out for Richie, and Richie, in turn, keeps reminding everyone that Fonzie has a good heart.

Personality and comedy

A lot of the early comedy comes from Richie getting talked into schemes he is not built for, often with Potsie egging him on. He sinks his savings into a flashy but unreliable car to impress girls, tries to join a local gang, and fibs about how far he got on a date, and the plan nearly always falls apart in a way that teaches him something. When he spots a girl he likes, he breaks into a line of Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill," one of the show's best-known running bits.

Richie is also the show's moral center. He tends to own up to his mistakes, he often ends up talking things through with his father, and his decency gives the rest of the gang something to bounce off. As Fonzie became the breakout star, Richie shifted into the steady straight man, and Ron Howard and Henry Winkler shared top billing.

Key storylines

Richie graduates from Jefferson High in the season four two-parter "Graduation," then heads to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to study journalism. In season five he meets Lori Beth Allen at the college library, and she becomes his steady girlfriend through the rest of his college years.

After college, Richie joins the Army and is stationed in Greenland, alongside Ralph. He marries Lori Beth by telephone in season eight, with Fonzie standing in for him at the ceremony back home, and their son Richie Jr. arrives in season nine, with Fonzie again standing in for Richie at the birth. In the final season, Richie comes home in the two-part "Welcome Home," announces that he wants to become a screenwriter, and moves his young family to California. He returns one last time to watch his sister Joanie marry Chachi in the finale, "Passages."

Behind the scenes and legacy

Ron Howard was already famous as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show when he first played Richie in a 1972 segment of the anthology series Love, American Style. His role in George Lucas's American Graffiti helped revive interest in the idea, and Happy Days premiered on ABC in January 1974. Howard was a regular for the first seven seasons, then left in 1980 to focus on directing after signing a deal with NBC, which is why Richie is written into the Army.

Richie Cunningham became shorthand for the clean-cut, all-American boy. Austin Powers borrows the name as an undercover alias, and Dawson's Creek compares its own earnest hero to him. Howard, meanwhile, went on to become one of Hollywood's best-known directors, and Richie's final-season dream of writing for the movies is often read as a wink at his real career.

Richie Cunningham: frequently asked questions

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