Them at the tennis, pass out with heat stroke, feelin' hot hot hot!

Before I start, today is the 40th anniversary of the premiere of the sitcom Happy Days. Happy Days originated during a time of 1950s nostalgic interest as evident in 1970s film, television, and music. Beginning as an unsold pilot filmed in late 1971 called New Family in Town, Paramount passed on making it into a weekly series, and the pilot was recycled with the title Love and the Happy Days, for presentation on the television anthology series Love, American Style. In 1972, George Lucas asked to view the pilot to determine if Ron Howard would be suitable to play a teenager in American Graffiti, then in preproduction. Lucas immediately cast Howard in the film, which became one of the top-grossing films of 1973. Show creator Garry Marshall and ABC recast the unsold pilot to turn Happy Days into a series. According to Marshall in an interview, executive producer Tom Miller said while developing the sitcom, "If we do a TV series that takes place in another era, and when it goes into reruns, then it won't look old." This made sense to Marshall while on the set of the show. Happy Days premiered on January 15, 1974 in the Tuesday night time slot that had been occupied by Temperatures Rising, which had been put on hiatus for a second retooling. During the show's 10 and a half year run, Happy Days spawned the hit television shows Laverne & Shirley (ran from 1976-83) and Mork & Mindy (ran from 1978-82), the latter of which was retooled after each season only to continue a steady decline in ratings which started at the beginning of its second season with a temporary move to a Sunday night timeslot. In other TV-related news, today is also the 33rd anniversary of the premiere of cop show Hill Street Blues. But back to today: if it's hot on court - temperatures of 42.2 Celsius were recorded yesterday - at the Australia Open, the mercury is also rising for tournament officials at Melbourne Park. Canadian Frank Dancevic fainted during his match with Frenchman Benoit Paire, before he got really hot under the collar over the conditions players had to contend with at the first tennis grand slam of 2014. "I think it's inhumane, I don't think it's fair to anybody, to the players, to the fans, to the sport, when you see players pulling out of matches, passing out," the world No. 122 told reporters. "I've played five set matches all my life and being out there for a set and a half and passing out with heat-stroke, it's not normal. Having players with so many problems and complaining to the tournament that it's too hot to play, until somebody dies, they're just keep going on with it and putting matches on in this heat. I personally don't think it's fair and I know a lot of players don't think it's fair." It wasn't just players who succumbed to the elements. One of the ball boys fainted during 11th seed Milos Raonic's four-set defeat of Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver. And in the women's draw, Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki claimed the weather caused her drinks bottle to melt on court while second seed Victoria Azarenka described playing at the Rod Laver Arena as like "dancing in a frying pan." Seriously, nobody should be playing sport in that sort of heat. If the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has had to undergo major contortions so that the tournament isn't played in 50-degree heat, then surely the Australian Open can be moved to a cooler part of the year, and if it clashes with footy season, then so be it.