"Be the First on Your Block"

The timing feels off on this C+ May 7th episode, although it is interesting that it's another that addresses a serious topic in a way that later seasons probably wouldn't have.  My father (who was not much younger than Howard Cunningham in the second half of the '50s) built two bomb shelters, one in the early '60s, and one in the early '80s, when I was a teenager, so I probably have a different take on this than most Gen-Xers, but I agree with Richie's point that it's more important to have a good life now than live in fear about the future.

Other thoughts:

• Chuck is absent from the "family discussions," but Howard thinks Chuck would just dribble a basketball the whole time.
• This is at least the second episode where Joanie is playing with a Slinky.  This despite the fact that she's almost a teenager.
• Marsha the waitress is arguably the most tragic character of the early years, here saying she's used to a life of pain and loneliness.
• Ronnie Schell, who's Ernie the bomb-shelter salesman, is one of those C- or D-list celebrities I instantly recognized, and he'd return later in the year as Monty Miller.
• Similarly, I know Christina Hart from her two memorable appearances on Three's Company; she'd return as Carole Actman but play Kitty later.
• The identity of the stranger in the "bomb shelter" is never revealed.

Happy Days in its first season is uneven, ranging from C to B+, and averaging out to a B-  The show takes awhile to settle in and then doesn't always stick to what works.  Tom Bosley is definitely the strongest link, providing wisdom and humor as a balance to Richie's knucklehead friends (except when Howard is flat out wrong).  Ron Howard's Richie is a work in progress, not helped by the shifting characterization and Richie's own uncertainties.  Marion Ross's Marion Cunningham is more of a supporting character, but she has her moments, as does Erin Moran as Joanie, who is even more of a peripheral character.  And, yeah, Chuck #2 is pretty useless, making even less of an impression than Chuck #1.  I can see why Gavan O'Herlihy would be replaced.

As for Richie's friends, the Fonz is a voice of different wisdom and humor than Howard, willing to lie and cheat and rumble, but sometimes having good insights.  Potsie is Richie's main bad influence though, while Ralph is a frenemy who becomes a friend by season's end, unlike Bag.