"The Second Anniversary Show"
Notes:
- "All the Way" aired on January 15, 1974, but January 12, 1976 was a Monday, and I assume that this was in the 8:30 slot, since Barbary Coast and Mobile One weren't exactly big hits.
- Rather than try to come up with some anniversary that this could be about (as Laverne & Shirley would do on their anniversary show), this is Fonzie's unspecified birthday, the first thrown for him by guys rather than girls.
- It's held at Arnold's, I'm guessing because Howard put his foot down about it being thrown at the house.
- It's a very Fonzie-centric episode, in both flashbacks and new scenes.
- We get to see the highlights of the Laverne & Shirley guest shot, which I'm sure was chosen deliberately to push the upcoming spin-off, although the clips work well on their own. (Potsie and Ralph are very jealous about the double date, even presumably months later.) Penny is a "special guest star," while Cindy is just a regular guest star, as I believe was the case on the debut episode. But the Marshallverse is nepotistic.
- There's a montage of "Sit on It," which meant I lost track of how many episodes were sampled here. Sitcom catchphrases were a thing before the mid-'70s (see for instance Dobie Gillis), but ABC really started aggressively pushing them in the Gerald Ford era. (Welcome Back, Kotter and What's Happening!! were two other examples big with Gen-X kids.)
- Instead of the usual closing credits, we get shots of everyone hanging out at Arnold's, including Howard and Marion dancing.
- I can't tag all the writers and guest stars, but I'm including the two writers that IMDB lists. And we again see Jeff Conaway as a proto-Kenickie.
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