"Hollywood," Parts 1 and 2

It's September 13, 1977.  I am in the fourth grade and when Howard is shocked that Joanie has a figure, I am not because I (in my baby bi way) noticed that last year.  I do not know that it is one week before THE TUESDAY NIGHT LINEUP THAT WILL DEFINE MY PRETEENS.  Laverne & Shirley is off this week so that Happy Days can kick off with another one-hour premiere, but my new favorite show is starting its second season in its new 9 p.m. slot, as the platonic trio in Santa Monica establish "ground rules."  I will not know for years and years that Fonzie jumping the shark will take on huge cultural significance.  I'm mostly noticing (in my baby bi way) that Richie looks a lot cuter with his "beach boy" look.

So I sit down to watch these episodes more than 40 years later, back-to-back, as they aired, and the biggest moment is actually OMG, Lorne Greene.  And there's no real payoff, just Lorne Greene, and by the way Bonanza had debuted almost 18 years to the day before his cameo here, and if this is the Summer of 1959, oy, back to timeline issues.  And, oh, jeez, the highly ironic debut of Scott Baio as Fonzie's cousin Chachi.

Let me try to assess these episodes in isolation.  And, well, maybe it's that most of Part One is filmed on location (on the beach), but the writing feels flat, the jokes just there, plot threads like Richie's oceanography love interest just fizzling.  So it's a C.  Part Two perks things up a bit with the Richie & Fonzie fight, also ironic, about potential stardom, so C+.

And here are the notes:

• Fifty-nine was in fact Troy Donahue's breakout year, so that works for the timeline.
• Of course the movie studio is Paramount, of course.
• James Daughton, who was Larry previously, here is Fonzie's rival Harold Croft, given the weak nickname "California Kid."
• James Van Patten, yes, son of Dick, is Sandy.
• His cousin Talia Balsam, daughter of Joyce Van Patten and Martin Balsam (and future ex-wife of George Clooney), plays Richie's main girl for this three-parter, Nancy Croft.  Her character is the second cousin of the California Kid.
• Laurette Spang's final HD role is Fonzie's main girl for this three-parter, Wendy.
• Lew Horn was Officer Marlow before and is Hinstead here.
• George Pentecost had crawled away from the wreckage of Blansky's Beauties, where he was a regular as Horace "Stubbs" Wilmington, and he not only plays the talent agent Duvall, but he'd be a lawyer in "The Robot Lawsuit" episode of Laverne & Shirley later that Fall.  (He'd also have three roles on Mork & Mindy, and actually worked pretty steadily.)
• And, yes, let's talk a little about Baio and his Chachi.  Then sixteen-year-old Scott had played Nancy Blansky's perverted twelve-year-old nephew.  (With Eddie Mekka as his big brother, and they were cousins to Carmine, because the Marshallverse is intricate.)  Blansky's Beauties would be revamped (pun sort of intended) in the Spring of '78, but for now Baio has landed here, as Fonzie's teenage (I don't yet know how old) cousin.  Richie teases Joanie that the short lad is her boyfriend, and Chachi does flirt heavily at her, not only with what would become his trademark "Wah wah wah" but with the pet name "Blue Eyes."  Joanie is not impressed, and their dynamic is like hers with Spike after the first date.  I doubt that Garry M et al. were expecting this to lead to a wedding, to say nothing of a spinoff, but it is undeniable that the ship begins from the get-go.
• Both Baio and Molinaro get "record shots" in the closing credits of Part One, like they're regulars but not top tier.
• Warren Berlinger is back, as the nameless Movie Director, but just in one scene in Part Two.
• Dave Agress is in Part Two and would be in Part Three, as Georgie, the one doing the Jack Benny impression.
• Roger Garrett and Joe Glauberg came up with the story for Parts One and Two, and Garrett would do one more HD script in '84, but he'd be busier over at L&S, with eleven scripts.  Glauberg did the teleplays with Walter Kempley, who'd do seven more HD scripts, including one with an alien and one with an angel.  So you know, shark-jumping probably didn't feel weird to him.