"Welcome to My Nightmare"


Well, the title is apt, as this is one of the worst episodes of the series (so far).  In the previous episode, Fonzie mistakenly believed that if he had dental work, it might drain him of his cool, while here he dreams of a mad scientist indeed draining him of his cool.  Among other things, this is shown by him speaking like a stereotypical gay man interested in interior decorating.  And then there's the whole cringey subplot of Chachi encouraging Eugene to ask Jenny out, in part because Joanie turned Chachi down for two years.  I'm not fond of the "dating a nerd being dreadful" motif, but, hey, Jenny has the right to pick her own dates.  Add to that the whole thing this season of Potsie being a vestigial character, not to mention the usually fun Dick Gautier getting dreadful material, and you know, a D feels generous.  But I know the show will probably get worse.

A few notes:
  • Potsie is still majoring in Psych, and is actually good enough to tutor in it!
  • Former drummer girl Hillary Horan here gets the thankless sub-burlesque role of Nurse Elaine, her last IMDB credit for HD.
  • This was Mark Rothman's penultimate HD script, and it's hard to believe that in '75 he wrote both "Fonzie's Getting Married" and "A Date with Fonzie."

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