The 1981-1982 Television Season and the Marshallverse

I was in eighth grade and still watching a lot of television, but there was a sense that things were shifting.  The Early Eighties are their own kind of animal, '80s, yes, but not in the way even the mid-'80s were.  The hit sitcoms of the Seventies were either off the air or seriously morphed by then.  The Garry Marshall Hit Factory had survived Blansky's Beauties, Who's Watching the Kids?, Makin' It, and Out of the Blue, as well as the rise and fall of Angie.  The Odd Couple had long since become a respected syndication staple.  But what of the three shows that began in a fantasy version of Milwaukee, as well as that very Early Eighties spin-off?

In reverse order of debut, Joanie Loves Chachi did not make the Top Twenty in its first season, but it got healthy ratings in the 8:30 slot that Laverne & Shirley had been keeping warm most of the past six years.  My grades for that first little season are on the C-/C border, so I'll just do one average for the whole series after Season Two.

Mork & Mindy was back on Thursdays for its fourth season, but the characters had been written into a corner that would've been difficult to get out of had the show come back.  The ratings were no longer there though, so they signed off on a cliffhanger.

Laverne & Shirley in its seventh season came in at No. 20, certainly respectable, although that is the first season that my average drops from B- to C+.  Most of the cast wanted to wrap things up that year, except ironically Cindy Williams.

And Happy Days?  In its ninth season it was No. 18 in the ratings.  (Three's Company was somehow still No. 4.)  My grades range from D+ to B-, and the average, as in Season Eight, is C.  I still can't warm up to Bobby and the Belvins or most of the other new characters, but the series is still somewhat watchable at this point.  I wish that they had let Joanie age into college, as we were promised, but some of the most interesting episodes are about her trying to grow up.  I'm not invested in her relationship with Chachi, on the parent show or the spin-off, but I am mildly curious to see what happened in between this point and their wedding.  I wish that Potsie and Lori Beth had just been dropped, for the sake of the characters and for the performers, since they continue to look lost without Richie.  As for Fonzie, they seemed unsure if they wanted him to grow up either, but things would change for him in Season Ten....