"Who Gives a Hootenanny"




This is an episode I remember from the time and I was at least as annoyed with Fonzie now as I was almost forty years ago.  I mean, the guy learned to love classical music!  (He went to a Mozart concert offscreen in the Tom Hanks episode, so it wasn't just a one-off.)  Folk music should not be that hard to adjust to, especially if this is set in '64, when folk rock was coming into being.  (And I assume that it is set in '64, since Joanie and Chachi "guest star" from Chicago.)  Still, I'll go with a C+, since we can see how Ashley helps Fonzie see sense.

Notes:
  • It's pretty damn ironic that J & C want to play "rock & roll" at a friggin' hootenanny, especially after weeks of them doing pleasant but forgettable soft-rock '80s tunes.
  • Rick Dano, who plays Felix, had a small Laverne & Shirley role the previous year.
  • Brad Braisdell plays Lou, as he did in "Dreams Can Come True" in '80, but I don't know if it's the same Lou.
  • Even in a blonde Mary Travers wig, Judy Pioli is instantly recognizable to any L&S viewer as Phyllis.  She was Bertha the biker on HD in '79.

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