Reliving Happy Days

This is a little over the top, with Richie drinkin', swearin', and punchin' Fonzie.  And I still wish LB had more depth than the supportive if left out of the loop pregnant wife.  But compared to some of the HD I've sat through sans Richie, let's go with a B-. Notes: Bo Sharon returns as Little Richie.  I assume the role was recast for J & C's wedding. Donny Most is credited for this episode, but I don't see him on this version except in the Previously.  I don't think we get any further closure on Ralph, although he's attending optometry school in Madison.  It was nice to see him again, but I always felt that his character had wasted potential, glimpsed in some of his more serious moments, including his little romance with Leather. Despite the breakup, Chachi still comes over to mooch dinner at the Cunninghams'. Potsie resents Riche getting his slot on the Arnold's baseball team, and he strips off his pants, which seems to be a recurring ...

  I like this series-closer, especially the understated performance by Molinaro as the voice of reason, so I'll give a B-.  It's interesting how upset Louisa is about the possible elopement, considering how accepting she is of the idea of Chachi proposing I assume just a few months later on HD, however this chronology works out. A couple notes: Chachi is somehow still 18. Millee Taggart didn't write anything else for the Marshallverse, and instead seems to have done a lot of soap operas. Over the course of its 17 episodes, JLC ranges from C- to B-, averaging out to a high C, so it's not as good as Season Ten of Happy Days, although it's better than Season Eight of Laverne and Shirley.  I don't know that it would've been able to improve with more time, but there are certainly worse HD spinoffs.  *coughBlanskysBeautiescough*

  This is probably the best episode of the series, certainly the best so far.  I like that it's not about anyone's love life or music career.  It's just about Joanie standing up for herself against a condescending professor, with Chachi's support, and Mario trying to do the right thing.  OK, there is Al and Louisa learning to communicate better in the subplot about a ridiculously tacky couch, but it's not "romantic" per se.  Plus, Moran does a nice, sexy cover of "He's So Fine."  So B-, well done! Notes: William Woff, who plays Bill Ziegler, would be The Skier on HD the next year. Scott's brother Steven Baio is Jerry Wood here and would play Joey on HD in '83 and '84. I feel like they've toned down Bingo, and that's a good thing. Barry O'Brien had written a couple HD episodes and one for Laverne & Shirley, but this is his only one for JLC.   It's the first of two JLC scripts for Cheryl Alu, who had written one ...

  This was the first genuinely funny HD episode in ages, thanks to an insane performance from Tom Hanks, post- Bosom-Buddies and pre- Splash.  I was rooting for him against Fonzie, but I actually liked the resolution.  On the other hand, I really don't care about whether Flip and Bobby have their own fight.  So B-. A few notes: Fonzie is 25ish, since it's seventeen years since he was in the third grade. I do feel bad for Arnold, who sees his restaurant destroyed, although at least it's the post-fire Arnold's. Heather sure warmed up to Fonzie quick.

Darn them, this is actually pretty good, since it gets back to that basic dynamic of Joanie and her parents, which was usually the best part of Seasons Eight and Nine.  Yes, Moran and Baio are "special guest stars," but it is nice to get some closure.  I still don't care about the post-Richie teenage boys, but at least they're kept to a minimum.  I'll give a B-. This is set at the end of the summer, although it aired on October 12th.  I have no idea what summer of course.  And I think this is the first episode with scenes set in the bathroom in ages.

Yes, the title resembles the one about Joanie and Spike's date, but here Chachi has issues about his mother dating a mystery man, especially after Chachi tries to fix her up with Al.  I actually enjoyed this for a post-Richie episode, since there's some good character stuff with the Arcolas, and Fonzie's jealousy of Potsie being invited to a Cunningham dinner is funny.  However, I'm not crazy about the double standard that Fonzie can have four "birthday party dates" back to back, but Louisa has to explain why she wants to date after years of widowhood.  So B-. Notes: Ironically, the weakest of all Laverne & Shirley  season-openers aired that night.  Three's Company had kicked off the new season the previous week, with its own hour-long special, introducing roommate Terri. Al immediately imagines marrying Louisa, which he would in fact do, although I don't think his brother the priest performs the ceremony. In a more bitter moment, he calls Chachi ...

While I of course wish that Richie was actually at his own wedding, this is probably the best episode of the season, for what it's worth, with some actual laughs, emotions, and energy.  So B-. Notes: Richie's middle initial is, as it was before, J., so shouldn't it be "R.J. and L.B. Forever," or maybe "R.J.C. and L.B.A. Forever"? Potsie gets to sing at the wedding. Ralph not only dances with Richie at shindigs on base, but he tried to go AWOL by sending himself home to his mother. Richie was supposed to have to stay in Greenland for a year when this first came up months ago, but now it's going to be another year. Howard shoots down the idea of Chachi marrying Joanie, but he later tells his high school senior that she's "next."  And, yes, three seasons later, Howard would play father of the bride. Jenny has a catcher's mitt to catch the bouquet, so she still hopes to marry young, despite the "marriage" with Fonzie. LB's...

We know that this episode definitely aired out of production order, because, one, it's set in 1961, and two, the old Arnold's still exists.  While I think it's interesting to get insights into Ralph's character, and his relationship with his parents, particularly his father, it does feel unbalanced that we never would see or hear his mother (not counting the version who played bridge with the Cunninghams in the early days).  Also, the view of divorce is a bit simplistic and optimistic, but then this was essentially a kids' show by then.  Anyway, B-. Jack Dodson makes his final appearance as Dr. Mickey Malph, one of my favorite minor characters.  I have no idea if the divorce went through. In its seventh season, Happy Days ranged from D+ (three of them) to B (one), averaging out to C+ again, although I was worried at times.  The cast and crew and writing staff are still able to bring it at times, and for a final R & R season, it's not bad. However, divorcing ...

Although I've never been heavily invested in the Joanie/Chachi relationship (OK, full disclosure, I did watch their spin-off), this is a sweet episode about him wanting her to take him seriously as a potential boyfriend.  Yes, she's still concerned about other girls going after him, here with Jenny P hiding in his gym locker, but she does seem to genuinely care about him.  And rather than the creepy Chachi (and Baio) of the past three years, here he's shy and tentative, not having even kissed her or held her hand.  In the end, she has to make the first move.  I'm giving a B-. Notes: Part of Chachi's insecurity comes from all the times Joanie rejected him, and part comes from when he was shorter than her.  No mention is made of him originally being a year younger, but that's obviously retconned by now. Lori Beth's memories of Richie not making a move on her for the first three months definitely don't fit what we saw onscreen.  Maybe she made this up (exce...

I remember cringing at the time (when I was almost twelve) about how aggressively they kept telling us IT'S THE 1960S!  Not to mention the whole double standard about Inspiration Point.  But I actually enjoyed it this time, especially Marion getting drunk during the mother-daughter talk.  So B-. Notes: It's the 1960s, I guess 1962.  The espresso machine is a bigger deal, and maybe with stuff happening out of chronological order on this series, this is actually where it first appears at Arnold's. As he did on the classic beatnik episode of Season One, Ralph tries to pass as a beatnik, here to impress a specific girl.  I can only imagine the crossover craziness that could've happened, since "The Beatnik Show" of Laverne & Shirley aired the following week.  Here though, it's barely a subplot. Joanie is a 17-year-old high school senior.  Richie claims he didn't go to the previously unmentioned sector of the Inspiration Point called "the Alamo...

Well, this is one of the funnier episodes of Season Seven, as Howard and Marion renew their vows with the questionable help of Bob & Ray.  And a clown.  So B-. Notes: I've lost track, but Howard and Marion having a twentieth-fifth wedding anniversary feels roughly accurate. So Howard and Marion married in 1936 but he was already in the Army?  Was he serving before World War II as well as during? They hope to all gather again in twenty-five years, so 1986.  By my math, that would've been a 2004 episode, and I think they were all alive then.  (Bosley died in 2010, Moran in 2017.) Is this the first time we've seen the Cunninghams' backyard in the before-a-studio-audience episodes?  If I recall correctly, Joanie and Chachi would also have a backyard wedding. Is this the first time we see Howard in Fonzie's "office"? This time Rance Howard plays the Cunninghams' grouchy neighbor Mr. Burkhart. It feels a little weird that Lori Beth isn't at the Cunni...

The title is a bit misleading, since it's Marion doing amateur theater, but Fonzie gets recruited when he threatens the director/ lead actor, who's sexually harassing Marion.  (The harassment aspect isn't given as much attention as it would be in future sitcoms, but I do like that it shows it could happen to a middle-aged housewife.)  The highlight of the episode turns out to be the scenes from The Rainmaker, with Fonzie playing the title character.  Another B-, so maybe this season won't be a disappointment after all.   A couple notes: The callbacks to Fonzie's lead in Hamlet are a nice touch. Hollace White would write four more episodes.

This is the best episode so far this season, which means it's flawed but relatively intelligent.  As the title suggests, Richie, who admits he's "crazy about" Lori Beth, nonetheless has a "grown-up affair" with a freelance photographer.  I don't know how far they go, but he's out all night and she does invite him up to her hotel room.  He says they walked and talked.  Anyway, she of course loves and leaves him and he goes back to LB, who presumably is none the wiser.  I'm giving a B-. Notes: Richie dipping and kissing Joanie on the neck is far stranger than any of the Mother Goose costumes. Richie still has his job on the Milwaukee Journal loading dock. Bartender Wayne Morton would return four years later, as Dwight Mesmer. Ria Nepus would write four more episodes for HD, as well as two for Laverne & Shirley, one of these being the flawed but charming "Sing, Sing, Sing."

This was much better than I expected, with that plot, and in fact, thanks in part to good sight gags and to Richie and Lori Beth pretending to be Howard and Marion's bridge opponents, it's one of the funniest episodes of Season Six, for whatever that's worth.  Well, it's worth a B-. Notes: Considering how racist the Hawaiian and Arab bits could've been, I'm actually glad they're not worse. This aired on May 8th, almost two months after the previous episode. Chachi is sixteen, although Baio (born in 1960) was playing a twelve-year-old on Blansky's Beauties  two years before. Potsie can play the piano.  Al sort of can, too. Both Ralph and Joanie are gone, being respectively out of town and sick in her room. Marion is just as bad at bridge as she was when she and Howard played against Ralph's first-edition parents.

  Here's the review I wrote almost five years ago,  https://reviewingeverytvshowiown.blogspot.com/2016/10/happy-days-mork-returns.html , and yeah, I'd still go with a B-. Additional thoughts: Mork is revisiting "The Fifties," but isn't it 1961 by now? Mork's message to Orson is poignant but he's wrong that HD never mentions Joseph McCarthy. One anniversary special was Fonzie's birthday, but now it's Marion's. It's interesting that Jennifer Jerome is at Marion's surprise party, but the Fonzie bails for a date with the unseen Paula Petralunga. Mother Kelp is namechecked, and presumably Marion was visiting her because of the birthday. Definitely not much from the first two seasons this time, I think just a glimpse of very early Joanie. And no clips of Laverne, Shirley, their friends, or even Mork himself. They're still acting like Mork was friendly on his first visit, and I guess Richie and Fonzie remain the only people that know he...

This might've been a C+ at best, but then there are all those guest shots, including the Laverne & Shirley  crossover that easily steals the show.  I've reviewed that on my L&S blog ( https://revisitinglaverneandshirley.blogspot.com/2021/05/a-visit-to-funeral.html ), but I'll just mention the other laugh-out-loud part is when Arnold asks Al how business is and Al says don't ask.  Anyway, B-. Notes: Shirley Kirkes makes her penultimate appearance as Blossom and is the one that Fonzie goes off with, leaving Ralph to give apology kisses to a line of girls who thought Fonzie was dead. Fonzie gets a little creepy with her, playing his mother, "the widow Fonzarelli," but maybe not as creepy as Chachi hitting on Joanie for "after the funeral." Officer Kirk comes to the funeral, just to make sure Fonzie is dead. Lorrie Mahaffey is back as Jennifer Jerome and enters with Lori Beth.  Both girls will hear their boyfriends tell their roles in this exciti...

While Leather and Ralph are adorable together, I wish there had been more of them as themselves, or at least another episode after this to explore that relationship.  She doesn't even sing!  Instead we get another Potsie & Jennifer duet, which is nice, but shrug.  So B-. Notes: Ralph's concern about Cuba is both funny and prescient for (approximately) February 1961. The three boys are in three different branches of the service, as they were before. Chachi is going to Inspiration Point on foot, with two girls. Joanie is going to I.P. with a boy who is actually bringing his telescope, not a line. Marion keeps beating Howard at games he teaches her, and she outdoes him at basketball, too. Mother Kelp taught Marion basketball, and gave Richie's ball to him.  One wonders if Chuck was her favorite. I like that in this makeover episode, Leather actually asks to be made over (hence the title), unlike some uses of this trope.  And I especially like that Leather and R...

Yay, Leather's back!  She gets to do a couple songs with the guys (including Chachi on drums): "Moonlight Love" and the timeless "Do the Fonzie."  The dances and music are mostly anachronistic, now for the early to mid-60s, which is a change from earlier seasons where "The Fifties" were put in a blender.  Anyway, B-. This time Fred Fox, Jr. plays Freddie the fading rock star who steals Leather's song.

This is one I sort of remember from the time, especially the Bradyesque line down the middle of the room.  Some of the humor here, like with "Fat Phyllis's dress," is corny, but it works, so B-. A few notes: Chachi is back, I think for good, and somewhat impacts the plot.  Not coincidentally, Baio is now in the opening credits. Richie was editor (or at least science editor) of the college newspaper recently, but here he's writing an advice column in a shopping paper for a couple weeks (while "Aunt Fanny" is away getting a divorce).  I'm not sure if this is an improvement or not, although at least he's getting paid. And, yes, the trope of someone being an anonymous advice columnist and giving bad advice is friends is fairly common, but I've always been fond of it.

The title gives the message of the episode and of Fonzie.  I really enjoyed seeing more of Richie playing big brother with Joanie, and the reactions of their parents when they think he's the smoker, so B-. Notes: Joanie has joined the Magnets, who were fairly prominent in the first two or three seasons of the show. This episode (the first of 1979) is presumably set in early '61, before the famous surgeon general's report, although the dangers of smoking were already becoming better known than they were in the '50s. Mother Kelp smokes, cigars. We see Joanie's room again, and Fonzie sees it for the first time. Is it a little weird that he describes Joanie as "his Number One chick"?  Or that Richie calls her "a shapely child"?  It doesn't quite come off as creepy. Potsie is very naïve (especially for a 19-year-old) about reproduction, of not only chinchillas but of Cunninghams. Joanie gets Richie's "18-year-old speech" although she...