Reliving Happy Days

It is September 24, 1984.  The final episode of Three's Company aired last week.  This isn't even Tuesday, but Monday.  Eight p.m. on Tuesdays this Fall will be (as it was for much of last season)  Foul-Ups, Bleeps, & Blunders, now followed by the 3'sC spin-off/sequel Three's a Crowd.  Before long, the outtakes show will be pushed to 9:00 and Crowd will foolishly be placed at 8:00, followed by Who's the Boss? , which has a much longer future ahead of it.  I will keep watching ABC, but I'm sixteen now and have a boyfriend who will eventually be my ex-husband.  The Tuesday Night ABC Line-Up I grew up with will become a set of mangled memories. I don't know if I watched this episode at the time.  I certainly didn't recall anything about it today.  I'm going with a C-, since it's pretty forgettable, except for the talk between Fonzie and Howard. Notes: Howard has been Grand Poobah for five years and has allegedly only recruited Potsie, but wh...

I wish the writing and Richie were more intelligent in this episode, although Richie and Lori Beth recreating their conversation from a year ago, when they were mere freshmen, is sort of sweet.  So C+ Goodfriend had appeared in the pilot Legs the previous May, and it was a reworked, Walker-less version of Blansky's Beauties.  Then it came back in the Fall as Who's Watching the Kids? , again with Scott Baio, as well as Jim Belushi and Larry Breeding, both of whom would show up late in the Laverne & Shirley run as three (yes, three) of Laverne's boyfriends.  Two episodes of WWK had aired at this point, but only seven more would appear between then and December 15th, and then it'd be cancelled with three episodes never aired.  And, yes, this would affect Season Six of HD , and ever after.  Anyway, LB remains Richie's girl, despite him lying and cheating on her (to the point of necking).

By this point, they didn't particularly care if the "4th Anniversary Special" was exactly four years after the series premiered.  (It aired on March 23rd.)  While I appreciate that they went for more of the first two seasons' episodes this time, and even a scene from "Love and the Television Set" that had already been recycled, this is still a clip show and the frame of Lori Beth writing a term paper on the Cunninghams as "a typical middle-class family" (why not her own?) is meh.  So C. Notes: Ralph hits on Lori Beth!  Less surprisingly, so does Chachi. Al tells LB that Rosa Coletti was middle class.  Garry Marshall co-wrote this episode, with Bob Brunner, under the pseudonym "Samuro Mitsubi." Lots of people in the flashbacks, including Maureen McCormick's character.  Mork doesn't make the cut, but one, they probably hadn't seen the home audience's reaction at the time this was shot, and two, I guess it was still a dream, ...

There's less of Leather here and the episode isn't as good, but I like the character insights, especially about the siblinghood of Richie and Joanie, so B. Notes: Hillary Horan, who usually has uncredited, lineless roles but has played the girl drummer before, here is Daphne, who plays the drums and had an apparently memorable date with Fonzie. Leather is going on tour with Fabian, who would be on Laverne & Shirley next week. And speaking of L&S, while everyone is out looking for runaway Joanie, Richie (offscreen) tries the Pizza Bowl, even though Joanie apparently never goes there.  We know Potsie goes to the P.B. (see "Excuse Me, May I Cut In"), but I do wonder about Richie's motives, especially since he says this at Arnold's, which technically is a restaurant. Joanie is definitely 15 here.  And for at least the second episode this season, we hear that the Fonz was on his own at 6. Al name-checks Rosa Coletti. And Jenny Piccalo has an older sister Ol...

I remembered liking Leather Tuscadero more than Pinky, but today she just blew me away on her premiere.  Suzi Quatro gives an indelible performance, not just as a singer but as an actress, playing tough yet vulnerable, and it raises the level of everyone's acting, especially Winkler, Howard, and Moran.  I'm going with a B+, because this is definitely one of my favorite episodes. Notes: Bringing Officer Kirk back, to object to former juvenile delinquents performing at Arnold's, is just right. Suzie Quatro would return in the role six more times. Leather stole Fonzie's wallet three years ago.  It's unclear if, like Pinky, she grew up in a convent, but I assume so. She's about 18 now. If you're looking for Ralph/Leather, it's there, especially on his side, and would pay off in her final episode. The cliffhanger has fifteenish Joanie planning to go to San Francisco as a Suede (Leather's backup singer), and Richie does not approve. Joanie gives Chachi a p...

The title is ambiguous, since it seems at first to be about her nerdy boyfriend Roger (Marc McClure in a different role), who says "keen" a lot and doesn't kiss her at the end of the date.  And then, tired of being treated like a child by her family and flattered by the attentions of the gangleader of the Red Devils, she dresses in a Jenny-Piccalofied outfit, including heavy makeup.  Then she is at the risk of being "initiated," i.e. gang-necked.  Until the guys ride to the rescue, with help from a guest star. Notes: One of my all-time favorite YouTube comments is on a clip of this episode, something about "the Grandpa's Trunk Hat Gang." Derrel Maury's first role on the show is Leroy. This is set on St. Patrick's Day and aired on March 1st, which is pretty timely for HD. It's presumably set before "The Physical," since Richie says that he, Ralph, and Potsie are almost eighteen. As when Joanie had her first date, Richie is prot...

Yep, another clip show, this time airing on February 5th and purporting to be Howard and Marion's twentieth wedding anniversary, even though on "Marion Rebels" they were married twenty-one years.  There are just two clips from the non-studio-audience days: Marion giving Joanie the "sex talk" and a bit of Diana Canova as one of the "chicks" Richie has dated.  It's sort of a crossover episode, in that it introduces Nancy Blansky a week before her own series premiered.  (More about that below.)  I'm going to have to go with a C- because the clips and the frame weren't particularly interesting this time. Notes: I get that Garry Marshall was eager to promote Blansky's Beauties, but this is a heck of a way to cram it into the Marshallverse.  Nancy is Howard's favorite cousin because she introduced Howard and Marion, even though it's been strongly implied that H & M met in high school.  Not only that, but they've made no attemp...

  The first of many HD  clip shows, heavy on what had aired so far in Season Three, although it was worth revisiting Richie in drag, dancing with Fonzie, this time with more of an audience reaction, I assume live-studio-audience, although maybe not.  I'm going with a C, since, as I've said on other blogs, whatever the appeal of clip shows at the time of airing, they lose a lot on DVD. Notes: "All the Way" aired on January 15, 1974, but January 12, 1976 was a Monday, and I assume that this was in the 8:30 slot, since Barbary Coast and Mobile One weren't exactly big hits. Rather than try to come up with some anniversary that this could be about (as Laverne & Shirley would do on their  anniversary show), this is Fonzie's unspecified birthday, the first thrown for him by guys rather than girls. It's held at Arnold's, I'm guessing because Howard put his foot down about it being thrown at the house. It's a very Fonzie-centric episode, in both fla...

This episode is most notable for the introduction of one of its most memorable minor recurring characters, no-nonsense Officer Kirk, played by Ed Peck for the first of nine times.  It also seems to have been one I either watched more than average or it somehow made an impression on me, because I recalled a lot watching it today, from Potsie and Ralph kissing the pinball machine to Arnold saying they should've crawled under the door for the pay toilet. As a kid and now, the episodes where Richie is idealistic appeal to me most, and I like that his father joins his passive resistance, although it does mean that Howard fails to get elected Grand Poobah, after waiting three years. Elvis was drafted in December '57 and joined the Army in March '58, if that helps with the timeline at all. Melinda Naud returns as Paula Petralunga, whom Fonzie plans to give as a "gift" to Elvis.  (Since Elvis isn't actually on the train, she will return.)   Jack Perkins plays a Drunk ...

I found the writing a little weak here, not particularly funny or insightful, so I'm going with a C. Jack Smith of course returns. This time Susan Lawrence is Girl #1. Peter Hobbs is the nameless Doctor here and would later be Mr. Dugan. Arnold cusses in Chinese, on national television!

This episode takes advantage of Ron Howard's resemblance to Howdy Doody, although he comes in second in the lookalike contest. Notes: There's another Lone Ranger reference. Now I want to know how Ralph's "degenerate" joke was going to go. Ralph's birthday is in August. Joanie being a Junior Chipmunk actually figures into the plot this time. Richie wants to major in Journalism in college, which would happen, so much for his plans to be a lawyer. This time Bruce Kimmel plays Mark Summers, the editor of the school paper, and he dresses like he's 40. Buffalo Bob Smith appears as himself, as does Howdy I guess. This episode's solo writer Bob Brunner's first of only two onscreen appearances (the other being the Foreman on the first Laverne & Shirley episode) is as Clarabell, although famously that was actually the future Captain Kangaroo, so the plot about the clown never being seen without makeup (although apparently without pants!) is ironic.

Although this episode aired on September 17th, it's clearly set before "Richie Moves Out," since it contains Richie's first couple dates with Gloria.  Also, Richie and Potsie buying a "heap" is supposed to have happened "last year," whenever that was.  We can see the dynamic between Richie and Fonzie starting to shift in the second season, with them more like equals, as Richie stands up to the Fonz, rather than just acting in awe of his cooler friend.  And there's a nice outdoor scene of Richie driving around the neighborhood, Potsie up front, Ralph in the back.  Furthermore, I should note that Richie seems to be a better kisser than he was in Season One, and generally not quite as stunted and awkward. A couple casting notes: We finally see Fonzie's boss, "Happy," but this would not be a recurring character. Lew Horn is Officer Marlow here and would later be Hinstead.

When I was a kid catching up on the early seasons in syndication, this April 16th episode was probably my favorite, and I'm very pleased that it holds up.  In fact, it's the first B+ of the series: smart, warm, funny, and willing to give Ron Howard something meatier than he's been given so far.  He even gets in a yelling match with Tom Bosley!  Also, it has the words "reefers" and "pregnant," and that wonderful "purpose"/"usurp us" rhyme that has stayed with me for over forty years.  Oh, and the nifty little scene of Potsie & Ralph (who are shifting into their later standard friendship) sneaking into the coffeehouse, only to find Marsha moonlighting from Arnold's. Other thoughts: The line I most recall from this episode is of course "You're going to be a daddi-o." Richie wanted to go to law school on a recent episode, but his poetry shows the writer he would become. This is set at the beginning of summer vacation...

On this February 26th episode, Fonzie drops into high school at Richie's encouragement, but he soon has Richie doing his homework.  Richie draws the line at cheating, but they remain friends.  If I recall correctly, Fonzie would later get his diploma and become a teacher himself.  The episode is also significant for Fonzie coming over for dinner, although Joanie thinks he's a hood and her parents are almost as wary. Notes: Joanie is "growing up," going from not knowing where babies come from to, at the dinner table, referring to sex! The Cunninghams apparently have only one car, not counting the lemon Richie bought and sold. Trudy takes over Fonzie's homework after Richie stops, presumably in exchange for dates with Fonzie. Jean Fraser is a nameless Girl here and would have a couple other roles later. This is another Bickley & Brunner story, directed by Mel Ferber this time.

I was leaning towards a C+ for this January 29, 1974 episode, because it felt like the comic timing was off, but Bosley is again the best thing about it, wise and drily funny.  Notes: To confuse things further, it's a bachelor party for Potsie's cousin Arnold, while the sign at the drive-in restaurant says "Arnold's," but it's run by "Arthur," and we already know that Fonzie's first name is Arthur. The boys look for Fonzie's approval, a literal thumb's up. Potsie is again the relatively sophisticated one, well, compared to Richie. Ralph as joker is here in embryonic form. It's an interesting decision to make the cake-girl a wisecracking dancer rather than a stripper, especially in light of Laverne & Shirley's "bachelor party" episode two years later. Chuck communicates partly through dribbling a basketball. Joanie marvels at how Richie is growing up, by getting drunk. This is the second episode in a row to mention Au...