Reliving Happy Days

My weekend is OK I guess, except that I'm watching Happy Days trickle to its forgettable end.  Let's say C for this. Notes: Billie Bird plays the long-referred-to Mother Kelp, who turns out to have issues with Marion, but not as much as she despises Howard.  At least she likes Joanie. I do like Joanie being supportive of Marion. I was under the impression that Mother K lived in town, but she has a Mork & Mindy looking house in Larsonville. Is Chachi really the only one of Joanie's boyfriends that didn't turn Howard's stomach, or is Howard just trying to be nice?

  The "last episodes," except for that whole "five leftovers for summer" thing.  At the time, I probably felt the feels, although I mainly remember going, "But what about Chuck???" at Howard's speech.  (OK, and finding it implausible that Joanie & Chachi were Kinks fans.)  This time, well, I don't care all that much about Joanie & Chachi getting married (other than she could do much better), although it's nice to glimpse Richie et al. again.  I really don't care about yet another plot of "Fonzie wants to be a father," especially since I've never seen this kid on other episodes.  I'm giving a C for Part 1 and a C+ for Part 2. Notes: Pamela Dunlap is Doris Charles in both parts, and Danny Ponce is Danny in both.  I'll note that allegedly (according to IMDB but not on my copy) Harris Kal is Bobby and Kevin Rodney Sullivan is Tommy, the last time for both.  They were at best filler all these post-Richie seasons, ne...

This is tonally odd, as Howard and Marion make life-changing decisions offscreen and Fonzie does not react well.  I can see how this would've worked with better writing though, so a C. Notes: Somehow Fonzie has been living there only six years, but then it was 1959 for a really long time. Roger wants Fonzie to move in with him.  No mention of Flip. There is a mention of Ashley and Heather, when Fonzie is listing the people who have deserted him, a nice touch. Joanie is gratuitously shown in a towel. Maggie Roswell, who plays real estate agent Joyce James (a pun on the Irish writer?), was Lenny's girlfriend Karen on Laverne & Shirley a couple seasons earlier. This time Jerry Paris's daughter Julie plays Ann. And, yes, this title mirrors "Fonzie Moves In," back at the beginning of Season Three.

I was really fed up with Chachi's behavior in this episode, and not only actively rooting for Joanie to dump him but yelling against the studio audience wanting them to make up.  He is possessive, controlling, and self-centered.  He's had these traits off and on before but they really come to a head.  Still, she does dump him (for now) and her parents made me laugh in some scenes.  So I'll go with an on-the-fence C. A couple notes: We're now in that part of "The Sixties" where some people do the Twist but others wait in line to see the Maharishi, while the Fonz wears 3D glasses. Jerry Paris has an uncredited role as the Professor.

This is obviously set before the HD episodes where Joanie gave up the band, since they had to burn off what was left of this series.  Surprisingly, it's a bit of a clip show, using highly selective moments of HD as Chachi looks back on his relationship with Joanie, when her "first love," from seventh grade shows up and is somehow already in med school.  (Did he skip high school or something?)  I went with a C because the continuity errors bugged me.

I have to go with a C because Jenny is both a heartless bitch and someone we're meant to feel sorry for, although I do admit that I like that we get yet another Hawaiian-themed party, and Fonzie gives good advice, for the second episode in a row. Notes: This is also the second HD episode in a row where the backyard is shown. James Start is Frank and I continue to have no idea who this is. Cathy Silvers's sister Candace returns as her cousin Carla Bee. Ashley and Heather are gone now and I don't remember if it's explained in Season Eleven what happened to them. This is the last episode for both K.C. and Flip, but presumably they either went off to college or returned to their respective parents. Season Ten of Happy Days ranges from D+ to a surprising B, but half of the twenty-two episodes are C+, so this comes out to a low C+ average, better than Seasons Eight and Nine but still not great.  The new characters don't particularly harm the show, but neither do they give...

The band from Joanie Loves Chachi (but not the middle-aged characters) all cameo over, while their own show is on hiatus.  (More about that later.)  Fonzie wants to help, using bullying and lying.  Even then, I might've gone with a C+, but there were too many insults of Annette.  So C. A couple notes: Dick Yarmy, younger brother of Don Adams, did a ton of television, including one role on Laverne & Shirley and three on Mork & Mindy.  He's Holstein, the record producer, here. Jenny instantly decides that she wants to make Bingo her "love slave," and they are still engaged at the end of the episode.

It's hard to get invested in Roger's on-and-off-again romance, and when he and Flip hug goodbye, it means nothing because we've seen almost nothing of these two bland brothers interacting.  Still, there are worse '80s HD episodes, so C. Notes: The title is from a 1959 tune that Roger and his ex, Lorraine, listened to in high school. Wendy Schaal plays Lorraine and would've been most recognizable then for her regular role on It's a Living. Howard and Marion argue as much about Monopoly as they did about bridge in the first season or two.

  I was leaning towards a C- but the sentimental last part bumps this up to a C. Notes: This manages to both offer backstory for the middle-aged people and to contradict HD.  As for the latter, not only does Joanie say she's never had a home-movie camera before (contradicting the "Summer of '62" two-parter), but we even get a different version of the Cunninghams' Christmas that week!  Joanie will not get to see Richie, Lori Beth, their son, or Grandmother Kelp, none of whom were expected on "All I Want for Christmas." Chachi says he's never had Christmas with a "father" before.  Did his biological father die when he was a baby? Al says his father always had to work on Christmas, so Al would go look in the window at another family gathering.  But what about his mother and twin brother? Rico was nine and Louisa was seven one Christmas during the Depression.  So that puts her born somewhere between 1922 and 1933, probably towards the earlier e...

Although this episode did make me laugh a couple times, and it gives Arnold another chance to sing, and we actually get a bit more development of K.C. and Melvin, Fonzie again gives dubious advice, telling Melvin about stalking Ashley, so that Melvin thinks women don't mean it when they say no.  I do like K.C. defending herself, but not her offering a study date with Melvin in two months.  Of course, there are costumes.  So I'm going with a C. Notes: Among the movies referred to as if still in theaters are To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Son of Flubber (1963), and the Gidget series (1959 to '63).  Maybe the Cunninghams go to discount theaters, where the films don't show up until a year or two after release. Clarence plays the drums in Arnold's band.  It's his last credited appearance. Fonzie misses his talks with Richie, as do we all. This is the first of four HD episodes co-written by Nancy Steen and Neil Thompson

I didn't really care about either thread, of Chachi's jealousy of Joanie's art teacher or Al's interest in joining the Chicago chapter of the Leopard Lodge.  I did wonder what was up with Derrel Maury totally changing his acting style.  I thought at first it was because he was hitting on a random blonde, but it's like this in all his scenes.  Anyway, a C. Notes: Bingo has an unseen sister. Uncle Rico is again the male chauvinist representative, meant to contrast with the supposedly evolving Chachi. The studio audience, which can get quite squealy just when Chachi enters a room, is seriously losing their shit over the idea of him going nude, as if we haven't seen the "nude modeling" twist a dozen times on other '70s and '80s sitcoms. Anita Merrit, who is that random blonde, was Gloria on  HD  a couple years earlier. Terry Hart had written "Richie's Job" in '79 and a Season Seven episode of Laverne & Shirley, and he (she?) w...

This sort of makes a feminist point, not particularly well, but I guess points for trying, so C. Notes: Nancy Lieberman, who plays Nancy, was a real-life basketball player.  I have no idea how much name recognition she had in '82. Uncle Rico makes his first appearance in awhile, mostly to be a sexist pig that Joanie can react to. Larry Levinson also wrote a Laverne & Shirley episode that aired the previous winter. Howard Storm directed most of Mork & Mindy and some early L&S, but he didn't do any HD and this is his only JLC.

I was actually leaning towards a C+ because the writing and direction are a little sharper, but I had to mark this down to a C because of too many fat jokes and the way that Joanie is used as bait. A few notes: Annette is almost nineteen. Anson Downes, who's Annette's creepy fiance, was Joanie's date on Happy Days a few months earlier. Joel Zwick directed Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, and Bosom Buddies, but never Happy Days.  He would do a couple more JLC episodes.

So, yeah, it was time for another Garry Marshall spin-off, so why not take those teen idols J & C and give them their own show, with Chachi's mother and his new stepfather, Al?  Season One was very short, four episodes, and I'll just drop them in as they come up chronologically with what's left of HD's Season Nine.    This premiere is OK.  I mean, there are worse HD S9 episodes, but also some better.  I'm going with a C. Notes: I watched this series at the time but I don't think since, other than the theme song on YouTube, because I actually like the theme.  We'll see how much of any of JLC comes back to me. Howard and Marion pop into Chicago, at the worst time of course. I'm still not clear, almost forty years later, why Al had to go all the way to Chicago to open a new restaurant. Also, the restaurant is really successful for being open only two weeks.  It's not like there weren't other Italian places in Chicago. This is now "the Sexy ...

  Well, the plot of a rumor about a teenage girl being pregnant is handled better here than in "Fonzie the Substitute," which is referred to, and we do get some insight into Jenny's insecurities and motivations, but I still can't go above a C because it's not like Jenny can just say she lied and paper over the damage she's caused. Notes: We get to see the redone ladies' room at Arnold's. We also get to see Eugene's bedroom, twice. Jenny is still repulsed by him but prefers dating him to the threat of Fonzie beating her up. Melvin is now Eugene's brother rather than cousin, and I have no idea if they're twins or just close in age. Jerry Paris's son Andrew was Andy before and is Chuck (not that  Chuck) here. As you probably know, Crystal Bernard, here playing Mikki, the victim of the rumor, would return as a completely different character, Howard's niece, K.C. Cunningham, the next season, but I'll get into that later. Lori Beth sh...

That can't be the right title, but that's what three different online sources, and the DVD, say, so OK.  (It was also the title of the classic beatnik episode.)  Anyway, Fonzie again gives Roger dubious dating advice (including practicing on Joanie!); meanwhile Joanie & Chachi collaborate on a forgettable song, and Marion is in the local theater group's annual production of Oklahoma, which does lead to a laugh-out-loud joke about burnt chickens.  So C. Notes: I don't want to think about Al out "cruising" sleeveless. Teddi Siddall makes her final appearance as Hillary, Fonzie's old girlfriend from the Falcons. Coleen Maloney would return as Buffy Baruffi, and, yes, Ken Lerner is back as Rocky B. Screenwriter Andrew M. Horowitz has absolutely no other IMDB credits.

It's Fonzie's birthday, in an episode that aired on February 9th, and this episode oddly juxtaposes him trying to be "mature" and monogamous (for one night) with his childlike fanboying of the Lone Ranger.  I'll go with a C. Notes: Yes, the mechanical bull is influenced by Urban Cowboy (1980).  Bosom Buddies had a mechanical bull episode December of '80. Potsie refers to being a Psych major. Cynthia Brannigan is the "lucky lady" who is hoping to have an evening alone with Fonzie.  Of course we'd never see her again, but at least she got two episodes, unlike the dancer chick and so many others. John Hart was indeed TV's Lone Ranger in the '50s, although I suppose they could've just had a ringer, like with Clarabell.

Even if you haven't seen this episode before, you've seen it before.  You know, the one where someone promises a celebrity for some charity benefit and they may or may not show up.  HD had already done it at least once before, with "The Magic Show."  So a C. Notes: Frankie Avalon was then 41, playing his 21-year-old self as Al's fifth cousin.  He sounds as much like he's lip-syncing as Fonzie does, due to the echo chamber. As nice as it is that Lynda Goodfriend gets to dance again, why is she doing a Jazzercise routine to the Twist?  For that matter, why do J&C and their ever-morphing band audition with a Twist song but he, Potsie, Roger, and Al form a barbershop quartet? Is it stranger that Jenny auditions with a striptease number or that the stripper song is on the Arnold's jukebox? There is one half-funny joke here, about Lincoln and the theater, which you will make before you hear it. David Ketchum returns as Lodge member Donald Hedges.

Fonzie tries to put the title character in a retirement home, without consulting her first.  I'd say a C. Notes: It looks like a J&C song, called "How Am I Gonna Sing?,"  got left out of the syndicated copy, oh darn. It feels a little tacky starting out the episode with a "Polly Wolly Doodle" singalong.  And speaking of going South, was Al in this episode? Jenny just hangs out with the Cunninghams and doesn't scheme, which is kind of refreshing. Grandma raised Fonzie for ten years but it's only now that Chachi finds out that she called Arthur "Skippy," probably because his parents skipped out on him.  (Too soon?) Frances Bay would return twice more as the title character. Pat O'Brien returns as Howard's Uncle Joe, in his final role of all.  (He'd die in '83.)

Fonzie gives Roger questionable romantic advice, and then it turns out he's the title character.  Meanwhile, both Howard and Chachi are accused of no longer being romantic by their respective sweeties.  And the stuff with the dad and the dog is just weird, so C- again. Notes: Howard had an Army buddy come up with poems to send to Marion twenty-five years ago, when they were still single. The friend now writes for The Munsters , which debuted in '64. Joanie and Chachi watch Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and the TV-movie Gidget Grows Up (1969), both on TV. Louise Bryant didn't write anything for HD, but Nancy Churnin, who recently played Mrs. Giles, would do an '84 script.