Reliving Happy Days

  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...

Act now and this final draft could be yours at eBay for just $50! OK, so we know Eugene and Jenny did actually date, but here it's as if they've never gone out.  The "twists" in the story are predictable, and I'm just glad that this thing isn't as bad as it could've been.  So C-.   A few notes: Rocky Baruffi, and his wife Buffy, are name-checked. It doesn't look like the middle of winter anymore.   I doubt they had gumball machines in the 1880s.

This episode kept threatening to tip into D+ territory, but it was saved because I sort of liked that Joanie proves she's responsible.   Notes: Everyone, except Joanie (and Potsie, who's just in the first scene and then never mentioned again), is leaving town and someone has to watch Richie, Jr., who's unseen but we do hear him cry. It's four months since Lori Beth has seen Richie, so I assume she was then very pregnant.  Then again, this episode is set "in the middle of winter," although it aired in early December, so who knows. Getting both Belvin cousins onscreen is a little terrifying, especially when Eugene says that Jenny's lips say no but her eyes say yes, but I will note that I can see that Melvin is more of a Woody-Allenesque nerd. Jenny is a rotten friend to "Joans," and throwing a party at the Cunninghams' may actually be worse than letting her take the fall for trying to steal a statue.  But I do like the red skirt & tights co...

It is now the Summer of '62.  I will rant about that under notes, but I will do a quick rant here about how Joanie is guilted into forgiving Chachi for cheating on her.  She has to work one night (as Weenie Heaven) so he has a "physical attraction" with a random girl on the beach.  And when they talk about it weeks later, she says maybe it has to do with him chasing after her for so long, and thus not dating other girls.  Now, wait a minute, there were times that Chachi would have one date with two girls, like his cousin Fonzie.  He wasn't exactly pining away and staying home.  Anyway, I'm going with a C- for Part 1 and a C for Part 2, because at least the latter had some not bad stuff with Howard. Notes: Joanie sends home movies of the Summer of '62 to Richie.  This means that somehow only three years have passed since Richie graduated from high school.  I'm not even clear if Joanie is done with high school, since Chachi says it'll be hard seeing...

This would be such a better episode without the crap with Fonzie's students (especially him not objecting to Eugene being bullied) and if he realized that whether or not the waitress is his mother, she should not be slapped on the butt by customers.  Still, the final scene with him and the waitress (played by veteran actress Janis Paige, then almost 60 but not looking it) is poignant.  So C again. Notes: Ray Girardin, who is the harassing customer Big Harold, previously was Sgt. Ryan. It's Spring during this episode that aired during May. Joanie and less surprisingly Potsie are both absent. Somehow Babaloo Mandel had never written an HD episode before, here co-writing with Fred Fox, Jr.  Mandel would do one more HD script that year. As the seasons pass, Fonzie's abandonment by his parents gets earlier and earlier, here with his father leaving when he was two, his mother when he was four.  It's fairly consistent that he was raised by his Grandma Nussbaum. Fonzie's mo...

Well, the title is apt, as this is one of the worst episodes of the series (so far).  In the previous episode, Fonzie mistakenly believed that if he had dental work, it might drain him of his cool, while here he dreams of a mad scientist indeed draining him of his cool.  Among other things, this is shown by him speaking like a stereotypical gay man interested in interior decorating.  And then there's the whole cringey subplot of Chachi encouraging Eugene to ask Jenny out, in part because Joanie turned Chachi down for two years.  I'm not fond of the "dating a nerd being dreadful" motif, but, hey, Jenny has the right to pick her own dates.  Add to that the whole thing this season of Potsie being a vestigial character, not to mention the usually fun Dick Gautier getting dreadful material, and you know, a D feels generous.  But I know the show will probably get worse. A few notes: Potsie is still majoring in Psych, and is actually good enough to tutor in it! Fo...

I'm already tired of Fonzie as teacher, and in this episode he wants to be Teacher of the Year.  I'm going with a C-. Notes: The audience gets excited by Ted McGinley's legs. Kevin Rodney Sullivan makes his first of a baker's dozen appearances as Fonzie's Black student Tommy. Raymond Guth would be back once as Mr. Gampolo. It would make sense to have Jenny in this episode, but she's absent. Bosco McGowan would write one more HD  episode.

Sigh.  This episode doesn't work, and I suspect that it's not just a low point, as the D+s were last season, but a harbinger of the rest of this season.  On the one hand, Fonzie becoming the Auto Shop teacher is a neat idea, but it's executed poorly and I don't want to see any of these new characters again. Notes: Harris Kal would be back as Bobby in eighteen more episodes, which, yeah, is probably more than all the Chuck Cunninghams put together.  I had absolutely no memory of him until today, when I thought Oh, this guy is coming back, isn't he?  The thing is, I don't know if the character even gets a last name. Denis Mandel as Eugene Belvin I do remember, and just the thought of him, and how the series portrays this nerd, has made me cringe for years.  He's actually only in ten episodes, but that's more than enough. I don't remember his name, but the extra who combs his crewcut in the early credits is somehow still in high school!  Unless this is ...