Reliving Happy Days

So here we are in 1984, almost ten years after Happy Days premiered.  It's outlasted all its spinoffs and seem to be concentrating on its core characters, OK, and Roger.  It should be wonderful that this is an episode about Joanie trying to be treated as a strong adult, as she becomes a student teacher at Patton H.S.  But of course the episode shows that her mother and ex-boyfriend are right, and she has to call for help when a student with a "crush" attacks her.  It's Fonzie to the rescue, but no charges are pressed nor does Joanie talk to a therapist, of course.  So the third D of the series. A couple notes: Steven Baio is Joey for the last time, which I hope means this is the last of the Patton episodes. Kathryn Fuller returns as Mrs. Shellenback, who is fleeing to "Chicago," not that you can blame her.

  Combine my prejudice against boxing plots on sitcoms with my indifference to whether Chachi wins Fonzie's respect, plus the running joke about Roger boxing a stereotypical East German woman, and we're going with a D+. Notes" Chachi wants Joanie to give him a kiss for good luck, even though they've broken up. James Start plays the totally un-noticeable Frank for the last time. Arthur Batanides's final HD role is as the Referee.

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 ...

Oh gosh, this episode, well, this two-parter.  Now I have to say, at least after watching this again almost 38 years after it aired (and probably not that often in between), I do recall not knowing how to process Richie's suppressed rage and frustration.  Now, shrug, well, it makes all too much sense, the way you have to compromise and give things up and yet still want to dream as you get older.  Ron Howard plays all that well, and there were moments, not simply nostalgia, where I teared up, like when the four "boys" sing "Blueberry Hill" to Ralph's piano accompaniment.  I don't think it's a great episode, but it's definitely a good one.  The timeline is in shambles of course, but I expected that.  Let's say a B. Many notes: Bo Sharon would return as Richie, Jr. in Part Two. Richie and Ralph have been in the Army for three years.  This would make Little Richie under two, but he's pretty articulate. Ralph has given up becoming a comic and ...

I was leaning towards a C or even C-, but Chachi does grow up in this episode and apologize some for his jerkiness, so C+. Notes: This not only picks up where the last episode left off but repeats maybe the first minute or so. Al and Louisa not only come all the way from Chicago when they think Chachi is going to propose to Joanie, but they dress as if going to a wedding! Al refers to the Michael Caine movie Alfie (1966). Although it looks like summer might be just around the corner, Fonzie's birthday (once in January) is a month away. I was of course amused that Howard is insulted that Chachi considered asking even Potsie for advice first. It's unclear where Chachi is staying before heading back to Chicago.  With Fonzie maybe? I'm omitting Billy Warlock and Ted McGinley from the over-crowded tags.

  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.

Between Chachi guilting Joanie and the ridiculous number of anachronisms, especially with Bingo, I'm going to have to drop down to a C-, although this week's one-minute song is relatively good. Notes: "Aura," "finding yourself," etc. The timeline is a mess anyway, since Joanie wants to go to Richie Jr.'s first-birthday party, but he was born in approximately November 1962, probably not the summer anyway. On the one hand, Joanie and Chachi's different reasons for performing music are interesting, and on the other, shouldn't they have discussed this before she left Milwaukee to join his band?

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.

After some initial reluctance, Fonzie tries to teach the teens that classical music is cool.  And if that's not a textbook definition of a C- episode, then I don't know what is. Notes: Fonzie again doesn't protect a Belvin from being bullied. Jenny again flirts with Roger and gets rejected. Lori Beth again wears leg warmers, far more '82 than '62. Richie, Jr. is again referred to but unseen. Joanie, Chachi, and their band do a middling cover of "Twist & Shout." Marla Pennington would return once more in the role of music teacher Cynthia Brannigan.  I know her from  Soap  and  Small Wonder. Fred Fox, Jr., had of course already written a lot for HD, but here his partner is Richard Correll, who actually was a child actor on '50s /'60s TV shows, most notably 32 appearances on Leave It to Beaver.

I wish this episode were more about Lori Beth, the woman giving birth to the title character, and less about her "natural childbirth" coach Fonzie.  But I do like that the baby has Richie's big ears and red hair.  And, yes, this aired on November 3rd, less than six months after the wedding episode.  (LB is two weeks early, but still.)  I'll say C. A few notes: Marion remembers giving birth to Richie and Joanie, but she has completely blocked out Chuck's birth and life. Jenny is still chasing Roger, and I have no idea if she's still underage. African-American actor Ralph Wilcox was Jason Davis, a role where his race mattered, but here is Lionel Collins, where it doesn't really matter.

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...

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...

I'm not really sure what the point of this episode, where Fonzie suspects the right guy for the wrong reasons, is, but I sort of like the "teenage break-in" scene, so C. Notes: Apparently nobody remembers from (I think) the second anniversary show that Fonzie's birthday is in January, so Marion has to get Grandma Nussbaum drunk, offscreen, to get the info. I don't know if Jenny has a crush on Fonzie or if he's more of an abstract stud to her. They don't address what Chachi overheard while stuck in Fonzie's closet while Fonzie had a date in his apartment all night, but the mind boggles. There's a moment when Fonzie seems to want Roger to be his conscience, as Richie used to be, but then he doesn't, and Roger ends up having to admit he was wrong about Fonzie being wrong.  The dynamic here is different and less interesting than that between the two friends. Speaking of absent redheads, Lori Beth refers to Ralph's trick birthday candles, which ...

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 ...

I like the more serious moments in this episode, like when Ralph, Richie, and even Potsie talk about their relationships with their fathers.  But I'm marking this down a notch because Richie is tempted by a stewardess and kisses a cake-girl, with no mention of or presumably thought about Lori Beth. Notes: As I suspected, Grandma Nussbaum is Chachi's grandmother, too.  (So she was Mrs. Fonzarelli earlier?) In the episode where Howard was up for "father of the year," he was not the present Grand Poo Bah, although he'd attained the title in a previous episode, and now he's definitely GPB, lending support to the idea that these episodes air in somewhat random order. Potsie has been waiting eight years to talk over a problem with his father, awww. Richie mentions the time his father comforted him after a basketball game, including the Lifesaver. Joanie sits at the sewing machine briefly but nothing comes of this in the syndicated version I watched today. This time ...

It's a nice touch to have Ralph sit at the piano he played in so many episodes. Despite the unfortunate title, this is actually one of the best episodes of the season, with drama and action and heart.  (And some corny jokes of course.)  There's even sort of romance, not only with Richie and Lori Beth making out in a car, but Joanie changing from "no" to "maybe" for Chachi.  Her motivation is that her friends think he's really cute and she doesn't want him to be stolen away, but oh well.  (And, yes, it sends the message that a guy should just keep asking a girl out, in this case, for years, even when she rejects him.)  Nonetheless, I'm going with a B. Notes: Al considers moving back to Kenosha. He is still seeing Germaine, the woman with a dog who doesn't or didn't like him. After Arnold's burns down (and I honestly would've fine if they wanted to throw in flashbacks, since it would be justified in this case), Fonzie hands over his...

Heavy handed in not just in its cliched main plot of the bitter man in a wheelchair but in its subplots of Fonzie pressuring Chachi to get good grades (seen as a good thing, even when Fonzie threatens physical violence) and the whole family making Howard diet.  So another of this season's D+s.

It's September 11, 1979.  I am in the sixth grade and, along with puberty, I must endure the trials of ABC deciding to shake up their entire schedule.  So the Tuesday Night Line-Up now lacks Laverne & Shirley, which has been sent over to Thursdays, which means Mork & Mindy has gone over to Sundays.  Another Garry-Marshall series, Angie, is now in the 8:30 Tuesday slot.  I like Angie, but having to watch a two-part crossover spread over 49 hours is odd.  At least no one is budging Three's Company. My review of "Shotgun Wedding," Part One is here https://revisitinglaverneandshirley.blogspot.com/2019/12/shotgun-wedding-part-1.html .  What I looked at today is the syndicated version, recorded off of TV Land, I guess in the '00s.  There is not, as of this writing, an official DVD release of the last five seasons of Happy Days.  So the remaining episodes may've once been better.  I can say that the tag here does not work, dramatically or o...