Reliving Happy Days

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.

The two threads are sort of both about fathering, with Howard looking after Joanie when she's home from touring with "the Canadian flu" (really exhaustion and burnout), and Fonzie looking after Heather when Ashley's out of town.  I was actually more intrigued by Joanie's doubts about the band, after she fought so hard to get her parents to accept it, but it looks like that will be gone into more in an upcoming episode.  Anyway, C+. Note that Fonzie and the Phillips brothers are excited about the Liston-Clay fight, I guess the one from February '64.  Although uncredited, that sure sounds like Harry Shearer doing the fight commentary.

Not only does Potsie get Fonzie and Roger up in a prop plane with an unreliable pilot, but he says all the wrong things when everyone worries at the Cunninghams'.  No wonder Jenny calls him an idiot and Howard ushers him out the door.  So I'm boosting this from a C to a C+. Notes: Flip jokes that Jenny won't finish high school while she's a teenager, but it's not exactly a joke. Catherine Gilmour, who's Teresa here, would soon be Patti on Laverne & Shirley. Skier William Woff was Bill Ziegler on Joanie Loves Chachi. Martin Ferrero would return as the pilot Omar, so I guess his parachute worked. There are four writers this time, and they still manage to bring up a possible party and then quickly drop that thread.  Francis X. Feighan has absolutely no other IMDB credits, and Michael O'Mahony wrote more things but nothing else for HD, while Richard Gurman wrote five other HD scripts and Larry Strawther two others.

In Ed Peck's final appearance as Officer Kirk, he is an army officer, a major, in fact.  When Roger, Potsie, and mistakenly Fonzie are called up for the Reserves, he of course butts heads with Fonzie.  I'll say a C+, not too memorable but not bad. Notes: Fonzie's goodbye kiss of Ashley is milder than in the pic above. Fonzie tried to serve during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but he has a bad knee from his motorcycle stunt. It's Heather's birthday.  I didn't notice how old she's turning, but she is in the first grade, so maybe seven. Francis T. Perry Williams is Private Perry here and was a Policeman on Laverne & Shirley a few months earlier. Gary Epp had more lines as Bubba and Bullfrog than he does as an M.P., but his size is used again. Hoke Howell was Sidney in '80 and is the Army General here.

Well, I liked this better than the original version of Fonzie asking Ashley out.  On their six-month anniversary, Fonzie and Ashley, with help from Roger and Heather, recall their nervousness before and during their first date.  I'll go with C+. Notes: Now I want to know who Howard spent the night in a hayloft with when he was young. William Sumper, who plays the Customer, I assume the one with the cigar, had five small roles on Laverne & Shirley. Robin Bach, who was a Waiter at a different restaurant, has been promoted to Maitre D' here, just as snooty as before. Poor Potsie shows up, gets a few lines, is sent to the men's room, and disappears for the rest of the episode. Robert Keats wrote one Blansky's Beauties episode, this HD script, and a handful of others.

Flip is involved in a drunk driving incident where Heather is hit and, well, there aren't really any consequences.  And the Winter Decoration subplot goes nowhere, and when Fonzie's long-time barber dies, he of course thinks about his own needs more than he gives sympathy to the barber and family.  So D+. Notes: Heather O'Rourke's older sister Tammy plays neighbor girl Tammy. Joe Mays, Mr. Henri here, would be Mr. MacKenzie the next year. Gary Murphy didn't write any other HD episodes, which is just as well. Larry Strawther on the other hand had written one Laverne & Shirley script and would do two more HD.

This has some tonal shift problems, if not as much as the Laverne & Shirley and Three's Company episodes that aired that first Tuesday of 1983.  (Laverne is gang-banged by sailors while in an alcoholic blackout and "Furley learns that Terri's boyfriend is a convicted murderer.")  This at least has a plot that might've worked with better writing, but I just found it implausible that Ashley would get drunk and make a scene at her estranged parents' wedding anniversary.  So, yeah, it's a C-. A couple notes: Ashley's parents are named George and Millicent and they've been married thirty years.  She appears to be an only child. "The Prince of Wales" has gone vegetarian.  Charles was about 16 at the time this is set.

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.

We get not one, not two, but three estranged families in this episode, which is a bit much.  That and the flatness (including a shockingly subdued studio audience) means a C-. Notes: Richard Paul, of Carter Country etc., plays Howard's brother Dick, whom he hasn't spoken to in 15 or 16 years.  Dick appears to be the elder brother, even though their father was 18 when Howard was born. Jenny says she "still" lives with her parents, but she is in her seventh year of high school or whatever it is by now. I don't like Fonzie pressuring Ashley to reconnect with her parents, but on the other hand, it'd be nice if there was some closure, since it was brought up. Roger and Flip are visiting their  parents, whom they presumably still get along with. Richie calls from California, or wherever he is these days, and we of course don't even get a voiceover. This is Beverly Bloomberg's penultimate HD script, and the first of two for Pamela Ryan.

I feel like they've used that episode title before, but I guess not.  Anyway, this time it's Fonzie and Ashley.  Even though the man has been engaged at least twice, it's somehow a big leap for him to ask Ashley to go steady.  And in the subplot, Howard reluctantly teaches K.C. to drive.  I'm going with C+. Notes: I remain baffled by how Jenny is still in high school. After an impressive seven-year absence, Melinda Naud returns as Paula Petralunga, who complicates the steadies' lives. Scott Baio is again a special guest star, but Erin is absent, to Marion's disappointment. Ken Lerner and Coleen Maloney return as Rocco and Buffy Baruffi, now parents of two.  He would be back once more. Frances Bay makes her middle appearance as Grandma Nussbaum, who we learn (or relearn?) has been married at least four times, to family disapproval. Ashley Pfister, as you may've suspected, is from the rich Milwaukee family, although they disinherited her when they disapproved ...

This is an episode I remember from the time and I was at least as annoyed with Fonzie now as I was almost forty years ago.  I mean, the guy learned to love classical music!  (He went to a Mozart concert offscreen in the Tom Hanks episode, so it wasn't just a one-off.)  Folk music should not be that hard to adjust to, especially if this is set in '64, when folk rock was coming into being.  (And I assume that it is set in '64, since Joanie and Chachi "guest star" from Chicago.)  Still, I'll go with a C+, since we can see how Ashley helps Fonzie see sense. Notes: It's pretty damn ironic that J & C want to play "rock & roll" at a friggin' hootenanny, especially after weeks of them doing pleasant but forgettable soft-rock '80s tunes. Rick Dano, who plays Felix, had a small Laverne & Shirley role the previous year. Brad Braisdell plays Lou, as he did in "Dreams Can Come True" in '80, but I don't know if it's th...

  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.

The two parallel plots are about men who have quasi-fatherly relationships with girls: Howard with his niece K.C. (Crystal Bernard) and Fonzie with Ashley's daughter Heather.  I was leaning towards a C, but there are some nice moments in the last two scenes, from Fonzie talking about being raised by his Grandma Nussbaum to Marion showing Howard she prefers him to Cary Grant.  So C+. Notes: Marion's old high school classmate is now a circus clown, married to the bearded lady. Jojo the Dog-Faced Boy is mentioned, as he was at least once on Laverne & Shirley . Howard hasn't spoken to his brother Dick in fifteen years. It's unclear how old K.C. is, so I'm guessing 17 until further notice, just because that is the default age on this show for anyone who's not an adult or small child. K.C. was going to boarding school in Houston. Her father is I think a diplomat, or is in "the Congo" for some other reason.

I had totally forgotten about Arnold coming back to run Arnold's, although I now recall it being a big deal to me at the time.  (Well, a big deal as far as post-Richie HD episodes go.) Notes: Howard is the unadventurous one here but he was the one who wanted to run off to Tahiti years ago. On the other hand, Howard does like to watch TV in the nude. We again hear that Richie and his family are in California. Melvin plays the violin. Ashley speaks Japanese (as apparently so did Linda Purl). Fonzie hasn't seen Arnold in "four years," but "Fonzie's Funeral" aired in '79.  Of course, who knows how much time has passed on the show anymore. 1950s TV moms Jane Wyatt and Harriet Nelson are not playing Margaret Anderson and, well, Harriet Nelson, but characters called Joan and Marge respectively.  They were then in their 70s.

Sigh.  So it's September 28, 1982.  I am a freshman in high school so my world is further being shaken up, and Tuesday Nights on ABC are not the refuge they once were.  Tonight, Three's Company will offer a funny but highly questionable look at the Jack/Janet relationship.  Laverne & Shirley will marry off Shirley to a man completely covered in bandages.  And Happy Days?   It will decide that the way to examine Fonzie going monogamous is to have him stalk a stranger, who of course falls for him by the end of the episode.  Still, I'm going with a D+ because at least Potsie wasn't pointless this episode. Notes: I had a minor meltdown just watching the credits, with all the changes, some of them ridiculous, like Potsie serenading Jenny and the not-yet-introduced K.C..  And then we got to Flip doing an acrobatic flip in the first scene (in one of those annoying crop tops), and I honestly didn't know if I would make it through this episode.  A...

This one sort of plays with the idea of image vs. reality, with a "wholesome" Hollywood star (played by the lovely Cheryl Stoppelmoor, in I think her first appearance as Cheryl Ladd) who drinks and smokes but is also faithful to her secret husband.  This tension is very Happy-Days I think, especially in the early seasons.  And the thing of Fonzie have Richie literally "sniff Coke" (to see where he's hidden the booze) is one of those moments where I'm not sure if it was meant innocently or they were trying to slip something past the censors (and succeeding). Other thoughts: This feels a little early for Frankie Avalon to be a teen idol, unless it is 1959 after all. It's pretty clear that Potsie and Ralph are meant to be virgins, considering how eager they are to hear details of what Richie did at the starlet's hotel. Richie is definitely going steady with Gloria, and certainly we've seen more of her than his other girlfriends so far. James Daughto...

This Halloween episode (airing on October 29th) is pretty funny, and I like that we get a better sense of the Richie-Joanie sibling dynamic outside the home.   Marsha looks blonder now, and she actually has the opening scene with Bag.  Also, Bag writes misspelled profanity, including on Joanie's pumpkin.  (She doesn't know what the word means, but Richie does.) I have no idea what the F on Potsie's costume stands for, but presumably not profanity. Joanie being in the Chipmunks actually figures into the plot a bit here. Three of Garry Marshall's kids (10-year-old Lori, 6-year-old Kathi, and 5-year-old Scotti) show up as trick-or-treaters. Garry himself directed the episode. Bruce Kelly and David Ketchum co-wrote.  Kelly wouldn't do anything further for the show, but Ketchum not only would write nine more episodes, but he had already appeared as Lt. Col. Binicky in the "R.O.T.C." episode.

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.

The second season kicked off on September 10, 1974.  Gerald Ford was the new president, but what we would know as the Famous ABC 1970s Tuesday Night Line-Up was still unimaginable.  Yes, Happy Days aired at 8:00, but it was followed by ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week.  I was in first grade and really not that into primetime viewing as yet.  Any shows I would like in syndication, I was then still much too young for.  I might've caught some of HD at the time, but I doubt it. This season premiere feels both surprising and predictable.  Ralph and Fonzie make it into the opening credits by name.  (And the DVD edition replaces "Rock Around the Clock" prematurely.)  Randolph Roberts debuts as Chuck Cunningham #3, still a basketball player with bad grades and a big appetite.  He's arguably given more to do in this one episode than poor O'Herlihy was given for the entire first season, but he's still not exactly a classic character.  Anyway, Richie ...