Reliving Happy Days

This episode is perked up by its guest stars, Cathy's father Phil and Ed Peck, but it's still just a C+. Notes: I haven't mentioned it before but this is the season where Howard starts wearing glasses consistently. And this is the episode where I noticed all the girls' skirts are anachronistically short for '62ish. Yet, Jenny also shows up in an pantsuit (pictured above) that is very early '80s. Jenny's father's name is Roscoe and it sounded like her mother was Rosalie or Roslyn.  Allegedly, none of the Cunninghams have ever met Roscoe before, not even Joanie, even though the girls have been friends since they were six. This is Officer Kirk's first appearance since "Marion Goes to Jail," over two years earlier.  He'd be back twice in '83 though.

I don't understand the title, since we only see one night at the title restaurant.  Maybe it means that immature jealousy, gay panic, and bickering are just another night for the poor restaurant staff to endure in their patrons.  I'm going with a C-, and so far the proto-JLC plots are my least favorite this season. A few notes: Al indirectly refers to Rosa Coletti when convincing Chachi to make up with Joanie. Barbara Treutelaar was Lois before and is Andrea here. Waiter Robin Bach would be Maitre D' the next year. Marion is absent and off visiting Mother Kelp the entire episode.

In a nod to continuity, Chachi still hopes to get a basketball scholarship, and here he's offered a dubious one.  I found Fonzie very naïve, and using Roger as the authority on scholarships felt condescending.  So C-. Notes: Jenny has an unseen brother who wrestles alligators. In the previous episode, Potsie was very excited to be announcing Jefferson High basketball games, which he does again here, and which is symbolic of the pathetic role this once central character has been reduced to. Joanie has been a cheerleader for many seasons now, so maybe she does deserve a scholarship for it. Director Jerry Paris is listed at IMDB as uncredited in the role of the Doctor.  I wonder if he had to fill in at the last minute.  Anyway, it's not as memorable as when he heckled Richie at the 1956 political rally.

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...

Unfunny and out of character, the latter with Howard in particular.  As for the former, if I can come up with a reply for Fonzie after the closing exchange (see below), then screenwriter Mark Rothman is phoning it in.  (He also did "Fonzie's Getting Married" and "A Date with Fonzie," so he's definitely capable of better work.)  I'm giving a C-. RICHIE: Hit a home run! HANK AARON: Don't I always? Notes: I think Fonzie liking Mr. Aaron's first name is a joke about Henry Winkler.  (Again, not funny.) The hardware store opened in 1946, and it looks completely different now, because nobody gives a crap about continuity. Well, OK, at least the local TV station is still WZAZ. This time Taaffe O'Connell plays Ingrid; she was Carol earlier in the season. Hoke Howell is Sidney here but would be an Army General in '83. Warren Berlinger's penultimate HD role is as the (singular) title character, Mr. Vanburen.

While this is deservedly famous for introducing the characters of Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney (and thus reshaping not just Tuesday nights on ABC but arguably pop culture), I want to talk about it  here as yet another entry in the saga of Richie Cunningham being unlucky in "love."  Richie is in a dating slump, having broken up with Sharon Meyers a month ago, after a four-month relationship that we have of course never heard of.  Fonzie does his best to rebuild his confidence, first having him try to pick up chicks in an incredibly small supermarket and then fixing him up with Miss Feeney.  But Richie is very nervous, partly because Shirley is a little older (Richie is seventeen) and partly because these girls are rougher and tougher than he's used to.  They even fight in the ladies' room!  Still, Shirley thinks he's "a cute kid" and she does give him what seems to be a very warm goodnight kiss, so it's a happy ending, if Richie could stop locki...

It was September 9, 1975.  I was in the second grade and starting to watch more prime-time TV.  Of the two ABC sitcoms in the Tuesday 8 to 9 p.m. block, I was of course drawn more to the debuting  Welcome Back, Kotter, not yet in its Thursday niche.    It was much funnier, especially to a seven-year-old and the guys were cuter.  (Yes, that matters when you're seven.)  It even had catchier catch-phrases.  But to say I was indifferent even at the time to the television history that this episode made would be untrue.  Fonzie moved in with the Cunninghams and stayed! The being filmed-in-front-of-a-live-studio-audience, shrug, not a big deal to me then.  Watching now though, the impact is obvious, from the redone living room set (now the front door is on Stage Left rather than Stage Right) to the broader acting.  They are not playing to the audience as much as they would, but the seeds are there. And, yes, Fonzie officially becoming like...

The first live-in-front-of-a-studio-audience episode, done as an experiment, a successful one, although it would have a long-range impact on this show, and arguably its spin-offs.  In the short term, although it changes the comic timing, it's fine, and I did laugh out loud a few times.  In fact, I'm giving the episode a B, because I enjoyed it more than I expected. Other thoughts: The sets begin to morph, here with the dining room no longer between the living room and the kitchen. Garry Marshall is of course the drummer at the strip joint, and would often show up as a drummer, here and on Laverne & Shirley . And speaking of, I think we can safely say that neither the "Shirley" nor the "Laverne" referred to in this episode is one of the famous denizens of fictional Milwaukee, but clearly those names were in the air that year. I was a little shocked to hear the word "virgin" a few times.  The message at first seems to be that even Fonzie wants an...

Things are settling in a little on this B- February 5, 1974 episode.  We even get a glimpse of Ralph's cowardice, which would Flanderize over time.  It's the first episode where Richie doesn't kiss or get kissed by a girl, although he has a crush on one of the "Assorted Nuts." Notes: Howard is angrier with Richie about being a drag-race flagger than when Richie got drunk, but Marion intervenes, despite Joanie's hopes of Richie being severely punished. Chuck teases Richie about his basketball skills, while Joanie can go from baton-twirling to shooting hoops.  Also, Chuck apparently lives in the dorm, but they still have his bed in Richie's room, which is convenient when Potsie comes to visit. Potsie and Howard are wary of each other, while Joanie (ironically in light of her later crush) calls Potsie a nerd. Two actual nerds steal the spotlight at the end, when all the grounded kids clear out of Arnold's at suppertime.  In this first season, including in...