Reliving Happy Days

No, she's not actually Chachi's aunt.  Vanessa is Louisa's old friend from high school, now a record producer out to seduce Chachi.  Posh Jessica Walter gives the part more than it deserves, as she would a sophisticated regular role a couple years later on Three's a Crowd, but I still don't feel like this show clicks enough to go above a C+ on this episode. Notes: The usual Tuesday night lineup was pre-empted that night, I assume for the midterm elections, but that of course didn't affect JLC and other Thursday shows. There's more of manic rather than monotonal Mario, here at the midpoint of the series. We don't find out what year Vanessa and Louisa graduated, but I assume it was sometime in the '30s. I didn't catch Louisa's maiden name (it might well have been Masciarelli, as in the Marshall siblings), but it definitely was not Fonzarelli. Chachi has a poster of the mop-top era Beatles, so I guess this is '64.  (There's an episode co...

  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...

While this episode doesn't quite work, it's not bad for Season Eight.  There's the farcical situation of Fonzie and Jenny being accidentally sort of married, but that aspect isn't as much fun as "Shotgun Wedding."  Then there's the tonal shift with some of Jenny's backstory.  Anyway, I'll say a C. Notes: Potsie has maybe three lines, one of which is to be surprised at the idea of Fonzie being married, even though he must remember the "librarian" and Pinky and whoever else Fonzie almost married that I have forgotten by now. Jenny has at least one sister living at home, who has been married (not necessarily the one who just got remarried), and seems to have several other siblings.  And her parents fight a lot.  Which, yeah, backstory, but it sort of comes out of nowhere. Jenny has some surprisingly old-fashioned ideas about marriage, maybe because of her unhappy home life. Jenny is 17, which you would think would be bar enough to her gettin...