This “Happy Days Epics” is dedicated to the memory of Gavan O’Herlihy, who recently passed away at age 70. O’Herlihy was one of two actors to play the character of Chuck Cunningham. oldest of the three Cunningham kids. The Chuck character stopped appearing when the series changed from a single camera to multi-camera “in front of a live audience” format. Chuck was one of several characters and motifs that did not make the trip to the format change; most notoriously, in the series finale Mr. C references raising “two wonderful children.” Chuck, it seems, was a fever dream…or the black sheep of the family, perhaps unable to attend the Joanie/Chachi wedding due to his imprisonment for rigging three seasons worth of college basketball games. (The one memorable aspect of Chuck’s character was his ever-present basketball, dribbled anywhere and everywhere.)
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“Babysitting” Originally Aired March 1, 1983 on ABC
“Turn Around…And You’re Home” Originally Aired March 15, 1983 on ABC
Well, I thought I had an encyclopedic knowledge of “Happy Days” double-length and 2-part episodes. But I was wrong! Wrong! In my defense, this is an extremely weird 2-parter and there is nothing “epic” about it, except possibly for the story repercussions it creates for the final season of the series.
Let’s talk about the 1982-1983 season of “Happy Days”, inarguably the worst season in the run. Lori Beth is no longer a regularly appearing character; one assumes she and her baby are living on an Army base in Greenland with RIchie. Potsie is still wandering through episodes, with a meaningful role once in a blue moon.
After generating dozens of plotlines from the Joanie/Chachi relationship, the two lovebirds largely disappear from the series to star in their short-lived spinoff, “Joanie Loves Chachi”. The series tries to fill the gap in a couple of ways: First, two new “youth” characters are added. Roger’s brother Flip, and Howard and Marion’s niece K.C. They serve the need of having students for teachers Fonzie and Roger to know and interact with. But by and large they are pretty forgettable characters. Since Big Al is also hustled off to Chicago with Joanie and Chachi (he married Chachi’s Mom after courting her in a “Happy Days” episode), original malt shop owner Arnold (Pat Morita) returns for a few episodes. Morita’s wacky Arnoldisms are still fun but he’s not utilized as well here as he was in his original appearances.
But the big change in this season, and the big drain on the fun, is Fonzie’s steady relationship with Ashley Pfister (Linda Purl) and her hyper-adorable little daughter Heather (Heather O’Roarke). Giving Fonzie, the ultimate ladies man, a serious relationship seems to be the creative team’s solution to filling the Joanie/Chachi gap. The vast majority of episodes this season involve the Fonzie/Ashley relationship: the courting, the first date, the becoming friendly with Heather, the introducing Ashley to his friends, Ashley’s dysfunctional relationship with her parents, and so on and so forth. The worst episode of the season, and easily the worst episode of the series, “A Night At The Circus”, features an A-plot introducing the bland K.C. character (played by future “WIngs” star Crystal Bernard) and a B-plot with Fonzie trying to get Heather to like him by taking her to the circus. There’s not a single laugh in the entire half-hour, and for the life of me I don’t know if that’s on purpose or just some kind of oversight.
Anyway, “Babysitting” details the challenges faced by Fonzie when a legendary Clay/Liston fight is happening the same weekend he is tasked with babysitting little Heather solo for the first time. Heather wants to have a tea party with her dollies but Fonz is distracted by the fight on TV. Heather’s feelings are hurt and she acts out, being a rotten little kid and forcing Fonzie to regain her trust. I fell asleep twice just typing that plot synopsis.
That was the A-story. The B-story, oddly enough, is what makes this a 2-part episode. Joanie and Chachi have been performing on the road in Canada, and they return home to Milwaukee when Joanie contracts the Canadian Flu. It doesn’t take Mr. C too long to realize that Joanie isn’t sick. She confesses that life on the road has simply left her exhausted.
In the tag of the episode, a spot usually saved for a quick gag that wraps everything up on a jokey note, Joanie reveals to Chachi that her bags are not packed because she will not be returning to the tour. To Be Continued! (In two weeks. On March 8, 1983 ABC aired a rerun of an episode from earlier in the season. The “Part 2” where we get the resolution of Joanie and Chachi’s plotline would come on the 15th.)
If this seems kind of slapdash and poorly planned in terms of the scheduling and such, well…let’s return to “Joanie Loves Chachi”. The show’s first mini-season of 4 episodes in the Spring of 1982 aired immediately following “Happy Days”, and against reruns on the other networks. In these less-than-challenging conditions the show was a huge hit. When a full second season hit the air in Fall of ’82, “Joanie Loves Chachi” was now airing on a very competitive Thursday night against all-new episodes of blockbusters like “The A-Team”. At the end of the year the show was cancelled. That gave the producers of “Happy Days” about 3 months to write and produce episodes that would bring Joanie and Chachi home, and firmly re-establish them as Milwaukee residents for the 11th and final season.
(It’s been noted by more than one source that “Happy Days” got that 11th season as a reward for its many years of success, despite ratings being on the downward slide for the 10th season. The creative team took advantage of the opportunity to draw storylines to a close, to welcome back Ron Howard and Donny Most for a reunion 2-parter, and to end the series with a nicely crafted finale.)
Part 2, “Turn Around…And You’re Home”, begins with the same tag setup from Part 1 and continues the story as Joanie tells Chachi that she wants to return home, give up singing and become a teacher. Chachi replies in a less-than-supportive manner (“The girl always follows the guy!”) and Fonzie arranges for a reconciliation dinner at Ashley’s place.
Fonz drags Chachi into the closet for a heart-to-heart talk. Chachi admits he can’t bear the thought of losing Joanie.
“I love Joanie so much!…I remember the first time I laid eyes on her Fonz. I smiled. Then she smiled. Well, actually, she didn’t smile at me until about two years later-but as soon as I got as tall as her, things started clicking.”
Chachi tells Fonz he refuses to give up the career he’s built in Chicago. But four days later he’s still in Milwaukee…and having a heart-to-heart with Mr. C about life’s moments of important decisions. Big Al and Chachi’s Mom drop by because a phone call from Chachi gives them the mistaken impression that he’s going to propose to Joanie. Chachi’s actual “big announcement” is that yes, he’s going back to Chicago.
Days later, we find Joanie deep in a funk–sleeping till Noon and wandering around the Cunningham house in a bathrobe and shower cap.
MRS. C: Joanie…we love you, we care about you, and you’re acting like a horse’s patoot.
Roger and Fonzie visit Joanie and, no thanks to Roger’s cheesy psychology tactics, Joanie decides to get dressed and go to Arnold’s. Chachi shows up there and reveals that he can’t make it work in Chicago without her. The lovers reunited, we look forward to their story continuing in the final season–and culminating in Joanie becoming Mrs. Chachi Arcola.
Random Notes:
-“Happy Days” did not renew Linda Purl’s contract for the final season, perhaps figuring out 20 or so episodes too late that a committed Fonzie is not something anybody was asking for. It’s ironic, then, that this episode features Fonz working overtime to repair the Joanie/Chachi relationship. In one of the earliest episodes of season 11, Ashley is revealed to have returned to her home planet to–uh, I mean, returned to her estranged husband (and Heather’s Dad) to repair the relationship. “Happy Days” would try to reflect the maturing of the Fonzie character in other ways in the final season, such as moving him out of the Cunningham garage and into a singles apartment complex.
-We get in this episode what I’m pretty sure is not the first reference to Mr. C’s youthful dream of being a baseball umpire.
-Catchphrase Watch: Just one, and it comes from the visiting Big Al: a “Yeah, yeah yeah yap yap yap” after finding out Chachi and Joanie are splitsville.
-Random bit of trivia from this 10th season of “Happy Days”: the series welcomed both leads of “Bosom Buddies” as guest stars in separate episodes. Tom Hanks has a memorable turn as a childhood enemy of Fonzie’s in “A Little Case Of Revenge”, and the recently deceased Peter Scolari plays a former chum of The Fonz who’s bride-to-be has romantic past with the leather-jacketed one in “May The Best Man Win.”
Next Time: The redheads return.