50 years later and Happy Days "still got it!" We found our thrill with what we believe is the best show in TV history. Join us for the second part of our podcast where we look back at our favorite episodes.
50 years later and Happy Days "still got it!" We found our thrill with what we believe is the best show in TV history. Join us for the second part of our podcast where we look back at our favorite episodes.
Welcome to Don’t Touch That Dial, a classic TV podcast. Did you grow up in the 70s and 80s? Did you rush home from school to watch reruns of the Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family? On each episode of Don't Touch That Dial, three guys who love TV will look back on those days and talk about the shows and stars that made watching television before streaming, DVRs, and even VCRs so special.
ANTHONY: All right everybody welcome back to Don't Touch That Dial, a classic TV podcast and part two of our Happy Days spectacular. Our first episode we pretty much covered some personal memories, some background on the show in the first two seasons. We're gonna move forward and I wanted to say one thing about season three and there's a huge difference between the first two seasons and season three. Not only that they went to a live audience, but the episodes themselves –the first two seasons are excellent and you can even say they're the best two seasons because their stories are very truthful and it's much more realistic. Having said that, especially season three and also season four, some of the most laugh-out-loud funny stuff you will ever see in a sitcom because it was written by Garry Marshall. That's my general take on the first two seasons compared to –well season three and four – compared to – and it always stayed entertaining, but those seasons three and four you’ve got Richie doing bong-bong at the pinball machine; Joanie kicking Fonzie in the shin at the dance contests. I mean, you could go on and on. Oh, Ralph destroying Fonzie’s motorcycle and hiding the parts in the lunchbox. Don Most was terrific.
JODY: And constantly saying I still got it with every dumb joke he tells, ANTHONY: But Yeah. That cast all around had fantastic comedic timing, and some of them were nervous about going to the live audience.
JODY: And what I'll say ,and I've said this to you before, is that you know the scenes with Ron Howard and Henry Winkler, I think those two have as great a chemistry as a comedy team as any duo in TV.
ANTHONY: Yeah. I agree with that. Ron Howard and Tom Bosley were also great together. I remember the episode where they go camping. No, I don't know if they went camping or not. I'm not sure actually but they're going somewhere. And when Richie trying to get money out of – oh, it's the babysitting episode with Booker Brown – and he’s trying to get the money out of Tom Bosley and he goes, “Dad, remember the first time you went away without your family?” And he goes, “Yes.” And Richie goes, “Where did you go?” and Mr. Cunningham goes “World War Two.” Their dynamic together was really really terrific.
KEITH: Can I also say that Ron Howard, he even had chemistry with Neil Schwartz.
ANTHONY: He did, yeah. Neil Schwartz was terrific as Bag. He really was.
KEITH: Absolutely.
ANTHONY: Everybody on that show was really, really good. What are some of – what are some of your favorite episodes from those seasons 3, 4, 5, around there?
KEITH: The first Laverne and Shirley appearance, a date with Fonzie. Amazing. They were so good. You know, and I don't know what their plans were for a spinoff before they were on , like if he’d thought about it. I never read anything that said that. But you just knew that these were two characters that you had to see again.
ANTHONY: Yeah, that was another episode that the next day in school everybody was talking about it.
JODY: Absolutely.
ANTHONY: Because they were so funny. The show got a little, that episode gets a little naughty, and while you're in, you know, in third, fourth or fifth grade, that was very exciting.
KEITH: I just remember them covering Joanie's eyes.
ANTHONY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Cindy Williams, was what? She's wearing like a fairly tight dress. It’s not like you really see anything but at that age, you take what you can get.
JODY: And again, she's more like aggressive than the character would be on Laverne & Shirley. She’s a little more risque that the character would eventually become.
ANTHONY: I read something somewhere also Garry Marshall, before he started having success like with The Odd Couple, he had a couple of shows that didn't quite make it and he had one called Hey, Landlord, and supposedly some plots from that Hey, Landlord were re-used for Laverne & Shirley …
KEITH: Oh wow.
ANTHONY: … like maybe almost word for word. The scripts were just tailored to them. I’m sorry, Jody, you wanted to say something.
JODY: He also thought about Laverne & Shirley from Pigeon Sisters.
ANTHONY: Oh, okay.
JODY: That was an inspiration for Laverne & Shirley. I was gonna say though, from season four, which was a season premiere three-part episode called “Fonzie Loves Pinky” which was – you talked about episodes that were talked about in school – that one was, those three episodes all talked about the school with Pinky Tuscadero. It was, like I said, the opening for season four in ‘76. And it was the first appearance of Al. Al had just taken over Arnold’s
ANTHONY: Is that season four?
JODY: Season four, yeah.
ANTHONY: So Arnold was only on season three? I know he came back, but his original run…
JODY: Yes, yeah, his original run was season three. They don't really explain why, but there is a sign that says “new management, same name” on the outside during the exterior shots on Arnold’s and what's great about “Fonzie Loves Pinky” is it is centered around a demolition derby. They literally having a thing where people are going to watch them crash cars into each other, which I mean, is as funny as it gets. And Fonzie and Pinky are up against the Malachi brothers, who somehow they're known for doing, playing dirty in a demolition derby.
KEITH: The Count and Rocco.
JODY: There are somehow rules that they're breaking.
KEITH: Jody says, you know, he was talking about it the next day in school. I mean, I still talk about these episodes today. I really, like I mentioned the Malachi brother at least five or six times a year.
JODY: Well, they had a thing called ”the Malachi crunch” …
ANTHONY: The Malachi Crunch.
JODY: … and it’s still referenced. I still hear that reference.
KEITH: That was my fantasy football team's name, the Malachi Crunch, named after them, and I just went to a demolition derby this year. I had done it again and made several Malachi crunch references while I was there.
ANTHONY: Was that the first time you went through a demolition derby?
KEITH: No, no, I went to one about 10 years ago.
ANTHONY: OK.
KEITH: And I remember yelling, “Release the pigeons.”
JODY: It was “Let the pigeons loose. “
ANTHONY: I worked with Keith at two different jobs and I can confirm Keith’s love of these episodes because randomly all of a sudden I would hear Keith say, “release the pigeons!” I guess if it was like you know if we were on deadline or something like that, he would go “release the pigeons.”
JODY: The line is “let them pigeon loose.”
KEITH: Let the pigeons loose, right.
ANTHONY: Let the pigeons loose? Okay, sorry. Yeah, those were big episodes. I also remember in that episode, somehow Mrs. C is the announcer …
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: … of the demolition derby. They gave her that job.
KEITH: Isn't it sponsored by Howard’s?
JODY: It was sponsored by Cunningham Hardware.
ANTHONY: It could’ve been. Milwaukee is a pretty big city but yet this demolition derby was really run by the Cunninghams and their friends. Instead of saying “start your engines,” Mrs C says “start your junk.” And I remember my, I remember one of my sisters thinking that was hysterical. I'm not sure I quite got it. I might not have even heard it or whatever.
JODY: “Gentlemen, start your junk.”
ANTHONY: “Gentlemen, start your junk,” which these days would have a very different.
JODY: Much different meaning today. One of the things about those episodes were Fonzie was now going to be in a committed relationship with Pinky.
ANTHONY: Yes.
JODY: And it ended up not working out and it ended up not working out because they couldn't come to terms with the actress to keep it going. They were going to keep that long term.
ANTHONY: Yes, Roz Kelly.
JODY: Roz Kelly couldn't get along with the producers.
ANTHONY: Yes. And because of that, that's why they brought Leather Tuscadero on.
JODY: That's why they brought on …
ANTHONY: Although there was never any romantic…
KEITH: No love interest.
ANTHONY: Ralph. Ralph had a crush on Leather in one episode.
JODY: Yeah, they dated when Ralph was trying to be serious.
ANTHONY: Yeah, Leather Tuscadero was plagued by Suzi Quatro. And I had, I had one of her albums on tape.
JODY: Nice.
ANTHONY: “Suzi …and Other Four Letter Words” and Suzi Quatro is very adamant about her deserving a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
JODY: I’ll go along with that.
ANTHONY: It was like, you know, so the point is, she was one of the first real women rockers.
JODY: Okay.
ANTHONY: Yeah, she really wants to be in the Hall of Fame.
KEITH: Write those letters, folks.
JODY: She’s got my vote.
ANTHONY: Oddly enough, she wants to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto instead of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They can put whoever they want in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I don’t care, put Suzi Quatro in, go ahead. Then there’s another three-part episode that's legendary for a certain reason and that is the Hollywood episode. Who wants to talk about that – the Hollywood episodes I should say?
JODY: Basically, first of all, it's in those episodes where Chachi is introduced in those three episodes. The reason they're going to Hollywood is because Fonzie fixes the car of some Hollywood producers and they look at him and think he could be the next James Dean. He's got a look. And so they invited him out to audition in Hollywood and because what you do is you bring your friends’ family with you …
ANTHONY: And you bring Ralph.
JODY: And you bring Ralph. He brings Cunningham and everybody with him to Hollywood. I want you to know, Anthony, if I'm ever asked to audition, I am asking your parents to come with me.
ANTHONY: But you're also bringing like some friend of another friend of mine that, well I guess Fonzie knew Ralph.
JODY: Yeah, you guys are going and your parents and your sisters, can only take one of them. So in any event, he's gonna audition and a beach bully – because there's always a beach bully – a beach bully is starting trouble with the Fonz and he challenges him to a waterskiing contest, which involves jumping over sharks and Fonzie, part two of this, jumped over the sharks wearing the leather jacket and the bathing suit which is amazing and he does it. He successfully jumps the sharks. This beach bully, by the way, has a friend who for some inexplicable reason is just acting like Jack Benny.
ANTHONY: Yeah, that's right. That’s right. I forgot about that.
JODY: Yeah, one of the girls on the beach and yeah, he likes to pretend he's Jack Benny and nobody … It's frighteningly crazy.
KEITH: So Henry Winkler told a story during the book reading that I went to last month where he said that the reason that came about was his father went to Garry Marshall – Henry's father went to Garry Marshall – and said, “My son can waterski” and that's what gave Garry Marshall the idea to have him water ski.
JODY: “You gotta get him on skis.”
ANTHONY: Yeah, I heard Don Most interviewed on the podcast – maybe it was Gilbert's, I'm not sure which one – but he, Don Most claims, no, no, he might not have been the one who said it. Somebody else might have said it about Don Most but Don Most was reading the script and he said to Ron Howard, “Fonzie’s jumping sharks now?” So he might have been the first person to actually use the phrase “jumping the shark.” And I'm sure most people listening know but that episode inspired the phrase “jumping the shark,” which …
JODY: Is used now.
ANTHONY: …has become the phrase for when a show, the people who created the phrase are very adamant in saying it doesn't mean the show became awful, but it just changed and wasn't quite as good.
KEITH: Happy Days remained like the number one show for years after that.
ANTHONY: Yeah, Fonzie – Fonzie, Henry Winkler–and Garry Marshall were always very adamant and talking about how the show stayed number one. Again, the guys who create the website go, “It doesn't mean the show became terrible and was a failure. It's just that something changed about the show and it wasn’t quite as good.”
JODY: and the thing about the jumping of the sharks is it kind of takes away from the otherwise, this is some good stuff in these episodes, some funny stuff in all three.
ANTHONY: Yeah.
JODY: … and some, kind of, moving stuff, too because Fonzie auditions – and first of all, his audition is funny because he's overacting of course – but they decide after you know, Richie goes to the audition with him and he’s reading with him, so he's playing the other part but Fonzie supposed to be auditioning and they decide that Richie is better for the part than Fonzie. They want a more – I don't know how they go from they want the next James Dean to they want some wholesome – they said they want something that reminds them of apple pie.
ANTHONY: They want apple pie.
JODY: I don’t know how it goes from James Dean to that, but and so now that's like a scene, so Fonzie he has to deal with that. Those are some good scenes with that, so that really jumping the shark has kind of gotten away with everything in that episode.
ANTHONY: And of course later on in Arrested Development, Henry Winkler's character jumps over a shark on the dock in one episode so he was able to have fun with it.
JODY: Oh, they've always had fun with like I said, three, three pretty good episodes. That moment is all anybody thinks about when they think about that part of it.
ANTHONY: Yes, yes, absolutely.
KEITH: The three-parters were always done well.
ANTHONY. Yeah. They always had a good cliffhanger. And the premise was, you know who owned the ranch? Was it like Mary Ann's cousin?
KEITH: Yeah and they needed to raise money and…
JODY: Was the girl's name Thunder? Am I remembering that right?
KEITH: Yes and the horse was Dusty.
ANTHONY: Yeah. But she wasn't Marion's cousin.
KEITH: No, no, she worked there.
ANTHONY: She worked on the ranch, right? She was a ranch hand
KEITH: And Fonzie and Richie both liked her. It was one of those rare love triangles.
ANTHONY: Yeah, yeah, you gotta love that.
JODY: But Fonzie thought she liked Richie.
ANTHONY: Oh, who did she like?
JODY: Well, in the end, she liked Fonzie, but Fonzie was under the impression that she liked Richie.
KEITH: I’m not sure that's true. I feel like Richie kind of gave her to Fonzie, like kind of bowed out.
JODY: Now what happened was Richie was going to talk to her because he had a girlfriend at this point and was gonna tell her that and then after he's done with his little speech, she goes, “I like Fonzie.”
ANTHONY: Oh, okay. Was Lori Beth the girl?
JODY: Yes. And actually, there's a thing with Lori Beth I have here from season four if you want to …
ANTHONY: Of course.
JODY: … talk about that. Oh, and by the way we could fact check what I just said about Thunder. Right. You know, I have not seen that episode in some time so we can check.
ANTHONY: I love Keith’s premise because if there was one time where a girl wanted Richie over Fonzie and Richie had to go, “All right, Fonzie, you can have her,” that would make me think a little differently about Fonzie.
JODY: But, let's, we can go back and fact check that one because that one, I haven’t seen that episode in some time but I seem to remember that part of it, but the time capsule from season four when they're doing, they're making a time capsule of the the gang and they're actually they get locked into the vault at Cunningham hardware store.
ANTHONY: Yes.
JODY: Which because in those days, people are always getting locked into rooms. And they're locked into this vault and it's a Friday and Mr. Cunningham will not be returning to the store until Monday. So they think they're going to be there, you know, all weekend. That is the first appearance of Linda Goodfriend, but she's not playing Lori Beth. She's playing someone named Kim but she is dating Richie.
ANTHONY: Oh, wow.
JODY: And then later she returns as Lori Beth, but in the episode with the ranch, I think Richie is already with Lori Beth
ANTHONY: The episode of the ranch also, one of the episodes with the ranch. I remember the ending because they're trying to collect an amount of money to give to the landlord and they need like 80 more cents and Potsie goes “I'm sorry, all I've got is a 20.”
KEITH: That was a five; it was definitely a five.
ANTHONY: Oh it was a five? Okay.
KEITH: Because Ralph goes to him. “Potsie, Potsie, do you have any money? Do you have a quarter?” Potsie says, “Sorry, Ralph. All I have is a five.” I love those episodes, and I always wanted to write a bull because of that.
ANTHONY: I never wanted to. I never wanted to ride a bull.
KEITH: So I did get to ride a mechanical bull.
ANTHONY: That's cool.
KEITH: I felt like Fonzie.
ANTHONY: I'm gonna jump ahead a little bit and we can come back because I want to talk a little bit, I want to make sure we talk about the episode where Richie and Ralph come back because Richie and Ralph left after season seven, I believe, and they came back in the last season, it's the last season where they come back I believe, right?
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: Those are really good episodes and, before the phrase existed, they were fan service episodes. They gave you everything you would have wanted – it was two episodes so it was an hour.
JODY: Yes. Season eight was the first season without Richie and Ralph. ANTHONY: Okay. And I believe when Richie comes home or whatever, whatever that episode is called, in season 11. It's in the last season, right?
JODY: Double checking that now
KEITH: I'm not sure but that's what he wants, he decides he wants to go to California.
JODY: Season 11 is when he comes back, another two part episode.
ANTHONY: Yeah, but like they gave you ,the guys hanging out in Arnold's and singing “Blueberry Hill.” They gave you Ralph climbing into, you know, Richie's window in his bedroom one more time and along with a pretty good story that wraps up Richie's story pretty well. I just wanted to give a shout out to those; those were really well done.
JODY: They also made it really kind of true to life in the sense that they’re together for the first time in a while and they're trying to figure out how to talk to each other again.
KEITH: Yeah.
ANTHONY: Yes, yeah.
JODY: And they're not like they don't know what to say to each other right off the bat and…
ANTHONY: In fact, that’s …
KEITH: That's how the song happened.
JODY: That's how the song happens.
ANTHONY: Ralph goes to the piano and starts playing it and they start singing. and Potsie keeps mentioning people and goes, “He died.” Remember, so and so yeah. He died.
JODY: He died.
ANTHONY: What else? What other episodes stick out to guys minds?
JODY: There's one from season six called “Kidstuff,” where Fonzie is dating this woman who has a six year old son and he becomes very attached to the kid and the kid is looking up to him as like a hero and then her husband who had walked out on her returns.
ANTHONY: yes, yeah.
JODY: She wants to get back with her husband and she wants the husband to have the relationship with the son. And by the way, it's Bruce Weitz from Hill Street Blues is the dad. The father comes back and Fonzie is a little distraught because he's very attached to the kid and he still keeps hanging out with the kid and the father comes to Arnold's to find them and then Fonzie pretends to back down from a fight with him. So the kid doesn't idolize him anymore. And as the father is leaving with the son, he turns back to Fonzie and mouths thank you because he knows that he backs down and as you know, for the kid.
KEITH: That's the same reason that Fonzie broke up with Ashley was because the husband came back even though he did it off camera, right? ANTHONY: Yeah.
KEITH: And he didn't want to stand in the way so they kind of recycled that.
ANTHONY: Yeah, yeah.
JODY: And in both cases, attached to a kid you know, that came with the woman
ANTHONY: And we should say Ashley was Fonzie’s girlfriend in later, much later seasons, post Richie season. She was played by Linda Purl who played Richie's girlfriend, a different character in early seasons, and she did a nightclub act in the last few years with Don Most, I believe, right? Didn't the two of them sing together?
KEITH: Yes, they did.
ANTHONY: And now she's, I don't know if they're married, but she's in a relationship with Patrick Duffy.
KEITH: Yes.
ANTHONY: They're married?
KEITH: I think they are. Yes.
ANTHONY: Shout out to Linda Purl.
KEITH: It is so hard to just name favorite episode because there's so many, you know, like when Joannie dates Spike, that's a great one. That's an early season. When they're babysitting. We mentioned Booker Brown before and Laverne and Shirley come back.
ANTHONY: Yeah, that was very exciting when they came back.
KEITH: Another great episode. I always liked…
JODY: Is Spike's real name Raymond? Am I remembering that correctly?
KEITH: Oh, I don’t remember that.
JODY: Not the actor’s name, the character’s real name is Raymond.
KEITH: Butch Fitzpatrick.
ANTHONY: No, Butch Patrick was… But it’s Butch something. I can't think of his name
KEITH: The one where Fonzie goes blind. I always really liked that one. I know it's not like a classic one. But you know, Fonzie was, like, really sad. I just remember him going to Richie. “Richie! I’m …”
JODY: I'm just gonna go back to Spike for a minute here. Danny Butch was the actor. The character's name is Raymond “Spike” Fonzarelli.
ANTHONY: Yeah, so but yeah, Keith, there was another very emotional one was when Richie was in a motorcycle accident.
KEITH: Yes.
ANTHONY: Like with the blindness, that was another one. And it really emphasized their relationship.
KEITH: Fonzie cried.
ANTHONY: Yes.
JODY: Fonzie sitting by his hospital bed crying and praying.
ANTHONY: Yeah, yeah.
KEITH: And then the one we're Fonzie and Mrs. C dance.
ANTHONY: That's an awesome episode. It's so funny
KEITH: We’re not really mentioning Marion Ross that much but, you know, she was incredible as well.
ANTHONY: Yeah. But oh, I just wanted to backtrack a little bit. They also used Fonzie to send messages like when he wore glasses. That was to make kids who had to wear glasses feel better. Isn’t there an episode where Fonzie gets a library card?
JODY: Yeah, it's an episode where he gets a library card and apparently library cards went up, like the amount of kids…
KEITH: Oh, yeah.
JODY: … getting library cards when he did that. They also had an episode where he decides he would eat liver after being afraid to eat liver. They also had them, there's one called “The Graduation” – also two parts – where you find out he's going to night school because…
ANTHONY: Yes.
JODY: … he didn't have a high school diploma and he went to night school to get the diploma. They did that also because to teach kids that education is important. I think there's a line where he says “School is Cool.”
KEITH: “School is cool.” Another great episode, Jody just made me think of it saying the school, was when Potsie’s doing bad in school, and they come up with pump your blood song, which I used during a test.
JODY: It was also used in a commercial.
ANTHONY: It was. There was some medicine, an over-the-counter medication.
JODY: It was St Joseph's aspirin.
ANTHONY: Is that what it was? Because you can take that , if you;re having heart problems, you can take the aspirin and so they use it for that.
KEITH: I’d love to sing it but I know we don't have the rights.
JODY: You know, again, I'm going back to Spike that episode where Joanie dates…
ANTHONY: Jody’s really hung up on Spike.
JODY: Because it’s a funny line here. She's telling her parents she's going out with some guy named Raymond and then they find that it's Fonzie's cousin and when Fonzie says Spike, they say, “Isn't his name Raymond?” He says, “We’re trying to live that down.”
KEITH: Was it his cousin or his nephew even though he doesn’t have any brothers or sisters?
JODY: They say nephew because you know… They say nephew. I think later on– they say he's an only child, so that's kind of impossible. And I think later on he actually admits it’s his cousin. There’s an episode where that happens.
ANTHONY: Something else I know about the actor who played Spike. He was also in the Pavarotti movie Yes, Giorgio. I don't know if he has a prominent, I've never seen it. I just know like when I looked at his IMDB page he was in Yes, Giorgio. And I think this makes us the first podcast to ever mention the movie Yes, Giorgio.
JODY: I was gonna say that's a movie that always seems to come up as a good movie, but I don't know anyone who has ever seen it.
ANTHONY: No, I think it is supposed to be terrible.
JODY: Really?
ANTHONY: Oh, yeah. I think it’s supposed to be horrible.
JODY: I don't know anyone who has ever seen it.
ANTHONY: Yeah, I think it's like a slapstick comedy.
JODY: They made a slapstick comedy with Pavarotti.
ANTHONY: Don't hold me to that, but I think so. We have to talk about spin offs, because Happy Days has a lot of them. We mentioned Laverne & Shirley.
JODY: The ultimate spin-off.
ANTHONY: Yes, it's one of the all-time great spin-offs.
JODY: But here's season five in 1978 was the introduction of Mork from Ork.
ANTHONY: Yes, you guys can talk about it. The less I talk about Robin Williams, the happier I am.
JODY: Mork comes down and he actually wants to observe and he wants to bring a specimen back to Ork. By a specimen, he actually does mean a person. So that's, that's his goal and for whatever reason everybody else freezes – you know he suspends time, you know, everyone's in suspended animation but only Fonzie and Richie can talk to him.
ANTHONY: Makes perfect sense.
JODY: Yes. And it is Robin Williams’ first appearance obviously as Mork which would become a spin-off. Interesting story is that when he auditioned for it, the other – Garry Marshall wanted a stand-up. He wanted a stand-up comedian to play the part and he asked people who worked for him who was the hottest young stand-up and they all told him Jay Leno and he met with Leno and decided not the right guy and so…
ANTHONY: (imitates Jay Leno) Mork from Ork , yeah, nano, nano.
JODY: He did use him on Laverne & Shirley but Jay …
ANTHONY: (still imitating Leno) We all can be Mork. Everybody can be Mork from Ork. It’s okay. It’s all right.
JODY: (imitates Leno) And so I got headlines from Ork.
ANTHONY: (still imitating Leno) Robin wasn't angry that I wanted to be Mork from Ork. We can all be Mork from Ork.
JODY: So great. So we got Robin Williams and Richard Lewis both auditioned.
ANTHONY: My God! Richard Lewis?! The Leno thing seemed vaguely familiar, but I did not know the …
JODY: Well, apparently the story goes, Richard Lewis stopped halfway through his audition because he was looking at the script and he said, he said to Robin Williams, “This is practically written for you,” and then he stopped halfway through the audition and said “The guy you want is sitting outside .”
ANTHONY: I think I've also heard a story that Garry Marshall told Robin Williams, “Have a seat,” and Robin Williams did the thing where he put his head on the chair.
KEITH: Yes, yes.
ANTHONY: … And that’s how they worked him in.
JODY: Garry Marshall actually said he's the only alien actually to show up.
KEITH: Yes, yes.
ANTHONY: And he wanted, Mork wanted Richie because he was humdrum.
JODY: But then he decided he wanted Fonzie.
ANTHONY: Oh, he changed from humdrum because Richie was too humdrum.
JODY: What ended up happening was Fonzie was gonna fight him – I guess for Richie – and they had a duel with different things (makes alien noises) eeng, ung, using the little powers there and – my Mork impression — and he won but he put Fonzie in like suspended animation and was going to take them with him.
ANTHONY: And so for the spin-off the spin off took place in the 70s
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: So I guess more had the ability to travel through time and space.
JODY: Correct.
ANTHONY: Okay, make perfect sense.
JODY: Because he does come back to Happy Days and mentions he's living in 1979.
ANTHONY: Oh I don’t remember that.
JODY: But he has to go back to the 50s. Things were humdrum and he wants to understand human life better.
KEITH: Richie asked him you know what he's doing? And he goes, “Well, Mr. President.”
ANTHONY: He's joking?
KEITH: Yes.
JODY: Yeah.Richie does ask him who the president is in 1979.
KEITH: Yeah.
JODY: And he's like, “You like peanuts. You'd like Jimmy.”
KEITH: Speaking of things that made total sense. There was another spin- off called Out of the Blue.
JODY: Yes, that was Brandon, the angel, right?
ANTHONY: I loved Out of the Blue.
KEITH: Did you really?
ANTHONY: I did. Yes. Yes, I did.
JODY: Jimmy Brogan…
ANTHONY: All eight episodes. Yes. I loved…
JODY: Jimmy Brogan playing Brandon, the angel
ANTHONY: Who later became Leno's head writer.
JODY: Who later became Leno’s head writer. So all sorts of Leno connections.
KEITH: Full circle.
JODY: Everything starts and ends with Jay. We know this.
ANTHONY: : Out of the Blue was about an angel played by, an angel on Earth, played by Jimmy Brogan. Again he's on Happy Days, but his show took place in the 70s. Was he on an episode of Happy days and they said, “Oh, let's give this guy a show” or did they already make that show and they're like, “Hey, we can give it a boost by putting this character on Happy Days.” I've never been clear on that.
JODY: I think it's a straight spin-off but that one I'd have to check.
KEITH: For those who don’t know, Chachi had sold his soul to the devil.
ANTHONY: To be popular with girls, is that why?
KEITH: Yeah, yeah. And then Brandon comes down.
JODY: The devil asks him, “Do you like blondes or brunettes?” and he says redhead, which is strange because then later he dated Joanie
KEITH: And yeah, and the angel comes down and saves him. So that's the thing. Then there's the Joanie Loves Chachi spin off.
ANTHONY: Absolutely.
JODY: But we can't go any further with spin-offs without bringing up Blansky's Beauties, which is the Nancy Walker show. Nancy Walker played Howard's cousin.
ANTHONY: Did you watch that?
JODY: I did. Yeah
ANTHONY: I never saw that even know about it till like, I don't know ,20 years ago.
KEITH: Yea, me neither.
ANTHONY: But Keith and I would talk …
JODY: She was introduced as Howard's cousin. It was actually during one of the clip shows where they're celebrating the anniversary. They wrapped around that and they introduced her and they said that she is the producer of a show in Vegas at the Oasis Hotel in Las Vegas. And then the show, Blansky’s Beauties is set in present day which at the time was the late 70s. But strangely enough, strangely enough, Linda Goodfriend is in that one too.
ANTHONY: But she doesn’t play Lori Beth?
JODY: No, no, she plays a showgirl named Sunshine. And also Pat Marita has a recurring role as Arnold.
ANTHONY: But also isn't Eddie Mekka in it but he's playing a relative, a younger relative of Carmine’s?
JODY: Correct.
ANTHONY: So they've got a show taking place in the 70s. Arnold is just Arnold.
JODY: Correct. And he looks exactly the same as he did in the 50s
ANTHONY: Yeah, Arnold hasn’t aged, but Eddie Mekka, they had to explain him being on the show by saying he's a younger relative of Carmine’s.
JODY: Yes. and Jimmy Baio is in it. Scott Baio’s – are they brothers or cousins? I always forget.
KEITH: They’re cousins.
ANTHONY: Cousins. Yeah, yeah.
JODY: So Jimmy Baio is also in it and that is Blansky’s Beauties; did not last very long.
ANTHONY: But I would just love to be at the meetings when they were coming up with this. Just having to figure out the logic. Getting back, Keith, here to Joanie Loves Chachi. That was a huge hit in the summer.
KEITH: Yes.
ANTHONY: It aired during the summer and this was when you know long before the way things are now and there was nothing new on in the summer so they put this new show, Joanie Loves Chachi. It was such a hit, they took Joanie and Chachi off Happy Days, but then when Joanie Loves Chachi was up against new episodes of anything else…
KEITH: I think it was The A-Team.
ANTHONY: It was The A-Team? Nobody watched it and they brought Joanie and Chachi back to Happy Days.
JODY: We could’ve beaten them in the ratings.
KEITH: I still watched.
ANTHONY: I think I still watch.
KEITH: They were in a band. They sang
ANTHONY: Yeah, yeah, it wasn't bad.
KEITH: I have some history here. Just so you know. So I can't play musical instruments, but I can play the theme song to Joanie Loves Chachi on the piano.
ANTHONY: Oh, well, yeah you have to do that the next time.
JODY: And then I would say you can play music.
ANTHONY: That's all you need.
JODY: My God!
ANTHONY: I want to talk a little bit about the last season. We have to talk about the finale, but I wanted to point out one thing about the last season that I thought was kind of cool. Everything had changed in the last season, or a lot had changed. But there's an episode where Fonzie finds out he has a brother. Do you guys remember this?
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: What I liked about that episode is going back to earlier to like season six or seven, there's an episode where Fonzie briefly sees his father but he doesn't know it’s his father
KEITH: Oh that’s a great episode.
ANTHONY: We won’t get into it. It will take too much time to get into the whole thing. But Fonzie mentioned to the brother, “Yeah, I met him once but I didn't even, I didn't even look at his face. I didn't know was him.” And I thought that was kind of cool that they call back to something that happened because Garry Marshall never did that. As the Blansky’s Beauties discussion proved, Garry Marshall was not concerned with consistency.
JODY: Continuity was not his thing.
ANTHONY: Exactly, yeah
JODY: And he said that he has admitted that too. It’s just why worry about it? (imitates Garry Marshall) Nobody cares.
ANTHONY: Yeah. And then there's the …
JODY: (Still imitating Garry Marshall) Nobody cares when that happened.
ANTHONY: And then there's the finale, which is a very good finale where Joanie and Chachi get married; there's a touching montage to Elvis's memories. And somehow Anson Williams isn’t it. Everyone's there and Anson Williams had pretty much left the show. He was still in the opening credits but they couldn't have called up Anson Williams and said “Come to the wedding?” That's just always gnawed at me all these years.
JODY: I mean, his role, when Richie and Ralph left, he stayed and there were definitely episodes that centered around him.
ANTHONY: But he was phased out.
JODY: Slowly but surely. Even like, because he was, you know, he was the lead singer of the band and then there were many episodes where he sang. Chachi became the lead singer so it, you know ,it all started to center more around Chachi.
ANTHONY: Yeah, the finale is a very very good finals before finales were the huge massive thing; it was a big deal but not like they've become.
JODY: Mr. C's toast at the wedding …
KEITH: Yes. Great.
JODY: That's how they end the episode with a toast and he actually says, “to happy days.”
KEITH: Yeah, right into the camera too. He looks at the viewers
JODY: Beautiful.
ANTHONY: And that actually wasn't the last episode that aired because they – it was the last episode but I think they skipped a few episodes and then they burned those off in the summer, but it was the finale of the series, but there were some other episodes that aired after it. Anything else you guys want to say other than Happy Days is the greatest thing ever. But you know, real quick what is it that you think has made the show so special to us?
KEITH: Wow. I mean, it's a combination of family and friendship.
ANTHONY: I think you're right
JODY: The characters, it was easy to relate to all of them.
ANTHONY: I think when I was a kid watching it and, you know, as an elementary school kid, I thought I would be, after high school, I would be going to like some diner, singing and hanging out with friends.
KEITH: Yeah.
ANTHONY: And there's a fantasy element to that you have this friend who's a protector, you know, I didn't get picked on a little bit. Probably everyone does to some degree except…
KEITH: I apologized (everyone laughs), damn, keeps bringing it up
ANTHONY: But to have this guy who would…
JODY: Never forget…
ANTHONY: This guy who would come in and swoop in and save the day from you. There was a fantasy
JODY: But he was human too and there were human elements to him and it wasn't perfect all the time. And that also made it so relatable.
KEITH: I think it's safe to say even though we're not going to do another Happy Days episode, per se, we'll be talking about Happy Days a lot on this podcast in the future.
ANTHONY: Yes,and again, the reason we're doing this 50 years ago this month, I think January 15, 1974, 50 years old, celebrate by watching a few episodes.
JODY: Absolutely. And clear up the thunder argument for us.
KEITH: To Happy Days.
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