 |
| Fonzie (Henry Winkler) spends Halloween in the hospital. |
Even though I used to get frequent, painful sore throats, I never had my tonsils taken out. No doctor even suggested it as a possibility. I guess by the time my problem started, circa the late 1990s or early 2000s, tonsillectomies were already out of style. It turns out that they weren't all that efficacious, plus the mortality rate was higher than you'd expect. Not to mention the fact that tonsils are useful in keeping germs out of the body, making doctors think twice about chopping them out. Today, the procedure is mainly performed on kids with sleep apnea.
Back in the day, though, tonsillectomies were not only common, they were beloved by sitcom writers. It was a good way to send characters to the hospital for a relatively benign reason. Case in point: Happy Days has already done two tonsillectomy episodes! During the first season, Howard (Tom Bosley) went under the knife in "Hardware Jungle." And in the episode I'm reviewing this week, Season 5's "Fonsillectomy," it's Fonzie's (Henry Winkler) turn, even though the super-cool mechanic already had his tonsils taken out when he was a kid. I guess they grew back!
To this day, I cannot speak for long periods of time without it being painful. I record These Days Are Ours with my co-host on Saturdays. It takes about 30-45 minutes, and that's all the talking I do for the day. It's basically all the talking I do for the week. On one occasion, an entire recording session had to be scrapped for technical reasons, forcing us to redo an episode. My voice was shredded well into the next day. So now you know that I suffer for my art!
Speaking of which, here's today's episode: