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| Tom Bosley and Ron Howard practice a fraternity chant as Henry Winkler looks on. |
The closest I ever got to fraternity life was watching the movie Animal House. Admittedly, that's not close. Frats never appealed to me in the slightest. I know that the Greek system has produced numerous presidents and captains of industry, but I wouldn't have lasted even a semester in one of those noisy, chaotic houses. How would I have ever gotten any reading or studying done? In fact, had I actually attended Faber College in 1962 alongside the Animal House characters, I would have hated both the snobbish Omegas and the loutish Deltas. Maybe that's why I'm neither a president nor a captain of industry today.
In contrast, Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard), the ostensible protagonist of Happy Days, is all too eager to join a fraternity in the Season 5 episode "Bye Bye, Blackball." Specifically, he wants to join Phi Kappa Nu, the same frat that his father Howard (Tom Bosley) once belonged to. To win the approval of the sadistic, paddle-wielding upperclassmen, Richie endures all kinds of humiliating hazing rituals. To get into Phi Kappa Nu, he imitates an airplane, waddles like a duck, and even lets him get covered in feathers.
Unfortunately, the PKNs turn out to be elitist jerks who accept Richie while rejecting his friends Potsie (Anson Williams) and Ralph (Donny Most). This all leads to a dramatic showdown at Arnold's, the local teen hangout, in which Richie has to decide between his loyal pals from Jefferson High and his powerful new college companions.
How does it all turn out? Find out in the latest installment of These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast.