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| Ellen Travolta and Scott Baio on Happy Days. |
Like most TV producers, Garry Marshall had his share of hits and misses. For every Happy Days or Laverne & Shirley, there was a Me and the Chimp or Hey, Landlord! But of all the Marshall series, the one most likely to be on those "worst TV shows of all time" lists is the extremely short-lived 1979 sitcom Makin' It. The series centers around Billy Manucci (David Naughton, best known at the time for his Dr. Pepper commercials), a young man from New Jersey who spends his days working at an ice cream parlor and his nights dancing at the local disco. An obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the film Saturday Night Fever (1977), Makin' It flopped hard with critics and audiences and vanished from the airwaves after just a few weeks.
A gimmicky, fad-driven show like Makin' It was probably doomed to failure from the start, and I wouldn't exactly describe it as a brilliant, misunderstood classic. But it doesn't belong on those "worst ever" lists either. At heart, Makin' It is just harmless sitcom fluff, no worse than the average laffer. To me, the show is simply "disco Happy Days." If Richie and his pals lived in the '70s and went to a dance club instead of a malt shop, the results would be a lot like Makin' It.
Even though the show only lasted a handful of episodes, some good did come of it. David Naughton scored a Top 10 hit with the extremely catchy theme song, for instance. Makin' It was also the show that put Garry Marshall in contact with actress Ellen Travolta. Now, if you're blatantly ripping off Saturday Night Fever, it makes sense to hire someone from the Travolta family. But Ellen (John's older sister, by the way) proved herself more than a capable actress in the role of Dorothy Manucci, Billy's harried mother. Three years after the cancellation of Makin' It, Ellen Travolta was called upon to play a very similar character on Happy Days. Specifically, she portrayed Louisa Arcola, mother of Chachi (Scott Baio) and manager of the apartment building where Potsie (Anson Williams) lives.
This week on These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast, we review "Hello, Mrs. Arcola," the episode that introduces Ellen Travolta as Louisa. Is it a hit or a miss? Listen and find out!