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| Billy Warlock and Ted McGinley on Happy Days. |
TV sitcoms rarely age gracefully. Even if the writers don't run out of ideas (and they all but certainly will), the actors will inevitably age. This is especially a problem on shows with young characters. It's never a good sign for a long-running show when the producers bring in a new kid character because the previous ones in the cast have gotten too old. It's called Cousin Oliver syndrome, and it has infected many long-running family sitcoms from All in the Family to Married... with Children.
The initial focus of Happy Days (1974-84) was on teenagers in high school. In other words, it was a show about young people for young people. The producers did their damnedest to keep Richie (Ron Howard), Ralph (Don Most), and Potsie (Anson Williams) in high school for as long as possible, but these characters finally graduated from Jefferson High alongside "night school valedictorian" Fonzie (Henry Winkler) at the end of Season 4 in 1977. Then, at the beginning of Season 5 just a few months later, Happy Days added a new adolescent character: Fonzie's smart-alecky cousin Chachi (Scott Baio). Controversial as this character was—with some viewers outright hating him and others adoring him—he nevertheless became a love interest for Joanie (Erin Moran) and allowed the show to focus on high school stories for a few more years.
But by Season 9, (1981-82) even Joanie and Chachi were starting to age out of their adolescent years, so the desperate producers added yet another teen character: Flip Phillips (Society star Billy Warlock), brother of Jefferson High basketball coach Roger (Ted McGinley). I think this was a breaking point for some viewers. Roger was already an auxiliary character, and now the auxiliary was getting his own auxiliary! It was a bridge too far. In particular, I remember my father complaining about Flip and calling him "Flop," but I don't remember if he stopped watching the show altogether at that point.
This week on These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast, we review Season 9's "Hello, Flip," the episode that introduced Flip to a skeptical America. Did we all judge Flip too harshly in 1982? Was Billy Warlock the Scrappy-Doo of Happy Days? Or had Scott Baio already taken that title several years earlier? Find out the answers to all these questions by listening to our latest podcast!