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| Anson Williams and Henry Winkler on Happy Days. |
"Fonzie's Spots" is, hands down, the most mysterious episode of Happy Days. A clip from it, featuring Chachi (Scott Baio) and Roger (Ted McGinley) hitting each other in the face with pies, was part of the opening credits for all of Season 11. This suggests that the episode was in the can as early as September 1983. But the full episode wouldn't reach American audiences for quite a while!
Interestingly, the episode began airing in England as early as January 1984. There are records of "Fonzie's Spots" playing in Liverpool, Lincolnshire, Devon, and several other places during the first few months of 1984. By April, it had even reached Australia. But it still hadn't aired in America. Was ABC intentionally shelving this one?
As I stated last week, the eleventh and final season of Happy Days was a scheduling nightmare. The show premiered new episodes from September 1983 to January 1984 but then disappeared from the ABC schedule altogether during February and March. Finally, in late April, the show returned for a brief three-week run, culminating in the intended series finale, "Passages."
After "Passages" aired on May 8, 1984, there were five Happy Days episodes that had not yet been broadcast in America. ABC burned off four of them ("So How Was Your Weekend," "Low Notes," "School Dazed," and "Good News, Bad News") in June and July 1984. That left one additional episode: the notorious "Fonzie's Spots." As far as I can tell, ABC never aired this one in prime time. It may well have premiered in syndication.
Why did ABC not want to broadcast "Fonzie's Spots"? What was it about this episode that they wished to hide from viewers? Find out the shocking truth on this week's installment of These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast.