Podcast Tuesday: "Happy Days Jumps the Bunny"

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.

Podcast Tuesday: "Swimfan"

Larry Poindexter and Cathy Silvers on Happy Days.

Season 10 of Happy Days might have had some viewers asking, "Who the hell are these people?" The long-running ABC sitcom added four new characters that year—Heather (Heather O'Rourke), Ashley (Linda Purl), Flip (Billy Warlock), and K.C. (Crystal Bernard). Additional real estate on the show was given to Roger (Ted McGinley) and Jenny (Cathy Silvers), both of whom joined Happy Days in Season 8 after the departure of Richie (Ron Howard) and Ralph (Don Most). So that's six newbies jostling for airtime, alongside the show's remaining regulars. Even Potsie (Anson Williams), who'd been with Happy Days since its original 1972 pilot, only made a handful of appearances that season.

ABC greatly reduced Happy Days' budget for Season 11, since the show was getting clobbered in the ratings by NBC's The A-Team. That meant Heather, Ashley, Flip, and K.C. were all cut entirely. Jenny appeared in the series finale but was otherwise absent from Season 11. Somehow, of all the post-Richie characters, it was preppy dweeb Roger who managed to survive, thanks in no small part to the charm of actor Ted McGinley.

But it's sad that the show didn't find more room for Jenny Piccalo in its final season. She was introduced to us as the troublemaking, boy-crazy best friend of Joanie (Erin Moran), and the two characters had a fun, Laverne & Shirley-esque dynamic. When Joanie departed for her own (ill-fated) spinoff, Jenny was then paired up with goody-goody K.C., often serving as a bad influence on her. When Joanie returned to Happy Days, this could have been a great opportunity to revive the Joanie/Jenny friendship from Seasons 8 and 9. But I guess ABC had other ideas about that.

This week on These Days Are Ours: A Happy Days Podcast, we review the Season 10 finale, "Affairs of the Heart," in which Jenny has a one-sided romance with a vain, selfish swimmer named Eric (Larry Poindexter). It basically serves as a goodbye to Jenny, giving her one last spotlight episode. Coincidentally, it's also the last time either K.C. or Flip appeared on Happy Days. Is this episode a fitting farewell? You know how to find out.