On Thursdays, I take a critical look at a TV show by season. Here's a look at Season 9 (Part 1) of Happy Days!
HAPPY DAYS: SEASON NINE
1981-1982
1981-1982
22 episodes
The ninth season of Happy Days might be the most consistent of the four non-Richie years of the show. The show seems to have found somewhat of a groove with their new ensemble focus and the dynamics between the main characters. That gets upended again at the end of the season when they spin Erin Moran and Scott Baio off to Joanie Loves Chachi and that really helps to accelerate the end of Happy Days. But in the meantime, there are enough decent episodes. It doesn't soar to the highs it once did but it manages to often be a good enough version of the show it was by this point.
Starring
Henry Winkler as Arthur Fonzarelli (22 episodes)
Tom Bosley as Howard Cunningham (22 episodes)
Marion Ross as Marion Cunningham (20 episodes)
Marion Ross as Marion Cunningham (20 episodes)
Anson Williams as Potsie Webber (12 episodes)
Erin Moran as Joanie Cunningham (22 episodes)
Al Molinaro as Al Delvecchio (21 episodes)
Scott Baio as Chachi Arcola (22 episodes)
Lynda Goodfriend as Lori Beth Cunningham (13 episodes)
Lynda Goodfriend as Lori Beth Cunningham (13 episodes)
Cathy Silvers as Jenny Piccolo (17 episodes)
Ted McGinley as Roger Phillips (16 episodes)
Harris Kal as Bobby (7 episodes)
Dennis Mandel as Eugene Belvin (5 episodes)
Scott Mitchell Bernstein as Melvin Belvin (3 episodes)
Kevin Sullivan as Tommy (2 episodes)
Ed Peck as Officer Kirk (1 episode)
Billy Warlock as Flip Phillips (1 episode)
Joanie recounts her summer by sending home movies to Richie. The events include Joanie and Chachi breaking up, Lori Beth's pregnancy and Howard and Fonzie having an identity crisis.
Happy Days returns for its ninth season with a clever way of advancing the plot that's been done quite a few times since but was more novel back in 1981. The episode, which originally aired with the next episode as a one hour event, took place over the Summer of 1962 and effectively managed a lot of stories. The Fonzie story feels a little boring but there's decent enough drama for the Joanie and Chachi story, which is really the driving relationship in the show at this point. Although weren't the first couple clips awfully weird for Joanie to be sending to her brother overseas? Oh and by the way, she is also sporting a very 80s haircut.
RATING: 7/10
191. Home Movies Part 2 (10/6/81)
Joanie continues to tell Richie about the summer for the Cunninghams and their friends as her fight with Chachi comes to a head.
The second part of the episode (which again, was originally an hour) is not as strong as the first part. Erin Moran doesn't really have the acting chops to pull off the dramatic climax with Scott Baio and we're "treated" to a Potsie song, the first one in awhile. There are good things about this episode but I think it ultimately could have benefited from tapping a little more into the wistful nostalgia at what Summer 1962 might have looked like in Milwaukee. It feels a little too blah to really capture the spirit that it's clearly trying to capture. Also, Fonzie seems like a background character in these first two episodes.
RATING: 5/10
192. Not With My Mother, You Don't (10/13/81)
Chachi is upset when he finds out his mother has been dating someone and he is the last to know.
Ellen Travolta returns for this episode and she is strong again. She really could have been a series regular on this show. I understand why she was plucked to appear on Joanie Loves Chachi even though that show was ill-fated. I know Scott Baio has become a little bit of a nut in recent years but his acting on Happy Days really is solid once he's given more to do and when he has to carry the show more often. He has a really good on-screen relationship with Ellen Travolta and actually does better than Fonzie sometimes as a vulnerable character.
RATING: 7.5/10
193. Another Night at Antoine's (10/20/81)
Chachi tells Joanie he wants to date other girls and she should be free to date other guys but then ends up miserable without her.
I mentioned in the previous episode that Scott Baio is a better actor on this show than he gets credit for and I stand by that with this episode. However, Erin Moran is too often not up to the task of doing big scenes. The scene in this episode where Chachi tells Joanie he wants to see other people could really work but Moran just plays it super fake and it's distracting. It makes for a ruined moment between two key characters. For a fourth straight episode, Fonzie feels like a background character though he has a couple funny moments at the restaurant.
RAITNG: 5/10
Fonzie fills in for Richie when Lori Beth was to do classes to have a natural childbirth.
We haven't seen Lori Beth since the "Home Movies" two part episodes and, as is so often the cast with TV characters, her pregnancy has advanced rapidly. This is another episode that really suffered from not being able to have Richie there. I can only imagine how funny Ron Howard could have been in this episode and the show tries its best to do a major milestone episode like this without the father of the baby. They do an ok job, but it's not as effective as the wedding episode as there's too many standard sitcom clichés that come with birth episodes.
RATING: 5.5/10
195. The Other Guy (11/10/81)
Fonzie and Roger are dating the same girl but not aware of it. Joanie worries the romance has gone out of her relationship with Chachi. Marion is upset when she finds out her love letters from Howard when he was in the army were written by someone else.
This episode of Happy Days is structured a little bit more like a contemporary sitcom where there's a couple different storylines that center around a loose theme. It's not done as smoothly as it is often now because shows weren't used to doing stories that way so the Fonzie/Roger story gets the bulk of the attention. That's unfortunate because Ted McGinley is just a dud in any story he's in. I wish a little more time had been spent on the Howard and Marion story though there is a funny moment when Marion is reading Howard's supposed love letter. The episode is only ok but I like it trying different stories under the same theme.
RATING: 6/10
196. Fonzie the Substitute (11/17/81)
Fonzie substitutes for Roger and gets tricked by the class into teaching sex education, which gets Roger in trouble with the school.
This episode has the best use of Roger so far in the series. It's also a school themed episode that's not super dumb. I appreciated that this episode could have easily veered into a "very special" territory but instead played it without a heavy hand, even if it wasn't all that funny. The episode also effectively addresses an early 1960s approach to sex education in schools and has some perspective on it coming from the early 1980s. Happy Days isn't usually that attuned to social commentary so it's interesting to see them attempt an episode like this.
RATING: 8/10
Jenny and Joanie try to join a sorority but the girls make Jenny's tasks much tougher to complete.
This episode features the legendary Phil Silvers in one of his final roles before his death in 1985. It's a cool approach because it features him playing the father of his real life daughter, Cathy Silvers (Jenny Piccolo). Silvers is like a hurricane when he comes in towards the end of the episode. It sort of feels like the writers just let him improvise with a loose script and there's a fun nod to his old Sgt. Bilko character. This episode is one of the better uses of Cathy Silvers as Jenny Piccolo even if the whole memorizing the phone book bit is ridiculous.
RATING: 7.5/10
198. The Nun's Story (12/1/81)
Fonzie tries to come on to a new teacher at the school but can't understand when she rejects him.
This episode feels like one that perhaps should have aired 100 episodes ago. The series does finally attempt to correct this in Season Ten but in Season Nine, they are stuck with not knowing how to keep advancing the Fonzie character. Being the playboy doesn't really work when Henry Winkler is closer to 40 than 30. This episode feels more sad and pathetic than it would have felt earlier in the run of the series. Maybe it was this episode that inspired them to give Fonzie a steady girlfriend in Season 10.
RATING: 2/10
199. Baby, It's Cold Inside (12/8/81)
When everyone else is gone for the weekend, Joanie babysits Richie Jr. but Jenny arranges for a party at the Cunningham house as the boiler breaks down.
When parents are away, teens will throw a party of course. This episode follows that well-trod sitcom plot but it also does it pretty well. There's nothing that is not predictable in this episode once the party starts though I like the scene with Joanie and Chachi pretending to be married before the party and I didn't mind the bit with the bagels. The episode as a whole just sort of is what it is. I don't really have a lot to say about it because it's all so predictable, just not really in a bad way.
RATING: 6.5/10
200. Hello, Tough Guy (12/15/81)
Joanie, Chachi and Fonzie work together to try to make Eugene cooler so Jenny will be interested in going out with him.
Adding Eugene to the cast as a recurring character was not a great choice for Happy Days in the post-Richie years. It's such an old school approach to nerds and how the world saw them before nerd-dom became pretty cool. Eugene is such a classic TV nerd so there's very little depth to his character. He's one big stereotype and this is coming from a show that always found a way to make Richie, Potsie and Ralph just a little bit nerdy but in a much more effective way.
RATING: 3/10
Tomorrow: The Friday Five - a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week!
Next Thursday: A look at Season Nine (Part 2) of Happy Days!
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