Thursday, May 26, 2022

EPISODE GUIDES: Happy Days Season Four (Part 2)

On Thursdays, I take a detailed and critical look at a TV show by season. Today I am looking at Season 4 (Part 2) of Happy Days! For Part 1, click here!

I will not have a Friday Five post tomorrow as I am away and not able to update the TV news from the week so see you Monday for a new week of blog posts!

77. The Book of Records (1/18/77)
Al tries to get Arnold's restaurant into the Magilla Book of Records at the same time Fonzie's shy and clumsy cousin Angie is visiting.

There's a lot happening in this episode as the story is simultaneously about Fonzie's cousin and the wild attempts to get into the Book of Records. I think in general that's a good idea to keep the show moving. As I mentioned before, shows back in the 70s rarely had A, B and C stories. They primarily had one story with some side things. The plus side is more in depth stories. The downside is long episodes when the plot isn't strong enough to sustain a full episode. So episodes like this work because we have the story with Fonzie's cousin but it's peppered with some great scenes of characters trying to break records. A story just about one or the other probably wouldn't have worked as well.
RATING: 8/10

78. A Shot in the Dark (1/25/77)
Richie becomes the most popular kid in school after a last second shot in a basketball game wins the game for the team.

This is a good Richie-centric episode that allows the tables to be turned and Richie being the most popular guy around. I think the basketball scenes work the best in this episode including a very funny moment with Marion in the stands. I think the in-between scenes at Arnold's only work decently but it seems to veer into a different story whereas I think the episode could have been more focused on Richie's rise and fall as a basketball star. It was still a good episode with a nice scene between Howard and Richie to end it.
RATING: 7.5/10

79. Marion Rebels (2/1/77)
After a big fight with Howard, Marion decides to start working part time at Arnold's much to the chagrin of Richie, Joanie and the rest.

This episode has a Marion focus which is nice but it also struggles to not make Marion look like a complete dunce. I think it would have been one thing if it was just about cramping the kids' styles but they had to also make her bad at the job which made Al frustrated with her. That seems to create a narrative that Marion can just be a housewife and that's unfortunate. If they had made her super good at the job but the kids not liking it, that would have been a better story where there would still be conflict but they would honor the Marion character more. The whole scene where Richie fires Marion doesn't sit all that well with me though the final scene with Howard is sweet.
RATING: 4.5/10

80. The Third Anniversary Show (2/4/77)
The gang reminisces about old times as they plan a surprise anniversary party for Howard and Marion. This is primarily a clip show so no rating will be given.

81. Graduation Part 1 (2/8/77)
As Richie, Potsie and Ralph prepare to graduate high school, Marion reveals that Fonzie has been going to school at night to get his degree.

Well in the fourth season, Richie and the gang graduate from high school. I'm not sure they were supposed to be freshmen in the first season but the timeline is not that far off. This first part feels a little bit like a placeholder and I'm not sure it needed to be two parts. The suspense of why Fonzie is going to night school goes on a little too long because the big conflict in the episode is Richie, Potsie and Ralph potentially not graduating and they waste too much time before that (especially with the cringe-inducing Potsie performance - which by the way, there are far too many of them around this point in the run).
RATING: 5/10

82. Graduation Part 2 (2/15/77)
Richie, Ralph and Potsie graduate from high school and Fonzie graduates from night school and Fonzie wants to give a speech.

The second half of "Graduation" has some funny moments even if the whole premise is a little bit silly. Do the friends really need to humor Fonzie that much? I get that a lot of it is done to create the humor of the rushed graduation service but it's all still pretty silly. Among the highlights though are the return of Arnold (and a rare episode that features both Arnold and Al), Howard messing with the camera and the general sweetness between Fonzie and the friends. The lowlights are the return of Spike and the patronizing of Fonzie.
RATING: 7/10

83. The Physical (2/22/77)
Richie, Potsie and Ralph get drafted shortly after graduation and have to report for a physical where it turns out Fonzie also got drafted.

It's interesting how Happy Days went from being very hesitant about Fonzie wearing a leather jacket to putting him in a leather jacket in every scene including a physical. This episode has some funny moments between all the guys and the blowhard guest star Warren Berlinger. This allows for all the guys to have some good moments and it's largely based on a bunch of jokes so it goes on a little long. There's also some funny moments with Marion at the beginning of the episode including her line "Bob Hope can sit on it!" There's also a very sentimental and poignant moment with Howard and Marion at the end of the episode.
RATING: 8/10

84. Joanie's Weird Boyfriend (3/1/77)
Joanie stars hanging out with a local gang and Richie and his friends come to her rescue during her initiation.

TV shows were very inconsistent with the calendar back in the 70s so we have the oddity of a St. Patrick's Day-set episode a few episodes after a graduation episode. There's a lot of terrible things about this episode. First of all, there's the whole "gang rape" feel to the plot. Then there's the complete stereotypes of all the gang members are "tough guys." Then there's the reveal of Fonzie, Potsie, Ralph and Carmine (from Laverne & Shirley) that makes absolutely no sense. How would they already be at the gym? Anyway, it's a mess of an episode though the final fight scene has some good moments.
RATING: 2.5/10

85. Fonz-How, Inc. (3/8/77)
Fonzie and Howard go into business together and soon Howard starts driving Fonzie crazy.

This episode brings together Fonzie and Howard, a combination that rarely has major plotlines together and the idea of them going into business together is ripe for comedy because of how different they are. A lot happens in this episode and it's pretty enjoyable. The sales pitch involving Marion as a "typical American housewife" is pretty funny and there's a great ending with Howard pulling a Fonzie move with a snap of his fingers. It almost seems like Fonzie and Howard in business together could have been an arc of the show and background during other episodes but sitcoms didn't do things like that as much back then.
RATING: 8/10

86. Spunky Come Home (3/15/77)
Fonzie gets a new dog but she runs away when Ralph and Potsie leave the fence open.

Despite loving dogs, I am not usually a fan of dog episodes (or animal episodes in general). There are some funny moments in this episode though especially the reveal of Fonzie's drawing of the dog and the police officer's drawing as well. All of the family relentlessly making fun of Howard for being afraid of the dog at the beginning is funny too. But this episode of course falls into the trap that so many sitcoms do. They do a story about a character getting a dog and then we rarely see or hear about the dog again. It happens all the time in sitcom land with dogs and babies.
RATING: 7/10

87. The Last of the Big Time Malphs (3/22/77)
Ralph becomes an amateur bookie with football games and decides to tell his father he wants to be a comedian instead of an optometrist.

This Ralph-centered episode features the second appearance by Jack Dodson as Ralph's father (he was also played in one episode by Alan Oppenheimer). It's not quite as jokey and obnoxious as his first appearance as the episode is a little more grounded. Still, episodes centered around Ralph are not my favorite. He's a fun side character but he's not a good character to lead a lot of stories. It makes the whole episode feel a little off center in my opinion. There isn't really a lot of the characters who drive forward most stories.
RATING: 3.5/10

88. Fonzie's Baptism (3/29/77)
After a near death experience with his motorcycle, Fonzie decides to get baptized.

The fourth season ends with a foray into the kind of problematic stories that would plague Happy Days from time to time: ones that tend to overdo the Fonzie character in a sappy way. Early on, the series had a couple very strong "sweet Fonzie" episodes like the Christmas episode in season two. In later seasons, the episodes veer from sweet to sappy and start to become "very special episodes." This is one of those episodes because Fonzie getting baptized is really a shameless way to get the audience to think "aww, Fonzie." That never works. One fun thing though is we meet Al's brother, the priest Father Delvecchio, for the first time. He is of course also played by Al Molinaro. 
RATING: 2.5/10

AVERAGE RATING FOR SEASON FOUR:
6.3/10

The Best Episodes:
1. "They Shoot Fonzies, Don't They" (#71) - 10/10
2. "The Muckrakers" (#72) - 9.5/10
3. "A Place of His Own" (#70) - 9/10
4. "Fonzie's Hero" (#69) - 8.5/10
5. "Fonz-How, Inc." (#85) - 8/10

The Worst Episodes:
1. "A Mind of His Own" (#67) - 1/10
2. "Joanie's Weird Boyfriend" (#84) - 2.5/10
3. "Fonzie's Baptism" (#88) - 2.5/10
4. "The Last of the Big Time Malphs" (#87) - 3.5/10
5. "Fonzie Loves Pinky" Part 3 (#66) - 4/10

Reminder - no Friday Five tomorrow. See you on Monday!

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