They Shoot Fonzies, Don't They?

This is a lightweight episode of Happy Days (I guess like just about all of them) where a tired Fonz just rolled his broken motorcycle twelve miles home to dance in a marathon with Joanie.

For Joanie/Erin Moran fans it's a great episode as her character pretty much dominates here, and she even has a sweet moment with brother Richie.

The as always unnamed band, consisting of Richie, Potsie, Ralph and the mystery girl drummer who never speaks again (played by an extra who is in tons of Happy Days episodes) are slated to provide the music for the marathon, and at one point many hours in, Potsie says he can't sing anymore, so Ralph sings a tune.

Donny Most does a great job, and in my humble opinion, has a better voice than Anson Williams, who is supposed to be the "singer" on the show. Donny's voice just has a better resonance, and is more pleasant to listen to. Anson's voice sounds way too smooth and frankly, dull (remember "Dull Potsie"), like a one-trick pony.

The funny thing is, Donny Most is the one out of the two who actually recorded a full album, while Anson just recorded singles. Donny's album came out around the time of this episode so it seems they were trying to promote him a bit. I wonder if any commercial time was bought during Happy Days airings for advertising the album.

The album didn't chart, and both Donny's and Anson's singles lingered at the bottom of the charts (others they did didn't make the chart at all). It's a bit surprising considering how gigantic the show was.

Donny's one pop album from 1976 is on Spotify, and the production is poor unfortunately, like many quickie cash-in attempts then when TV shows churned out record albums featuring stars from the shows. He was a Barry Manilow fan though, and there is a nice version of Manilow's "One of These Days" on it.

Of course, nowadays Donny records jazzy/swing music, and he sounds darn good.

So that's really the highlight of this episode, seeing Ralph Malph sing. Of course, Joanie is cute as is her main competition, Charlene Tilton.

This episode is an honorable mention in my book. Not a lot to say it's pretty much your typical marathon episodes, it's predictable but it's how the protagonists get to the finish line that counts.

We see the Fonzie is going to be Joanie's partner in the contest, with the Fonz around you'd think the contest is in the bag. But fate takes a bad turn, when we see something goes wrong with Fonzie's bike which made him push it for miles till he got to the Cunningham's, so yeah Fonzie is about out of gas.

But unfortunately, we see he must rough it as he kept his promise. It's was great hearing Antson sing he's a capable singer, the songs of course are oldies but goodies. Richie he a good host has a lot of good lines. And of course, it's funny but at the same time painful seeing Fonzie just running on fumes, struggling to continue dancing and keeping his composure. Really like moments when he kicks in the auxiliary power and we see him pull off some dances.

But of course, as the hours wind down we just seeing couples are dropping like flies, and everyone is just about out of gas, I'll admit just looking at them all makes me tired. It's funny when we hear Richie host again but with less enthusiasm and energy, you can tell from his look, voice along with both of his friends all three want to get the hell out of there and go home, yeah that's what I always want to do when in a party longer than desired.

Does Fonzie have any more reserve left in his dance tank, you must see for yourself.

Rating: 3 and a half stars

The Fonz help Joanie in a dance marathon. It's a very good episode. We see lot's of Joanie. The Mouth sings. And we see some very good dancing from the Fonz. I would tell you the end but you just have to see it.