Joanie Loves Chachi

Some show generate spinoffs. Others metastasize. "Happy Days"--itself a spin off from "Love, American Style"--generated everything from "Laverne and Shirley" to "Mork And Mindy" to the rarely-seen "Anson Williams, P.I.". "Joanie Loves Chachi" was the final, genetically damaged offspring of this long, inbred line.

The premise--and here I use the word "premise" in the broadest sense--is that our Chachi has left Milwaukee to start a singing career in that hotbed of the music industry, Chicago. Joanie went with him, of course, along with Al (who has opened a new restaurant to escape the long shadow of Pat Morita). Chachi and Joanie have a band with painfully zany characters. Chachi and Joanie sing and dance--usually several times--in each episode. Chachi and Joanie sing the theme song. The only minor technical problem with all this is that Chachi and Joanie can't sing a note.

Erin Moran and Scott Baio are as grating and unlikeable here as they were in "Happy Days," only here they're on screen for the entire 22 minutes. How the producers dreamed up a romance between these two is a mystery--they have no chemistry. It's like watching Al and The Fonz kiss. The spin off was clearly intended to breathe new life into the "Happy Days" franchise, but here the "sitcom hijinks" are as tired and threadbare as they were in the original's Richie-less last gasps. Also, the ethnic stereotypes would make any Italian cringe. They boycotted the Sopranos but not this?

To be fair, this show is such a relic of early 80s television cheese that it would have to have some retro entertainment value now, especially for those who were young enough to enjoy it the first time. The Fonz and the Cunninghams show up with alarming frequency, and kitsch/camp fans who loved master thespian Baio in "Charles In Charge" will find gold in his "singing teen idol" incarnation, especially since Leif Garrett never made a TV series. The Christmas episode in particular is amusing in retrospect. But viewing it without irony/unintended humor, "Joanie Loves Chachi" is difficult, bordering on painful, to watch. I knew Arthur Fonzarelli. Arthur Fonzarelli was a friend of mine. Chachi Arcola, you are no Arthur Fonzarelli.

I don't think it was that great an idea to take Joanie and Chachi away from Happy Days for their own show because their romance became such an integral part of the show, especially in the post-Ron Howard era. But the big mistake was taking away the spinoff from the time slot right after Happy Days onto its own night. Then Joanie Loves Chachi faded into oblivion, and Joanie and Chachi (Erin Moran and Scott Baio) returned to the mother ship for what turned out to be its last season, and the two lovebirds married in the final episode.

Catch Joanie Loves Chachi on TV Land or one of those cable channels and enjoy the few episodes. And be warned, Scott Baio is NO singer. The poor boy can't carry a note! Erin Moran is no Karen Carpenter or Sarah Brightman, but she has a sweet voice. The theme song is nice, and with Moran singing with Baio, it's only half bad (Baio's half).

Maybe this spinoff didn't achieve the success of Laverne and Shirley, or Mork and Mindy, but it's still worth checking out if you're a Happy Days fan. (And who isn't? :))

Chachi my Chachi - This show was the epitome of 70's closure.

We stepped into the 80's and Joanie and Chachi began to meld into ONE being that was the essence of Chach. I miss them both and recall Joanie and Chachi hosting the 1980 New Year's countdown and at 9 yrs of age, I remembered musing to myself, "Why does Chachi not have his own show!?" It turned out to be prophetic (I guess I had the Spirit of Chachi working inside me as many of us still do) and lo and behold JOANIE LOVES CHACHI. I cried everytime I watched it because I knew it couldn't last. I also took great hope in the realization that the power of Chach would go on and MUST go on and that my sense of loss would be fulfilled by Charles in Charge. Today, I am a thriving Chachi impersonator and travel the "Chachi lookalike" contest circuits in hopes that this show JOANIE LOVES CHACHI would rise up and be resurrected to vindicate my incessant admiration for the beautiful work of art that is "Joanie loves Chachi". I remember the one show where we were blessed by the playful side of Chachi and were allowed to hear his melodic voice. Anyone with a recording of that show is , I'm sure, a millionaire right now simply because it shows a side of our beloved Chachi that is other than his deeply spiritual side and in stark contrast to his internationally powerful political side, in time, others like yourself will one day long for the return of the Chach and that all mankind would join hands in the spirit of Chachi and bring an end to the oppression of violence and war that is SO UNChachi-like and hopefully, we can pool our visualization and visualize a new world leader. It is time to put Chachi in Charge. Or at least have a Joanie loves Chachi reunion show that I might enjoy. Thank you. Stay Chachi and remember, if ever you are in a bind, just ask yourself, "What would Chachi do?" Andrew

The spin-off from HAPPY DAYS wasn't really all that bad, and in fact, had some better scripting than HAPPY DAYS did during that show's lurching final period.

The problem was, with viewers having long deserted the mother show, the world did not want a new spin-off of HAPPY DAYS---if they did, they would still have been watching the original show. It is too bad that the episodes of JOANIE LOVES CHACHI weren't included in the HAPPY DAYS syndication package. Someone on this board said this has been rerun on TVLand, or some such cable station, but I've not seen it listed.

But maybe I'm just biased; as a child and then a teenager so long ago, I had a little bit of a crush on Erin Moran, and would have watched anything she did. She had a nice TV presence, and I'm sorry she didn't get to do much after HAPPY DAYS ended, and doubly sorry this led to her widely publicized "problems" in her adult years. Supposedly she is doing better on that level now, and if somehow she ever reads this, I would like to say that watching her brought some happy moments to my childhood.

A bit underrated, and reminded me of The Brady Brides and Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. It's sad what became of Erin Moran and her unwillingness to make peace with Happy Days reunions. Still, Joanie Loves Chachi has a special place in the heart of any die-hard Happy Days fan.