Joanie goes on a date with Tommy Fletcher but comes away thinking he is ‘a real goofball’. The next day at Arnolds, Richie’s band is rehearsing. Potsie practices singing the song PUT YOUR HEAD ON MY SHOULDER by using Joanie as a test audience. After this Joanie develops a huge crush on Potsie.

Joanie next consults Fonzie for advice on what qualities men find attractive in women. Fonzie lists a sense of mystery as one of the key attributes of attractiveness.

Potsie begins receiving mystery notes from someone who calls him DREN and signs the notes ‘YOUR SECRET ADMIRER’. After a week passes he is instructed by the mystery note writer to meet him at Arnolds after closing time.

When Potsie shows up he sees Joanie – who is wearing a red beret – and tells her “You gotta go. I’m expecting a girl”. Joanie replies, “I know all about it, Dren”. Potsie finally begins to realize who his secret admirer is. He tries to let Joanie down gently, saying, “I have a feeling when I’m 22 and you’re 19 you’re not going to feel the same way about me anymore and I’m gonna wish you did.”

Before they leave, Potsie asks Joanie how she thought up the name ‘Dren’. Joanie replies,“Everyone always calls you a nerd but I never thought you were a nerd. Infact I thought you were just the oppsoite. And NERD spelt backwards is DREN.”

Joanie heads home, nursing her broken heart. After a ‘heart to heart’ with her mother at the dining room table she starts to make sense of what has happened.

The song PUT YOUR HEAD ON MY SHOULDER was written and originally released as a single in 1959 by Canadian born singer PAUL ANKA (who is still alive today). PUT YOUR HEAD ON MY SHOULDER was also the name of a Chinese TV drama series made in 2019, available on NETFLIX.

Catch all the posts on the Facebook Group : HAPPY DAYS: THE FIRST FIVE SEASONS

And let’s not forget…

Fonzie tells Richie he has found a new drummer for his band. ‘Sticks’ Downey says he will play at Richie’s upcoming party but needs help finding a date for the night as he is new to the neighborhood.

After some initial hiccups a girl named Kathleen in introduced to Sticks and they hit it off. Fonzie then learns however learns that no one intends coming to Richie’s party as word has got around that their new drummer is dark-skinned.

Fonzie goes down to Arnold’s and ‘convinces’ everyone that coming to Richie’s party the next night would be in their best interests as they will have a great time.

The only people who turn up to the party are Ralph, Potsie and Arnold. Howard tells Fonzie he can’t fight prejudice because it’s been around a lot longer than ‘cool’ has. The Hawaiian-themed party goes ahead anyway. Everyone ends up having a good time.

Richie, Potsie and Ralph complain they have nothing to do over the Easter Vacation as all the local girls have headed out of town. Fonzie recommends they head to Lake Whitefish, which he claims is ‘loaded with women’.

Richie says he thinks Lake Whitefish is more of a college crowd scene and questions what anyone there would want with three high school seniors. Fonzie points out that no one there has to know they are high school seniors from Milwaukee. “You can be anything you want to be” he tells them.

Richie rents a cabin for the weekend for $75 but when he and his friends arrive they discover they have merely hired the use of a front porch. They are about to ask for their money back when they see the three college girls who have hired the main cabin.

They decide to stay. Remembering Fonzie’s advice about being free to be whoever they want to be in these new surrounds and believing for some reason that ‘older women’ are attracted to foreigners, they pose as three Tunisian camel jockeys who speak only basic English.

The plan goes well until Fonzie shows up accompanied by a local police officer. Having misplaced his ID, Fonzie is forced to compel Richie, Potsie and Ralph to identify him. When the police officer asks to see everyone’s ID’s, the girls discover they have been hoodwinked. The ‘men’ they believed were Tunisian camel jockeys are really only three high school seniors from Milwaukee.

The girls are angry at being deceived. They head off to a neighborhood dance but return some hours later saying the locals there were all jerks. They eventually forgive Richie, Ralph and Potsie and romance ensues just as the boys had hoped.

Actress Anne Lockhart – daughter of June Lockhart (1925 – ) of LOST IN SPACE fame – played the girl with the main speaking role, Marcia, at Lake Whitefish.

And then there’s always…

Richie finds himself in a dating slump. He admits that after breaking up with ‘Sharon Myers’ four months previously, he hasn’t got back into the swing of asking girls out. “It’s the worst dry spell of my life”, he says. “Even my parents have noticed. You know what they did last Saturday night? They stayed up and played Monopoly with me!”

Fonzie takes Richie to a place he describes as being ‘a regular smorgasbord of women’ – the local supermarket – and attempts to teach him some tricks about how to make approaches to females. Things don’t go well, prompting Fonzie to declare “This calls for emergency procedures”.

Fonzie organizes a double date with Richie and two girls who work at the local brewery – Laverne DeFazio (Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams).

Richie’s parents are away for the weekend visiting Aunt Bessie. After first meeting at Arnold’s the four then head back to Richie’s house. Unfortunately right in the middle of his date Richie’s parents return home earlier than expected. Richie has plenty of explaining to do as to what has taken place in his parents absence.

The most successful spin-off series from HAPPY DAYS (255 episodes across 10 seasons) was LAVERN AND SHIRLEY (178 episodes across 8 seasons). Both series were produced by Penny Marshall’s brother, Garry.

And then there’s always…

Fonzie’s old gang the FALCONS are set to have a rumble with the DRAGONS.

Officer Kirk asks Fonzie to join the police so he can restore peace. Fonzie says no but when he learns he will get to ride a police motorbike he changes his mind.

Fonzie sets up a meeting between the two groups at Arnolds. However when he is told the DRAGONS have laughed at his police uniform Fonzie decides to temporarily rejoin his old gang to defeat the DRAGONS.

Fonzie quits his police role but Richie says he is disappointed in him. Fonzie invites Richie to solve the problem instead.

Richie’s attempts to patch things up between the rival gangs proves unsuccessful. Fonzie steps in and brokers a peace deal over the disputed territory: The Dragons can occupy the clubhouse for the first half of the week and the Falcons the second half (“That way the Falcons get it for the weekend”)

This episode marked the final appearance of Arnold’s waitress Marsha, played by Beatrice Colen (1948 – 1999).

Colen also had a recurring role in the first Season of WONDER WOMAN (1975 – 1979) as well appearing in the 1977 Mel Brookes film HIGH ANXIETY and the 1987 Madonna film WHO’S THAT GIRL?

AND THEN THERE’S ALWAYS…

Howard finds himself in a mid-life crisis questioning his worth. “I woke up today and realized I’ve never done anything exciting” he says.

Richie organizes some old friends of Howards – most of who end up not showing up and need to be replaced with ‘stand-ins’ the likes of Ralph, Potsie and Fonzie – in a mock THIS IS YOUR LIFE presentation staged in the family living room.

Howard walks out mid-way through, saying, “You’ve made me realize I’ve had a life that’s not worth looking back on.” He mentions he intends running away to Tahiti. Instead he hides out in Fonzie’s apartment.

Fonzie convinces Howard he does something great everyday by going to work and looking after his family. He tells him there are people who love him and depend on him. Howard reassesses and resumes his regular life.

I was in the audience this week for Henry Winkler’s final Australian on-stage live show.

He’s been touring his 2023 autobiography BEING HENRY to rave reviews. ‘The Fonz’ was energetic, funny and, well… cool! An older version of cool but cool nonetheless. So glad I got to spend time with one of my childhood heroes.

And in case you missed it, here’s his six-minute appearance on the Channel Nine TODAY show …

And then there’s always…

Because windows have been broken at night at the local high school twice in the last month, local cop Officer Kirk imposes a 10pm curfew.

This proves unpopular. Arnold says it will drive him out of business. Ralph declares it will kill any chance of romance – “Girls don’t even get in the mood ’till 11pm”.

The boys learn the train that is taking Elvis to the army is passing through town the next night. With national publicity set to follow, Richie sees an opportunity to put the spotlight on what he considers an unfair law.

On the night of the protest, Richie, Ralph and Potsie get accidentally locked in Arnolds restaurant after hours. They decide to break in to the jukebox to get some coins to make a call on the payphone inside to ask for help. Officer Kirk suddenly appears and believes the three have broken into Arnolds.

Everyone goes to jail but are soon released on bail. Richie decides to stay behind in jail to protest the unfair law, which is eventually receded. They learn later Elvis wasn’t even on the train that was meant to famously transport him to the army.

This episode features Fonzie’s hilarious ‘lip-up’ exercises. If you’d like to relive that moment, click on the link HERE and then drag to the nine-minute and 57 second mark.

And then there’s always…

Local toughs Rocko and Frankie humiliate Richie in front of everyone at Arnolds. When the sound on the pinball machine doesn’t work, he is forced by the pair to go ‘Bing – Bong’.

Richie signs up the next day for judo lessons – taken by a Mr Takahashi, who turns out to be Arnold. After Joanie flips him multiple times, he decides judo is not his thing.

Next he consults Fonzie for tips on how to act cool, confident and most importantly ‘tough’.

The next day, Richie is again at Arnolds when Rockie and Franko start making trouble. This time Richie stands up for himself. However, despite putting into practice things he has been taught about acting tough, he wonders why Frankie is not backing down.

Fonzie tells him that he left out a small detail in Richie’s ‘acting tough’ training. “You got no reputation for toughness”, Fonzie explains, “Once in your life you had to have hit somebody”.

Richie proceeds anyway, and using all his pent up fear unleashes his own version of ‘crazy’, which is somehow enough to make Frankie walk away.

AND THEN THERE’S ALWAYS…

Howard is hopeful of securing a large distribution contract for bathroom fittings with a man named George McKinney he met at a hardware convention.

To cement the deal, Howard asks Richie to take out McKinney’s daughter Winifred. Richie says he already has a date for that night. Howard pleads and finally succeeds in getting Richie to change his plans.

Richie shares his dilemma with Fonzie who comes up with a plan. Potsie will ‘BE’ Richie on the night of the date, allowing Richie to go with his first choice. This will work since Winifred and Richie have never met and are unlikely to meet again after the night, due to living in different cities.

Things go wrong when Potsie takes Winifred to Inspiration Point. She runs away from Potsie and ends up tearing her dress in the process. Howard receives a call from George McKinney asking for an explanation.

Richie confesses the plan to his father. Howard invites George McKinney and his daughter over to receive an apology. Potsie posing as Richie makes the apology.

Before leaving, McKinney confesses to Howard the bathroom supplies company he represents is in fact much smaller than he had made out.

AND THEN THERE’S ALWAYS…

After jumping over 14 trash cans on his motorbike and crashing into Arnold’s Fried Chicken stand, Fonzie is asked by the tv interviewer how he feels.

“Like a jerk”, he replies. “I was a nerd to make that jump. A guy doesn’t have to risk his face to prove to his friends he’s cool.”

Fonzie is then taken to hospital with torn cartilage to his leg. He undergoes an operation at the hospital and then convalesces back at the Cunningham’s house over the next few weeks.

During this time, Fonzie resides on the couch and is waited on hand and foot by the Cunninghams. After a visit from the doctor who says Fonzie’s over-dependance is delaying his recovery, the family put in place plans to get Fonzie moving again.

They begin by pretending Fonzie’s bike is on fire, hoping he will hobble to the door to see it. When that doesn’t work, Richie’s invites a group of girls around who mention their ‘alternate plans’ for dates since Fonzie is not available.

Hearing that one of his dates now has plans to hook up with Potsie, is all the incentive Fonzie needs to get moving again.

AND THEN THERE’S ALWAYS…