Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Richie breaks up with Arlene after a two week romance. He asks Fonzie for advice how he can get back together again. Fonzie recalls the movie A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and advises him to act like Brando in the famous “Steeeeeella!” scene. This does not work for Richie, needless to say.
Richie asks Darlene if she is going to Jefferson High’s Teen Angel Prom. When she says yes, Richie offers her a lift. She accepts and they arrive together. Howard and Marion also attend as supervising chaperones. Howard spends most of his time removing couples from the broom closet, which is marked on a map of ‘make-out’ locations (2 mins 44 secs in the clip below).
Richie observes Arlene dancing with other boys. He naturally gets jealous. Eventually the two reunite as a couple. During the cleanup after the prom is over, Howard is left wondering how the punchbowl got ‘spiked’ (with alcohol) when he was guarding it most of the night.
In the scene when Fonzie and his date enter the prom, she tells Fonzie she’s going to speak to her friend Doris. Fonzie then says “I’ll tell you when you can go.” He pauses for a brief moment and adds “You can go.”
This is the exact same dialogue Sylvester Stallone’s character speaks to his on-screen girlfriend in the 1974 film THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH. This movie also starred Henry Winkler, who has been quoted as saying he based his performance of Fonzie on Stallone’s character in this film.
