Happy Days’ Season 10 Christmas Episode Reminds Us All Why Season 10 Was So Terrible

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We continue our look at some notable 1980s Christmas episodes by looking at the Christmas episode from Happy Days‘ infamous 10th season.

Now, I very much am not someone who is going to just give Happy Days grief. I liked a lot of Happy Days episodes. I even featured a Happy Days episode on my 1970s Christmas episode countdown (which, unlike this year, actually tried to rank the 24 best Christmas episodes. WAY too much work).

However, Season 10 of Happy Days was unforgivably awful. You see, Happy Days was a show about teenagers in the 1950s which soon became a starring vehicle for Henry Winkler as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, a reformed gang member who served as a mentor to the original lead of the series, Ron Howard’s Richie Cunningham. Fonzie eventually moved into the garage apartment in the Cunningham home and essentially became an extended member of the Cunningham family. Richie would still be involved in the stories every episode, but now rather than be the driving force of the story, he’d be there as a side character to Fonzie, as Fonzie resolved whatever problem Richie had that episode. After a number of seasons (probably at least two too many), Howard left the series, and Erin Moran (as Richie’s younger sister, Joanie) and her boyfriend, Chachi (Fonzie’s younger cousin, played by Scott Baio) became the new co-leads as the teenagers that Fonzie gives advice to. It was one of the most successful sitcom transitions you’ll ever see, as the series really didn’t miss a beat transitioning to the new leads (it didn’t hurt that Richie was painful to watch for Seasons 6-7).

Then the show went a bridge too far. It decided to spin Joanie and Chachi into their own show. So now, well, there basically was no longer a show. You had Howard and Marion Cunningham, you had Fonzie, but that was it. Even Al, the owner of the diner the kids all hung out, left the show (he had married Chachi’s mom). The show made supporting character, Jenny Piccolo, a lead character to hold on to ANY returning characters. A young Crystal Bernard joined as KC, Howard’s niece from the south. Then Billy Warlock recurred as Flip, the younger brother of Roger, Marion’s nephew who had been a recurring character after Richie left. NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS WERE EVEN REMOTELY INTERESTING.

To give the show SOME sort of hook, they figured that, hey, ten seasons in, Fonzie should settle down, so he gets a steady girlfriend, Ashley (Linda Purl), a divorced single mother of Heather (Heather O’Rourke). Fonzie trying to navigate a steady girlfriend, and becoming a surrogate father figure was SOMEthing. It wasn’t GOOD, but it was SOMEthing (Linda Purl was excellent, but her character was just terrible).

So that’s what was so funny about this Christmas episode. You have a whole show filled with characters no one cares about, and you just…what?

KC’s parents come for a visit for Christmas and there are a few terrible scenes where Howard gets into fights with his older brother.

And you get the main plot, where Heather wants a relationship with her grandparents for Christmas. Ashley’s parents cut her off when she married her ex-husband. And Fonzie HOUNDS Ashley into calling her parents. Like, WHAT IN THE WORLD, Fonzie?! Ashley asks him if he knows how it feels to be cut off by his parents, and Fonzie explains he does, which is fair…BUT THEN WHY WOULD YOU FORCE HER TO CONTACT THEM, FONZIE?!!?

After Fonzie badgers her repeatedly, she eventually calls…and talks to her family’s housekeeper, as her parents are on vacation for the holidays. It’s such a stupid, stupid plot.

Heather O’Rourke was really good in Poltergeist around this time (she tragically passed away at the age of 12 due to a blockage in her bowel that went horribly wrong), but she is TERRIBLE in this episode (and, I assume, in the rest of the episodes. I’m pretty sure this episode is representative of her work). Heather just shouts every line without any emotion.

Man, the show was terrible. Joanie and Chachi came back after their show was canceled, but the damage was done, and the 11th season was the final one (that one was bad, too, but it was more of a sad bad, rather than actively terrible like this one).