Joanie Loves Chachi (1982)

I love Scott Baio "Chachi"

The show is a spin-off from Happy Days, Chachi (The Fonzie's young cousin) with his mother "Louisa" and stepfather "Al" moved out to chicago and try to start a singing career with his best girl "Joanie", who shared the vocals, and his backup band which consist of "Bingo" the drummer, and his two cousins "Mano" and "Annette". Their agent was "Uncle Rico" the father of Mario and Annette.

Each episode Chachi and Joanie sang several numbers usually at Al and Louisa's newly opened restaurant.

The show first telecasted on March 23,1982 until May 24,1983 for only Two seasons (or one and a half seasons) and a total of 17 episodes.

The first and second season episodes are as follows:
*1st season episodes:
01 Chicago 3/23/1982
02 The Performance 3/30/1982
03 I Do, I Don't, I Do 4/6/1982
04 College Days 4/13/1982

*2nd season episodes:
05 Fonzie's Visit 9/30/1982
06 Joanie's Roommate 10/14/1982
07 One-on-One 10/21/1982
08 No Nudes Is Good Nudes 10/28/1982
09 Everybody Loves Aunt Vanessa 11/4/1982
10 Beatlemania 11/11/1982
11 Best Foot Forward 11/18/1982
12 Goodbye Delvecchio's, Hello World 11/25/1982
13 Term Paper 12/2/1982
14 My Dinner with Chachi 12/9/1982
15 Christmas Show 12/16/1982
16 First Love, Last Love 5/17/1983
17 The Elopement 5/24/1983

I think it will not hurt any body if this show comes out on DVD, it is just interesting for fans to see the show again.

Thanks, have a nice day :) July 2, 2006

I love this show and I think it will not harm any body if it comes out on DVD

I really would like to see this show make it on DVD since it only lasted for 17 episodes (4 episodes for the first season and 13 episodes for the second seasons).

I think many people would like to see it again and I am one of them.
July 1, 2006

Joanie loves Chachi, but I do not

I've liked everything else which spun off from the Happy Days empire, so I thought that I would watch this show when TV Land broadcast selected episodes during one afternoon.

I now know why this show has the unique distinction of being a Happy Days spin off which ultimately could not catch on with the American people.

Joanie and Chachi set out with friends for Chicago. They hope to make it in the very competitive music industry as a teen band during the early 1960's. Yet, they fail miserably for several reasons which are consciously not mentioned in any of the episodes. In an attempt to continue milking the Happy Days cash cow, the production team made several critical errors which undercut the show itself.

First, Joanie and Chachi's 'singing voices' are horrible for a bubblegum pop band. I'm not sure if the fact Moran and Baio could not sing to save themselves actually was supposed to be an inside joke, or just that nobody in the production department had the guts to spare them (and the country) from the actual truth. If you have to watch this show for whatever reason, using earplugs during those parts prevents a very nasty migraine from soon developing. There's also the mute button of the television set.

Secondly, the wardrobe department is not even trying to maintain a 50's-60's motif at this point anymore. The long hair and/or perms of many a cast member should more appropriately be considered relics of the 1970's and early 1980's. At the very least, they should have been wearing wigs, or camouflaged their actual 'off camera' hair styles like Henry Winkler had attempted with his own long hair during the seasons of "Happy Days". It's not just a few people or non-descript extras with this obvious error, the lead characters (whom the audiences are expected to like) also had this error.

It's not really hard to figure out why Joanie and Chachi quickly lost their own show, returned to Happy Days, and their Chicago venture was never mentioned again on camera during that show. Sure, it had Al (who married Chaci's mother) on hand to give out advice and provide a place for 'the kids' to play, but that apparently only went so far.

Special guest stars Marion Ross, Tom Bosley, and Henry Winkler (who began directing with this series's episode "Best Foot forward") could not save it from being cancelled.

The only really interesting episode "One on one" earns such designation because Nancy Lieberman (who had played in the Women's Baskeball League and Women's American Basketball Association, precursors to today's WNBA) made a guest appearance as Joanie's college athlete friend. Chachi is initially convinced that women cannot play basketball, but VERY quickly changes his mind after being beaten in a one-on-one game with her. Today Lieberman(-Cline) remains a women's basketball superstar and is a WNBA coach after having played in this same league.

"Best foot forward" has Joanie and Chachi trying to devise an escape plan after they see Chachi's parents in the same adult (then 21) movie which they have snuck into. This episode was a nice change just because it challenged a preset notion that Joanie and Chachi are goodie-goodies who would never ever do something like this.

Maybe there is somebody out there who actually likes this series in itself, but I cannot see this show actually garnering enough votes for a season DVD release. I am skeptical if 17 episodes are enough to warrant a season release.

June 18, 2005

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