A variety of other characters were added to the cast as time went on, many of them spinning off into series of their own. Streetwise females Laverne(Penny Marshal) and Shirley(Cindy Williams) were introduced as sexual interests for the teenage boys, and went on to their own series. Annoying brat Chachi(Scot Baio), after pestering the Cunninghams for years, grew up to marry Joanie, and the two got their own show "Joanie Loves Chachi." Time-travelling alien Mork(Robin Williams) from the planet Ork attempted to murder Fonzie in a special two-part episode, and although he failed, he did land his own series "Mork and Mindy." A young James Gandolfini appeared as an east coast mobster named Tony Soprano in one episode, featuring some shocking revelations about Fonzie's criminal past. Gandolfini would reprise his role several decades later on the emmy award winning HBO series "The Sopranos."

Other characters who joined the show never got their own spin-off, but were still popular characters in their own right. Big Al(Al Marino) joined the cast as the new owner of Arnolds after the "mysterious disappearance" of Arnold. Big Al's "twin brother" Father Al the Priest(played by Al Marino's real-life twin Anthony Marino) also made ocassional appearances. Arnold's twin brother, also named Arnold (Pat Morita, again, reprising his role as Arnold's twin brother from the short-lived Happy Days spin-off "Blansky's Beauties") joined the cast toward the end of the series. Roger(played by Wheel of Fortune's Pat Sajak), the Cunningham's openly gay nephew, joined the cast several years after Richie had left.

TWISTS AND TURNS

Happy Days was essentially a light-hearted coming-of-age family comedy, designed to appeal to both kids and their parents. However, it was not sacharinne, and originally took a somewhat realistic ,but still comedic, approach that helped enedear it to the critics early in it's run. Unfortunately, the series became increasingly cartoonish and formulaic as the seasons went on, and by the end, with both the changes in tone and in cast members, it was scarcely recognizable as the show that originally debuted years earlier.

Despite it's decline in quality, Happy Days became an extremely popular show, and remained so for the majority of it's run. It also developed quite a cult following over the years, mainly for some it's ridiculously over-the-top, outlandish plot twists and storylines, that despite their shocking nature, were presented in the same sweet-natured and comedic fashion as the rest of the series. Many of these episodes are so shocking or bizarre that they are no longer distibuted for syndication with the rest of the episodes, because many advertisors refuse to be associated with them.

SCI-FI SPIN-OFF CRAZINESS

Believe it or not, this show had some really oddball science fiction and fantasy storylines, even though they were completely inappropriate for the setting of this series.

The most famous sci-fi storyline was the two-part episode featuring Robin Williams as alien time-traveller Mork from Ork, the character he would then continue with on the spin-off series Mork and Mindy. I'm assuming that the producers intended to spin the character off all along, and just sandwiched him in to the hit show Happy Days to launch Mork and Mindy with a built-in audience. I mean, why else would they make up such a wacky story about an alien time-traveller who comes to the 1950's from the far-off 1970's, in order to kidnap Richie and assasinate The Fonz? Maybe that story would fly on Star Trek or something, but on Happy Days?!? Not that I'm knocking it, really, it was a fun episode. As per standard Happy Days formula, even the frightening tale of an alien attempting to murder Fonzie was played for laughs, and the cast made the best of this outlandish situation. The scene where Mork attcks Fonzie with his alien super-telekinetic death powers, and Fonzie fights back simply by extending his thumb in the air and repeatedly saying "Ayyy!," is an all-time classic.

The most infamous sci-fi storyline also involved time travel. Eager to cash in the success of the show, the network produced a bizarre spin-off in 1980, that ran concurrently with the regular series, called "Fonz and the Happy Days Gang." The way-out concept of this series was that Richie, Ralph the Mouth, and the Fonz, along with Fonzie's pet dog, get trapped in UFO-like time machine, and get involved in a series of adventures throughout time and space, constantly trying in vain to find their way home. This ran for two seasons before being cancelled. At this point, Fonzie and his pet dog then moved to the equally bizarre Laverne & Shirley spin-off "Laverne & Shirley in the Army," which was retitled Lavernee & Shirley with The Fonz, featuring Fonzie as an army mechanic. All this while the regular Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley series were still being produced as well! Of course, these shows made absolutely no sense if you watched them side by side, as little effort was made to establish continuity between the regular shows and the crazy spin-offs.

During one Happy Days episode, Chachi had a run in with a magical angel named Random who was trying to "earn his wings." Random was sort of like a cross between Barbara Eden on I Dream of Jeannie and that weird green alien that occasionally appeared on the Flintsones (what was his name, the Great Wazoo or something?). The angel played all kinds of wacky magical tricks (all in the name of God, of course) but only Chachi could see him. He then spun-off onto his own series, "Out of the Blue," and in a typical bit of interseries incestous promotion, the first episode of Out of the Blue featured an appearance by Robin Williams as Mork from Ork! These guys sure knew how to milk these shows for all they were worth.

THE DEATH OF CHUCK

The most shocking story of them all occured during the first episode of the second season (although it was initially delayed by the network, and actually aired as the 5th episode of that season): The death of Chuck. The producers of the series had been having trouble with the character of Chuck, Richie's basketball playing, college-going, big brother. The character only appeared sporadically during the first season, and was portrayed by a variety of different actors, but they were never able to get the chemistry right between him and the rest of the family. For the second season, the decision was made to get rid of the character. The question was "how?"

They breifly considered pretending like he was never on the show to begin with, but they knew the audience would never buy that. They also considered having the character get drafted into the army, but felt that would be too cheesy (although they later used the same idea to get rid of Richie when Ron Howard quit). Series creator Gary Marshall decided the character should die. His death alone would not have sparked much controversy, but the circumstances surrounding it certainly did.

In this episode Chuck exhibited bizarre behavior, and Richie was concerned that he may be drinking, or even on drugs. The rest of the family refused to acknowledge this. They could not believe that straight-arrow Chuck could be in trouble. Finally, Richie attempted to confront Chuck on his own.

When Richie showed up at Chuck's bachelor pad, he found Chuck slumped over in a chair, half-conscius, with a hypodermic needle in his arm. Richie attempted to call an ambulance, but Chuck pulled the phone cord out of the wall. "You ain't callin' nobody Richie... I ain't goin' to jail!"

"You need an ambulance," cried Richie, and he attempted to get the phone cord away from his brother. Chuck became enraged, and wrapped the cord around Richie's throat, choking him! At this point it seemed like the episode couldn't get any more disturbing, but it did!

While choking him, Chuck unzips and lowers Richies pants, and then does the same to his own! "I'm going to make a man out of you little brother," he screamed! "I'm going to make love to you, just like you've always dreamed that I would!"

Meanwhile, Howard and Marion Cunningham approach the apartment, as they have finally admitted to themselves that Chuck has a problem, and have decided to talk to him. They hear spounds of a struggle coming from Chuck's apartment, and Howard draws his gun.

Suddenly the back door is kicked off of it's hinges, and Fonzie bursts into the room with his switchbalde drawn! Chuck rushes towards him, and attempts to hit Fonzie in the head with a lamp from a nearby table. The Fonz blocks the attack, and then repeatedly sinks his blade into Chuck's gut, and finally slits his throat as he collapses to the ground.

Fonzie bends over the pantsless Richie to unwrap the cord from his neck, but at this point, Howard Cunningham enters the room with his gun drawn. Shocked beyond belief at what he is seeing, and thinking that Fonzie has murdered one of his sons, and was about to rape another, he pumps several rounds of bullets into The Fonz!

Fonzie falls, and Mr. C moves in for the kill, but Richie intervenes, and frantically explains what really happened. Luckily, it turns out that Fonzie is okay, because the "lucky gas cap" he keeps in his pocket had blocked the bullets.

Rather than involve the police, the group decides to bury Chuck's body in the Cunnigham's back yard. This leads to the strangest sequence of the episode, as the writers attempt to inject some humor into the story, by having Howard use the grave-digging to tell an anecdote about his experiences digging fox-holes on the frontline in the army. Marion scolds him on this, knowing full well that he never saw any action in the army, and Howard sheepishly admits that he really had been digging latrines. A wacky laugh is had by all.

This creepy episode ended by everyone agreeing (even Joanie, although she wasn't told why) to never, ever, mention Chuck again. From that episode on, the Cunningham's never spoke Chuck's name again, and pretended he never existed, even refering to Richie as their "oldest child" and their "first-born" in later episodes.