Joanie Loves Chachi is an American sitcom television series and a spin-off of Happy Days that aired on ABC from March 23, 1982, to May 24, 1983. It stars Erin Moran and Scott Baio as the characters Joanie Cunningham and Chachi Arcola, respectively. The series was cancelled after 17 episodes, in its second season, due to a drop in ratings.

Storyline

The series is set in the early to mid-1960s and follows the exploits of Joanie and Chachi as they moved to Chicago and tried to make it on their own with a rock band and a music career at a time when the British Invasion was looming (one episode was titled "Beatlemania"). It mixed the traditional elements of a sitcom with musical performances on each show by Baio and Moran; their characters sang to one another in the opening credit sequence of the show. Their backup band consists of a spaced-out drummer named Bingo and Chachi's blasé cousins Mario and Annette. The series also starred Ellen Travolta as Louisa Delvecchio, Chachi's mother, and Al Molinaro as Al Delvecchio, Chachi's stepfather (and formerly the owner of Arnold's Drive-In in Happy Days), who opened a restaurant in which Chachi and Joanie performed most of their music. Art Metrano played Chachi's uncle Rico Mastorelli, who was the band's manager and helped Joanie and Chachi advance in their careers. Winifred Freedman played Rico's daughter, Annette, Chachi's cousin and bandmate. Like other Garry Marshall-related sitcoms such as Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, Joanie Loves Chachi had its share of anachronisms. The show was set in the 1960s yet characters were styled in a manner more true to the 1980s.

Production

Joanie Loves Chachi was the first Miller-Boyett (and only Garry Marshall–produced) sitcom developed by Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett, and was created by Lowell Ganz and Garry Marshall. This is the only Garry Marshall/Miller-Boyett sitcom that does not have Charles Fox and/or Norman Gimbel as the show's theme song/music cue composer. An urban legend circulated that the show was the highest-rated American program ever in Korea due to "chachi" being a Korean word for "penis". In actuality, the show was never broadcast to the general public of Korea, only to U.S. servicemen stationed in South Korea, and has never even been dubbed or subtitled in Korean. Scott Baio later recalled: "All the Happy Days people had written the first four episodes, when the show got picked up for series, but then they left to go back to Happy Days, and we were stuck with new writers who didn't know us. So that was a problem. And then some of the people on the show had chemical issues, and that was a problem. It was just on and on and on, and it just sort of all crumbled and fell apart. In retrospect, if given the choice again, I would not have done that show. That was just the wrong idea. If I had to do it all over again, I would've waited 'til Happy Days was over until I did anything else. [emphasis in original]" Erin Moran also recalled: "I liked working with the people. But I didn't even want to do it. I wanted to stay on Happy Days. They were running them at the same time."

Cast

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (1982)

Season 2 (1982–1983)

Home media

On February 4, 2014, CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) released Joanie Loves Chachi - The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.

Reception

The show debuted as a mid-season replacement and initially attracted high ratings, benefiting from two factors: it aired immediately following its parent series, Happy Days, and had only reruns competing for its time slot. The ratings plummeted in Season 2 with a move to Thursday nights, which put Joanie Loves Chachi up against CBS' Magnum, P.I., and it was pulled from the schedule by the year's end, with its final two episodes airing in the spring of 1983. The characters were rolled back into Happy Days for that program's final season. ABC determined that the show was losing too much of its lead-in, suggesting low appeal if the show were moved. In 2010, TV Guide Network listed the show at #17 on its list of 25 Biggest TV Blunders.

US TV Ratings