Over the weekend, someone asked on Twitter if they remembered Joanie Loves Chachi. Then another person asked Scott Baio what his take was on the show.
Baio responded with, “The pilot episode and about 6 other episodes were written by the Happy Days writers. Once they hired other writers the show, in my opinion, greatly failed.”
You see, they tested the show out during the midseason for four episodes after Happy Days, the series it spun off of, and it did well in the ratings. Then they brought it back on another night, and its ratings jumped the shark and were swallowed by Jaws.
So the problem was not only the writers. At the stage of Happy Days run, people were starting to move on to a less wholesome show. Even though Baio was popular, there were other things to watch, like Mr. T in The A-Team. So the writing was already on the wall and not by the writers of the program.
Plus, it was total cheese, and their characters worked better with an ensemble than on their own. It also felt more like Laverne & Shirley’s final seasons in California than its own show. So why watch Joanie Loves Chachi, if you are already watching a Laverne without Shirley?
So, I think, he is wrong to blame the writers. Other spinoffs did OK with different writers. His show probably could have done the same if there was an appetite for it.
And since JLC and L&S ended in ’83, and HD followed suit in ’84, I think the Cunnigham reign was over, and we were ready for something new like Family Ties and Cheers.
