Alex Carson
In the eyes of the mainstream public nowadays, Joanie Loves Chachi represents the dark side of television spinoffs created for the sole purpose of making money. From most perspectives, the show flopped almost instantly. However, there are different views on how successful the spinoff was versus what the producers intended. The late Erin Moran claimed that the show was as successful as it was intended to be and was only meant for two seasons. Meanwhile, Scott Baio has such a negative view of the Happy Days spinoff that he won’t even watch it! Join Facts Verse as we explore why Scott Baio can’t bear to watch Joanie Loves Chachi.
Was Joanie Loves Chachi a Successful Spinoff?
Joanie Loves Chachi was a spinoff of the monumentally successful sitcom Happy Days, and it starred Scott Baio and Erin Moran in the lead roles. Erin Moran had been on Happy Days since the beginning, playing the character of Joanie. Joanie was the sister of the show’s main character, played by former child star turned teenager Ron Howard. Like Ron Howard, both Scott Baio and Erin started out in show business as child performers. Erin Moran wasn’t even featured in the main-credit sequence of Happy Days’ first season, though she was given a gradually bigger role on the show as time went on. Later on in Happy Days run, Ron Howard had quit the show and Erin Moran was given a significantly increased amount of screen time to make up for it. It was around this time that Scott Baio’s character of Chachi was introduced to be Joanie’s love interest.
Joanie and Chachi proved a successful pairing, and spinoffs were gaining in popularity around the time due to shows like Mork & Mindy. In 1982, Happy Days’ producers got the idea to create a spinoff centering solely on the character of Joanie and Chachi, and thus Joanie Loves Chachi was born. According to most, the show was a failure. It was cancelled after only a few seasons, after which point Joanie and Chachi returned to Happy Days for it’s final season. However, there are some who suggest that the show was never intended to have anything more than a limited run.
While Ron Howard got his start as a child actor in The Andy Griffith Show, Scott Baio got his start as a child actor by starring in the musical film Bugsy Malone. Meanwhile, actress Erin Moran essentially grew up on the set of Happy Days, with the role of Joanie being the first big role she ever received. Before getting their first big roles as actors in Bugsy Malone and Happy Days, respectively, both Scott Baio and Erin Moran started out by appearing in commercials. Scott Baio got to work with Jodie Foster during the filming of Bugsy Malone, and she was fresh off the filming of the hit film Taxi Driver. This made the young actress a pretty big deal. Unlike many other child stars before and since, Scott Baio wasn’t forced into acting. Instead, the star begged his mother to take him to auditions.
Scott Baio Had Qualms About Playing Chachi
By the time that Scott Baio was given the role of Chachi on Happy Days, the young celebrity thought that the whole program was below him. He allegedly was almost fired from the series due to his lack of commitment, but his handlers managed to convince him that giving his all to the show was the right thing to do. Scott’s commitment to the role of Chachi certainly paid off in terms of the character’s popularity. When Scott Baio was given the chance to carry his Happy Days role over to the spinoff, his new role in Joanie and Chachi became the actor’s first lead role as an adult. He would follow up his lead role on the short-lived Joanie Loves Chachi with another titular role. This time, Scott was tasked with playing the titular character on the series Charles in Charge. Charles in Charge proved a much bigger success than Joanie Loves Chachi, and Erin Moran sadly never had a Charles in Charge of her own. Erin Moran still doesn’t have sore feelings about Joanie Loves Chachi being cancelled after only two seasons, though, as she claims that this limited run was always what was intended.
Nowadays, Erin Moran is no longer with us and Scott Baio is struggling to remain a lead actor on television. Scott doesn’t much enjoy looking back at the past, and he claims that he has had no interest whatsoever in watching the Joanie Loves Chachi DVDs that he has been sent over time. Still, he understands that he likely wouldn’t be where he is without taking on the role of Chachi. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to hit the like button to show your support! Also, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
Scott Can’t Even Watch Joanie Loves Chachi Nowadays
Scott Baio is often asked if he ever watches his old work on shows like Joanie Loves Chachi and Happy Days, and he claims that he can’t bring himself to do it. Joanie Loves Chachi is often brought up in conversation in particular, and Scott says that he assumes that if he put the show on, he’d just think it was bad at turn it off. However, that doesn’t mean that the actor doesn’t hold a special place in his heart for his time on the series. According to Scott Baio, producer Garry Marshall is responsible for making him the star that he is, and he would never take back the decision to take on the role of Chachi on Happy Days. However, Scott has expressed that there’s a possibility that he might persuade his past self to opt out of appearing in the spinoff.
Even if Scott Baio claims he slightly regrets playing the character of Chachi on Joanie and Chachi, he has admitted that he learned a lot while working on the series. Many years later, he was given the opportunity to learn even more while working on the set of the aforementioned Charles in Charge. On the successful series Charles in Charge, Scott Baio was given the opportunity to branch out into directing in addition to playing the show’s titular lead character.
Although Scott Baio claims that he has little interest in revisiting his old work on Joanie and Chachi, he still keeps the DVDs on hand should the need ever strike. Scott says that there might be some time in the future where he wouldn’t mind taking a look at the series again after all these years, but that it would probably be so bad that he couldn’t bear it. Joanie Loves Chachi is certainly a much less beloved series than the show that birthed it. Though Happy Days is often criticized for quite literally jumping the shark in it’s later seasons, the show as a whole retains a significant place in the pop-culture pantheon. Meanwhile, the only place that Joanie Loves Chachi occupies in the pop-culture pantheon is as an example of how pandering 1980s television could get.
Erin Moran Claimed Joanie Loves Chachi Was a Success
Joanie Loves Chachi was certainly a commercial product, and not many involved in the show had a lot of passion for the material. The first several episodes of the program were written by holdover writers from Happy Days, though these writers had to return to the parent sitcom after penning these initial scripts. After these first few episodes, a new writing team had to take over, and this writing team had no experience with the Happy Days characters. Because of this, the writing of the show began to lack a good deal of charm. Many feel that the show didn’t portray the characters of Joanie and Chachi right, which is a big flaw for a show called Joanie Loves Chachi! Fans were a good deal happier when the characters were brought back onto Happy Days to rejoin the ensemble cast for the show’s final season.
Given the facts that everyone hates Joanie Loves Chachi and that it only lasted for two seasons, it’s easy for people to assume that the spinoff was a complete failure. However, the late Erin Moran claims that the sitcom achieved everything that it was intended to. Erin Moran claimed that the show was only meant to be a limited-time endeavor by the producers, and that the character of Joanie and Chachi were always meant to come back to Happy Days for it’s end.
Besides a lack of passion in the writing room, another thing that plagued Joanie Loves Chachi was substance abuse behind the cameras. Erin Moran dealt with substance-abuse issues during her life, so much so that former costar Scott Baio initially, and somewhat callously, assumed that drugs were the cause when the actress’s death was announced in 2017. Upon hearing that his former costar had died, Scott Baio allegedly said something along the lines of “that’s what happens when you do drugs”. This led media outlets to falsely assume that Erin had died of a drug overdose. On the contrary, she had actually been clean for several years. Erin’s true cause of death was cancer.
Joanie Loves Chachi Wasn’t the Greatest Show
For those who haven’t seen Joanie Loves Chachi, the show took the rather gimmicky premise of following it’s titular characters performing in a rock band. Numerous musical performances were featured over the course of each episode, and the titular characters were also featured singing over the show’s main credits. While it perhaps wasn’t everything that Erin Moran aspired to achieve in her show business career, it was still a big step up from not even appearing in the opening credits of Happy Days’ first season.
Scott Baio is the only one of Joanie Loves Chachi’s titular stars that’s still with us, and he has such a negative view of the show that he can’t even bring himself to watch it. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that the late actress Erin Moran claimed that Joanie Loves Chachi was only ever intended to last for two seasons, and that Scott Baio refuses to watch the widely criticized spinoff? As always, like this video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
