Probably the most in style reveals of the ’70s and early ’80s was “Pleased Days,” the gem in Garry Marshall’s TV comedy crown that offered viewers with the nice and cozy glow of ’50s nostalgia. Along with providing up an excellent ensemble forged headlined by Ron Howard and Henry Winkler, the collection featured a number of notable visitor stars.
“‘Pleased Days’ occurred to be a forged of people that have been mainly safe and good,” Marshall instructed Chortle in 2014. “And so once I introduced on visitor stars, they gave them plenty of room to work.”
Many of those actors have been already well-known through the Nineteen Fifties, together with Buffalo Bob Smith from “Howdy Doody,” baseball legend Hank Aaron, and Phil Silvers (“Sgt. Bilko”), however quite a lot of up-and-comers popped up as effectively. Even Tom Hanks famously appeared in one of many collection’ later episodes, as did his spouse, Rita Wilson. However here is a group of visitor actors that you just may not keep in mind.
Ed Begley Jr.
A second-generation actor, Ed Begley Jr. had been working in TV and movie for the reason that late Nineteen Sixties, however he spent a lot of the ’70s making one-off appearances on a plethora of collection, together with — you guessed it — an episode of “Pleased Days.”
Begley appeared within the Season 1 episode “The Lethal Dares.” After Richie (Ron Howard) strikes out at a college dance and sees his classmate Bag (Neil J. Schwartz) succeed with the identical lady, he decides that he wants to hitch Bag’s gang — the Demons — as a way to enhance his recognition with the women. Studying from Potsie (Anson Williams) that the Fonz (Henry Winkler) is a former Demon, Richie turns to Fonzie for recommendation on surviving the initiation. Sadly, when the pair meet with Bag and his cohort Hank (Begley), they uncover the laundry listing of stunts they have to full to safe membership.
Begley later guest-starred on “Laverne & Shirley” as Shirley’s brother Bobby and appeared in Garry Marshall’s 1982 directorial function debut, “Younger Docs in Love.” That very same 12 months, he landed the function of Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the medical drama “St. Elsewhere,” which ran for six seasons. Begley has continued working steadily since then, with one among his extra recognizable latest TV roles being one other physician: Dr. Grant Linkletter on “Younger Sheldon.”
Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd obtained her begin because the singing voice of Melody on the Hanna-Barbera animated collection “Josie and the Pussycats,” and obtained her huge break in 1977 when she was forged as Kris Munroe on “Charlie’s Angels.” In between these two initiatives, she was busy bouncing between numerous quick arcs or one-off appearances all through the primetime schedule. A type of gigs was “Want Upon a Star,” an episode of “Pleased Days” within the present’s second season the place Richie wins a date with a teen idol.
“[‘Happy Days’] is among the little jewels of my profession, as a result of I really like Ron Howard, I really like that present, they usually requested me to play this glorious character known as Cindy Shea,” Ladd recalled on “Pop Goes the Tradition TV.” “I liked … once we obtained to kiss — as a result of my first display screen kiss was with Ron Howard. So we kissed one another, and my character would raise her leg within the motion pictures every time she was kissed by her main man … so Ralph and Potsie have been watching once we have been having our kiss, and I lifted my leg, they usually have been like [gasp], ‘He is actually made it now!'”
It additionally proved to be a bummer of a night for Richie; after Cindy invitations him again to her lodge room, he discovers that the photographer who’s been following her round is definitely her husband.
Morgan Fairchild
After beginning her performing profession as a cleaning soap opera star on the long-running CBS daytime drama “Seek for Tomorrow,” Morgan Fairchild moved from Manhattan to Los Angeles in 1977. She shortly expanded her résumé, together with her very first sitcom gig: the Season 5 “Pleased Days” episode “My Truthful Fonzie.”
When the Fonz spots the attractive Cynthia (Fairchild) at Arnold’s, he is instantly smitten, however he is greatly surprised when she appears resistant to his normal strikes. Because it seems, Cynthia is a wealthy lady who’s additionally a whole snob, and she or he finds the Fonz’s uncouth methods laughable. She and her cousin Millard (Sam Freed) — Skippy to his associates — invite Fonzie to a proper celebration at her nation membership, hoping to humiliate him. Spoiler alert: the Fonz turns the tables.
“After I first got here out right here, one among my early jobs was enjoying Fonzie’s new girlfriend on ‘Pleased Days,'” Fairchild recalled on the “Nonetheless Right here Hollywood” podcast. “How significantly better can it get for a woman in 1977?”
Janine Turner
Janine Turner guest-starred within the Season 11 “Pleased Days” episode “The place the Guys Are,” a number of years earlier than her breakout function on “Northern Publicity.” The episode finds the Fonz struggling to maneuver on after breaking apart along with his regular girlfriend Ashley (Linda Purl). Hoping to shake him out of his doldrums, Potsie, Chachi (Scott Baio), and Roger (Ted McGinley) trick him into going to a singles camp.
As soon as there, Potsie, Chachi, and Roger meet a trio of single ladies, one among whom is performed by Turner. Sadly, the trio tips them into coming into the sauna, locks them inside, and steals their wallets. Ouch! Then again, Fonzie has a cathartic dialog with a younger girl performed by Rita Wilson that raises his spirits. Hooray!
In 2025, after a person approached her on the Fanboy Expo in Knoxville, Tennessee, with a promotional picture of herself and Baio from the episode, Turner took to Instagram to share her response: “I instructed him it was fairly the expertise to point out a 62-year-old girl what she regarded like [at] 21 years outdated! Was my waist actually ever that small! Such enjoyable!”
Crispin Glover
Within the Season 11 episode “Vocational Training,” the Fonz believes he’d be higher suited to operating George S. Patton Vocational Excessive College than Roger, a Yale-educated educational with no avenue smarts and — let’s face it — completely no enterprise making an attempt to deal with the college’s troublesome pupil physique. Considered one of Roger’s first downside children is Roach (Crispin Glover), who steals his pockets, kicks his chair out from underneath him, and actively goes out of his option to attempt to get himself kicked out of faculty.
On the time, Glover was nonetheless early in his performing profession, along with his breakout function as George McFly in “Again to the Future” but to return. Amongst his earlier tv appearances was an episode of “The Details of Life,” during which he performed a personality credited solely as Cadet No. 1.
On “Pleased Days,” Glover capably holds his personal towards Ted McGinley and, extra impressively, Henry Winkler. In 1983, the identical 12 months his episode aired, he made his big-screen debut in “My Tutor.” Simply two years later, he was enjoying Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) father within the Robert Zemeckis-directed basic.
