Joanie Loves Chachi

*Joanie Loves Chachi*
Joanie Loves Chachi
Created by	Lowell Ganz
Starring	Scott Baio; Erin Moran; Al Molinaro; Ellen Travolta; Art Metrano
Opening theme	"You Look at Me," sung by Scott Baio and Erin Moran
Country of origin	USA
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	17; (4 in Season 1); (13 in Season 2)
Production
Running time	30 minutes per episode
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	March 23, 1982 –; May 24, 1983

Joanie Loves Chachi was an American TV spin-off of the popular American sitcom Happy Days that was originally broadcast on ABC from March 23, 1982 to September 13, 1983. It starred Scott Baio and Erin Moran as the titular Chachi Arcola and Joanie Cunningham. The series followed 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. It mixed the traditional elements of a sitcom with musical performances on each show by Baio and Moran.

The format didn't gel with viewers, and the series only lasted for two seasons (the first one being abbreviated) before the characters were rolled back into Happy Days for that program's final season. 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.

In popular culture

In the Scrubs episode "My Bed, Banter and Beyond", Christopher Turk describes the idea of Elliot Reid and the Todd as a couple "worse than Joanie and Chachi". JD then replies: "Joanie Loves Chachi".
In Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, when Justin Redman is preoccupied declaring his love to Amber Gonzalo, White Goodman hits him with a ball and mockingly shouts "Joanie loves Chachi".
In the Angel episode "Conviction", talking on his cell phone Lorne proclaims: "Oh, sweetie, it's perfect! Yes, it's perfect. It's the project you've been waiting for. Yeah, it's "Joanie Loves Chachi" meets "The Sorrow and the Pity." It's "Joanie Loves Pity."
In the Gilmore Girls episode "Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' the Twist", Paris accuses Rory of having a "Joanie loves Chachi moment" when she exchanges hellos with a boy on the balcony of their spring break motel.
In The Pilot episode for Friends Rachel Green watches the wedding of Joanie and Chachi after leaving her fiance at the alter she exclaims "but Joanie loves Chachi thats the difference" between her wedding and theirs because she doesnt love Barry

Trivia

John Travolta's sister Ellen Travolta would later again play the mother character to Scott Baio. She went on to play Charles' widowed mother Lillian on the sitcom Charles in Charge from 1987 to 1990.
Art Metrano would later be known to fans as Captain Mauser in Police Academy 2 and Police Academy 3. But in 1989, he left the film series after a serious fall at home seriously injured his spinal cord and left him disabled.
An actress named Winifred Freedman played Annette Mastorelli, Rico's daughter and Chachi's cousin, who was also part of the band. She went on to play a girl's school student, Patty DuPunt Krauss, on the short-lived soap opera Rituals.
A popular urban legend^{[citation needed]} holds that Joanie Loves Chachi was very popular in Korea because chachi supposedly is Korean for penis (effectively changing the title to Joanie Loves Penis). The Urban Legends Reference Pages web site has expressed doubts about this claim, reporting that the series was shown in Korea only on the American Forces Korea Network, in English without subtitles and directed toward an American audience. [1] In addition, the Korean transliteration for chachi is 차치, which does not mean penis. However the Korean word for "vagina" is jaji, which is spelled 자지 in Hangul. It is a misconception that that word chachi, and the Korean word 자지 (jaji) means penis, as jaji actually means "vagina."

Main cast

Actor	Role
Scott Baio	Chachi Arcola
Erin Moran	Joanie Cunningham
Al Molinaro	Al Delvecchio
Ellen Travolta	Louisa Delvecchio
Art Metrano	Rico Mastorelli
Robert Pierce	Bingo Pierce
Derrel Maury	Mario Mastorelli
Winifred Freedman	Annette Mastorelli

External links