Happy Days had numerous spin-offs, and even itself originating from an episode of the anthology series Love, American Style, with two of them being very successful in their own rights (Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy), while others were less than successful, one of them that falls into that latter category was Blansky's Beauties, which starred Nancy Walker as Nancy Blansky - the cousin of Happy Days Patriarch Howard Cunningham who happened to visit the family the week before this show would first air.
It's notable the show was set in the year it was made - 1977 - notable in the Happy Days universe since Happy Days was set in the 50s but the Blansky character had been in business so I guess it makes some sense (if you ignore the characters aging) but does include bringing Pat Morita along as Arnold so again you can pretend he just aged well.
The show only ended up lasting 13 episodes - which is not a bad amount if it was a British show but in America it amounts to about half a season, so it clearly didn't manage to find the audience it had hoped even with the connection of Happy Days (the road is littered with unsuccessful spin-offs of very successful shows, some of which I'm sure I'll get to on here).
The episode's plot revolves around Bambi (the gorgeous Caren Kaye) getting unwanted attention (and a marriage proposal) from a Sheik, it's a slight plot but it's enjoyable with Nancy and Arnold's plan to rescue Bambi being the most fun.
A further Happy Days connection including a pre-Chachi, Scott Baio among the cast and a few other faces that popped in Happy Days, so it truly is a good companion piece for the fan of the more successful show.
I won't pretend it's a lost classic but if I had the access I'd probably watch more episodes, if you are enough of a Happy Days fan it's worth a watch in my opinion.

Comments
Post a Comment