{"id":8892,"date":"2017-04-24T15:14:28","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T15:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8892"},"modified":"2017-06-20T13:25:15","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T13:25:15","slug":"when-life-meant-happy-days-for-erin-moran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8892","title":{"rendered":"When life meant happy days for Erin Moran"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 \u201cThere is a lot of pressure. You\u2019ve got to be thin. You\u2019ve got to look pretty. You\u2019ve got to look good. There\u2019s a lot of competition, There\u2019s too much to worry about.\u201d That was \u201cHappy Days\u201d star Erin Moran speaking to me in 1982 just before the launch of \u201cJoanie Loves Chachi\u201d.<\/p>\n

The actress has died from cancer aged 56 after a difficult adult life following her childhood stardom that began with commercials and a regular role on the U.S. drama series \u201cDaktari\u201d when she was 6 years-old.<\/p>\n

She was in a James Garner and Debbie Reynolds picture titled \u201cHow Sweet It Is!\u201d (1968), had guest roles on popular sitcoms of the period such as \u201cThe Courtship of Eddie\u2019s Father\u201d and \u201cMy Three Sons\u201d and she was a regular on \u201cThe Don Rickles Show\u201d (1972).<\/p>\n

Moran, who was 21 when I interviewed her, had starred as Joanie Cunningham on one of the era\u2019s most popular shows since she was 13.\u00a0 She did not appear to be daunted by the challenges and pitfalls of early attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a competitor but not in that respect. It\u2019s too much for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m too kicked back for that. I do get crazy but not a lot. I\u2019m a Libra so I weigh things up. I think about it and get down to me. What\u2019s important \u2026 letting this thing ruin me or to be happy? I just want to be happy. That\u2019s my motto. That\u2019s all I want to be, is happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The late Garry Marshall, who wrote and produced \u201cHow Sweet It Is!\u201d (with Jerry Belson), told me: \u201cI found this little girl who was missing three teeth in the front of her mouth and I hired her for the film. I thought, \u2018This little girl has very good timing for such a little person.\u2019 That was it. A few years later when we were casting \u2018Happy Days\u2019, she came along and she had teeth this time. She looked a little different but she still had that instinct for timing with no fear. Many kids have fear and get inhibited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moran was not in the first pilot, which did not sell, but she was cast in the second along with Henry Winkler and Ron Howard. \u201cShe\u2019s spent 9 years with us. I watched her grow up. I watched graduate from school on the Paramount lot and I watched her become a young lady,\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n

He created \u201cJoanie Loves Chachi\u201d, he told me, because of his love of sports<\/a>\u00a0and he used a farm-team system to develop his shows. Scott Baio (pictured with Moran below) had joined \u201cHappy Days\u201d as Chachi in Season 5 and later became Joanie\u2019s long-time steady. They both had singing talent and Marshall decided that music would be the key to a new spinoff following \u201cLaverne & Shirley\u201d and \u201cMork & Mindy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to say \u2018here are two good actors, let\u2019s make another show\u2019 is not quite enough for me,\u201d he told me. \u201cBut they both sang so well and we kind of let them break that in on \u2018Happy Days\u2019, and that plus their acting ability makes it worth doing another show. I just hope it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t. \u201cJoanie Loves Chachi\u201d lasted 17 episodes and the two performers returned to the original show for the final season. After \u201cHappy Days\u201d wound down in 1984, Moran\u2019s career floundered with a few appearances on \u201cThe Love Boat\u201d and sporadic roles on shows such as \u201cMurder, She Wrote\u201d and \u201c \u201cDiagnosis Murder\u201d. She died on April 22, survived by her second husband, Steven Fleischmann, with whom reportedly she had fallen upon hard times.<\/p>\n

Back in 1982, those dark clouds seemed far away although there were times on \u201cHappy Days\u201d that were difficult, she said: \u201cI always played two or three years younger and that was hard from the start. I wanted to grow up but the character wasn\u2019t growing as fast I was. Everything was awkward for me but it worked out. The thing with Joanie is she\u2019s just an all-around normal American girl. Nothing\u2019s unusual with her, nothing\u2019s outrageous. I don\u2019t have anyone approaching me about taking off my clothes or doing pinups. It\u2019s a family show and I don\u2019t have those offers. With Valerie Bertinelli (\u201cOne Day at a Time\u201d), it\u2019s a different story. She\u2019s got a lot more maturity and it\u2019s modern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Competition for roles didn\u2019t bother her anyway, she told me: \u201cCompeting with other girls; I stopped doing that. I used to when I was younger but I can\u2019t. I just can\u2019t. If I start worrying about that then it gets crazy. It doesn\u2019t get you anywhere. One day, I\u2019d like to get a real, good, meaty role. Someone like Sally Field, I look at her work, at her movies, and I just think, \u2018God!\u2019 When Natalie Wood died [1981], that killed me. I\u2019ve always wanted to meet that lady. She\u2019s my favourite. If I idolised anyone, I idolised her. This is what I look forward to; those types of roles. Those types of characters, because it\u2019s pretty close to where I am and what I think I can achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 \u201cThere is a lot of pressure. You\u2019ve got to be thin. You\u2019ve got to look pretty. You\u2019ve got to look good. There\u2019s a lot of competition, There\u2019s too much to worry about.\u201d That was \u201cHappy … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1263,15],"tags":[4357,4359,4531,4356,4532],"class_list":["post-8892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","category-television","tag-happy-days","tag-joanie-loves-chachi","tag-erin-moran","tag-garry-marshall","tag-scott-baio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8892"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9092,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8892\/revisions\/9092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}