Fried Chicken

S3 E3-4: Fearless Fonzarelli, Part 1 and 2

Happy Days, 1974.

The saga of Fearless Fonzarelli unfolds in two gloriously absurd chapters, cementing Fonzie’s leather-clad status as a folk hero for the insecure.

It begins, as most existential crises do, at Arnold’s Drive-In, where Richie Cunningham, Potsie Weber, and Ralph Malph are grappling with a harsh new reality: a 50-cent booth minimum. Arnold, ever the entrepreneur, has instituted this policy to shore up the finances of his fried chicken stand—a business that, despite being open for eight months, has gone unnoticed by anyone who isn’t Arnold. This glaring oversight becomes a subplot as the gang’s indignation and Fonzie’s existential crisis converge.

Cue Richie Cunningham, our earnest, freckled Greek chorus, diagnosing Fonzie’s slump with the precision of a sophomore psych major: it’s just a phase. But Fonzie, part philosopher and part peacock, won’t hear it. He’s losing it. Coolness, to Fonzie, isn’t a mere accessory; it’s the axis upon which the Earth spins, the cosmic constant holding this pastel-hued, 1950s fever dream together.

When a TV show called You Wanted to See It showcases a man jumping 12 garbage cans on a motorcycle, inspiration strikes. Fonzie decides to jump 14. No mention of training or logistics—this is Fonzie logic, where bravado supersedes physics. More importantly, the jump becomes a two-pronged mission: to reclaim his endangered coolness and, in the process, draw enough attention to Arnold’s chicken stand that the 50-cent minimum will be lifted. The number 13 is skipped entirely because superstition, like the jukebox, bends to Fonzie’s whims.

The jump, staged at Arnold’s, is less Evel Knievel and more Looney Tunes. As a crowd gathers, signs like “FONZIE’S TOUGH BUT OUR CHICKEN ISN’T” remind us that Arnold is ever the opportunist, using the spectacle to turn his failing fried chicken into a city-wide sensation. Fonzie soars over the garbage cans, lands his bike, and promptly crashes into the chicken stand, creating a tableau of wreckage: motorcycle, Fonz, and enough fried chicken to feed Milwaukee.

Make it! Fried chicken from Alton Brown.