This was one of those mid-season fillers the networks threw out to see if it stuck. Throwing together a cast of pretty, semi-recognizable faces ("Hey!
This show technically was a spin-off from Happy Days and as many things from Happy Days were never really explained, it is true that this took place in the 70's while Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley were supposed to be in the 50's. What the other reviewers got wrong was that yes Eddie Mekka was already playing Carmine in Laverne and Shirley and was doing double duty, but L&S was only in its second season.
Yes, it was interwoven into Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, as the other posters note.Lynda Goodfriend and Scott Baio both crossed over from Happy Days, tho not as Lori Beth and Chachi, they were entirely new characters.
This show had every 70's teeny bopper element aimed to appeal to the lowest intellect and thus make it a hit - except this time cute boys and inane, jiggly, dumb blondes were not enough to cover for horrible scripts, contrived situations, bad acting, and unbelievable plots. The show tried to be a spin-off/tie-in to Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley (or at least ride on their success) by utilizing actors - most notably Eddie Mekka and Scott Baio - from those shows and making the title role the cousin of Happy Days' Howard Cunningham.
Horrible show full of forced laughter. While it was tied in to Happy Days no one seemed to notice that the shows were set in two different decades, the fifties and the seventies.
