Happy Days/The Lemon

The Lemon
Season 1, Episode 2
Airdate	January 22, 1974
Written by	Dick Bensfield & Perry Grant
Directed by	Jerry Paris
Produced by	William S. Bickley
← 1x01 All the Way	1x03 → Richie's Cup Runneth Over
Happy Days — Season One

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The Lemon is the second episode of the first season of Happy Days.

The episode is all about the time Richie and Potsie – in an effort to impress girls – pool their money to buy a used car ... one that ends up being really "used." The boys get dates with two pretty classmates, Betty and Trudie, but the car ends up causing problems with date night.

Starring: Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham)

Co-Starring: Marion Ross (Marion Cunningham), Anson Williams (Potsie Weber)

Also Starring: Tom Bosley (Howard Cunningham)

Co-Starring: Henry Winkler (Fonzie), Donny Most (Ralph)

Also Co-Starring: Tita Bell (Trudy), Cindy Eilbacher (Betty Wilkens)

Featuring: Gavan O'Herlihy (Chuck), Erin Moran (Joanie)

Plot Overview

When Richie is scoffed at for driving a 1948 DeSoto (Howard's car) and sees that Betty, a girl he has a crush on, and her friend Trudy have accepted a ride home with Ralph (who has a cool car), he and Potsie decide the only way they're going to get dates is to buy a car. Howard is skeptical, but when Richie convinces him both he and Potsie have enough money to buy one, he reluctantly gives his support.

The boys end up buying a used 1950 Chevrolet convertible from a slick-talking salesman. The car is really used, as it has a multitude of problems after a lifetime of abuse. Howard inspects the car and agrees the car is probably ready for the junkyard. Still, the boys have their car, and they're ready to meet up with Betty and Trudy at Arnold's ... even though they had to push it part of the way.

Fonzie agrees to fix the car and eventually gets it in somewhat respectable running order, before taking a customized hood ornament – "the best part," moans Potsie – as payment. But it makes them late for their date, and when they finally arrive to pick up Betty and Trudy, they're running late for the sock hop. They eventually get there, but just for part of what happens to be the last dance. Their dates are annoyed, but Richie suggests the evening can still be salvaged by going to Inspiration Point to watch the submarine races. There, more problems with the car develop and, as the boys end up spending more time fixing the car than with them, both Betty and Trudy are long past ready to go home.

Richie and Potsie eventually realize the car battery is dead, so they'll have to get out and push. Howard – on a tip from Fonzie – finds the foursome parked at Inspiration Point, distracting the boys long enough for the car – with the girls inside – to roll into the lake.

Back at the Cunninghams, Betty's father is very angry when he sees both his daughter and Trudy soaking wet and takes them home. Needless to say, there's no second date, even as Potsie happily calls out he'll see them in school on Monday.

The tag scene is at the dinner table, where Richie relates the fate of the car: Fonzie bought the car from him for $25 ... then sold it back to the slick-talking salesman for $50 ... thus turning the tables on the scam artist who knew the car was a lemon.

Notes

• The scene where Howard bumps a sleeping Joanie off the ottoman (while watching wrestling on TV) is reused in the Season 11 opening credits, as part of a "then-and-now" sequence (showing a then 11-year-old Joanie, compared to her as an adult).
• The expected lifetime of a new vehicle built and sold in 1950 – the model year of the car Richie and Potsie buy – was much shorter, and in 1956 (when this episode was set), it wasn't uncommon for a 6-year-old car to be in a condition similar to Richie's car, even with relative little abuse. By 1973 (when this episode was produced), cars were lasting longer, and in the mid-2020s it's rare to find a 6-year-old car in as poor condition as the convertible in this episode.
• In the 1950s, it was also not uncommon to see teen hangouts open well into the overnight hours. The scene where Howard asks Fonzie where he thinks Richie and Potsie are is implied to have taken place after 1 a.m. (at least, as Arnold's closed at 3 a.m.); and apparently, at least Fonzie and Ralph – who in early episodes at least were the most suave and successful with girls – regularly stay at Arnold's that late or longer.