One of the most popular shows of the ’70s and early ’80s was “Happy Days,” the gem in Garry Marshall’s TV comedy crown that provided viewers with the warm glow of ’50s nostalgia. In addition to offering up a great ensemble cast headlined by Ron Howard and Henry Winkler, the series featured a host of notable guest stars.
“‘Happy Days’ happened to be a cast of people who were basically secure and nice,” Marshall told Chortle in 2014. “And so when I brought on guest stars, they gave them a lot of room to work.”
Many of these actors were already famous during the 1950s, including Buffalo Bob Smith from “Howdy Doody,” baseball legend Hank Aaron, and Phil Silvers (“Sgt. Bilko”), but more than a few up-and-comers popped up as well. Even Tom Hanks famously appeared in one of the series’ later episodes, as did his wife, Rita Wilson. But here’s a collection of guest actors that you might not remember.
Ed Begley Jr.
A second-generation actor, Ed Begley Jr. had been working in TV and film since the late 1960s, but he spent much of the ’70s making one-off appearances on a plethora of series, including — you guessed it — an episode of “Happy Days.”
Begley appeared in the Season 1 episode “The Deadly Dares.” After Richie (Ron Howard) strikes out at a school dance and sees his classmate Bag (Neil J. Schwartz) succeed with the same girl, he decides that he needs to join Bag’s gang — the Demons — in order to increase his popularity with the ladies. Learning from Potsie (Anson Williams) that the Fonz (Henry Winkler) is a former Demon, Richie turns to Fonzie for advice on surviving the initiation. Unfortunately, when the pair meet with Bag and his cohort Hank (Begley), they discover the laundry list of stunts they must complete to secure membership.
Begley later guest-starred on “Laverne & Shirley” as Shirley’s brother Bobby and appeared in Garry Marshall’s 1982 directorial feature debut, “Young Doctors in Love.” That same year, he landed the role of Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the medical drama “St. Elsewhere,” which ran for six seasons. Begley has continued working steadily since then, with one of his more recognizable recent TV roles being another doctor: Dr. Grant Linkletter on “Young Sheldon.”
Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd got her start as the singing voice of Melody on the Hanna-Barbera animated series “Josie and the Pussycats,” and got her big break in 1977 when she was cast as Kris Munroe on “Charlie’s Angels.” In between those two projects, she was busy bouncing between various short arcs or one-off appearances throughout the primetime schedule. One of those gigs was “Wish Upon a Star,” an episode of “Happy Days” in the show’s second season where Richie wins a date with a teen idol.
“[‘Happy Days’] is one of the little jewels of my career, because I love Ron Howard, I love that show, and they asked me to play this wonderful character called Cindy Shea,” Ladd recalled on “Pop Goes the Culture TV.” “I loved … when we got to kiss — because my first screen kiss was with Ron Howard. So we kissed each other, and my character would lift her leg in the movies whenever she was kissed by her leading man … so Ralph and Potsie were watching when we were having our kiss, and I lifted my leg, and they were like [gasp], ‘He’s really made it now!'”
It also proved to be a bummer of an evening for Richie; after Cindy invites him back to her hotel room, he discovers that the photographer who’s been following her around is actually her husband.
Morgan Fairchild
After starting her acting career as a soap opera star on the long-running CBS daytime drama “Search for Tomorrow,” Morgan Fairchild moved from Manhattan to Los Angeles in 1977. She quickly expanded her résumé, including her very first sitcom gig: the Season 5 “Happy Days” episode “My Fair Fonzie.”
When the Fonz spots the gorgeous Cynthia (Fairchild) at Arnold’s, he’s immediately smitten, but he’s taken aback when she seems immune to his usual moves. As it turns out, Cynthia is a rich girl who’s also a complete snob, and she finds the Fonz’s uncouth ways laughable. She and her cousin Millard (Sam Freed) — Skippy to his friends — invite Fonzie to a formal party at her country club, hoping to humiliate him. Spoiler alert: the Fonz turns the tables.
“When I first came out here, one of my early jobs was playing Fonzie’s new girlfriend on ‘Happy Days,'” Fairchild recalled on the “Still Here Hollywood” podcast. “How much better can it get for a girl in 1977?”
Janine Turner
Janine Turner guest-starred in the Season 11 “Happy Days” episode “Where the Guys Are,” several years before her breakout role on “Northern Exposure.” The episode finds the Fonz struggling to move on after breaking up with his steady girlfriend Ashley (Linda Purl). Hoping to shake him out of his doldrums, Potsie, Chachi (Scott Baio), and Roger (Ted McGinley) trick him into going to a singles camp.
Once there, Potsie, Chachi, and Roger meet a trio of single women, one of whom is played by Turner. Unfortunately, the trio tricks them into entering the sauna, locks them inside, and steals their wallets. Ouch! On the other hand, Fonzie has a cathartic conversation with a young woman played by Rita Wilson that raises his spirits. Hooray!
In 2025, after a man approached her at the Fanboy Expo in Knoxville, Tennessee, with a promotional photo of herself and Baio from the episode, Turner took to Instagram to share her reaction: “I told him it was quite the experience to show a 62-year-old woman what she looked like [at] 21 years old! Was my waist truly ever that small! Such fun!”
Crispin Glover
In the Season 11 episode “Vocational Education,” the Fonz believes he’d be better suited to running George S. Patton Vocational High School than Roger, a Yale-educated academic with no street smarts and — let’s face it — absolutely no business trying to handle the school’s troublesome student body. One of Roger’s first problem kids is Roach (Crispin Glover), who steals his wallet, kicks his chair out from under him, and actively goes out of his way to try and get himself kicked out of school.
At the time, Glover was still early in his acting career, with his breakout role as George McFly in “Back to the Future” yet to come. Among his earlier television appearances was an episode of “The Facts of Life,” in which he played a character credited only as Cadet No. 1.
On “Happy Days,” Glover capably holds his own against Ted McGinley and, more impressively, Henry Winkler. In 1983, the same year his episode aired, he made his big-screen debut in “My Tutor.” Just two years later, he was playing Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) father in the Robert Zemeckis-directed classic.
