Al Molinaro's first appearance in the "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley" universe, playing the character Father Gucci for his only appearance on this spinoff series, and lamentably with no in-jokes about his and
Penny Marshall's earlier roles on another
Garry Marshall show,
The Odd Couple (1970), those of Officer Murray Greshler and Myrna Turner, respectively. Molinaro would from the start of the fourth season of "Happy Days" the following September begin his regular role as Al Delvecchio, the new proprietor of Arnold's Drive-In formerly owned by its namesake Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi (
Pat Morita). Two seasons later, Molinaro would in his Al role again work with the characters Laverne and Shirley on two occasions when they would guest star on the flagship series in the episodes
Fonzie's Funeral: Part 2 (1979) and
Shotgun Wedding: Part 1 (1979), in each case again with no references to the "Odd Couple" characters. When a "Happy Days" Christmas episode from the show's early seasons,
Guess Who's Coming to Christmas (1974), was reaired during that show's original run as a re-edited clip show where Fonzie (
Henry Winkler) recounts the events of that actual episode to current-day characters from when the "flashback" version aired, on its first such recycling the Fonz is telling the story to Arnold and then on a second such recycling on a later season he is detailing the flashbacks to Al, which is why Morita and Molinaro may be inaccurately cited as castmates in an episode that predates both their first appearances in the series, with Morita's debut as Arnold not actually occurring until the show's third season, a season after the original Christmas show aired.
