January 15, 1974
All the Way, the first episode of "Happy Days" aired on ABC...........
It was very controversial at the time...........
"All the Way" involves your typical teenage dilemma — dating. Richie Cunningham has been crushing on classmate Mary Lou Milligan (
Kathy O'Dare) who happens to sit in front of him in class. At the beginning of the episode, Potsie (
Anson Williams) encourages Richie to ask out Mary but warns his friend that she has a "racy" reputation and only likes to date boys in the senior class. This gives Richie mounds of pressure, especially when Potsie plays Cupid at Arnold's Drive-In. Potsie gives Richie prompts to "woo" Mary by reading the seductive parts of a book at the diner, which proves successful! Mary invites Richie over to the house she's babysitting at for a date, and the two plan to meet later in the day.
At home, Richie barely touches his dinner, worrying his parents deeply. Just before the date, Richie receives advice from Potsie as to how to "perform well" with Mary. Potsie suggests, "When she twists her hair, that’s a sign she wants to French kiss," and, “She loves it when you blow in her ear”. He dives in deeper by advising Richie to leave his strongest hand free when he goes to hold her, bringing out a practice brassiere. Flustered, Richie leaves for his date, commenting that he's going to do things "his own way." But when Richie meets Mary at the babysitting house, he's overly nervous to impress her as he believes Mary holds certain expectations. They sit on the couch awkwardly and Richie reads seductive passages from a book. He tries to blow on Mary's ear and put his arm around her; however, Mary just wants to kiss him. As they make out, Richie takes the chance to undo her bra over her clothes. Immediately, Mary stands up saying, "What are you doing back there? I don’t do things like that." Richie, relieved, suggests they play chess instead — Mary happily agrees.
The next day at school, Richie is confronted by his friends as to how far he went with his date. Richie tries to avoid answering directly but gives into peer pressure when Mary shows up boasting, “It was fun the other night. Let’s do it again real soon." Peaking the attention of Potsie, Ralph (
Don Most), and the Fonz (
Henry Winkler), the boys ask him if he "did it" with Mary, implying sex, and Richie merely answers, "You kidding?" Richie instantly feels guilty about lying and goes to his dad for advice — he tells him to set the record straight to his friends.
Eventually, Richie confesses to Mary that he told the truth to his friends about what they really did on the date, and all is fine between them. Soon, Fonzie shows up and Richie also tells him the truth. Disappointed Fonzie says, “Seeing how you said you did, I figured you did, and she did, so I got a date with her myself this afternoon." He expresses that he feels like his day is wasted since Mary won't do anything more than kiss. After Fonzie leaves on his motorcycle with Mary, Potsie catches up with Richie. Their conversation casually drifts to their history test — Richie recalls how he missed a question about Alaska becoming a state. Potsie comments that it will never happen, leading Richie to reply,
"Sure it will. Do you realize someday an Eskimo could become president?" The episode comes to a close as Potsie jokes, "Yeah, terrific. At the World Series, he could throw out the first snowball."
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