The last season is not very good for many reasons. However I think Randy is fine and had a tough shoes to fill replacing 2 big characters. I thought he did as well as could be expected. Every relationship from the show is changed very abruptly in the last season, and that's where it fails big time. Only Red and Kitty end up where they're supposed to. Kind of a bummer.
shareWhat makes it worse than them not being there is that the movies Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher did weren't very well liked. I think my least favorite thing from the later seasons was Kelso getting that girl pregnant and then when next we see him he's no longer with her.
shareI've seen each of them here or there give pretty good performances, but I do agree that the films they did instead, right after they left the show, weren't worth it.
shareDon´t think it would have mattered anyway. The last few seasons gradually got worse even with Topher and Ashton as regulars.
shareDanny Masterson was never as big as Henry Winkler--so this is why other people's absences dragged this show down ultra-slowly vs killing it outright.
When Howard, Moran, and Baio all left Happy Days producers just shrugged it was like oh well we still have the Fonz.....but nobody was saying Hyde's catch phrases nationwide on this show. There was no mountains of merchandise with his face on it.
That's what gradually slowed this show down.
IF Winkler had bolted Happy Days, for any reason that show would have immediately died with zero ratings. They did everything they could to keep him on and he stayed. It was a really smart move on the networks part.
Happy Days was way before my time but I will take your word for it!
share