Joanie Cunningham was born in 1941 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Erin Moran was 14 when 'Happy Days' premiered. And it's basically the rule of thumb for Toobworld citizens to be the same age as the actor who plays them, unless otherwise specified in the script. So Ms. Moran was 14 in 1974; the first episdoe took place in 1955.... thus she was born in 1941.
it's generally accepted that the show spanned the equivalent timeline of the show's broadcast history. So it basically covered 1955 - 1965, even though several songs heard in the series premiere weren't recorded until 1956. But the televersion of those songs ("All Shook Up" & "Hound Dog") may have been recorded earlier without causing temporal disruptions.
When Joanie's love for Chachi Arcola fully blossomed, she was 22 years old, based on Ms. Moran's age and the debut of the sitcom 'Joanie Loves Chachi'. So that would place the spin-off in 1963.
When she was seventeen (1958), Joanie was pressured by a gang leader to put out if she wanted to hang with him. She didn't feel ready at that point in her life, and luckily Fonzie and Carmine were able to come to her defense. (Episode: "Joanie's Weird Boyfriend") But that doesn't mean she wasn't ready to give her love to a boy by the time she was 19 years old.
We don't always see everything that happens in a TV show; we wouldn't WANT to see everything that might happen. (God help the series '24' if Jack Bauer had the trots for most of that first day!) And it's not just a character's bodily functions that we usually don't see in a TV show. At least, not just those bodily functions... unless of course,
And there is nothing that states that even though the schedule of the 'Happy Days' broadcasts should fit into the same timeline as the events within the show, the episodes had to follow exactly right after each other. There could be a period of time in between the episodes.
Perhaps even a nine month space of time.....
Here's the conjecture from Your Faithful Claviger:
When she was nineteen, Joanie did fall for a young man and gave herself to him. Whether he truly loved her back, I can't say; don't know the lad. But I think she got pregnant and gave birth in 1960.
She kept this hidden from her family by going away over the summer (of course it would be the summer, during the hiatus), and put the child up for adoption. Her daughter was adopted by a couple from New York, Don and Barbara Robinson. He was an advertising executive who gave their new daughter Janie as good a life as he could manage, despite his frustrations with modern society.
And little Janie Robinson grew up to look just like her birth mother, not that Janie ever knew who she was.
I often state that when an actor passes away, one who was indelibly linked to a particular character, then that character should be considered as having passed away as well. This is what I have to consider as the Caretaker of Toobworld, my little fantasy realm, when it comes to Joanie Cunningham Arcola.
If she died at the same age as Ms. Moran, then we have to accept that she passed away in 1997. But since Joanie was under the radar, why not consider her as having lived until now? With Erin Moran free of her earthly troubles now, I think it would be respectful to consider Joanie as having died as well. She would have made it to the age of 76.
Good night and may God bless, Joanie.
As for Janie Robinson? She would be the same age as Erin Moran, now 56. But she didn't have such an impact on the consciousness of the Trueniverse audience. So I can be a fair and compassionate Steward for Toobworld. I hope Janie Robinson lives long and prosper.
I wish you well on your next stage of the journey, Erin. I hope it's all better than it was in the last few years.......
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