Ellen Travolta Reveals ‘Happy Days’ Director’s Brutal Note to Her on Set

Ellen Travolta recently revealed a brutal note from Happy Days director Jerry Paris on the set of the beloved sitcom.

On the June 10 episode of The Scott Baio Podcast, Travolta, 86, reunited with Scott Baio, 65, more than 40 years after playing Louisa Arcola, the mother of his character, Chachi Arcola. The actress appeared in five episodes of Happy Days and reprised her role in 17 episodes of the spinoff Joanie Loves Chachi.

During their sit-down, Travolta told Baio that producers reached out to her about the role, and that she wasn’t even required to audition. “They called me and said, ‘We would like to have you come in and play Scott Baio’s mother,'” she recalled. “I didn’t read or anything.”

The first episode in which Travolta played Louisa, “Hello, Mrs. Arcola,” aired in 1981. In it, Chachi’s girlfriend, Joanie (Erin Moran), and her parents came over for dinner. Although filming for that went well, she brought up an incident during which Paris gave her blunt feedback that left her feeling uncertain about her future on the show.

“I came back, and then they picked me up,” she recounted. “I was going to be kind of a semi-regular. And we did the show, rehearsed it. And Jerry Paris said to me, ‘What happened to you? You’re not funny anymore.’”

Travolta explained, “I knew he had put all the rest of them in therapy, but I thought, ‘Wow, what’s going to happen to me? What’s going to happen to me? So anyway, I didn’t know what to do. Of course, we filmed it, and it was funny. And then later, I asked him about that, many years later. He said, ‘I would never say that.'”

Elsewhere during their conversation, Baio pointed out that although Paris — who died at 60 in 1986 — was a “brilliant” director, he would sometimes “turn” and become “mean as a rattlesnake.”

“You didn’t know what the hell was going on,” he admitted. “But he would say things in front of the audience to actors, and I’d sit there go, ‘Is this man out of his mind?’”

Travolta also remembered Paris turning down a child actress after an audition by telling her, “I don’t want you… I want the other girl.” She added, “Poor thing, she didn’t know what to do.”

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In another memorable incident, Baio said that Paris used an unconventional tactic with a child actress while filming scene. “She doesn’t look sad,” he recalled. “Jerry cuts, and he says, ‘OK, I need a close-up of the girl looking sad.’ And he says, ‘Come on, honey. Look sad.”

The repeated coaxing, however, didn’t work.

Baio added, “And I see him now getting steamed. And he goes, ‘Honey, think of how fat you are. Think of how ugly you are.’ And the girl just [cried]. And he goes, ‘Cut! Print it.’”

Happy Days aired for 11 seasons from 1974 to 1984. In addition to Travolta and Baio, the sitcom featured Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Marion Ross, Tom Bosley, Erin Moran, Anson Williams, Don Most, and Al Molinaro, among others. Joanie Loves Chachi aired for just two seasons from 1982 to 1983.

Happy Days, streaming on Pluto TV and Paramount+