Chachi's "Development" Deal

Chachi is horning in on Fonzie's turf.

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The Happy Days-obssessed masterminds of Arrested Development have tapped Scott Baio to take over as Bluth family lawyer this season, replacing Henry Winkler, who's heading off to his own series, CBS' Out of Practice.


"I just got the call on Friday," Baio tells E! Online TV columnist Kristin Veitch. "I play their attorney. I'm taking over for Barry Zuckerkorn. And I'm just here to represent the family in whatever's going on in this nutty show."


Baio's character will have some low standards to live down to. In Development's two seasons, Zuckerkorn (whose Website is BarryGood.biz) has managed to stay employed despite some utterly inept lawyering and potentially deviant behavior.


It's the second big casting coup in recent days. Last week, Fox announced that Oscar winner would appear in five episodes as a British woman who becomes the love interest of Michael Bluth ( Jason Bateman).


The Emmy-winning series kicks off its third season Sept. 19 in a new time slot, 8 p.m. on Mondays. Theron will make her debut in the second episode; Baio will make his grand entrance the following week. So far, he's only signed for a one-off appearance.


Winkler (who in a wink to his Fonzified past, literally jumped a shark last season) costars with Stockard Channing as divorced doctors in CBS' Out of Practice. The series premieres Sept. 19 at 9:30 p.m.


Baio's big break came as Fonzie's cousin Charles "Chachi" Arcola in the 1977 season of ABC's Happy Days. He eventually fell for Joanie Cunningham ( Erin Moran), got a spinoff (Joanie Loves Chachi) and returned in time for Happy Days' final season in 1984, which ended with Joanie and Chachi getting hitched. In the intervening years he's mostly been relegated to TV movies and guest-starring roles. Baio's last series was supposed to be the 1997 Fox sitcom Rewind, but it was scrapped before it even made it to air.


Most recently he appeared as himself in the werewolf flick Cursed and joined the rest of the Happy Days campers for an ABC reunion special.


Arrested Development's Happy Days roots run deep. Aside from Winkler and Baio, erstwhile Richie Cunningham Ron Howard produces the show through his Imagine Entertainment and also serves as the series' narrator.


"We're thrilled to have Chachi here," cracks Will Arnett (Gob Bluth). "I'm hoping Pat Morita is next."

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I smell an Anyong's Grandfather subplot .

That will be great.

This sucks to hear Barry will not be here this season, hopefully, and with this set of writers it should be good, Baio does a good job filling Barry's shoes.


Theory time, how do they get Barry to leave? I bet is his bar is doing to good to mess with being an attorney.

Man Barry was my favorite character on the show. I hate to see him go.

Don't worry. I'm sure Winkler's new show will be cancelled before mid-season.

The early buzz for Winkler's replacement was Ricky Gervais. So, I'm not that excited about this announcement.

Someone told me his replacement was going to be Andy Griffith, heh. I thought that could have been interesting.

Scott Baio?

Too bad. Henry Winkler did a fantastic job as Barry.