Tales From The Crypt “Three’s A Crowd”

If you’ve ever seen the first season or so of Happy Days, you may remember there was a third Cunningham child, the oldest son Chuck.  He just disappeared and was forgotten about at some point.

The actor, Gavan O’Herlihy, appears in this episode, so my head cannon is he playing Chuck Cunningham, and this is what happened to him.

So Chuck, here going by “Richard” which must be his Witness Protection name, is concerned when, for his 10th anniversary, his lovely wife Della spent way more time than she said she would out shopping with Chuck’s more successful friend and one-time best man Alan.  Chuck is poor or something, even though he still has a giant house, but Alan, whom Chuck hasn’t seen much of in the past decade, invites Chuck and Della to his cabin in the woods for a vacation.  Alan comes along, and he makes some cracks about how he used to date Della and he regrets that she got away from him, but now he says that is all in the past.

Then why is Della spending so much time with him?  And what does it mean when Chuck overhears Della and Alan discussing something they are keeping a secret from Chuck?

Oh, they must be having an affair!  And this is a cabin, so there’s hunting equipment in there.  Chuck does some practicing with the bow, shoots an arrow into Alan, then chases Della around, following her even after she jumps through a second floor window, and then strangles her to death.  As one does when one is a jealousy-consumed homicidal lunatic.

This may be the darkest episode of Happy Days yet.

Anyway, the twist is the secret was a planned surprise party for Chuck that would have, among other things, let him know he was going to be a daddy.  I’m guessing dragging your wife’s corpse into a party like that is the ultimate buzzkill.

It’s probably why, in the Happy Days finale, Howard Cunningham said he only had two kids.

What about the Cryptkeeper?  He’s a DJ now!  And a partygoer.  Probably not the life of the party though.

Notable Names:  Eh, unless you count O’Herlihy, none really.