About a year ago, I blogged that many of the cast and crew from “Happy Days” was fighting for royalties from the show. Erin Moran (who played Joanie), Don Most (who played Ralph Malph), Marion Ross (who played Mrs. Cunningham), Anson Williams (who played Potsie), and the estate of the late Tom Bosley (who played Mr. Cunningham) feel they deserve payment from merchandise sales related to the show and the characters they played.
The lawsuit was actually born when Erin Moran called CBS in 2002 to see how much money she was owed in merchandising royalties because their contracts stated they should get between 2.5 and 5 percent. She was told there was no money, but later noticed her “Happy Days” character’s likeness on a slot machine.
It seems now that Moran really needed the money. The National Enquirer broke the news that the actress, who has only acted intermittently in the past 25 years, is living in a trailer park in Indiana after losing her California home to foreclosure in 2010.
Moran is married to Steve Fleischmann, who reportedly works at Wal-Mart. After losing their home, the couple, who married in 1993, moved to the Berkshire Pointe Mobile Home Park in New Salisbury, Indiana to live and care for his mother.
While a family friend said, “Life hasn’t been kind to Erin since the foreclosure of her home,” others admire her devotion to her mother-in-law, although many say the financial strain has taken its toll on Moran’s once peaches-and-cream complexion.
The trial about the merchandising lawsuit is set for July 17th, so maybe some good news is coming soon for Moran. A judge has also ruled that the “Happy Days” cast can also seek royalties for the show’s DVD sales. It is estimated that the royalties could bring as much as between $250,000 and 500,000.