NOVEMBER 8, 1977 – Glam queen Suzi Quatro made her first appearance as Leather Tuscadero, the little sister of Fonzie’s girlfriend Pinky, on ABC-TV’s “Happy Days” fronting a fictional all-girl rock group called Leather Tuscadero and the Suedes. She was reportedly asked to audition for the part of after one of the show’s producers saw her picture on the cover of a Rolling Stone magazine hanging the wall of his daughter’s bedroom, and supposedly beat out both Joan Jett and Blondie singer Debbie Harry to land the role. Originally the character was supposed to appear in a two-part story but it was such a success that Suzi was asked back to make five more episodes of the show.
In the first episode, Leather Tuscadero and the Suedes audition at Arnold’s playing “Cat size” and “All Shook Up.” During the second part, Suzi played “Heartbreak hotel” and her hit “Devilgate Drive.” During the course of the episodes Suzi sang several songs which she has never released on record. There was Chuck Berry’s “Jonny B. Goode” and a ballad Suzi wrote called “Believe”. In another episode there were another two songs especially written for Suzi to sing in the show called “Moonlight Love” and a dance song called “Do the Fonzie”. Suzi was even offered her own series as a spin-off from “Happy Days” that was planned to feature the Leather Tuscadero character, but would be set a few years later in the 1960s. In the end however the show was never filmed. Suzi decided against it because she didn’t want to be forever typecast as Leather Tuscadero.