Al Delvecchio
fictional character in Happy Days

Alfred "Big Al" Delvecchio is a character on the U.S. sitcom Happy Days. He was played by Al Molinaro. Molinaro joined the cast in Season 4 after Pat Morita, who played Arnold, left after the end of the third season (in the last episode "Arnold Gets Married"). Subsequently, Molinaro also played Al's twin brother priest Father Anthony Delvecchio. Al said that he also had a brother who worked at the sanitation department.
Fictional character biography
Al Delvecchio was the owner and cook of Arnold's Drive-In from season 4 to season 9. He bought the restaurant from its original owner, Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi, after Arnold got married and moved away in season 4. Al eventually married Chachi's mother, Louisa. He had a sighing catchphrase of "Yep-yep-yep...". Al and Louisa moved to Chicago with Joanie and Chachi and opened a restaurant in Chicago where Joanie and Chachi perform.
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This entry incorporates text from “Al Delvecchio” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.