Why is Scott still single? Baio confronts his past

On the outside, Scott Baio looks like he has it all.

Good looks, money, friends, a pretty, blond girlfriend.

On the inside, he's one screwed-up dude.

And for viewers of VH1, that's going to make for a lot of fun in the coming weeks.

Baio is the centerpiece in the reality show "Scott Baio Is 45 ... and Single," premiering Sunday. It's an entertaining, emotional hour built around the one-time Hollywood hunk's quest to find out why he's still single.

Oh, how we love to watch stars struggle!

"It crippled me," he tells a life coach of his celebrity status. "I was just easy. If I had any aggravation from any woman, she was gone."

Some men may wonder what he's bellyaching about, of course. But now, after a magnificent run through Hollywood's hotties, Baio is afraid of dying alone.

Baio rose to fame on "Happy Days," which led to the spinoff "Joanie Loves Chachi" and then "Charles in Charge." Along the way, he dated a who's who of beautiful women.

But Baio is 45 and wonders why he's been unable to marry.

His life coach says he must put his girlfriend on hold for eight weeks and revisit past relationships to see what went wrong. What emerges are meetings with past flames, talks with friends and revelations as Baio struggles with life. None of these flames holds back, and most seem to enjoy telling him the truth.

It's hard to forget that Baio is an actor and some aspects might be played up for the camera on a show that is produced by his friend Jason Hervey.

Nevertheless, while it's fun to watch him struggle, in the end the show creates a sympathetic portrait of a star who has avoided the usual pitfalls of celebrity — think Paris, Nicole, Lindsay — on the road to bachelorhood.

And for a celebrity reality show, that's unusual, and why this is worth your time.