"Because She's There"

This April 2nd episode is the weakest since the premiere, in both plot and subplot.  A pre-Soap Diana Canova at 20 is absolutely lovely and charming, so who cares if she's playing a character who's "too tall" for Richie?  And then Howard getting fed up with Marion being bad at bridge is neither funny nor consistent with their so far established characters.  Still, there are some nice moments, and I like how Joanie is so knowing about makeout parties but hit a boy who tried to kiss her.

Some other thoughts:

• Another thing about the redone credits is that they've also added Fonzie deciding he doesn't need to comb his hair in the men's room mirror.  It's still just Ron, Anson, Marion, and Tom mentioned by name (with pictures in the middle of the record) in the opening credits though.
• In this version, Ralph's parents are named Harry and Hazel, and pretty bland.
• The costumes at the costume party are kind of meh, more like something '50s teens would put together than the sort of costumes we'd see on Garry Marshall shows three or four years later.
• A couple lines came back to me, like Richie telling his father that his dad does indeed seem short to him.  I feel like I saw this episode fairly often in syndication.
• This is the first of three scripts by Jack Winter, who'd also do three for Laverne & Shirley.
• On the other hand, Peter Baldwin, who'd done seven for The Brady Bunch and twelve for The Bob Newhart Show, stayed out of the Marshallverse after this.