"Guess Who's Coming to Visit"


Things are settling in a little on this B- February 5, 1974 episode.  We even get a glimpse of Ralph's cowardice, which would Flanderize over time.  It's the first episode where Richie doesn't kiss or get kissed by a girl, although he has a crush on one of the "Assorted Nuts."

Notes:
  • Howard is angrier with Richie about being a drag-race flagger than when Richie got drunk, but Marion intervenes, despite Joanie's hopes of Richie being severely punished.
  • Chuck teases Richie about his basketball skills, while Joanie can go from baton-twirling to shooting hoops.  Also, Chuck apparently lives in the dorm, but they still have his bed in Richie's room, which is convenient when Potsie comes to visit.
  • Potsie and Howard are wary of each other, while Joanie (ironically in light of her later crush) calls Potsie a nerd.
  • Two actual nerds steal the spotlight at the end, when all the grounded kids clear out of Arnold's at suppertime.  In this first season, including in the opening credits, there's a sense of Richie's life being one of many we could've followed in this time and place.
  • And speaking of this time, The Untouchables is on, and it's not a brand-new show, so this may be the winter of '59-60!
  • We see Fonzie in his leather jacket, for the drag-racing scene.
  • I love the casting of Agnewy-looking Herb Voland (then probably best known as General Clayton on M*A*S*H) as the Police Sergeant.  It adds a little comic fillip to the line-up scene.
  • I'm not sure who "Moose" is (the fat nerd at the end?), but Barry Greenberg would play the role twice more.
  • Lowell Ganz would write three more episodes, Mark Rothman eight more.

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