"Football Frolics"



This episode has potential, but somehow doesn't pay off, combining as it does a Laverne & Shirley cameo (to no reaction from the audience by the way), the return of Fonzie's nephew Spike, a mass babysitting scheme to raise money to buy $10/20 football tickets from Arnold, and Howard in a toga.  I unfortunately have to go with a C.

Notes:
  • Fonzie imagines himself as a father, which is a new development, but arguably part of his whole character arc.
  • Joanie apparently babysits a lot and even has a client list, which Richie steals.
  • This is set around the time of Mardi Gras, which puts it in February, which is close enough for a January 20th episode.
  • Marion resents having to do stuff for Howard's lodge.
  • There's some stuff about '50s football, which I'm with Marion on being bored by.
  • I'm not sure which is creepier, the still tiny Spike copying down girls' phone numbers from the men's room at Arnold's, or Fonzie encouraging him to threaten other kids.
  • John Moran, who plays Myron, wouldn't have another IMDB credit until 2001, as a Beach Photographer in The Princess Diaries, directed by Garry Marshall.
  • I'm sure some of Garry's kids appear in this episode, but they're not credited.
  • The role of Booker Brown is an early one for nine-year-old Christoff St. John, who'd change his first name to "Kristoff" and among other things star on the short-lived interracial soap opera Generations.
  • The Laverne & Shirley cameo is discussed here https://revisitinglaverneandshirley.blogspot.com/2021/03/laverne-shirley-myron.html

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