"A Place of His Own"



This one does work on a farcical level, and it has a nifty little cameo by a pre-Mork Conrad Janis, as Mr. Kendall.  He plays well off of Bosley, especially with their military rivalry and shared fatherhood.  So I'll go with a B-.

Notes:
  • Jenifer Shaw (then with two N's in her first name) plays Cindy Kendall, who has lived in Greenwich Village but is also a Navy brat who's new in town.  She has nice chemistry with Ron Howard (as she would with John Ritter on Three's Company as two of Jack's girlfriends), and it's too bad their relationship is built on a lie.  Then again, if she hadn't pressured a high school senior about being tired of the "kids' stuff" of necking in cars, maybe he wouldn't have lied.
  • Richie is eighteen.  I have no idea when this is set (it aired on November 9th), but maybe his birthday was after the cutoff date for kindergarten.  I can't imagine him being left back, unlike, for instance, a Sweathog.
  • Howard is as competitive about charades as he was about bridge in Season One, especially after losing the charades contest at the Leopard Lodge four years in a row.
  • Alfred has apparently joined the lodge or is about to, but he hasn't yet earned a hat.
  • He's going on a double date with Howard and Marion, and his date seems to be from Italy and she doesn't speak any English.
  • This is one of the episodes where Winkler has to imitate Ron Howard, here to actually serve the plot, and he always makes Richie sound dopy and corny.
  • Joanie is understandably curious about what's going on with Richie's date, but she's not as voyeuristic as she was in previous seasons.
  • They lead you to think that by "Phase Four" Fonzie means sex, but it just looks like kissing when Richie and Cindy reach that phase.  For that matter, this series doesn't distinguish too well between kissing and necking.

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