"Bringing Up Spike"



This is a transitional episode for Fonzie's character (from hood to father figure) but it's clumsily handled, so I'm giving another C-.

Notes:
  • The whole thing of Richie going to Chicago for a two-week journalism class at Northwestern (and to meet girls) is an odd subplot in that it's not really necessary and doesn't have much of a payoff.  
  • I feel sorry for Potsie, who Ralph throws to the thieves, and Fonzie thanks everyone but him.
  • This time Susan Lawrence plays Gigi.
  • Spike is somehow still twelve (and looks that at most), while his former date Joanie is fourteen or fifteen.
  • Ron Howard's younger brother Clint was sixteen when he played Moose, and he'd return in a different role.
  • And speaking of siblings, we find out here that Spike, although he and Fonzie refer to each other as nephew and uncle respectively, is actually the child of Fonzie's aunt.  So I guess he's Chachi's first cousin, too?  Hm.

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