Reliving Happy Days

When I thought of the HD college years, this was the episode I remembered best, maybe because it's one of the few to actually take place in a classroom, but I couldn't have told you what season it was.  As with "Fonzie Gets Married," the title is a tease.  Potsie wants to quit school because his science teacher is a bully, but his friends, especially Fonzie (maybe because he's a former drop-out who went back, although to high school rather than college), help him learn the subject with the delightfully cheesy "Pumps Your Blood."  So I'm going with a B, and it's a better season finale than I would've hoped for. Notes: Joanie got an A in Gym , a B in another subject, and then C's, but Howard was also a C student in high school, as it turns out. Lorrie Mahaffey makes her final appearance as Jennifer Jerome, who is concerned about Potsie but too innocent to understand how they could study Anatomy at Inspiration Point.  (He's just about as...

This was much better than I expected, with that plot, and in fact, thanks in part to good sight gags and to Richie and Lori Beth pretending to be Howard and Marion's bridge opponents, it's one of the funniest episodes of Season Six, for whatever that's worth.  Well, it's worth a B-. Notes: Considering how racist the Hawaiian and Arab bits could've been, I'm actually glad they're not worse. This aired on May 8th, almost two months after the previous episode. Chachi is sixteen, although Baio (born in 1960) was playing a twelve-year-old on Blansky's Beauties  two years before. Potsie can play the piano.  Al sort of can, too. Both Ralph and Joanie are gone, being respectively out of town and sick in her room. Marion is just as bad at bridge as she was when she and Howard played against Ralph's first-edition parents.

This felt like it needed a rewrite, like the thing about Ralph going on a picnic with a girl coming up and then not paying off even as a sub-subplot.  And especially I didn't think Jacques worked as a villain, or a reformed villain.  But the fencing was nice, so C. The only note I have is that James Start appears as Frank for the first of five times and I have absolutely no idea which character that was.

  Here's the review I wrote almost five years ago,  https://reviewingeverytvshowiown.blogspot.com/2016/10/happy-days-mork-returns.html , and yeah, I'd still go with a B-. Additional thoughts: Mork is revisiting "The Fifties," but isn't it 1961 by now? Mork's message to Orson is poignant but he's wrong that HD never mentions Joseph McCarthy. One anniversary special was Fonzie's birthday, but now it's Marion's. It's interesting that Jennifer Jerome is at Marion's surprise party, but the Fonzie bails for a date with the unseen Paula Petralunga. Mother Kelp is namechecked, and presumably Marion was visiting her because of the birthday. Definitely not much from the first two seasons this time, I think just a glimpse of very early Joanie. And no clips of Laverne, Shirley, their friends, or even Mork himself. They're still acting like Mork was friendly on his first visit, and I guess Richie and Fonzie remain the only people that know he...

This might've been a C+ at best, but then there are all those guest shots, including the Laverne & Shirley  crossover that easily steals the show.  I've reviewed that on my L&S blog ( https://revisitinglaverneandshirley.blogspot.com/2021/05/a-visit-to-funeral.html ), but I'll just mention the other laugh-out-loud part is when Arnold asks Al how business is and Al says don't ask.  Anyway, B-. Notes: Shirley Kirkes makes her penultimate appearance as Blossom and is the one that Fonzie goes off with, leaving Ralph to give apology kisses to a line of girls who thought Fonzie was dead. Fonzie gets a little creepy with her, playing his mother, "the widow Fonzarelli," but maybe not as creepy as Chachi hitting on Joanie for "after the funeral." Officer Kirk comes to the funeral, just to make sure Fonzie is dead. Lorrie Mahaffey is back as Jennifer Jerome and enters with Lori Beth.  Both girls will hear their boyfriends tell their roles in this exciti...

Flat writing, although things pick up in the last minute or so, with the one funny line (Howard remarking on how hyper Richie is) and the explosion.  So I'm going with C. Notes: Ralph admits he usually doesn't get to "bam" at Inspiration Point. John Moskal would return as T-Man Peterson. Yep, that's Richard Moll as Eugene.  Not only would he be back for Part 2, but he'd do two cameos on Laverne & Shirley and one on Mork & Mindy. I'm not sure if Eugene is a parody of anything in particular, but Cliff Emmich as Candy Man and Gino Conforti as Sticky are clearly doing Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre respectively.  Too bad they weren't given better material.

While Leather and Ralph are adorable together, I wish there had been more of them as themselves, or at least another episode after this to explore that relationship.  She doesn't even sing!  Instead we get another Potsie & Jennifer duet, which is nice, but shrug.  So B-. Notes: Ralph's concern about Cuba is both funny and prescient for (approximately) February 1961. The three boys are in three different branches of the service, as they were before. Chachi is going to Inspiration Point on foot, with two girls. Joanie is going to I.P. with a boy who is actually bringing his telescope, not a line. Marion keeps beating Howard at games he teaches her, and she outdoes him at basketball, too. Mother Kelp taught Marion basketball, and gave Richie's ball to him.  One wonders if Chuck was her favorite. I like that in this makeover episode, Leather actually asks to be made over (hence the title), unlike some uses of this trope.  And I especially like that Leather and R...

On the one hand, it's nice to see Howard & Marion get a plot of their own, and on the other, I'd just as soon not watch them bicker.  But I'll go with a C+, even if they evaluate each other in a magazine quiz as "C's." A couple notes: The once ubiquitous Vito Scotti earns applause when he enters as Otto, but I don't know what specifically the studio audience recognizes him from Wouldn't they need licensing to set up "Arnold's Annex" in the Cunningham living room?  Or do they get away with it because it's only for one night?  I could picture Officer Kirk cracking down about it if he knew.

Yay, Leather's back!  She gets to do a couple songs with the guys (including Chachi on drums): "Moonlight Love" and the timeless "Do the Fonzie."  The dances and music are mostly anachronistic, now for the early to mid-60s, which is a change from earlier seasons where "The Fifties" were put in a blender.  Anyway, B-. This time Fred Fox, Jr. plays Freddie the fading rock star who steals Leather's song.

This is one I sort of remember from the time, especially the Bradyesque line down the middle of the room.  Some of the humor here, like with "Fat Phyllis's dress," is corny, but it works, so B-. A few notes: Chachi is back, I think for good, and somewhat impacts the plot.  Not coincidentally, Baio is now in the opening credits. Richie was editor (or at least science editor) of the college newspaper recently, but here he's writing an advice column in a shopping paper for a couple weeks (while "Aunt Fanny" is away getting a divorce).  I'm not sure if this is an improvement or not, although at least he's getting paid. And, yes, the trope of someone being an anonymous advice columnist and giving bad advice is friends is fairly common, but I've always been fond of it.

The title gives the message of the episode and of Fonzie.  I really enjoyed seeing more of Richie playing big brother with Joanie, and the reactions of their parents when they think he's the smoker, so B-. Notes: Joanie has joined the Magnets, who were fairly prominent in the first two or three seasons of the show. This episode (the first of 1979) is presumably set in early '61, before the famous surgeon general's report, although the dangers of smoking were already becoming better known than they were in the '50s. Mother Kelp smokes, cigars. We see Joanie's room again, and Fonzie sees it for the first time. Is it a little weird that he describes Joanie as "his Number One chick"?  Or that Richie calls her "a shapely child"?  It doesn't quite come off as creepy. Potsie is very naïve (especially for a 19-year-old) about reproduction, of not only chinchillas but of Cunninghams. Joanie gets Richie's "18-year-old speech" although she...

This is the first real Christmas episode of the series since the one with Chuck, and it's one of the best episodes of Season Six so far, a B-.  It's got a nice blend of humor and drama, with Fonzie's dad, Vito, showing up.  And of course it's nice to see Lori Beth again. Notes: The caption on the photo in the album says "Christmas 1960," so they are definitely getting more specific about the timeline this season, although still with glitches. Its hinted that Marion has inherited her mother's drinking problem, although presumably to a lesser degree. Heather Warren makes her last of 36 appearances, this time as the Middle Girl at Fonzie's. I have no idea why the title is two words.

This episode is funny by Season Six standards, especially some of Potsie's lines, so C+.  I didn't remember this episode but I successfully called the "twist" that Richie's scandal would win him votes. Notes: This has one of the most wholesome "massage parlor" scenes I've ever seen in a sitcom, surprising for its era, but then the "stripper" episodes in early seasons were pretty clean, too. Howard references Nixon's unshaven debate, and presumably the 1960 election has now passed in the Marshallverse.  (This episode aired on December 12th.) Was it a common thing to have "presidents" for each college year?  Richie is running for Sophomore President, which just seems odd. He's still dating LB as far as we know, since she's been mentioned a few times, but it does feel weird to not have "his girl" react to his scandal.

Although Ron Howard informs us that the magic tricks were performed live without, well, trick photography, I honestly didn't much care about this story, especially when the in-episode audience wants all their money back because one trick might not be performed, even though it's a fundraiser for an orphanage!  So C. Notes: This time Garry's kids Kathi and Scott play the ophans Louise and Louie, presumably siblings. Why is George Fenneman in Milwaukee as a radio reporter?  Shouldn't he be in Hollywood working on You Bet Your Life?  (It left the air in June 1961.) They show off 18-year-old Erin Moran's legs and there was a recent episode where the audience was initially supposed to think she was wearing only a towel, but her character is only 16. This is one of three writing credits for Don Safran at IMDB.

Well, at least this isn't as creepy as it could be, so C. Notes: Everyone thinks it's hilarious that Richie is in drag, even though he did that in I think Season One, although admittedly it was a more flattering look there. One Hundred and One Dalmatians came out in late January of 1961, which is close enough.  (I assume this is late November 1960 now.) Ray Girardin is Sgt. Ryan here and would return as Big Harold. This is the first of seven HD episodes written by Beverly Bloomberg, I assume another of the female writers turning out middling scripts for Season Six.  (Over on Laverne & Shirley, female writers such as Judy Pioli and Deborah Leschin were coming up with great episodes that season, like "Lenny's Crush" and "A Visit to the Cemetery.")

Again, this aired in a timely fashion, on November 21st, although it's chockful of deliberate anachronisms, this time for the 1620s.  I have to mark it down a notch or two, to C-, for the heavy and incorrect use of "-eth," as in "hunketh" and "whoa-eth."  (There is one actually funny line, Ralph's about fashion.)  And at least this is better than the similar Roseanne episode from 1995 (which I gave a D).

This is one I sort of remember from the time, although I didn't at ten years old fully get the innuendo of the Oshkosh Girls or "Geronimo."  As with "Fonzie's Getting Married" in Season Two, the episode title is both a spoiler and technically untrue.  I'm going with a C+, since at least some of the energy is better than in recent weeks. Notes: Scott Baio was now 18 and Who's Watching the Kids?  (where he was playing a 15-year-old) had only three episodes yet to air, so presumably Garry M. was getting ready to phase him (and Lynda Goodfriend) back into HD.   Still, Fonzie giving Chachi the "A" volume of his "little black book" is definitely questionable. Al tells someone on the phone that Arnold has gone back to "The Orient." This has not one but two female screenwriters, Mary-David Sheiner and Sheila Judis Weinberg, a team with only a few credits, otherwise outside of the Marshallverse.

OK, I really have to go with a C- this time, because the writing is being dumbed down, as when Richie reads aloud a sign he's holding.  And the costumes and music aren't enough to balance this. Notes: Arthur Batanides's third role on the show is as The Claw. The weak writing is by Susanne Gayle Harris, not to be confused with the Susan Harris of Soap and The Golden Girls.  It's not exactly a feminist episode, but maybe she gets credit for Joanie doing the sensible thing and bringing her parents and the police to Arnold's.  SGH's only other TV writing credit is for the Welcome Back, Kotter  episode where Juan Epstein starts dating Woodman's niece. Ron Howard is chewing the scenery again, but it's not particularly funny. Richie again wants to have a mustache.

More weak writing (by Allen Goldstein, who has very few IMDB credits) and I was leaning towards a C-, but I'm going with a C because of the costumes and because of the "Monster Mash" cover, especially Richie hamming it up as Peter Lorre. Notes:  A Halloween episode that actually aired on October 31st?  But "Monster Mash" came out in '62.  Oh well. This doesn't quite count as a "supernatural" HD episode since the witch isn't really a witch and the curse isn't really a curse. I wonder if that was one of the Fonzie dolls on the market at that time. Ralph borrows the hanging sign of an eye from his father, which I doubt is a Gatsby reference, though you never know.

The writing is a little weak on this episode, so a C.  It is notable that Joanie has her driver's license and that, when a tornado threatens Milwaukee, Potsie wants to warn everyone at the Pizza Bowl, but doesn't.

Joanie reaches that magical number at last.  I like the episodes where Joanie has romantic disappointments, since it gives something for Moran to work with, so B-. Notes: I was hoping there would be more of Marion talking to Joanie alone, especially since Marion immediately knows Tip is a player. It is cool to finally see Joanie's room again, and it's a lampshade to have Richie not have visited since '55. Speaking of lampshades, I like the lamp Marion bought at an auction.  (Or was that the previous episode?) Not only is Jenny P. referred to, but apparently she was at the party.  (My headcanon is she was in the ladies' room during the part we see, especially since Joanie gossips about her.) Potsie serenades Joanie with "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen," as he did months ago. And Richie's band looks good in their "gay Paree" outfits.  Dan Spector, who plays Burton Fitch, the boy Marion fixes Joanie up with, would return as Danny.

As simplistic in its approach to dysfunctional families as in its attitude to labor relations, but there are some nice little moments, so C+.  Lori Beth is name-checked but unseen.  And, yes, the thing about Richie having trouble growing a mustache is presumably meant to be ironic.

I wish the writing and Richie were more intelligent in this episode, although Richie and Lori Beth recreating their conversation from a year ago, when they were mere freshmen, is sort of sweet.  So C+ Goodfriend had appeared in the pilot Legs the previous May, and it was a reworked, Walker-less version of Blansky's Beauties.  Then it came back in the Fall as Who's Watching the Kids? , again with Scott Baio, as well as Jim Belushi and Larry Breeding, both of whom would show up late in the Laverne & Shirley run as three (yes, three) of Laverne's boyfriends.  Two episodes of WWK had aired at this point, but only seven more would appear between then and December 15th, and then it'd be cancelled with three episodes never aired.  And, yes, this would affect Season Six of HD , and ever after.  Anyway, LB remains Richie's girl, despite him lying and cheating on her (to the point of necking).

Bits and pieces of this episode came back to me as I watched, although I'd forgotten that Al caused the injury.  Although the episode is somewhat predictable, it is strengthened by the acting of Winkler and more so Ron. H, and the emphasis on their friendship, including Richie's tough love.  So B-. This is the only HD episode Richard Rosenstock wrote, although he would do two each for Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy.  His co-writer here, Ron Leavitt, would do a different L&S, and it looks like he was heavily involved with both Silver Spoons and  Married with Children.  

So the Tuesday Night Line-Up on ABC was back to "normal."  The Colorado adventure concluded, Shirley Feeney thought she was a stripper, and Janet Wood went to a nude beach to shake up her image.  Yeah, Fonzie making out with Thunder in a hay wagon seems relatively mild.  This is after Richie remembers he's going steady and "has an arrangement" with Lori Beth and then Thunder tells him she likes Fonzie, although nothing in the previous two parts (written by a different writer) suggests this.  (Unless she's won over by the bull-riding.)  I do like the Howard/Marion moments.  But it is irritating that Marion has to keep reporting what Uncle Ben says, including in a telegram at the end.  So C. The only note I have is that in the tag Richie says he hasn't seen LB in two weeks.  Presumably this was another summer vacation. In between Parts 2 and 3, Mork & Mindy premiered, with boosts from the Fonz and Laverne, so I've reviewed that over at my L&...

It is September 12, 1978.  Last week,  Happy Days delayed their season premiere, so that Laverne and Shirley and the gang could go to New York in a one-hour premiere,.  It's only fair that the girls take the night off so that the Cunninghams et al. can head West, this time to Colorado rather than California.  (And Jack will be juggling dates at 9 p.m., as Three's Company comes back for a third season.)  And, um, it's not a very good HD premiere, although they're certainly trying hard.  I'd go with a C- for the first half and a C for the second half, since it's got that dance-off and of course a cliffhanger.  But compared to jumping trash cans and a shark, a ditch isn't too impressive.  Also, the first half has an "Indian maiden," with no lines.  Notes: Chachi stays in Milwaukee but Al has to go and cook, so Molinaro makes the opening credits and Baio has to wait. We hear about but never actually see Marion's Uncle Ben, which is weird.  T...

This season-closer (from the night that Laverne & Shirley wrapped up their third season) manages to be both anti-racist and racist (the latter with Richie, Ralph, and Potsie's "Three Caballeros" number and related dialogue), and I was afraid that the subplot about Marion and the paint sale was going to be about her acting scatter-brained, but they saved it in a Gracie-Allenesque way.  The "one lone juror" thread is not terribly original, and was done on, for instance, That Girl (and I think The Odd Couple ), but overall a C+. Notes: I'm going to assume unless I learn otherwise that the reason why they didn't have the jury meet in the jury room but instead stay in the courtroom is that they didn't want to get out the old jury room set at Paramount, while they'd used the courtroom last year for "Blansky for the Defense" if not more recently. Ralph Wilcox is the defendant, Jason Davis, and would later be Lionel Collins.  He also had a ...

This episode further shreds the timeline (see below) and it's a bit disjointed, but I liked it.  I liked Marion sticking up for herself and I liked Richie and Lori Beth bickering, with Fonzie actually giving sensible advice for a change, and I of course liked the glimpse of Leather T.  So I'm going with a B-. Notes: The air-date was May 23rd, but Arnold's is having a "Semester Break Bash" and it's snowing a lot. Marion is reading The Feminine Mystique at least three years too early. Lori Beth is still taking dancing lessons, possibly at a different studio. The tag suggests something kinky, but Howard and Marion are just going to the ice cream parlor. Al is going to visit his cousin Josephine in California for two weeks. I like the running gag that Richie's band still doesn't have a name. Shirley Kirkes returns as Blossom, and the Bunker sisters are back as the Suedes.

This aired on May 16th (the same night that Season Two of Three's Company was wrapping up), but it's the beginning of summer, although raining heavily.  One of Richie's college professors (I want to say Anthropology) recommends romantic pairing for productive workers.  (I guess it's good they were studying baboons rather than bonobos.)   So Richie has Fonzie fix Al up, but Al gets dumped.  I like getting some more backstory on Al, and I did laugh a couple times (at the very Molinaro-looking family portraits and at Richie having his own parents in his little black book), but the story felt a bit off, especially that we hardly get to meet Anna the meter maid and don't even see Al's new prospect.  I'm going with a C+. Notes: Richie is happy to work in a grocery store with Lori Beth (name-checked but another unseen woman this episode). Howard had his heart broken when he was fifteen or sixteen. Al has had trouble moving on from when Rosa Coletti eloped with ano...

The combination of ballet (which I almost always find boring), weak writing, and poor acting by Leslie Browne as Fonzie's girlfriend the dancer, is only slightly balanced by some nice moments involving Richie and/or Lori Beth.  So C-. Notes: I haven't mentioned it before, but Joanie's use of the term "hunks" always feels anachronistic to me. Finally, LB has an interest besides Richie and cheerleading: ballet.  Well, better than nothing. Richie is proud of "his girl," which is cute. I like him standing up to Fonzie. I couldn't help thinking of Carmine Ragusa, who would later give up his own dance studio, to follow Shirley to California and deliver singing telegrams.  (He, too, would eventually try his luck in New York, but not until much later.) The only thing I remembered from this episode from the time was Al's visual joke with the mirror.

By this point, they didn't particularly care if the "4th Anniversary Special" was exactly four years after the series premiered.  (It aired on March 23rd.)  While I appreciate that they went for more of the first two seasons' episodes this time, and even a scene from "Love and the Television Set" that had already been recycled, this is still a clip show and the frame of Lori Beth writing a term paper on the Cunninghams as "a typical middle-class family" (why not her own?) is meh.  So C. Notes: Ralph hits on Lori Beth!  Less surprisingly, so does Chachi. Al tells LB that Rosa Coletti was middle class.  Garry Marshall co-wrote this episode, with Bob Brunner, under the pseudonym "Samuro Mitsubi." Lots of people in the flashbacks, including Maureen McCormick's character.  Mork doesn't make the cut, but one, they probably hadn't seen the home audience's reaction at the time this was shot, and two, I guess it was still a dream, ...

So, yeah, Robin Williams debuts as Mork, who in this first glimpse is a ruthless kidnapper and potential killer, who would collapse Arnold's just for fun.  But his zaniness comes through and, with a much gentler take that Fall, Mork would become a classic TV-sitcom character, and Williams would become a legend and change pop culture forever.  But this episode is a B-. Notes: Richie claims to only go on dates on Saturday, which doesn't match anything we've seen, but maybe he's taking tougher courses this quarter or something. Just about everything Mork tells us about Ork (and there's not much) would be retconned later, including gender, or lack thereof. Mork uses his powers to strip Ralph down to undershorts but he recoils from a possible kiss from Potsie. Richie and Fonzie's loyalty to each other comes through, in a different way than on the "Gang" episode the previous week. I like that Scoop Cunningham is excited about the potential newspaper story in...

Although I don't really care much about the frame of Chachi joining a gang, I enjoyed the retconning of how Fonzie and Richie met in the latter's sophomore year of high school (three and a half years ago), including Ralph being the new kid.  So B-. Notes: Derrel Maury was a different gang member, Leroy, in "Joanie's Weird Boyfriend," and this time he's Monk in Fonzie's old gang, the Falcons.  He'd have a different role later. And, yes, the delightful Beatrice Colen is back (uncredited) as waitress Marsha Simms, to give it that 1956 feel. Although Howard and Marion are in the flashback, Joanie isn't, probably because Moran couldn't pass as twelve.  (And, no, there's no Chuck, although that would've been hilarious.) Present-day Joanie does do a cheerleader cartwheel, and Chachi of course lusts after her. No mention of Arnold either, but oh well.

Startlingly, this actually aired on February 14th, but it does take Joanie's voyeurism to new heights, as she imagines romantic scenarios, most of them musical, for her family and friends.  (Well, Richie's friends and Chachi.  The censors probably wouldn't show what she'd cook up for Jenny P.)  I mean, an Apache Dance for Richie and Lori Beth?!  The best sequence here is of course the one for Howard & Marion, playing off their middle-aged memories for "I Remember It Well."  And of course Chachi is being creepy to showgirls during "Thank Heaven for Little Girls."  (It's a very Chevalier episode.)  In the end, Joanie's previously referred to but unseen boyfriend Binky Hodges shows up and is of course played by twenty-year-old Christopher Knight. Anyway, I'm going with a C+. Notes: Joanie probably goes further with Peter Brady than Richie went with Marcia, since they're heading up to Inspiration Point. Howard literally becomes erect ...

Remember Fonzie's female dog?  Well, he's now male and clinically depressed.  I was leaning towards a C-, especially for the subplot where Marion has to make pounds of potato salad for Howard's lodge picnic, but I sort of liked the cheesiness of the mystery-style confessions to Dr. Joyce Brothers (as herself, sort of).  So a C. Just a couple notes: Ron Howard's father Rance has his middle HD role as the cranky new neighbor Ben Wilson, whom I sincerely hope is the father rather than husband of Eileen Wilson, Fonzie's new girl by episode's end. Richie spends much of the episode trying to find time to read Moby-Dick, which isn't exactly something he can put off. Poor Dr. Joyce, she's not going to be able to even scratch the surface of Potsie's father issues.

Yeah, the title is a spoiler.  I was leaning towards a C+, despite LB's legs and the return of Leather, but Fonzie's monologue turned prayer turns it into a B-. A few notes: Apparently Leather sings as well as plays the piano, but not on the DVD. There's a montage of happy (but not silly) moments with Richie from earlier seasons. Richie and LB are so dedicated to making out that they manage it even post-accident.  (Her injuries are relatively minor.)

Unlike Marion Ross, this episode has not aged well (especially the Arabian Nights stuff), but I did laugh a couple times, like Richie and Joanie silently exiting the kitchen towards the end, so C+. Notes: Sisters Jan and Jill Bunker are the new Suedes, both with anachronistic blonde hairdos. While it's nice to see Leather again of course, it feels a little shoehorned that she's in a plot where Marion fears Howard leaving her for a younger woman, as one of their middle-aged friends did. And the nightmare where "Howie" is a chick-magnet has Leather mildly flirting with him, which is just weird. This is Fred Maio's first of four HD scripts, and the last would also be Leather's last. Marion borrows her "harem" outfit from Jenny's mother, who was wearing a Bo Peep costume at the time.  And the Hooper Triplets recently dressed as Huey, Dewey, and Louie for Fonzie.  Some crazy shit happens offscreen in this 'verse. Marion fears that she looks like h...

Joanie wants to have her first real kiss, but complications ensue with her brother, father, and Fonzie being overprotective.  I'll go with a B-. Notes: Shirley Kirkes, who's Fonzie's date Blossom the Bunny, was Gladys "Cochise" Littlefeather on Blansky's Beauties, yes, with Goodfriend and Baio.  She'd return three times in this role, which is definitely unusual for one of Fonzie's girflriends. I like that Joanie's date isn't a creep, although we'd never see him again. Joanie seems surprised to hear that she's pretty. This must be set before Potsie's pinning, since he's got a nameless blonde date at the party. It's a belated party celebrating the statehoods of Hawaii and then (when the heat turns off) Alaska, which both happened in '59, but it's basically just a makeout party. Ron Howard and Henry Winkler play the dating lesson like they're doing acting exercises.  Joanie is amused rather than offended. Chachi is ...

This is possibly the most mature portrayal of the male-female-relationship on the series thus far, with the girls, especially Lori Beth, having their own thoughts and feelings.  It also has the can't-lose scenario of Howard being pressured into giving Potsie advice, talking him down from a marriage proposal to pinning.  So a B. Thoughts: This aired in January but, one, it's baseball season; two, everyone is dressed for Spring; and Howdy Doody has left the air, which happened in September of 1960. What did Chachi do to scare off two kissing-booth workers???  Goodfriend could probably withstand Baio hitting on her, after surviving Blansky's Beauties. Lorrie Mahaffey, who plays Southern belle Jennifer Jerome, obviously hit it off with Anson Williams, since they'd marry in May of '78, but divorce in '86.  She'd do five more episodes, and I like their duet here. I honestly can't remember Potsie thinking he's in love before, unlike Richie and Fonzie, or ev...

It is now 1978, yes, yet another important year in the Marshallverse.  (No, really, really important, in fact in pop-culture history.)  I'm not sure if that means it's now 1960 onscreen, but it is emphatically Winter, with references to snowmen, exterior shots of snow, and a "Winter Frolic" at Arnold's.  And there's some other timeline stuff, thanks to the visit of 47-year-old Howard's 65-year-old father, played by 65-year-old Danny Thomas.  (Bosley was 49, and yes, he looks a bit too old to be Thomas's son.)  While there's some interesting family dynamics here, the episode feels unfocused, like is it about the recently retired police detective's restlessness or is it about age discrimination?  So a C+. Notes: Sean Cunningham seems to be a widower and he's definitely Irish, although Thomas doesn't sound like it most of the time. He calls Howard "Sonny" and later sings "Sonny Boy."  I'm guessing Howard is an only ...

Although Richie has been talking about being a journalist for awhile (and being a writer even longer than that), this is the first episode to really focus on that, as he wants to improve his Investigative Journalism grade but also gets swept up in the story, to the point that he can't even focus on making out with Lori Beth.  (He makes up for it in the tag.)  I also like the ventriloquist act and the talking-out-of-the-side-of-the-mouth running gag.  So a B-. Notes: It Harriet the switchboard operator looks familiar, it's because Tita Bell played Trudy in the early seasons. This has a good use of Ralph & Potsie's apartment. I haven't mentioned it before, but Richie calling people "Bucko" when he's mad is something he picked up in his Hollywood audition with Fonzie. I remembered the Al-silhouette joke before it happened. Al mentions his brother the priest, and we learn he has a cousin in the Sanitation Department. Potsie is still struggling through R.O....

While the romance between Ralph and Kitty (played by Judy Landers's 21-year-old sister Audrey) is a bit sweet, I just felt like the whole thing of Ralph boxing Kitty's not-quite-ex (a stereotypically stupid Southern jock) to prove his manhood, especially when Kitty doesn't want him to fight and likely likes Ralph because he's a different type, bugged me.  On the other hand, for some reason this is an episode that came back to me a bit as it unfolded, e.g. Potsie singing "Calendar Girl."  So a C. Note that Mickey & Minnie Malph are name-checked, twice.

The writing is weak in this episode, from individual lines to the fact that they bring in freaking nineteen-year-old Judy Landers in shorts and roller skates as "Boom Boom" and then don't have much for her to do (including, I don't know, speaking?).  So C-. I can't remember if the guys more successfully pledge a frat later, but I have to note that Rubinowitz is doing a stealth-censor-bait with PKN as the initials for Phi Kappa Nu, since that should be PhKN.  (And they could've chosen Pi for the P sound instead.) This was the 100th episode.  Oh, and Chachi again hits on Joanie, calling her "Blue Eyes" and asking if she wants to be initiated.

I have a problem with the basic premise of this episode, although there are aspects I like, so I'm going with a C+.  It has potential with Morgan Fairchild as Cynthia Holmes, a snobbish young woman who is less sympathetic than her Susan Taylor character on the first season of Mork & Mindy, and even her scheming for revenge with her cousin might've worked, although the title makes it sound more like it'll be a  Pygmalion plot.  But I just couldn't buy that they would invite a "low-class" person to their party and snub him in such an over-the-top way.  The stuff with Juanita the waitress was nice, and the Richie/Lori Beth and Howard/Marion couples have some sweet moments. A few notes: I remember disliking LB's shorter hairdo at the time and I still feel that way. Richie, Ralph, and Potsie are in the R.O.T.C., despite their unhappiness in the Junior R.O.T.C. They're continuing the thing of Chachi being a shady salesman, which was thankfully dropped in...