"Richie Gets Framed"







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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"A Sight for Sore Eyes"

Image
This is better than the last few episodes, actually making me laugh out loud.  Also, I've always had a soft spot for Ralph's relationship with his jokester father the optometrist.  And I like how Richie's friendship with Fonzie is used, that Richie can now influence the Fonz with just well-placed "huh-huh-huhs" of gentle scorn.  So we're back to B-. Notes: From the title, I thought this was going to be the episode where Fonzie is temporarily blind, but it makes sense that that comes later. We get a PSA about glasses being "cool," as Fonzie as role model for the kids at home starts to develop, which would most memorably lead to increased library card registration.  (We'll get there.) Jack Dodson would return in the punningly named role of Dr. Mickey Malph. I assume that Fonzie's boss who wants him to strain his eyes reading about foreign cars is the rich guy we met previously. I'm going to guess that Ron Howard was then busy with one of hi...
Read more

"The Other Richie Cunningham"

Image
Easily the worst episode so far, a D in fact, and that's only because I liked "the Potsie Club" part and the episode starts out with a standard plot, used on The Brady Bunch and Three's Company among others, where someone can't go on a blind date and he (it's usually a guy) gets a friend to pretend to be him.  Potsie hits it off with the girl, who of course (another trope here) is not the expected "dog," but then (offscreen) he attacks her and rips her dress as she tries to escape!  Then she has to hitchhike back to the hotel where she and her parents are staying.  And there are lots of jokes about men being "animals," as if attempted date rape is funny.  Even Joanie being voyeuristic, which is weird enough with Richie pranking her by telling an imaginary date that his sister would want to watch, gets even more twisted.  And to top it off, Fonzie, the "expert on women," says women aren't real people and they expect a guy to ...
Read more

"Affairs of the Heart"

Image
I have to go with a C because Jenny is both a heartless bitch and someone we're meant to feel sorry for, although I do admit that I like that we get yet another Hawaiian-themed party, and Fonzie gives good advice, for the second episode in a row. Notes: This is also the second HD episode in a row where the backyard is shown. James Start is Frank and I continue to have no idea who this is. Cathy Silvers's sister Candace returns as her cousin Carla Bee. Ashley and Heather are gone now and I don't remember if it's explained in Season Eleven what happened to them. This is the last episode for both K.C. and Flip, but presumably they either went off to college or returned to their respective parents. Season Ten of Happy Days ranges from D+ to a surprising B, but half of the twenty-two episodes are C+, so this comes out to a low C+ average, better than Seasons Eight and Nine but still not great.  The new characters don't particularly harm the show, but neither do they give...
Read more