"Richie's Girl Exposes the Cunninghams"




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 no one would tell LB her boyfriend has weird dreams.
  • They make sure to flash back to moments where LB wasn't actually around.
  • LB has old boyfriends, but she doesn't give Richie or us any details.
  • The episode of course ends with Richie and LB making out after a few seconds of studying.

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