"Potsie on His Own"




This episode is another that has potential, but it's so unfocused, without any real payoff or conclusion, that I have to go with a C.

Notes:
  • This episode does fill in some of the backstory that's been missing on both Potsie and Lori Beth this season:
    • Potsie has been living on his own since Ralph joined the Army.
    • He's behind on rent and is about to be evicted.
    • He'll have to move into his parents' garage.
    • He's still in college, as is Lori Beth.
    • She has a worldly roommate named Courtney, who is interested in Potsie, and I thought the story was going to be about their romance, but it's more about the impact on his ambitions and how this affects Fonzie.
    • Roger is looking for an apartment, since Howard and Marion treat him like a nine-year-old, but he doesn't want to move in with Potsie because he'd have to sleep on the couch like Ralph did.
    • Although I could've sworn the apartment was furnished, Potsie is moving everything out, including the refrigerator.
  • While the kid playing Fonzie's latest son surrogate, Joey, wouldn't return, I immediately recognized Meeno Peluce, mostly from the TV version of The Bad News Bears (1979-80) and Best of the West (1981-82).
  • The trope of taking a kid to a wacky ice cream parlor reached its sitcom zenith on The Bob Newhart Show with a pre-Three's-Company John Ritter doing a cameo, but I don't dislike seeing Potsie dressed as a birthday cake.

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