Richie's Cup Runneth Over

Well Joanie I wouldn't say that. But I would say Joanie makes the show. She is a complete delight. She always makes the show more enjoyable. She should have a lot more lines.

I remember this episode making an impression on me as a kid. Tom Bosley is amazing here in the second half of the episode, his dry humour and calm reaction to Richie getting drunk sets him apart as a class act. What an asset to the show he was. A strong episode.

Potsie invites his friend Richie to his cousin's stag party. He agrees, but is worried about getting drunk. Potsie and Fonzie give different advice on how to avoid letting alcohol affect the body, but it proves useless when he gets drunk anyway...

At the beginning, Ralph Malph pulls a prank on one of the waitresses outside Arnold's. When she goes to serve a customer, a mannequin has been placed inside a car. When she nudges it on the shoulder after no response, its head comes right off and she screams. Her shocked reaction is funny, but it becomes even better when it's followed up a few minutes later. Ralph gives Potsie a head and tells him the lame pun that it's a good way to "get a-head". He throws it in the trash where the lady sees it again and lets out the same loud scream.

Despite its reputation as inoffensive family viewing, Happy Days didn't stray away from some of the more adult aspects of growing up. In this case, drinking. As usual, Potsie is shown as a well-meaning, yet ultimately not the brightest friend. First he forces Richie to drink excessive amounts of milk only for Fonzi to tell him it's actually olive oil that helps against alcohol (rarely for Fonzie however, he turns out to be wrong too). Then he misses the entire party he was hyping up being passed out. That's what makes his character so fun though. He wants Richie to look cool in front of others, but at the same time doesn't want him to get into trouble with his parents.

At the party, Richie reluctantly joins a drinking game after Potsie gives him some olive oil to gulp down beforehand. Needless to say, this doesn't help since Potsie blacks out while Richie's drunk out of his mind. The dancing girl who's spoken of as taking her clothes off at every party, doesn't do that at all. At most she teases the boys and dances seductively (Potsie's disappointed reaction when he's told this afterwards is amusing). Richie tries to speak to her, but can't make anything coherent come out of his mouth.

When Richie stumbles home with the dancer girl, we have the best scene of the episode where Howard shows how much he truly loves his son. Despite not exactly being approving of his drinking, he only wants to make sure he's okay and thanks her for taking him home. Even when Richie blurts out that she dances out of a cake he's still not mad at him. Instead he takes up upstairs, helps him get his clothes off, tuck him in and gets him cups of coffee. Marion helps out a little as well, brewing the coffee in the kitchen. She's more visibly concerned and anxious, yet just as patient and caring. I was choking up with laughter at how Richie acted being drunk, but found Howard's efforts in trying to get him well very endearing.

Joanie is cute when she proudly proclaims how her big brother is growing up.

Chuck gets a few funny moments when he goes around bouncing with his basketball, Howard tiredly lamenting that it's the only way he knows how to communicate.

Even though I've never gotten wasted myself, I have to commend how realistically the episode depicted the consequences of drinking without hammering the moral message into the audience's heads.