Richie, played by Todd Giebenhain, is Francis' dim-witted best friend before military school and often visits him during his trips back home during the first two seasons. Lois has a dislike for him, believing he is a bad influence on Francis. Richie was later mentioned to be seeing BeeBee while Francis was at Marlin Academy.
He is implied to be even dumber than Reese. He is a vagabond and delinquent who was eventually shipped off to military school with Francis where he became friends with Spangler and ends up getting beat up by his fellow cadets and was sent home as a result.
Richie allowed Francis to stay at his house when he was kicked out in Tutoring Reese, while staying they watched porn and Richie accidentally injured Francis' eye while clipping his toenails and burned them while cooking burgers after impulsively throwing lighter fluid into the fire.
His final appearance was in Reese’s Job, he was Reese's boss at a fast-food restaurant called Circus Burger, where he and his girlfriend, Greta, stole $400 from the register and framed Reese for theft. However, Malcolm and Barton catches on to the truth. After, Greta accidentally confesses in stealing more money, they and Reese confronts Richie. They punish him by forcing him to let them throw parties at his house anytime, giving them free burgers for life, giving Reese his bean bag chair, and taking them to school and back. They mention that if Richie refuses, Malcolm and Reese he and his girlfriend would be sent to jail since she committed the robbery as well. Afterwards he is never seen again for the rest of the series.
Although never explained, it’s implied that the reason behind his disappearance is that after Francis learned about him and Greta taking advantage of Reese, he cut ties with Richie after finally accepting what a bad influence he was on him and his brothers. He would be mentioned by Francis in Stilts in season 6.
Episode Appearances[]
Season 1[]
- Home Alone 4 (First Appearance)
- Smunday
Season 2[]
Season 3[]
- Reese's Job (Last Appearance)
Trivia[]
- Todd Giebenhain was originally intended to return as Richie in Reese's Party as a gang leader to a bunch of hoodlums with Circus as his 2nd in command who takes over the house and was planned to be confronted by his mother alongside his other gang's mothers.