"Dog Day Blind Dates"

"Dog Day Blind Dates"
March 9, 1976
B-

This episode's title references Dog Day Afternoon, which came out the previous September, and the girls are held up at the Pizza Bowl by bumbling crooks that they're on a double date with.  The pizzeria has closed early at the dates' request, but Lenny & Squiggy linger, adding some humor in an uneven episode.  Also, when Laverne thinks that the crooks will kill them, she suggests that she and Shirley "vo-de-oh-do-do" (a term that was already established on the series at this point) with Lenny & Squiggy so as not to die as virgins.  This despite the fact that Laverne earlier described the guys as friends she wasn't proud to admit to.  Still, it's a contrast to Shirley, who won't pet on the first date and doesn't want to lie on the floor next to Lenny, although she has to when it's "boy-girl-boy-girl."

I think this the first episode where I didn't hear Williams trying to fit in with a bad Northeast-Coast accent, as if being from New York or New Jersey equates with being low-class.  (Watch the '50s-set "skating rink" scene of The Brady Variety Hour from November of that year for an egregious example.)  And it's as good a time as any to say that I'd forgotten that the girls' last names appear onscreen this season, as if the show is really called Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney.  Good thing they didn't continue this with Mork from Ork & Mindy McConnell.

This is Dale McRaven's only L & S script, although I did recognize the name from Mork & Mindy.  James Burrows would direct seven more episodes.

Bo Kaprall is a nameless Cop here but would play Officer Norman Hughes six times in the next couple years.  Guich Koock, who plays Buck, would go on to Carter Country, where his accent would make more sense, although Buck admits he's not actually from Arizona.  (The "Phoenix"/"Kleenex" rhyme is the main thing I remember about this episode, so I guess they couldn't make him Texan or something.)  And Fred Willard is instantly recognizable as Charles here; he would be a nameless Man in Bathroom later that year.