"How Do You Say 'Are You Dead' in German?"

"How Do You Say 'Are You Dead' in German?"
May 4, 1976
C+

Bob Brunner wrote this episode where a German named Eric (Harold Oblong, who under his real name of Peter Elbling would have three other roles) faints from hunger in the girls' living room while delivering dry-cleaning.  Shirley wants to give him money but Laverne gets him a job as a busboy at the Pizza Bowl.  There is of course the farcical moment of Lenny and Squiggy walking in on Shirley giving mouth-to-mouth to Eric, and then after it's explained, Lenny jokingly invites Laverne to do the same for him. 

The whole thing about the Harlem Globetrotters feels like filler, although there is a pay-off in mime for the tag.  Note the casting of a black actress as the waitress who speaks German, Brenda Verrett's only screen credit.  John Thomas Lenox would direct three more episodes.