Introduction

I guess first of all, I need to address why I'm doing a separate blog for Laverne & Shirley, when I usually devote blogs to, e.g. Every TV Show I Own.  Well, L & S came back into my life in fits and starts over the last few years, and I kept returning to watching YouTube clips.  Happy Days didn't stay with me, and in fact I mostly cringe when I see any of it these days, but Mork & Mindy became a huge part of my life at the time and ever after, and I of course bought it when it became available on DVD.  This spin-off, well, I always liked it better than HD, maybe because it had female protagonists.  But I did go years, decades really, with hardly seeing it after it left first-run and then syndication.  It stayed with me, though.

When Penny Marshall died last December, this was still the job I most associated her with.  And then months later, I came across a free copy of Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams: The Stars of "Laverne & Shirley," a fan-book from 1977.  A couple weeks ago, I decided that "the Universe was telling me to buy Laverne & Shirley on DVD."  So I did.

I want to blog about the experience of revisiting the show.  I use the word "revisit" for several reasons, including that the motif of the doorway is such a big part of the show, and not just for Lenny & Squiggy's comic-relief entrances.  This series aired from 1976 to '83, so when I was almost eight until I was fifteen.  Obviously, I'm not going to see it the way I did then, or even as I do in pieces on YouTube.  I will be revisiting my childhood and early adolescence as an ABC-sitcom loyalist, but also that time generally, not to mention whatever version of the '50s and '60s the series presented.

I want to talk about how L & S, and Laverne and Shirley as characters, related (or failed to) feminism and a less political sisterhood.  I want to figure out why I'm still a Lavenny (Laverne + Lenny) shipper and whether that's justified.  I want to see how I really feel about what I at the time (my freshman year in high school) referred to as the "Laverne & Laverne" season.  I want to gasp at guest stars, even ones I know to expect.  I want  to marvel at the cluster of Northeast accents in Milwaukee.  And I even want to cringe at Garry Marshall schmaltz.  Most of all, I want to recount the experience, in broadcast order. 

Deep breath, so here goes.  I'm off to stroll down Memory Lane saying the near-unspellable "Schlemiel!  Schlimazel!  Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!"