October 19, 1976C+
The Fonz is shoehorned into this story, written by Barry Rubinowitz (his first of eight), although I suppose you could argue that only his powerful smooches, of both Laverne and Shirley, could've convinced them to babysit on a Saturday night. He also demonstrates that his finger-snap and/or "Ayyyyy!" work as well on babies and television sets as on jukeboxes.
Actually, it looks like this was sort of a two-parter, as Udana Power (who's most recognizable to me as Nurse Nancy Darwin on Soap) also played Louisa Corrigan on Happy Days that night, although in "Fonzie the Father" she's very pregnant by one of Fonzie's oldest friends. Anyway, if they wanted to have an episode where the girls babysit, there were probably less contrived ways to bring this about. They turn out not to be great sitters, wanting to ditch the baby when two fellas they like call, although Laverne can't even remember which one she likes. And when Shirley has to race in the rain to catch Laverne at the bus stop before Laverne heads pointlessly to Chicago, Shirley leaves the baby under the care of Lenny & Squiggy, who tune the TV in to Heckle & Jeckle (the magpie cartoon referenced on I believe the episode where the guys move in upstairs).
Note that Carole Ita White is credited onscreen and at IMDB as Rosie Greenbaum, but I'm not sure where she would've fit into such an apartment-centered episode.
No comments:
Post a Comment