February 15, 1977
B-
This story, written by Monica Johnson (her first of four) and Eric Cohen (his first of two), is perhaps the saddest one so far. Shirley's father, Jack, has traveled the world in the Merchant Marines, but he's in town and soon borrowing money and disappointing Shirley's hopes of spending time with her "daddy." (As with Shirley's mother, we'd never see him again, although that makes more sense in his case, especially since her mom lives in California.) Since Shirley sees the good in people, she continues to believe in him, even when he sells off her funeral plot, and she goes to a dive bar (on Squiggy's advice!) just to show him how fun she is. The warped record of "Daddy's Little Girl" is a nice symbol of the dysfunctional relationship. Meanwhile, Laverne, the comparative realist, hates seeing her friend go through all this and even has a censor-baiting line about Mr. Feeney being "full of it."
The shipping notes are again odd here. Lenny goes grocery shopping with Laverne (offscreen), but she later says that he insisted on her pushing him in the cart. Squiggy, while Shirley is removing nail polish that his manicurist date put on his hands (!), finds himself in the unaccustomed role of confidante, hence the suggestion that she go hang out with her father at the docks. She listens to Squiggy because she's drinking cooking sherry, for at least the second time this season. (It will later be revealed that her father has a drinking problem, adding another melancholy note even to the comic relief in this episode.)
Speaking of Squiggy, he says that his stepfather used to lock him in the closet, and his only friends were the moths. That sort of explains his interest in moths in other episodes, although it figures that his backstory is going to be tragicomic in this episode.
Bartender Jack Perkins played a Patient the previous year. Ray DeVally, Jr., would direct eight more episodes.
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