"Airport '59"

"Airport '59"
September 20, 1977
B-

Chris Thompson's first of nine L & S episodes kicks off Season Three, when this series was in the most popular block of television.  (Happy Days still at 8 on Tuesdays, but now Three's Company at 9.)  I know Thompson's work better for Bosom Buddies (which he co-created and wrote nine episodes of), but he gets the gist of what this show was about: slapstick and a bit of sentiment.  Director Alan Rafkin's name is another that is new to this show but familiar to me, for, among others, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and It's Garry Shandling's Show.  He would do an impressive 22 out of 24 of this season's episodes, and then move on.

The story is told mostly in flashbacks, as the girls reveal that instead of flying to Wisconsin as "Packer Backers," flight-fearing Laverne had to pilot the plane.  Surprisingly, the most shippy thing that happens is Shirley planting a kiss on Laverne's lips when she thinks they're going to crash.  Laverne remarks that they'll talk about this later.  (A similar thing happens on a Bosom Buddies episode, when Henry tells Kip, "I love you!", because he thinks they're going to be killed by mobsters.)

The other four things of note are that, one, apparently no one wears a seatbelt even when their lives seem to be in danger; two, it's a comparatively religious episode, with half-serious jokes about "God as co-pilot"; the episode title not only references the (at that point) three Airport movies but it provides us with a definite timeline confirmation; and four, Penny M. has finally been given a more flattering hairstyle.

Kit McDonough, who plays Julie the stewardess, made twelve appearances on Happy Days prior to this, but I immediately recognized her from the Three's Company pilot (and Soap, Mork & Mindy, and M*A*S*H) in that era.  She would actually wait six years before she returned, as a nameless Speaker.  Packer Fan Ed Peck didn't do any other L & S, but he would've been recognizable then as the recurring Happy Days character Police Officer Kirk.