"Tag Team Wrestling"

"Tag Team Wrestling"
September 27, 1977
C+

Marc Sotkin's first of eleven L & S stories is another of those that has jokes that vaguely came back to me as I watched the episode today-- like "People don't like to be called fruit" and "Billy button"-- even though it's not like it's a classic episode.  To raise money for an orphans' playground, Laverne and her big friend Terry Buttafucco (Judy Pioli, who'd return twice in the role) are going to wrestle two other girls.  In an exchange that doesn't seem to get much studio audience reaction, Mrs. Babish and Shirley hope that Terry's last name won't be misspelled.  (A '90s audience wouldn't be that innocent.)  Meanwhile, Shirley is unable to find someone willing to box Carmine, until Squiggy shows up.

Note that this is the second episode in a row where Shirley wakes from a dream about Fabian.  More noticeable is that Lenny really roots for Laverne, his voice (but not Carmine's, Squiggy's, Mrs. Babish's, or even Laverne's father's) very audible several times as he cheers her on.  Laverne would at times try to be more "feminine" for men she was trying to impress, but Lenny definitely likes the tough side of her.  Meanwhile Shirley doesn't even act jealous at Carmine kissing another girl; over two seasons into this show and it's hard to believe that they were ever a canon couple.

Lynne Marie Stewart, whose first role on the show was the very different Barbara Tedesco, here is the Wrestling Coach.  Rose Michtom previously played a Ticket Woman but here settles into her recurring role of the possibly hard-of-hearing or just oblivious neighbor Mrs. Kolchek, who winces when she drinks milk & Pepsi.  And Penny's then 13-year-old daughter Tracy (who had taken her stepfather's last name of Reiner) has her first of three roles on the show, here as Helen, the girl who likes to shove people.