"The Second Almost Annual Shotz Talent Show"

"The Second Almost Annual Shotz Talent Show"
January 31, 1978
B

This aired about twenty months after the previous Shotz Talent Show episode ("From Suds to Stardom"), hence the "almost annual," and is definitely superior.  There were moments when I considered a B+, but it feels a bit choppy, which may be due to the Paula A. Roth story not having much of a plot or may be the fault of syndication and other editing.  This time around, the girls are running the talent show, and recruiting friends from the neighborhood, which is how Carmine, Frank, Edna, and other friends and acquaintances happen to audition.*

Their boss, Mr. Shotz, expects them to include his talentless son, or he'll fire them.  Laverne is predictably defiant, even squirting ketchup on his portrait in the break room, while Shirley of course tries to be more diplomatic.  They end up including Junior in their rendition of "Abba Dabba Honeymoon," on skates, which is what I most remember from the time.

Had I been a few years older, I might've gravitated towards the Lenny & the Squigtones classic "Night After Night," which Squiggy helpfully explains is "about two nights in a row."  It's a gorgeous '50s pastiche, with subject matter as cynical as but more mundane than "Starcrossed."  I would've had to have been a lot older than nine to get that the song is about the age of consent:
BOTH: Night after night
SQUIGGY: I'll treat you like a queen
LENNY: (deep-voiced) Darlin'!
SQUIGGY: Night after night, 'cause you were seventeen.
LENNY: Night after night, wa-ooh!
SQUIGGY: Then your birthday rolled around.
LENNY: (overlapping) Wa-ooh!
SQUIGGY: So you let me go to town...

(A relatively more explicit and more punk version would later be available on their album, with Lenny asking, "Who wants to sleep with the same broad?" rather than "look at":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUwTa8G1B6g)

No shipping notes on this episode, unless you want to count Laverne seeming to enjoy "Night After Night" more than Shirley does.

Fish Trainer Joie Magidow would be on the "Blue Team" in a couple of the "Army episodes" the next year.  Marvin Braverman is Marvin here but would later be an Emcee.  Both Penny and Cindy's moms appear in the episode, Marjorie Marshall as Mrs. Ward, and Frances E. Willliams as Mrs. Bellini.  Ed Greenberg, who's Max Shotz, Jr., not only was in the Committee comedy troupe, but he was Kip in American Graffiti, which starred Cindy Williams, Ron Howard, etc., etc.  And, yep, that's Harry Shearer doing voiceover again, this time as Max Shotz, Sr.


*The geography of Knapp Street and vicinity is always a bit fuzzy on the show.  My impression is that the Pizza Bowl is on the same block or at least very close to Mrs. Babish's apartment building, and there's a downtown where the Pfister Hotel and other classy buildings are located.  Where Shotz Brewery fits into this is unclear, since if it's the same neighborhood as where the girls live, why do they drive into work or take the bus rather than walk?  Yes, it seems to snow on half of these episodes, but still.