"Dinner for Four"

"Dinner for Four"
December 5, 1978
B-

Alan Aidekman's first of eleven L & S stories has a twist that I saw coming almost immediately, and I don't think that's Sitcom 101; I think it was a vestigial memory of watching the girls think that the two veterinarians who've invited them over want them as dates, rather than "kitchen help."  It isn't said in so many words, but this is a class clash episode, this time the two working-class girls being used for their culinary talents rather than for their bodies.  The girls are impressed by the not-all-that-modern-for-early-1960s-or-upscale apartment.  I mean, this isn't Catcher Block's bachelor pad from Down with Love!  Even the Murphy bed throws them, literally. 

It's sort of surprising that Laverne is the one most interested, to the point of presenting her wifely credentials, in going out with a vet, because that seems more like Shirley's thing, since she loves animals and doctors.  When Laverne says that vets are better than regular doctors, since they won't fool around with their patients, Shirley whispers a story she read about a vet who married some animal, to which Laverne says in delight, "That's disgusting!"  (Along with the "King of Bondage" scene on the "cemetery" episode, as well as much of the "Roxy" episode, the show was definitely getting kinkier in Season Four.)

In order to go out with the vets, the girls break a date with Lenny and Squiggy, who are heartbroken, Lenny in particular, as he was hoping to do the three-legged race with Laverne.  The girls apologize later, after Shirley finds herself quoting Lenny's Merchant-of-Venice-like "Do we not bleed?" speech.  The boys say that no one has ever apologized to them before, but when the girls promise to go anywhere the boys want to take them, Squiggy steers Shirley into the bedroom, and Lenny escorts Laverne.  The girls hit the boys offscreen and then when the boys reemerge, Squiggy asks what Lenny got off them.  Lenny says, "Nothin'," and Squiggy says, "That's progress."  And in a weird sort of way, it is.  The girls definitely seem more tempted to go to the Teamsters' Annual Fish Fry and Moonlight Mud Fight than they did to go to a fancy restaurant on the double date a couple seasons earlier.

The oddly named Timothy Blake has her first of three L & S roles as Veronica, while Jeffrey Kramer, who's Jeff here, would be The Angel later.  Carmine is absent without explanation, but there's not really any need for him in this episode.