"One Heckuva Note"

"One Heckuva Note"
September 20, 1979
B

Jeff Franklin wrote this episode that puts a whole new spin on the Carmine/Laverne ship-teasing.  The girls are cleaning their kitchen and Shirley finds a note behind the stove.  It turns out to be a love note from Carmine, to Laverne!  Shirley is understandably upset, so Laverne tells her, in an extended flashback, what happened three years ago, i.e. Season Two.  (Presumably when he was not with Lucille Lockwash.)

Shirley had to cover for Terry Buttafucco at Meckler's department store because Terry's dog was going to have puppies.  Shirley insisted that Carmine take Laverne in her place to the rodeo.  Both of them were reluctant but gave in.

What Shirley didn't know was that Carmine and Laverne had a great time.  And they made out in the living room.  (The white couch looks wrong, but I haven't been paying much attention to the furniture, so I can't swear to it.)  They knew they shouldn't but they couldn't resist each other.

Then the next day, Shirley talked to Laverne and Carmine at the Pizza Bowl.  (And even though it's three years ago, Laverne's father again has a mustache in a flashback, which makes him attractive to new landlady Edna.)  They felt incredibly guilty but she just wanted to tell them that it was a false alarm and Terry's dog didn't give birth yet.  Shirley wanted Carmine and Laverne to eat the home-cooking she'd already prepared, and they again gave in after now very understandable reluctance.

Laverne dressed up and Carmine told her she looked beautiful.  He brought flowers with a note that said he was crazy about her.  She thanked him but chopped up the flowers to put them in the trash.  She missed the trash with the note, which she didn't then realize landed behind the stove.

They ate dinner and did kiss and flirt, but then they started picking on each other.  They realized they weren't in love, just close friends.

Back in the present, Shirley is understandably upset, especially that Laverne never told her this in three years, but she admits she'll probably forgive Laverne in time.  In the tag, she returns from talking to Carmine, who said he didn't remember the kiss or anything but Laverne's droopy nose.  So Laverne calls up "Brillo Head" and insults him, only to find out it's a wrong number.

So what's going on here?  The episode in isolation is good, with its mix of farce and friendship and sexual tension.  It's plausible that something could've happened at some point with Laverne and Carmine, unlike, say, Laverne and Squiggy.  But are we really supposed to believe that this was in the background all this time, especially Seasons Three and Four, when Shirley and Carmine were getting increasingly possessive of each other?  How could Laverne and/or Carmine never make an aside, at least to each other, about it?  Or are we to assume that that happened offscreen, too?

Let's talk about the Season Five credits, opening and closing.  We get some fresh shots mixed in with the old, including a new door-opening sequence, and a reshot Fredna pizza-dough kiss.  At the end, we see that not only Lenny & Squiggy, but Edna and Frank & Carmine, get stills with their names now.  But Lenny and Squiggy aren't in this episode.  Or are they?

Under the Hello Rule, they should've burst in when Carmine and Laverne were calling themselves terrible people.  But that would've been hard to play off, the boys walking in on a suspicious-looking date, unless Lenny and Squiggy were so wrapped up in their own lives that they wouldn't notice the Carverne.  I could maybe see that with Squiggy, but Lenny is always tuned in to Laverne's love life.

And then there's a still I found for this episode.  Laverne is wearing the dress she wears for dinner with Carmine, while Shirley has the outfit she wore to the Pizza Bowl.  The setting is clearly Meckler's Appliances Department.  So what are Lenny and Squiggy up to and why is Laverne visiting Shirley while Shirley is covering for Terry?  Did she decide to confess to Shirley but get interrupted by the boys?  I know that sometimes Getty Images are from dress rehearsals, not actual shows, so maybe a scene was cut out for time, but it only adds to the mystery of this episode.

I also want to note that the studio audience's reactions to Carverne seem to be a mix of titillation and betrayal, their oos conflicted, like they know it's wrong for Laverne to make out with Shirley's boyfriend, especially since it might not be just physical, but at the same time, they want to see it.  Since I'm not particularly invested in Shirmine (I can take the ship or leave it), and since they are together in Season Five, I didn't see the canon relationship as necessarily threatened, just tested.  And remember that in Season Two, at least at the beginning, Carmine and Shirley were still broken up.  Then again, maybe things were different in the alternative universe where Frank DeFazio always had a mustache.  At least the way Laverne is telling the story to Shirley.