"The Duke of Squigman"

"The Duke of Squigman"
March 25, 1980
B-

Jeff Franklin wrote this odd but interesting episode that has very little of Laverne and Shirley.  (Penny M. was directing her second Squiggy-centric episode, but I don't know what Cindy W.'s excuse was.)  The girls are going to a wedding in Chicago for a few days and they let the boys hang out in their apartment, as long as the guys follow a few rules and as long as Carmine stays there, too.  I don't know why Lenny and Squiggy can't use their own apartment, at least rather than go to the Texaco Station for the restroom, but that's the set-up.  Well, that and that Squiggy handles rejection so poorly that he starts sleep-walking, -talking, etc. in the guise of the title character, a "Gentile nobleman" as Lenny puts it.

Lenny tries to be supportive, repeatedly singing Squiggy a lullaby (the main thing I remember from the time) and playing along with Squiggy's delusions, until Carmine warns Lenny that sleep-walking is dangerous.  So there's a nice little scene of Lenny consulting Dr. Mathew Gentry (Charles Thomas Murphy again), then he tries to get Frank, Edna, and Carmine to be nice to Squiggy, but Squiggy assumes Edna has the hots for him, so the other three comically attack him.  Lenny finally gets Squiggy to accept that not everyone likes him, and the two men do their "Stupid!" handshake.  Then the tag undercuts this, with Squiggy forcing a kiss on a girl (Susan Barnes, who previously was Adele Harrison and a member of the Blue Team) who rejects him at the Pizza Bowl.  Still, McKean and Lander do some nice work, showing different sides of their often cartoony characters.