"The Right to Light"

"The Monkey on one side and the Jerk on the other"

"The Right to Light"
January 28, 1980
C+

Kenny Rich wrote this episode that begins promisingly enough with the girls giving dance lessons to "the Jerk and the Monkey."*  Then the lights go out and the guys cry, "Double makeout!"  Most of the rest of the episode is set at the power company, where a computer error has led to the girls' power being shut off.  So they have Carmine chain them together, which puts naughty thoughts in his head, especially since Laverne also wanted him to bring peanut butter.  Then it turns out a mad bomber has left a cheesy-looking bomb, so the girls have to get out of this mess.  In the tag, Laverne has started to keep a diary as well, but she's less wordy.

Although it has nothing to do with this episode, I just want to note that Laverne has been using her camera a lot this season, not just on the "shotgun wedding" episode.  Also, L & L and S & S of course pair up for the dance lesson, and in fact Laverne agreed to teach the boys to dance because Lenny put his "little head" on her shoulder.  (No, not that little head.)

Frank and Edna are both absent again.  Richard Stahl, who plays the Clerk, was in pretty much everything, including the movie Beware! The Blob, although I don't recall any scenes with both him and Cindy W.  (This is actually his middle of three roles on L & S.)


*For those keeping track of anachronisms, the dance called the Jerk came out in '64, while the Monkey was popular the summer before.  I suppose it doesn't really matter, since the record on the girls' player is pure disco.  Surprisingly, the calendar at the gas & electric office is clearly February (28 days long), with the 1st on a Thursday, which in fact is correct for 1962!