September 26, 1978C+
This Sotkin-written episode was a bit of a letdown after the first two of the season, not that it's bad, but the two main threads don't really work, separately or together, although, yes, the thing of Laverne and Shirley being hung on the wall is some nice physical humor. (At that, are they really stupid enough to not just unbutton their coats?)
Laverne is dating Jake the Snake of the Purple Fiends (who we saw on the St. Patrick's Day episode, but I'm not sure if he was played by the same actor, Larry Bishop, there) and Shirley disapproves because Jake is not just rude but a hood. At the same time, Laverne thinks Shirley doesn't know how to have fun. (I don't know if this is set before or after the "Roxy" episode.) So Shirley decides to give Carmine an evening where he won't have to take a cold shower. Instead, he ends up having to leave in Laverne's fluffy pink robe, and apparently goes outside in it. (I kept waiting for a payoff where Lenny and Squiggy would see him in it, or Laverne's father, but Frank and Edna are absent again.) Shirley sends him away because Laverne has just confessed that she was along when Jake robbed a grocery store. Shirley wants to call the police but Laverne goes over to Jake's apartment (which looks like they redressed the Lenny & Squiggy apartment set) to talk him into giving himself up to the police.
Since my last two posts were so long, I didn't get to mention that in Season Four McKean & Lander get a still with their names in the closing credits, unlike Mekka, Foster, and Garrett. Clearly, the powers that be recognized how important Lenny & Squiggy were to the series. (It was around this time, maybe Season Three, that their spin-off was considered but wisely rejected.) They don't get to do much here, except play detectives and then tour guides. Note that Laverne accepts the description of a "cheap floozy bimbo" as accurate for her, rather than bristling at it as she would've done in the first two seasons.
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