"Why Did the Fireman?"

"Why Did the Fireman?"
February 4, 1980
B

Roger Garrett wrote this episode where Laverne falls in love with a fireman named Randy Carpenter (32-year-old Ted Danson, still a few years away from Cheers).  The two are infatuated on their first date, and then we jump ahead a couple months and he's ready to propose.  But they keep being interrupted, and then he dies in a fire before he can keep their date.  So, while Danson is fine in the role, we don't really get to know much about him or their romance, and this is more about how Laverne and her friends react to his death.

It's an interesting touch having Lenny and Squiggy be the ones to break the news to Laverne.  We've seen on previous episodes that the boys love to play fireman, and here they're happy to tag along to the fire.  But they are broken by Randy's death, yes, even the usually less emotional Squiggy.  When Laverne cries, "I love you!", Lenny reacts as if she's talking to him, but he's actually not jealous of Randy, and in fact tells Laverne that they liked Randy.  She thinks it's a sick joke, and the boys have been established as having sick senses of humor, but she should realize that this isn't something they would joke about.  On some level, she does realize that, but she has trouble moving out of the denial stage of grief, even when Shirley tells her.

Edna, who I assume has just been divorced, never widowed, doesn't know what to say, but Frank does, because he has also asked why about the loss of a loved one.  He tells Laverne he's never lied to her, so when he says it, backed up by a newspaper story about Randy's heroic death, she has to believe it.  Penny M. of course does great with the range of emotions, but the supporting cast, well, supports her. 

My favorite scene is actually when Randy tells Carmine and Shirley about his plan to propose, swearing them to secrecy, and Shirley can hardly contain herself.  This is very different than "Falter at the Altar," where Shirley didn't approve of Laverne marrying Sal Malina after two months, although there the problem was that she knew that Laverne wasn't in love with Sal.  Here she is thrilled about Laverne's romance, although clearly jealous of the public displays of affection.

I don't know what, if any, fallout the loss of Randy will have on Laverne in the remaining three and a third seasons, but I do know that Laverne will fall in love again, but probably never with this much openness and trust.