"You Oughta Be in Pictures"

"You Oughta Be in Pictures"
January 14, 1980
B-

Jeff Franklin wrote this story, which is interesting for several reasons, including ABC censorship (or lack thereof) in the very early '80s.  We begin with Laverne, Shirley, and Lenny all coming home from the Reserves.  He gives Shirley a light kiss on the head and, with his arms around both girls, says that they're all "bosom buddies" because of this shared experience.*  And when the girls think that he's gone home and they start to get out of their fatigues, he starts stripping down, too.  When Laverne shoos him out, he scolds her for not at least saying he has a nice body.  After he goes, Shirley wonders where he buys his underwear, so Laverne says she'll be up all night thinking about it!

Wait, there's more.  Shirley wants Laverne to go with her to audition for an Army training film, so she has to talk Laverne into it, leading to compliments on not only Laverne's acting, but her "sex goddess" body!  She says that Laverne could be Marilyn Monroe, with a bag over her head.  (I think we're now in '62, and Monroe would die that August.)  As if that back-handed compliment isn't bad enough, Lenny and Squiggy drive the girls to the audition and Lenny calls them both plain-looking!

The girls get the parts, although they're not clear, even when they're wearing the "gaudy" costumes, what these roles are.  Laverne hits it off with one actor, but Shirley tells the other that she's involved with someone.  (Are she and Carmine more exclusive this season?  It's hard to tell sometimes.  I mean, she did have the date with the midget, sorry, little person, not that long ago.)  The actor replies that he's gay, which definitely caught me off guard today.  Never mind that I'm not sure that someone as naive as Shirley would know the word "gay" in that sense in '62, but it just felt so randomly throw in for shock humor.

Then again, this is an episode about V.D., not that that's ever explicitly said, but it's pretty clear.  The girls end up thinking they're playing bimbos, humiliating enough, and have to be told by Carmine, who hasn't even seen the movie-- unlike Lenny and Squiggy, who play infected men and go to the premiere-- that they were actually hookers.  Note that Carmine can vouch for Shirley's purity but Laverne has to vouch for herself.

Bruce Kimmel, who's the director "T.P." here, was Scott and the Organist previously.  Harvey L. Kahn is Dickie here and would later be the Narrator.  Edna is absent although it would've been interesting to get her take.

This is, by some calculations, the 100th episode.


*For those keeping track, it was still ten months before Franklin, Zwick, and others would see the premiere of Bosom Buddies, but it's possible that show was already under discussion at this point.