"It Only Hurts When I Breathe"

"It Only Hurts When I Breathe"
October 27, 1981
B

OK, the writing improved.  In fact, Al Aidekman's script turns out to be both funny and touching.

The girls are eating breakfast together, at 10 a.m. we later learn, so presumably it's the weekend.  (They still at work at Bardwell's by the way.)  They bicker good-naturedly but things escalate when they get an invitation to their tenth-year high school reunion on July 15th*.  Shirley, who wanted to hold a reunion a week after they graduated, and who did hold three reunions in quick succession (as we learned in Season One), is not so sure about going to this one.  It seems to be tied up with both girls feeling like they're showing their age.  (Marshall was 37 at the time this was shot, Williams probably recently turned 34, while their characters are 28 or nearly.)

And they start punching each other, harmlessly at first, until Shirley coldcocks Laverne.  Since she's always shown as the weaker, more peaceful one, this comes as a shock to everyone, although a pre-series Shirley did accidentally punch out Richie Cunningham on their first date.  Laverne has to get her jaw wired and it's a tribute to Marshall's comedic skills that she can convey Laverne's various moods without being able to speak for much of the episode.

Williams rises to the challenge of showing Shirley's guilt, irritation, and fear.  It turns out she's mostly worried that she'll seem like a failure at the reunion.  When Laverne is able to speak, she says she's proud of both of them.  (This resembles a bit the movie Romy & Michele's High School Reunion [1997].)

Before the fight, Laverne and Shirley danced together, and in the end they sing together, "High Hopes" of course.  And Laverne's reference to Shirley's "balloon" of optimism also takes us back to the first season or two.  The episode is very much about the girls' friendship and history, with Carmine, Lenny, Squiggy, and even Rhonda just popping in and out of the apartment to comment on things.  (The boys guess that Laverne broke her own jaw.)  If Season Seven has more episodes like this, I'm actually looking forward to the rest.


*The actual reunion episode is much later in the season, so all we know is that it is now between January and June of 1966.