March 10, 1981
B-
Laverne finds out that they haven't received the traditional $5 raise for three months at Bardwell's.* Shirley writes a polite note, which Laverne changes into a ruder one, without telling her friend until Shirley sends it up the pneumatic tube. Of course their boss Mr. Hildebrand (Norman Barthold again) gives them an $8 raise without reading the note. So the girls have to retrieve the note from his office.
The plot, written by DiMarco & Ketchum, isn't terribly original (Three's Company would do something similar a couple years later), but it's done with panache, and I did like seeing Lenny and Squiggy as trees. Also, I like that Edna gives the girls sensible advice and jokes about her frequent divorces. Of course, since things go without a hitch, it must be the plan rather than the actual practice, so I suspect they won't go as smoothly in Part 2.
Susan Barnes, who previously had the unsympathetic roles of Adele Harrison, a member of the Blue Team, and a nameless girl who rejects Squiggy, would return in her mousy role of Miss Peters. Tom Trbovich would direct an impressive (for this series) thirty-five more episodes.
*It has actually been about three months since "Candy Is Dandy" aired. I didn't see the kitchen calendar but I'm willing to bet it's the same one it's been lately. Interestingly, the calendar at work, which presumably would have to be up to date, shows a 28-day month where the 1st is on a Thursday. This would match February 1962 or February 1973, both obviously wrong. (Even without the time-skip, it should be at least '63 by now.) And, no, that would not be accurate for February 1981 either. One can assume that either Bardwell's doesn't care enough about its gift-wrapping department to send them new calendars every year, or the L & S production crew screwed up. Then again, the girls have apparently seen "every" episode of Mission Impossible, which premiered in September of 1966.
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