"Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams" book, Chapter Seven

This chapter focuses on Penny's relationship with second husband, Rob Reiner, including how their insecurities meshed, in his case because he was in the shadow of his famous father, Carl.  Rob worked things out somewhat in therapy, while Penny was even insecure about liking Rob more than he liked her.  It's interesting that Rob "yelled and screamed a lot," while Penny "hated noise," in contrast to Laverne.

They lived together before marriage and put off the wedding until after the first season of All in the Family.  The ceremony was in his parents' backyard, with a speech by Martin Landau.  The couple improvised their vows, with Rob promising to be her best friend and her pledging, "I'll try not to make you nervous."  Then everyone ate Chinese take-out.

They bought a modest ranch house that they decorated in a style they called "early funk."  They got a dog they named Barney after the restaurant where they had their first date.  Their cat was called The Ghost of Harry Rubin.  "(The ways of Penny and Rob are not always readily comprehensible.)"

Rob did the cooking and seems to have been a good stepfather to Tracy, who he adopted.

Amusingly, AitF "is said to be in its last season," but Reiner would hang on for another couple years, and Archie Bunker's Place would stay on the air until 1983, the same year Laverne & Shirley would bow out.  (But Rob and Penny would be divorced by then.)

Without irony, Berman says that Penny feared ending up "penniless," thinking she had hit her peak of fame.  Penny didn't yet think of pursuing anything but acting, although Rob did want to write, direct, and produce.  Both feared being accused of benefiting from nepotism, but they also used humor to deal with stress.

Rob was proud of Penny's success and said, "I love it.  I'd like my family to be in control of the airwaves as long as possible!"

Neither of them was into fashion, or even just shopping for clothes.  In Penny's case, it was related to her insecurity about her looks, although Berman writes that Penny "looks lovely when she's in a fancy dress."

Penny was very happy with Rob and the chapter closes out with this quote, "He's a totally non-chauvinistic male.  Sure, it's been great.  Funny how things go.  When we were kids, I was older than he was.  But not now.  I wonder how that happened!"

(Rob was three years and a few months younger than Penny, not two years as Berman claims, although oddly enough, this book has Penny's birth year as '42 rather than '43.)