"Doo-Wop-Wop"

To further refresh the viewers' memories on the night that Laverne & Shirley premiered, we get another crossover (non-L&S review here https://relivinghappydays.blogspot.com/2021/03/fonzie-superstar.html), so it's time for another minisode, from January 27, 1976, at approximately 8:15 p.m. (or almost twelve minutes into it on the DVD), it's "Fonzie the Superstar" and his backup singers:

• Fonzie calls out the girls' names and tells them to get in here, meaning into Arnold's.
• Laverne's blouse indeed has an L and, well, she looks more stacked than usual.
• He's surprising them by making them his backup singers.  Ralph resents this and the girls aren't thrilled.
• Fonzie uses the nickname "Vernie," which is kind of sweet.
• Shirley says Carnegie Hall is so classy they don't serve beer.
• Fonzie has been promising Laverne a great date, so he's going to put Friday night aside.  I think this becomes their date in "Society Party," but I wouldn't swear to that kind of continuity.
• The girls start singing backup.
• There's a moment around 13:13 where Fonzie looks at Laverne and grins, which feels like HW breaking character in amusement at PM.
• The girls have to do backup twice but Fonzie is too nervous to sing.
• As the girls follow Fonzie out, Laverne says Shirley was flat, in the singing sense.  Shirley says she was the one in the glee club, but Laverne says Shirley was a mouther.  This is their most civilized argument so far.
• The girls are sitting and waiting at the beginning of the next scene, since Fonzie hasn't shown up yet.  When he arrives with Richie, Richie hands Laverne his guitar and she strums a sour note.  (I half expected her to start singing like in LAS Season Six.)
• Arnold tells the two girls that they'll eat later, presumably after the show.  They don't look happy, as if they were promised free food.
• When the restless, mostly female crowd starts chanting, "We want Fonzie!", L & S whisper inaudibly and uneasily.
• The girls are in matching outfits, and Laverne (who still looks busty) is not wearing an L.
• Shirley comforts her when she says, "There goes my Friday night!" after Richie says Fonzie hit his head in the men's room.
• Shirley takes Laverne's hand and says, "They don't need us."
• But Arnold will sing "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" in the key of "Asia Minor," as the girls sing backup.
• Richie introduces the girls as "direct from the bottle-capping department of the Shotz Brewery," which I think is the first time the brewery gets named in canon.  He gives their full names and calls them the Arnoldettes.
• When the crowd throws things, Laverne looks like she wants to punch someone.
• The girls link arms and use their scarves, and somehow Laverne also holds the microphone.
• Fonzie finally goes on, reciting "Heartbreak Hotel," so the girls become backup dancers instead.
• When he gets into it more, he tells L & S to knock themselves out, so they both start shimmying.
• They can be seen looking at and perhaps talking to each other.
• Shirley flees when the girls in the crowd rush the stage.  I assume that Laverne hides over by Ralph and the piano.
• In the tag, Laverne wants to sell Fonzie's fringes, and she quickly convinces Shirley.
• Laverne kisses Fonzie goodbye on the cheek and says they'll see him Friday.
• Shirley's exit line is to ask Laverne how much she thinks they can get for these fringes.  Laverne says, "See?  Now it's we.  Now it's we."

NOW.  IT'S.  WE.  Penny and Cindy are utterly convincing as best friends here, completely supportive (especially, of course, Shirley supporting Laverne), squabbling a little but having roughly the same goal.  Shirley already seems much more demure than she did when first introduced, although still very working-class.  (She's a lady who works in the brewery, and she makes that not a contradiction.)  Laverne is maybe a bit less of a floozy now, although she sure wants that great date with Fonzie.  There aren't really any Shirley/Richie moments here, but he's mostly just trying to make sure the gig runs smoothly and worrying about his own best friend.

Not canonical to later (besides Shirley's accent obviously) is that Laverne thinks she's a better singer than Shirley.