"The Obstacle Course"

"The Obstacle Course"
February 28, 1978
B-

This Arthur-Silver-written episode starts out with a very-Three's-Company-like situation, as first the audience and then Laverne and her date, Officer Norman (Bo Kaprall in his last appearance), are led to believe that Carmine is apologizing for deflowering Shirley, who's nonchalant about it.  Of course, it's all just a Big Misunderstanding (TM), and he split his pants while they were dancing.  (I'm not sure if that explains why she's in her bathrobe, but just go with it.)

Then we find out the plot, which is that Norman has asked Laverne to try out for the LAMP (Ladies' Auxiliary Milwaukee Police), and Shirley, who never got good at athletics because her family didn't approve of scabs, wants to apply, too.  She bungles it and Norman's superior makes some sexist comments, including that women should be "barefoot and pregnant."  Laverne kicks butt at the obstacle course and the chauvinist falls in the water.  (As a Three's Company fan, there's an extra satisfaction in seeing Laverne triumph over Capt. Schmidt, as Mickey Deems played five different creeps on 3'sC.)

Laverne also literally kicks Lenny's butt when he suggests she "show some skin" for the movie that he and Squiggy are shooting.  It's another odd episode for shipping, with Edna trying to get Frank to yell less and failing.  I do think it's interesting that Laverne agrees to meet Norman's mother, and then we never see him again.  That might've been a good episode in itself, and I like Norman, although I don't think he and Laverne (Lavorman?) make a great ship.

"New Year's Eve 1959"

"New Year's Eve 1959"
December 27, 1977
B

Marc Sotkin also wrote this episode, which is the best of the season so far.  Laverne has a chance to finally date Pete, the guy who gave her her first kiss ten years ago, when she was in the 6th grade.  (This confirms that they're going with the girls being born in '38, no matter what we might've thought in Season One.)  He's recently broken up with his long-term girlfriend, Bea, and Shirley encourages Laverne to get Pete to invite her to the five-dollars-a-couple dance Shirley is throwing at the Pizza Bowl for New Year's.  Laverne goes skating with Pete and they have a great time, and then they make out on her couch, despite Shirley bursting in and cockblocking every couple minutes (not that they called it that back then).  They do go to the dance together, but Bea shows up and only has to play their song, "Chances Are," for Pete to take her back.  Poor Laverne is heartbroken, but Shirley cheers her up, including insisting that Laverne is pretty on the inside and out.

I found the episode both funnier and more touching than any episode in awhile, sometimes within the same minute.  We find out that Pete (like Lenny) admires Laverne's toughness, in this case her ability to take a punch, but he finds milk & Pepsi disgusting, so Laverne, who sometimes gives up part of herself to please men, says she's going to give up m & P.  Then later, when she's lost Pete (and he doesn't even dump her or acknowledge her once he sees Bea), she pours a bucket of milk & Pepsi to drown her sorrows.  Also, it's poignant that Laverne doubts her looks, because Penny Marshall always did. 

Cindy Williams does well with both the comedy and drama, and we can see that her heart breaks for Laverne in the scene at the Pizza Bowl.  Although Officer Norman, who's referred to earlier, shows up shortly before midnight, it is the girls' sisterhood that is the most important relationship here.

As for romance, it's actually Shirmine that gets the most attention of the established couples.  Well, we do see Frank refuse to do the Twist with Edna and put on a waltz instead.  But Carmine gets Shirley a diary and writes the first entry for her, saying that "Carmine" told her that she was the best part of the '50s for him and will be the best part of the '60s.  Of course, little did he know they wouldn't see the next decade out together, but that is a long way off at this point.

"Guilty Until Proven Not Innocent"

"Guilty Until Proven Not Innocent"
January 4, 1977
B-

Sand and Kaprall co-wrote this story where Kaprall's Officer Norman turns out to be not much help when Laverne gets arrested for shoplifting.  I was leaning towards a C+, but the scene where a drunk Mrs. Babish plays the sax as a drunk Shirley sings the blues (rhyming "jail" with "money" rather than "bail"), and then Lenny and Squiggy enter as respectively the Lone Ranger and the Devil, is genuinely funny. 

Note that Carmine has arranged a double date for himself and Mr. DeFazio, which is a little weird, but we never see it or find out any details.  It's mainly just there to explain why the girls aren't going to Green Bay when Laverne's father drives their car.  Also, this is one of several Season Two episodes where Shirley writes in her diary during the tag.

"Two of Our Weirdos Are Missing"

"Two of Our Weirdos Are Missing"
December 7, 1976
B-

This episode is somewhat off but it is admittedly funnier than most of the other episodes so far this season, especially Squiggy's lines.  (My favorite is the one that goes something like, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Children of All Religions.")

Both Rosie Greenbaum and Officer Norman Hughes appear, she of course flaunting her wealth and insulting the girls, while Laverne uses kisses and a whispered promise to get Norman to stay behind and answer the phone in case Shirley's new boyfriend the golf pro calls.  (He presumably does, since we see her smooching him in the tag.)  In fact, Bo Kaprall, who plays Norman, co-wrote this episode, his first of two; Bob Sand is his co-writer both times.

When Lenny and Squiggy invite the girls to the circus, Shirley would rather ride in Rosie's Cadillac, but Laverne seems up for it.  And she's the one who wants to stay and listen to the guys' problems but Shirley insists on going.  Then the next morning, Shirley wakes up Laverne with the news that Lenny and Squiggy "have runned away."  (It sounds like a blooper that slipped through, with Marshall teasing Williams about it, so Williams corrects herself, but then she says "runned" away again when announcing it to the others.)  It turns out that they've runned away to the circus, which means funny costumes of course.  The girls go after them, offering their help if the guys return.  And then Laverne and Shirley get attacked offscreen by a half dozen midgets!  (Frank Delfino, who spent the earlier part of the decade at Paramount as a stand-in to the Brady kids, leading to an onscreen role as a Kaplutian, plays Charlie, the midget who invites them into his trailer.)

"Drive! She Said"

"Drive! She Said"
September 28, 1976
B-

Laverne & Shirley came back for Season Two, so I and millions of others watched it at 8:30 every Tuesday, after Happy Days.  (Eight Is Enough wouldn't start until the following March and it's entirely possible I didn't watch anything in the 9:00 clock slot yet, definitely not CBS's M*A*S*H in its fifth season, since I was only eight.)  I was more into Welcome Back, Kotter (Season Two) and What's Happening!! (Season One) in the eight to nine block on Thursdays, but I was already an ABC-sitcom connoisseur and Tuesdays would've been my second-favorite night.

Anyway, I laughed a few times at this episode watching it today and I do feel like the cast and production team are gaining more confidence.  Storm knows how to move the characters around, even in the extended driving sequence, and Jack Winter's first of three L & S scripts seems to have a good handle on said characters, from their tendency to name-drop relatives (Shirley apparently has only two cousins, Mikey and Mickey I think it was, and a 79-year-old uncle whose name escapes me) to Laverne's fondness for milk & Pepsi.  Not that everything is in place yet.  For instance, when Lenny & Squiggy make their first entrance, it's through an already open door and they are actually coming downstairs to complain that Laverne and Shirley yelling secrets out the window is interrupting their "orgy"!  And later we see Laverne and Shirley throwing them and their dates out of the car the girls have bought.

The only plot (no subplot or even sub-subplot, like Lenny joining the Reserves, this time) is about Shirley teaching Laverne to drive and it going badly, so Laverne gets her father to teach her.  The weird thing is, I don't remember Laverne and Shirley owning a car at any point and certainly it's gone by the time they have Lenny and Squiggy drive them to California in an ice cream truck.

Bo Kaprall returns as Officer Norman Hughes, who reluctantly gives Laverne a ticket after she runs over his foot!  We find out that they've gone out five times and she agrees to go out with him again, so he says he'll pay for her ticket.  Other than that, no real shipping notes, with Carmine seeing a woman named Lucille (not credited on IMDB) but still calling Shirley "Angel Face."  Note that in the revamped credits, we see Betty Garrett as Mrs. Babish, but her character is not yet introduced or even referred to, although if the girls are going to keep parking their car out front, you'd think the landlady should be informed.

"Fakeout at the Stakeout"

"Fakeout at the Stakeout"

April 13, 1976

B

This is arguably the funniest episode of the first season, especially the stuff with Lenny & Squiggy.  I laughed heartily when Lenny said they were wearing their "detective" outfits because they didn't want to attract any attention, since it made me think of even nuttier schemes and crazier clothes they would come up with over the years.

Also, I thought the romance between Laverne and Officer Norman Hughes was sweet.  Bo Kaprall is credited as Cop here but his full name (including middle) is given in the episode and it's nice that he'd back six more times.  He's not a hunk, by '70s standards or now, but he's cute and nice, and he likes Laverne's sense of humor.  She could and would do worse.

There aren't any other shipping notes I can make, as this seems to be set after the Carmine & Shirley breakup, as he's now working at the dance studio, and the only thing I can say about L & L or S & S is that Lenny is amused by Laverne's mild put-down of Squiggy, which isn't exactly romantic.

More memorable are Shirley's "pets."  The two birds, Duane and Eddy, had appeared in the episode after their introduction, while here there's at least one of them, whichever one is chirping as the girls discover the break-in.  Also, Boo Boo Kitty makes a debut, in what apparently was just an improvised bit in rehearsal but would go on to be one of the props most associated with this show.

Neil Thompson's first of four roles on the show is as a nameless Man.  I'm glad that Deborah Leschin would write five more episodes.

"Dog Day Blind Dates"

"Dog Day Blind Dates"
March 9, 1976
B-

This episode's title references Dog Day Afternoon, which came out the previous September, and the girls are held up at the Pizza Bowl by bumbling crooks that they're on a double date with.  The pizzeria has closed early at the dates' request, but Lenny & Squiggy linger, adding some humor in an uneven episode.  Also, when Laverne thinks that the crooks will kill them, she suggests that she and Shirley "vo-de-oh-do-do" (a term that was already established on the series at this point) with Lenny & Squiggy so as not to die as virgins.  This despite the fact that Laverne earlier described the guys as friends she wasn't proud to admit to.  Still, it's a contrast to Shirley, who won't pet on the first date and doesn't want to lie on the floor next to Lenny, although she has to when it's "boy-girl-boy-girl."

I think this the first episode where I didn't hear Williams trying to fit in with a bad Northeast-Coast accent, as if being from New York or New Jersey equates with being low-class.  (Watch the '50s-set "skating rink" scene of The Brady Variety Hour from November of that year for an egregious example.)  And it's as good a time as any to say that I'd forgotten that the girls' last names appear onscreen this season, as if the show is really called Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney.  Good thing they didn't continue this with Mork from Ork & Mindy McConnell.

This is Dale McRaven's only L & S script, although I did recognize the name from Mork & Mindy.  James Burrows would direct seven more episodes.

Bo Kaprall is a nameless Cop here but would play Officer Norman Hughes six times in the next couple years.  Guich Koock, who plays Buck, would go on to Carter Country, where his accent would make more sense, although Buck admits he's not actually from Arizona.  (The "Phoenix"/"Kleenex" rhyme is the main thing I remember about this episode, so I guess they couldn't make him Texan or something.)  And Fred Willard is instantly recognizable as Charles here; he would be a nameless Man in Bathroom later that year.