"I love your feet, you know that?"

The night that Laverne and Shirley solemnly swore that they would never tell a living soul they went out with Lenny and Squiggy, Carmine was visiting the "nice" side of Milwaukee, where he was called to defend the honor of Joanie Cunningham.  This cameo isn't particularly necessary for the episode, but it's short and it works better than the one in "Football Frolics."  So from March 1, 1977, comes "Joanie's Weird Boyfriend."

My non-LAS review is here https://relivinghappydays.blogspot.com/2021/04/joanies-weird-boyfriend.html, but this is the set-up:  Fifteenish Joanie, feeling frustrated by her boyfriend who won't kiss her, annoyed with her family who treat her like a little kid, and egged on by the bad-influence (but still unseen by the audience) Jenny Piccalo, dresses like a tramp and flirts with the leader of the Red Devils gang.  He invites her to a party, but first she has to be initiated, meaning she has to neck with all eight Devils.  And she doesn't even kiss on the first date.  Big brother Richie tracks the gang down to, for some reason, the Jefferson High gym, where he confronts them single-handed, he thinks.  But his three best friends (Fonzie, Potsie, and Ralph, in that order) are already hiding in the lockers.  Now it's four against eight, since Joanie, even though she's hit at least two boys for trying to kiss her on previous episodes, doesn't defend herself.

About seventeen minutes in, Fonzie says that "an old friend happened to come and visit" him.  Presumably Carmine and Fonzie (who knew each other pretty well by the time of the "bachelor party" episode of LAS) decided to hang out at Arnold's, where they heard about Joanie and the gang from Potsie and Ralph, but Carmine isn't going to enter from a locker, good Heavens, no.

Fonzie snaps his fingers and Carmine emerges from the bleachers, singing, this will shock you, "Rags to Riches"!  He makes some gymnastic moves and Ralph's face is all of us.

Carmine twirls his way over to Fonzie, who says that he loves Carmine's feet.  Fonzie introduces Carmine Ragusa to the gang, and Carmine adds, "Of the Marjorie Ward Dance School."  The gangleader jokes that Carmine will tango them to death.  Richie puts his hand on Carmine's shoulder and says that Carmine is also Golden Gloves Champion of Milwaukee.  The Devils have heard of him.

Carmine warms up with more dance moves, but Fonzie just cracks his knuckles.  Joanie tries to stop the fight but then walks out when no one backs down, and no one stops her, even though the point of the fight was supposedly to protect her.

Carmine uses Fonzie's fist like a punching bag, as if they've worked out together before.  Richie is tired of Fonzie fighting his battles, so he insists that he, Ralph, and Potsie take on the gang.  Fonzie has the gangleader pick out three members to fight, and he and Carmine are going to sit this one out.  Which makes Mekka's cameo seem really pointless, but OK.

A comical three-on-three battle begins, with the Fonz and the Big Ragoo offering verbal encouragement, including Carmine telling Richie, "Go get 'em, Tiger!"  They also, however, make asides to each other about the patheticness of the boys' fighting styles.

Eventually Richie has had enough and Fonzie suggests ending the fight, but the gangleader refuses and even calls the Fonz "Arthur."  So Fonzie sasses back and then asks if Carmine is all warmed up.  He musically replies, "They'll never go from rags to riches."  And then the two old friends kick the gangleader and main sidekick in the face.  They scare off the gang and then slap hands to celebrate.

Carmine isn't even mentioned in the remaining couple minutes of the episode, and this is another case of a shoehorned cameo, although I do like that it expands on the Fonzie & Carmine friendship.  Mekka and Winkler have a good rapport together, and it's interesting to see what they're like without Laverne and Shirley around.  Also, it's another chance for Carmine and Richie to interact together, admittedly briefly, after "Excuse Me, May I Cut In?" back in October.  Note that this episode starts out on St. Patrick's Day, so presumably the double date to La Fondue was around then.

"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.

"Laverne & Shirley & Booker"

Note that Laverne has her orange-lined coat, which she doesn't take off during her brief stay, so there's no telling if she's wearing an L.  I mean, I assume she is.  And no word yet on the girls' hymens.

Unlike their memorable debut, the girls' second quasi-crossover has them being shoehorned into an already meh episode.  (Reviewed here: https://relivinghappydays.blogspot.com/2021/03/football-frolics.html)  It's one week before the mid-season premiere of the spin-off, but on Happy Days it's shortly before Mardi Gras, a traveling late winter holiday, which confirms my theory that "A Date with Fonzie" is not actually set on Valentine's week but instead Arnold put the decorations up to give the diner a "romantic" feel.  (Maybe they were on sale.)  If this is 1958, Mardi Gras was February 18th, if 1959 (also possible) Feb. 10th, so I really doubt "DWF" is also from February.

Anyway, unlike in the debut of Laverne and Shirley, there's no set-up or anticipation.  The girls just show up, then leave, return, and leave again.  Let's see what we learn in this minisode:

• At about the fifteen-minute mark, someone knocks on the door and Richie answers, pleasantly surprised to see Shirley.
• She and Laverne have brought a kid for the mass babysitting "camp" Richie and his buddies are running in the Cunningham home.
• Laverne drags in a little Black boy with his arm in a sling.  This is Booker, whom Shirley promised they'd babysit, on the same night that Laverne set up a double date with "two big spenders."  At this point, the viewer (if recalling their earlier episode) must assume that the girls only go on double dates.
• Booker hurt his arm breaking up a fight between Shirley and Laverne (yes, the names in that order), suggesting the girls still fight with each other a lot.
• Laverne doesn't want to pick Booker up until the Fall, and Shirley says Laverne has no sense of responsibility and wanted to leave him in a bus terminal locker.
• Shirley says she doesn't like Laverne's jokes, so Laverne makes a pig face and then tickles her, making her laugh.
• The girls exit after a minute and a half.
• The audience claps a little after they leave.
• Booker tries to escape through the kitchen, but the girls are waiting for him.
• Shirley picks him up and Laverne takes his shoes, "again."
• Laverne suggests they hang the shoes from the rear-view mirror.  Again, notice that the girls own a car at this point.
• Shirley is much nicer to Booker and tells him he could grow up to be president someday.  Laverne asks why Shirley is lying to him, since "he's got a broken arm, no shoes, and a lot of other problems."  I don't know if she's being racist, but I hope not.
• The girls exit arguing about whether Booker could grow up to be president, less than three minutes after Shirley knocked on the front door.  Myron has much more of an impact on the episode than they do.

I assumed at first that the girls heard about the babysitting project from Fonzie, but it turns out he has no idea about it and is annoyed by the noise.  It really stretches the limits of plausibility that they somehow knew of the camp, without contacting Richie or Fonzie, when it's in another part of Milwaukee that they presumably have only been to once before.  On their own show, they would probably have asked Lenny & Squiggy, or maybe Terry Buttafucco.  

"A Date with Shirley"

It is now time to look at the "Laverne & Shirley" portion of the November 11, 1975 Happy Days episode, "A Date with Fonzie."  My Happy-Days-specific review is at https://relivinghappydays.blogspot.com/2021/03/a-date-with-fonzie.html.  Here's what we can cull for (or maybe against) LAS canon:

• The episode aired in November of 1975, in the middle of HD's third season, and yet there are Valentine's decorations up at Arnold's.  That Richie and Shirley's second date will be "eleven and a half months" later, and Richie is still magically a seventeen-year-old high school senior, only confuses the issue.
• As Fonzie is dialing Laverne & Shirley's phone number, he tells Richie that these girls don't know the word no.
• We don't hear the girls' half of the phone call, but Laverne answers and then Fonzie has her put Shirley on so Richie can say hi.
• Fonzie gives them the invitation and then hangs up.  They apparently know where Arnold's is, or can find out.
• Fonzie describes Shirley as "a very cute girl," but "not your usual type of girl."  She is a little bit older than Richie, and "wouldn't give him a hard time," if you get his drift.  And she's "a good sport."  I suppose it could be argued that he means that she'll be kind to Richie and maybe make out with him.  Or Shirley hasn't yet regrown her hymen.
• The girls don't look drastically different than they would in their own Season One.  Laverne even has an L on her blouse.
• She loudly calls Fonzie "Fonzie" and he greets her as "DeFazio."
• Shirley quickly snuggles up to Richie, her head on his shoulder, which would become a signature move, sometimes preceded by the Shirley Shimmy.
• Richie, who's wearing a tie and a handkerchief, helps Shirley off with her coat.  He is probably more of a gentleman than she's used to, even in later canon.
• Laverne takes off her own coat, which she'd wear on her series.
• Shirley thinks Richie is nice and is impressed by the tie, but she resents Laverne's hanky remark, which will have, if you think about it, long-ranging consequences.
• This Laverne apparently can drive but doesn't have insurance, which shocks Richie.
• Shirley is relatively more lady-like than Laverne and at least excuses them so they can argue in the ladies' room.
• Laverne and Shirley are "a little more boisterous than Fonzie likes," and actually he does seem to prefer the quieter types, like Paula Petralunga.
• Fonzie tells Richie that Laverne and Shirley don't usually get along and they fight.  (If my theory is correct that Shirley was putting on an act for Richie, Fonzie must've been in on it.)
• The girls yell and then when Laverne emerges, she says she held Shirley's face under the sink.  The subject of the argument was Laverne's "crude" remark about Richie's hanky.
• Laverne scares Potsie and Ralph since they keep staring at her, although can you blame them?  (She'll scare Potsie more pleasantly a year later.)
• Laverne calls Richie "Red," as I believe she would in subsequent crossovers.
• Shirley is in a slinky black dress with a broken strap.
• She again rests her head on Richie's shoulder, perhaps for comfort this time.
• Saturday night is the girls' big night out, and hitting each other "gets their blood up," if you get Fonzie's drift.  Richie is understandably dubious about this.
• On their way out of Arnold's, Laverne fusses with the fallen "dip" in Shirley's hair, while Shirley brushes her off, which feels very them.
• Laverne is happy to get some alone time with Fonzie, but not if it's in the kitchen.  (It's in his "penthouse," as he calls it.)
• On the way out the back door, Fonzie says, "I respect you, Laverne."  Take that as you wish.
• Shirley calls Laverne a bimbo but her best friend.
• She puts Richie's arm around her.
• She works at the still-nameless brewery as a bottle-capper.
• She doesn't mind taking off her sweater before she finds out that Richie's cufflink is hooked in it, but she doesn't want the sweater damaged, since she just bought it at the dime store.
• Once the sweater is safe, she puts her head on Richie's shoulder again.
• He's nervous, so he goes to get her beer, pretzels, and chips.  She's agreeable to whatever he suggests.
• While he's in the kitchen, he asks about the fight.  She says she told Laverne she has "a mouth like a sewah."  She recreates the argument and refers to Laverne's "chubby little hand."
• The punch, by the way, is spectacularly timed, and the audience of course goes crazy, especially when she offers to "kiss the boo-boo."
• Having his family come home in the middle of it is icing on the cake.  Shirley's first impulse is to try to fix her broken strap.
• I love that Richie's parents shake hands with Shirley in the midst of the chaos after Richie introduces them.
• Shirley calls out to Laverne, who probably can't hear her over the sound of Fonzie breathing heavily and playing Johnny Mathis.  (I assume.)
• Shirley is sympathetic, Richie apologetic.
• With sensitivity that we wouldn't expect from a gum-chewing bimbo, she knows that Richie was pushed into this and says that if he wants to go out again, he can call her, so she'll know it's his idea.  (Ironically, she'll call him.  Although I assume they see each other on the upcoming HD crossovers this season.)
• He clearly does want to go out with her, despite this disastrous date, and she says a girl would have to be "nuts" to not want to date "a cute kid" like him.  Showing confidence for the first time this episode, he asks for a goodnight kiss, and she tells him, "You bet!"
• The kiss lasts over ten seconds and must be quite a good one, since someone in the audience whistles, and Richie hides part of it by closing the door.
• Shirley is going to make Laverne hitch home.  One hopes Fonzie gave her a ride on his motorcycle.  (No, that's not a euphemism.)

So, yes, this is not The Girls As We Know Them, but then again, with hindsight, I can see why the characters developed as they did.  And, yes, I still ship Richie/Shirley.  Despite their different backgrounds, they have things in common and she is indeed the right girl to give him back his confidence, while he treats her like the lady she wants to be.  And, clearly, they enjoy kissing each other.

As for Laverne and Fonzie, well, that would morph into something less earthy, but their relationship four years later in the "Shotgun Wedding" two-parter is not all that foreign to this episode.