"Star Peepers"

"Star Peepers"
February 2, 1982
B-

In contrast to the episodes where the girls fall down at the feet of celebrities (sometimes literally), here they are disillusioned when crooner Johnny Velvet (Harry Dean Stanton) turns out to be a jerk.  They swear revenge, so they go to the publishing office of Rhonda's favorite tabloid, The Peeper, conveniently located in Los Angeles and open 24/7.  The publisher, Tidmore (Harry Shearer, making his last appearance on the show, and doing a British accent, because, hey, why not?), encourages them to gather more evidence, which they do, but he wants to sensationalize the story beyond what they imagine.  The girls refuse to take his money, and they threaten a little blackmail of their own against Tidmore.  This is better than much of Season Seven, because I like the sight gag of "the Hanger sisters," as well as the different view of celebrity offered here.  As in the "furrier" episode, the girls are dealing with moral dilemmas that they haven't in the past, or at least not in this way.  (Larry Levinson and Barry O'Brien wouldn't write any more for L & S, so perhaps that explains it.)

Annoyed Customer Leoda Richards had two earlier roles on the show. 

"The Third Annual Shotz Talent Show"

"The Third Annual Shotz Talent Show"
January 30, 1979
C+

This episode written by Nathan & Price is the weakest of the three "Shotz talent show" episodes so far, with even the Lenny & Squiggy song unmemorable, although I do still enjoy Edna's "Plenty of Gin" audition number.  (It's that and Frank's lousy ventriloquist act that I remember most from the time.)

The main shipping note I have is that Shirley suggests taking the kiss out of "The Wedding of Jack & Jill," but Laverne (who will be Jack this time, unlike when they worked in a shoestore) thinks they should leave it in.  Oh, and Carmine & Shirley flirt, but I'm just not that invested in them.  I will say that I do feel sort of sorry for Carmine this season.  He didn't get to go on his favorite game show and he couldn't audition for West Side Story because all the male parts had been cast at that point, and now directors Lenny & Squiggy steal his act for the talent show.  On the other hand, he does own his own business, which presumably is going well if he can get his students to adopt all those dogs on the "pound" episode.

Harry Shearer is uncredited but that's clearly him reprising the voiceover role of Max Shotz.

"Bus Stop"

"Bus Stop"
February 14, 1978
B+

I found this Barry-Rubinowitz-written episode delightful, from Harry Shearer as Interviewer asking Laverne and his future fellow Spinal-Tapper Christopher Guest about whether they prefer Kennedy or Nixon, to the other Spinal-Tapper, McKean, contributing the song "Milwaukee Moon" that the regulars sing in the tag.  It's a hot couple days, possibly shortly after the famous Nixon-Kennedy television debate, on Sept. 26, 1960.  (And, yes, we just had St. Patrick's Day three episodes ago, but no one ever said these all happen in order.) The girls appear on a pre-recorded person-on-the-street interview, and two cute medical students prefer Nixon, while the girls prefer Kennedy.  That right there is a tip-off that the young men are not the Mr. Rights that Shirley will later daydream of.

(Lenny somehow has never heard of Kennedy, while Squiggy says that Nixon reminds him of his dad, which is disturbing on several levels in the post-Watergate era, especially since Squiggy's father is dead.)

The med school guys invite Laverne and Shirley to visit them in Oshkosh, which, in a line that made me laugh out loud, Shirley says, is "everything she imagined," even though all they see of it is the bus station.  She thinks that if they act classy, they can marry future doctors, but the Nixon fans are only interested in a little vo-dee-oh-doe.  (I think there's an implication that this is partly an economic class thing, that the med students would only want working-class girls for one thing, although I might just be reading that into the show.)  Laverne is tempted but listens to Shirley, so the guys sneak out and abandon them in Oshkosh with only bus fare home, not enough to stay in a hotel.

There's some good physical comedy, as when Laverne realizes that the Station Master (actor-writer Carl Gottleib) is not just benevolently offering hotel money, and Marshall has to react to Williams's innocence.  But there's also something poignant in Shirley trying not to be such a dreamer and Laverne telling her to keep dreaming for both of them.  This is one of the episodes that really spotlights their bond and their differences.

Laverne leaves a message with "Mary the waitress," whom we've seen on several episodes and who has been referred to, although she is definitely a background character.  Mr. DeFazio gives Lenny and Squiggy $25 to go get Laverne and Shirley in their truck.  The guys decide to wake the two "Sleeping Beauties" with kisses, but the twist here is that Squiggy kisses Laverne, and Lenny kisses Shirley!  So this is definitely not a show with fixed ships.  (And I sort of ship Carmine/Edna-- Edmine? Carna?-- at least when they dance, as they do during "Milwaukee Moon.")

For once, Peter Elbling doesn't play a character with a foreign accent on the show, since he has no lines as the Bum.

McKean singing "Milwaukee Moon" solo in 2016:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1a0gIoLYMA

"The Second Almost Annual Shotz Talent Show"

"The Second Almost Annual Shotz Talent Show"
January 31, 1978
B

This aired about twenty months after the previous Shotz Talent Show episode ("From Suds to Stardom"), hence the "almost annual," and is definitely superior.  There were moments when I considered a B+, but it feels a bit choppy, which may be due to the Paula A. Roth story not having much of a plot or may be the fault of syndication and other editing.  This time around, the girls are running the talent show, and recruiting friends from the neighborhood, which is how Carmine, Frank, Edna, and other friends and acquaintances happen to audition.*

Their boss, Mr. Shotz, expects them to include his talentless son, or he'll fire them.  Laverne is predictably defiant, even squirting ketchup on his portrait in the break room, while Shirley of course tries to be more diplomatic.  They end up including Junior in their rendition of "Abba Dabba Honeymoon," on skates, which is what I most remember from the time.

Had I been a few years older, I might've gravitated towards the Lenny & the Squigtones classic "Night After Night," which Squiggy helpfully explains is "about two nights in a row."  It's a gorgeous '50s pastiche, with subject matter as cynical as but more mundane than "Starcrossed."  I would've had to have been a lot older than nine to get that the song is about the age of consent:
BOTH: Night after night
SQUIGGY: I'll treat you like a queen
LENNY: (deep-voiced) Darlin'!
SQUIGGY: Night after night, 'cause you were seventeen.
LENNY: Night after night, wa-ooh!
SQUIGGY: Then your birthday rolled around.
LENNY: (overlapping) Wa-ooh!
SQUIGGY: So you let me go to town...

(A relatively more explicit and more punk version would later be available on their album, with Lenny asking, "Who wants to sleep with the same broad?" rather than "look at":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUwTa8G1B6g)

No shipping notes on this episode, unless you want to count Laverne seeming to enjoy "Night After Night" more than Shirley does.

Fish Trainer Joie Magidow would be on the "Blue Team" in a couple of the "Army episodes" the next year.  Marvin Braverman is Marvin here but would later be an Emcee.  Both Penny and Cindy's moms appear in the episode, Marjorie Marshall as Mrs. Ward, and Frances E. Willliams as Mrs. Bellini.  Ed Greenberg, who's Max Shotz, Jr., not only was in the Committee comedy troupe, but he was Kip in American Graffiti, which starred Cindy Williams, Ron Howard, etc., etc.  And, yep, that's Harry Shearer doing voiceover again, this time as Max Shotz, Sr.


*The geography of Knapp Street and vicinity is always a bit fuzzy on the show.  My impression is that the Pizza Bowl is on the same block or at least very close to Mrs. Babish's apartment building, and there's a downtown where the Pfister Hotel and other classy buildings are located.  Where Shotz Brewery fits into this is unclear, since if it's the same neighborhood as where the girls live, why do they drive into work or take the bus rather than walk?  Yes, it seems to snow on half of these episodes, but still.

"Guinea Pigs"

"Guinea Pigs"
January 18, 1977
C+

It's weird that I recall from the time details about this Jack-Winter-written story, like Shirley's version of Grace that makes "food" rhyme with "good," because it's not that funny an episode.  The only time I laughed was when Shirley did the Bunny Hop with a sleepy Laverne on her back.  The girls become the title subjects when they want to earn fast money to attend a cocktail party that requires $20 admission.  (One episode this season suggested they make less than $60/week.)

Note that Mrs. Babish has a date, which is why she gives Shirley her party invitation.  The episode does have some S & S and L & L shipping, although some of it is admittedly odd, like the boys spying on the girls as they change into cocktail dresses in the back of the delivery truck.  Lenny helps Laverne carry in her laundry, and he seems a lot more responsive to her flirtation (to find out about where the guys go secretly to make extra cash) than Squiggy is to Shirley's, but then Shirley is just resting her head on Squiggy's shoulder (her signature move, as in the girls' first HD guest shot), while Laverne is nuzzling and possibly kissing Lenny's neck.

Volunteer Leoda Richards would have two other roles on the show, but not until the '80s.  Jack Lukes, who's Guy #1, would play three other characters.  Kenneth Gilman is Dr. Sandor here but would return as Chickie Gale.  And this time Harry Shearer doesn't just do a voiceover but appears onscreen, in a skullcap bald wig, as the Danzaly named Harold.

"Hi, Neighbor"

"Hi, Neighbor"
April 27, 1976
B-

Lander, McKean, and Shearer co-wrote this episode which has Lenny and Squiggy move in upstairs (four flights up).  It's not as funny as I hoped with that team but obviously of interest on several points.

First of all, we learn that Squiggy still lives with his mother, and stepfather, while Lenny lives with his sister and brother-in-law.  It apparently never occurred to them to get an apartment together until the girls suggest it.  Then poor Shirley is pressured into vouching for them, as one of their oldest friends.  (Helen Page Camp is perfectly adequate as landlady Mrs. Havenwurst and would return once more that season, but she just doesn't have the zest or depth of Betty Garrett's Mrs. Babish.)  Laverne seems more upset about the idea of them as neighbors than Shirley, although she's the one who does more to reconcile them when the guys quarrel and Lenny kicks Squiggy out, causing Squiggy to couch-surf at the girls' place. 

This episode has more physical comedy than we've seen on the series so far, another thing that's surprising in this first season, as things fall slowly into place, the place where the images of the show would reign.  We get three hellos from Squiggy but none is in what would be the template, and in fact one of them is preceded by Lenny's "Hi, Laverne."

Ah, yes, the Lavenny, very one-sided here but nonetheless strong.  It is Lenny who also utters the title phrase, aimed very specifically at Laverne.  Laverne actually pays him two visits, the first to convince him to let Squiggy move back in (and note that it is Shirley who sends her, as if she knows that Lenny will listen to Laverne), the second to return his jacket that she "stole" in order to sew one of her cursive L's to fix the "ONE WOLF" he got in Chinatown.  If I remember correctly, Lenny would wear this jacket for the next few seasons, probably until the Hawaiian-shirt era of the California episodes.  It would be a symbol of not just his illusion that he's a loner but also of his devotion to Laverne, although, like so much on the show, it is subliminal.

It's on that second visit, when she says she wanted to talk to him rather than Shirley (who is, Squigley shippers take note, teaching Squiggy to do laundry), that he asks, "Should I take a shower?", implying that he's willing and almost ready to have sex with her.  And when he sees what she's done to his jacket, he plants a big smooch on her.

Which she is shocked and disgusted by, although he doesn't notice.  And here we come to the one-sided part, although I can say now that it would not always be this unrequited.  Arguably, it could simply be the shock of being kissed when she's not expecting it.  She does like Lenny as a friend, even when she tells him that Squiggy is his only friend.  When Lenny jokingly proposes marriage to Squiggy (is their ship Squigney?  Lengy?), she's very amused.  But Lavenny has a long way to go before it's a plausible ship.

Still no Shirmine by the way.

"Once Upon a Rumor"

"Once Upon a Rumor"

"In your dreams, Fella!" seems to be what she's thinking.

March 16, 1976

B-

Holly Mascott's only L & S script, the first written by a woman, is an uneasy balance between '50s and '70s in relation to the double standard, although of course the idea that a "reputation" for a guy is good while a girl having a reputation makes her a "bimbo" sadly hasn't disappeared, even if the terminology has changed.  Shirley becomes popular for the wrong reason when a proto-Three's-Company misunderstanding leads Lenny to believe that she fooled around in the break room with Squiggy, which Squiggy doesn't deny.  I might've gone with a B, but Laverne scoffing at Shirley's story of being attacked (not raped but "jumped" and I guess fighting the unseen-by-us guy off) doesn't sit well, even allowing for the times.  The argument here is that because Shirley is saving herself for her wedding night, she shouldn't be gossiped about, but what if she weren't a virgin?  Still, that this is even brought up, from the female perspective, is something you probably wouldn't have got on Happy Days.

The shipping notes get a little more complicated this episode.  It was apparent in earlier episodes that Squiggy felt a mild lust for Shirley and he here does ask her on a date as a reward for fixing her zipper, but of course she is Carmine's "Angel Face," and Carmine threatens Squiggy for not telling the truth.  The surprise is Lenny assumes that Shirley only puts out for Squiggy because she's in love with Squiggy, a pairing that Laverne finds nauseating.  Breaking this down a little more, is Lenny a romantic, or does he put Shirley on a slightly higher pedestal because of her virginal image?  Or is it that, as will be made clearer later, he thinks Squiggy is a ladies' man and so he doesn't see any reason why Shirley wouldn't be in love with him?

There's not much Lavenny shipping in contrast, although the second picture I've chosen would suggest otherwise.  (The happily-married-to-other-people Marshall and McKean do have a chemistry that comes through even when it's not supposed to, more so over time, but I'll discuss that as we go along.)

Charles Frank would return later that year as cute upstairs neighbor Jerry Callihan.  Shearer is given more to do as the Public Address Announcer this time, which leads to a payoff with him doing voiceovers with Squiggy, including Squiggy singing "Still of the Night," and Lenny (onscreen) doing backup, a slight hint of their later musical endeavors, as well as a Credibility Gap reunion.  Howard Storm would direct seven more episodes, although I associate him more with his 59 for Mork & Mindy.

"The Bachelor Party"

"The Bachelor Party"
February 3, 1976
C+

G. Marshall's co-creators Lowell Ganz and Mark Rothman wrote this episode that I find cruder and less funny than the premiere, although still interesting, with the obligatory heartwarming moment, as Laverne says that Shirley is the best friend anyone ever had.  Jerry Paris directed, for the only time, although he'd done eighteen episodes for The Odd Couple, and this episode arguably does have more of an OC feel and plot.*

While Mr. De Fazio is in New York to attend his 94-year-old uncle's funeral, he leaves Laverne in charge of the Pizza Bowl.  It's implied here that she's an only child, and that she thinks he would've rather had a son.  We also find out that Shirley has brothers, although not how many.  But the episode is more notable for the introduction of Foster as Laverne's father, and Mekka as Shirley's, um, I still don't know after four decades.

Carmine "Big Ragoo" Ragusa is not the Carmine I remember.  He's rougher and tougher, although he does sing the title line of Tony Bennett's "Rags to Riches."  He comes across as a not-too-bright boxer, although he does, as Fonzie puts it, "have tender feelings" for Shirley.  It's hard to tell if they're a couple or if she's just his "Angel Face," and to be honest, I never was clear how serious their relationship was.  In any case, he chivalrously comes to her rescue after Laverne pressures her into coming out of a cake at a bachelor party being hosted at the Pizza Bowl.

Fonzie is the one throwing the party, and he's in this episode more than in the debut.  He guilts and kisses Laverne to get her to fill in when the scheduled "cake girl" can't make it, but, as we learned in the previous episode, Laverne is a Size 10 while Shirley is a Size 5.  (I don't understand '50s sizes.)  The party is for a character whom we'd never see or presumably hear from again, but he's just the excuse.  It's more notable that Harry Shearer, Landers and McKean's Credibility Gap comedy colleague, does his first of six cameos on the show, as the Announcer.  (And he apparently had an uncredited role in The Robe during his kid-actor days, so I now suspect that the reference to that movie in Episode One was a sort of in-joke by DLL & MMcK, who did some uncredited writing for L & S.)

Speaking of Lenny and Squiggy, they are at the bachelor party and seem already acquainted with the Fonz, although not exactly friends.  I did spot a sort of Lenny/Shirley shipping moment, but a leering one, as Lenny says he "has feelings" for Shirley, too, because of her "cake girl" outfit.


*He would direct the Happy Days half of the "shotgun wedding" crossover night.