"An Affair to Forget"

"An Affair to Forget"
February 9, 1982
B-

I thought from the title and the return of Jim Greenleaf as Lyle Nowicki, especially since he gives Laverne a big horizontal kiss of thanks for getting him a job at Bardwell's, that Lyle would start a rumor that he's having an affair with Laverne, but, no, he shows up in the first scene and is never mentioned again.  Instead, a man named Hank (Larry Breeding, who would return in a different role) shows up and flirts heavily with Laverne, while dropping hints that he's married.  She fails to pick up on these hints and goes out with him.  Unfortunately, his wife, Geraldine (30-year-old Anjelica Huston, who would also return in another role), shows up at the restaurant and Laverne ends up in the fish tank, repeatedly.  Again, I failed to predict what would happen, since there were cutaways to the cute waiter, so I thought he would defend Laverne and she'd end up with him.

Laverne makes her soggy way home, after pushing Hank in the tank.  Earlier, Carmine told Frank he felt like a son by being asked to a Dodgers game, and he and Laverne argued like siblings.  He's sort of like a big brother when they talk after her date, although still borderline flirty.  He's surprised to find out that the reason why she doesn't want to go around expecting guys to lie and cheat is because she's actually a romantic who's waiting for that one guy she can believe in.  And he lets Laverne cry on his shoulder, after he first takes off his Dodgers jacket.

There is also Shirmine, with a horizontal smooch on the couch when she comes home from a short visit to a friend (or maybe it was a relative) who's having a baby shower.  I believe this is the first episode where she refers to him as Pookie Bear, although I could be wrong.

Steve Granat and Mel Sherer wouldn't write any more for L & S.

"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. 

"Watch the Fur Fly"

"Watch the Fur Fly"
January 19, 1982
B-

Bob Howard's only L & S script, while not a classic, is entertaining and surprisingly thought-provoking.  Laverne's new boyfriend, Jeffrey (29-year-old Jeff Goldblum, looking gorgeous of course), hosts tours of international visitors, so she tells him she speaks seven languages.  Shirley disapproves but then finds she is herself a phony when the cute man that Jeffrey fixes her up with turns out to be a furrier.  The girls discuss how they lie about themselves for men and, while not exactly a feminist conversation, it does throw new light on the scheming they've done to get guys.  (Although obviously Laverne lying about Shirley's impending death was a lot worse.)  Note that Goldblum, as always, puts more into an ordinary role than is required, including a very long smooch with Penny M.  (About thirty seconds according to Youtube.)

"High Priced Dates"

"High Priced Dates"
April 7, 1981
B-

Charlotte Dobbs's second of two L & S stories has the girls going out with two roughly forty-year-old men that Rhonda fixes them up with.  The men spend a lot of money on them and Shirley in particular worries that the men will, as Rhonda puts it, expect music for the dimes they put in the jukebox.  The first date is interrupted by Lenny and Squiggy (more on that in a moment), but the girls wonder what Ryan (Jack Lukes in his fourth and final role on the show) and Steve (Neil Thompson in his third of four) will expect on the second.  They have a good talk with Edna, who tells them they should never feel obligated to do more on a date than they're comfortable with.  And surprisingly, when Laverne is honest with the men, things actually work out OK, and the two couples kiss.

When Lenny and Squiggy walk in on the girls trying to dry spilled coffee off their dates, Lenny calls it "a mirage a trois," getting his French, his math, and the situation wrong.  Squiggy is at first shocked speechless, because he says, when he regains his words, he'd always thought of Shirley as "pure as the driven Ivory soap."  Lenny tells the girls to go back to their "free-for-all," he just wants to borrow their cookie cutters for his meat cookies.

Laverne grabs his arm to get his attention, but she keeps touching him and standing very close, until he goes in the kitchen.  And then, after the dates leave, she gets closer than necessary to see his cookies, and continues standing there even during Squiggy's rant.  Even when Lenny goes to take a distraught Squiggy home, Laverne reaches out for Lenny.  (Hey, Everybody, it's Pic Spam Time!)

As in "I Do, I Do," the Lavenny (and to a lesser extent the Squigley) overshadows the girls' romances with the two strangers.  Note that Laverne thinks, before Ryan and Steve make themselves more comfortable, that they might be gay, although it isn't said in so many words, and Shirley says, in not so many words, that she and Laverne aren't lesbians.

"To Tell the Truth"

"To Tell the Truth"
February 17, 1981
B

The writing, by Al Aidekman, is sharper and more insightful than we've had on the show for awhile, ironically because the gang agrees to play Rhonda's version of Truth (with cards she's either hand-written or got from her theater group).  The character is finally used well here, including taking in the criticism that she refers to herself in the third person too much.  The game moves from Stage Left to Stage Right, each player drawing a card and trying to answer honestly.  Everyone enjoys seeing the others insulted but no one wants to be insulted themselves.  Even the compliments hurt other people, and I don't think Rhonda bargained for the big kiss Squiggy gives the person in the room he finds most attractive.

The most hurt are Laverne and Shirley, whose friendship is the deepest.  (Well, OK, Lenny and Squiggy go back just as far, but they don't really attack each other in the game, and it's other people who insult them.)  Laverne storms upstairs and packs up Shirley's clothes.  There's a very nice scene with Carmine going up and talking to her, and them both realizing things about themselves.  Meanwhile, Lenny and Shirley are the only ones left downstairs.  (An offscreen moment, arguably Lenley, has Lenny licking pudding, which Laverne flung, off of Shirley's face!)  They also realize things about themselves by talking, and it's a rare, sweet exchange between them, her helping him to recognize his emotional intelligence, and him letting her know that they all rely on her to tell them what to do.  And, yes, the girls make up, although Laverne thinks this was all easier in high school.

Jack Winter had written three early L & S episodes, but this is his first of five directorial turns.  This is the last episode with Ed Marinaro, who'd debut on Hill Street Blues three months later.  I don't feel like we get to know Sonny very well, or much about his relationship with Laverne, but I don't mind him on the show, then or now.  I do remember this episode from the time, not in detail but the general plot.  It marks the beginning of the second half of Season Six, but of course I didn't then know that it would be a relatively short season (not as short as Season One obviously).

"Lonely at the Middle"

"Lonely at the Middle"
March 29, 1977
C+

Although this is another episode I for some reason vaguely remember watching at the time, especially Laverne using the "happy" suggestion box to sing "Rubber Tree Plant" to Shirley, it would probably be a C if not for the one-year-later frame device* of Laverne telling the story to Lenny.**  The "union" song that Lenny and Squiggy sing in the tag isn't bad but is too short and not one of their classics.  The main plot resembles "It's the Water," in that Shirley gets a promotion that doesn't go well.

Byron Webster is Warren Tompkins here and would later be Mr. Slotnik.


*And I think that's only there so that the girls won't have their own car to go to work in and have to use a car pool or the bus.

**After, at his request, putting a band-aid on his finger and kissing it, which is sweet and possibly shippy.  And he wants to know where the "secret place" is that a girl gets kissed in Laverne's smutty book.  He guesses the basement, which happens to be where he and Laverne are sitting.

"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.

"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.