"Whatever Happened to the Class of '56?"

"Whatever Happened to the Class of '56?"*

February 16, 1982

C+

Even though this gathers a few of the girls' classmates that we saw in earlier seasons, I don't feel like much is done with the long-awaited reunion.  Paul Willson returns as "Eraserhead" and apparently now has a wife or girlfriend who dresses like him.  Carole White is again Rosie Greenbaum, still brash, redheaded, and over-dressed, but she surprises Laverne by acting nice, at least at first.  Judy (Ervin) Pioli reprises her role as Terry Buttafuco (now with one C), but she's been retconned to have weighed 400 pounds the last time the girls saw her, when it was more that she was tall and a bit butch.

Ervin's sometime writing partner Paula A. Roth apparently had to explain yet another Lenny & Squiggy absence (I'm not sure if McKean was yet filming Spinal Tap, but that may've impacted scheduling), so we're told that the boys aren't going because they didn't go to graduation.  And then it turns out that they lied about the girls and Carmine being "famous," apparently in ways that no one has actually seen.  I can't help thinking that if Lenny and Squiggy were in the episode, there would be a better pay-off, and more complexity to Laverne and Carmine embracing the lie and Shirley wanting to tell the truth.  The message in the end is that everyone wants to look successful at a reunion, but I believe that this was handled much better in "It Only Hurts When I Breathe" at the beginning of the season.

Lynn Marie Stewart's seventh and final role on the show is as Marsha.

*Amusingly, this apparently was the title of a 1980 episode of Little House on the Prairie, as in 1856.  The phrasing I believe is a variation on the popular 1976 book What Really Happened to the Class of '65? by Michael Medved (yes, him) and David Wallechinsky.

"Out, Out Damn Plout"

"Out, Out Damn Plout"
May 5, 1981
C+

As "Plout" episodes go, this one written by Paula A. Roth isn't bad, and it does give Vicki Lawrence a chance to sing*.  However, I kept thinking I knew where things were going to go and it turned out that these were just filler subplots.  First I thought Rhonda was going to give her a makeover and/or fix her up with someone, not that that necessarily would've been funnier, but I could picture it.  And I thought that when Squiggy gives himself a makeover as a blond Preppie, Plout would fall for him, which could've been hilarious.  Instead we're supposed to believe that Laverne and Shirley could find wigs and costumes that fit them so they can provide back-up at the nightclub and somehow distract the MPs.  (And they wear the outfits home!)

Marlene Laird didn't direct any other L & S episodes.

*One of her first episodes had Plout refer to "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," while here Shirley makes a Carol Burnett reference.

"Take Two, They're Small"

Laverne's date of course admires her long legs.

"Take Two, They're Small"
November 22, 1979
C+

In this Judy Pioli* & Paula A. Roth story, the boys set up a computer-dating service and set up the girls with midgets, sorry, little people.  It's an odd story, but still better than the previous episode.

Bruce Kimmel, who previously was Scott, is Mr. Eddie the Organist here.


*It looks like Judy got divorced at some point in '79, since her "Shotgun Wedding" credit is for "Judy Pioli Ervin," but starting this episode it becomes Judy Pioli.  (IMDB says she's the mother of writer Jason Ervin, but her only spouse there is Tony Askins, question mark to present.)  I'll keep the tag as Judy Ervin though.

"The Wedding"

"The Wedding"
November 1, 1979
B

Paula A. Roth wrote this episode that doesn't have much of a plot but is nonetheless sweet and at times very funny.  Although we just had a "wedding episode" a few weeks earlier, this time the wedding is for real and for an actual canonical couple.  Frank proposes to Edna, a month after he booked the church, and a day after waking up the girls in the middle of the night to get Laverne's blessing.  Edna doesn't mind this when he does finally awkwardly propose, but she thinks it's a bad omen when a funeral bumps their wedding off the schedule.  She's had five postponements and five bad marriages.  Frank, who's having a bachelor party with the guys (either because he has no friends his own age or because would you wanna party with Uncle Fungi?), reassures her.

Laverne is great about everything.  Although she was initially thrown off by the ship (whatever she may tell Shirley in the flashback to when she and Carmine made out and she was happy to introduce Edna to her father), she is thrilled for Pop, and she accepts Edna into the family with a little speech that's so heartwarming that Edna almost cries.  Sentimental Shirley is of course also delighted, and the two girls do what they can to plan the wedding.  They even find another church for the wedding, a black church.

I braced myself for cringey humor, but it actually works, even Laverne and Shirley singing with the choir.  And of course Lenny cries at the wedding, because he's just as sentimental as Shirley.  So we're going to just ignore the bad omens and forget what we know about the future of Fredna's marriage.

"Laverne and Shirley Move In"

Goat chow and a unicycle?  OK, not completely unfurnished.

"Laverne and Shirley Move In"
November 28, 1978
B-

Paula A. Roth wrote this story that flashes back to approximately December 1956 (six months after the girls graduated from high school) and got the very unfurnished apartment.  (No appliances!  No wonder they wanted to win a stove on the game show.)  Shirley tells the story to Mrs. Babish, so everyone but Mrs. B has to play their four-years-younger selves, which ranges from Foster not even bothering to do something about his mustache, to McKean giving his all to a barely post-pubescent version of Lenny, voice cracking and everything.

Mr. DeFazio is the typically old-fashioned Italian father who doesn't want Laverne to move out, but Shirley's (unseen and unheard) mother is moving to California and expects Shirley to go with her.  Frank finally realizes it's time to let the girls grow up, and he will be just around the corner.  He also tells Shirley that he and Laverne will now be her Milwaukee family.

We learn that Carmine has been dating Shirley all through high school and has given her his class ring.  He plans to "say goodbye" to her in a backseat.  And yet, we also get Shirley insisting that Laverne make a vow to never touch Carmine's chest.  (And I went Aha, then the "Roxy" scene was even more significant than I realized!)

Yes, there is L/L on this episode, and indeed S/S, but it should be noted that the boys stalked the girls to the apartment building, so they haven't changed much since we saw them in the "Anne-Marie and Hector" flashback to approximately '54.  As for the L/L, there's a scene that's very famous to Lavennists (it's at both https://santaburger57.wixsite.com/lands/lavenny and https://ship-manifesto.livejournal.com/190382.html), and yet, as I've known since watching the "Top 10 Lavenny Moments" video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0K13cTMNLE&t=272s), they've got the quote wrong, and it really does matter in this case.

Here's how the exchange is presented at the Ship Manifesto page--
LENNY: I defy you to look into my eyes and tell me you can resist me, Laverne.
LAVERNE: (looking into his eyes) I can resist you.
LENNY: (aside happily to Squiggy) She'll do whatever I tell her to!

But in fact, with one of those Lenny-and-Squiggy patented mistakes (see "State of Milwaukee" for instance), he actually says "defile," which puts a whole extra spin on it.

As for Squiggy, he not only rhetorically asks Laverne, "Yeah, but without her, what good are you?", he also says that Shirley was his last hope for a short woman.

Anyway, the episode is a little uneven and the device of Mr. DeFazio "bimonthly" pretending to be a prowler is a strange lead-in, but this is definitely an episode that you need to watch for extra backstory.  (Although I'm sure some things will be retconned later.)

Oh, and note that apparently Frank and Edna have never spent the whole night together, because he's very surprised by her face cream.

"The Festival: Parts 1 and 2"

"The Festival: Parts 1 and 2"
September 5, 1978
B

For the 1978-79 season, the Tuesday ABC line-up stayed intact, and although I still preferred Thursdays (soon with Mork & Mindy before What's Happening!!, with poor on-its-last-legs Welcome Back, Kotter shuttled all over the week as it staggered on, usually Barbarino-less), this was my second favorite night of television in 5th grade.

That said, I definitely remember all the third season Three's Company a lot better than I remember this particular episode of L & S, and not just because 3'sC would be much more heavily syndicated.  I even remember the next week's hour-long Happy Days visit to a dude ranch more clearly and I'm sure I haven't seen that in over thirty years.  That's no reflection on this Roth-and-Sotkin-penned story, which, especially the first half, is a lot of fun.  But I do want to say that my initial reaction was Wow, I didn't know they did an episode set in New York!

I'm treating the two-parter as one episode, because that's how it aired, and there is no "Next week" or "Previously" on the DVD version.  Plus, although it feels like the split probably came with Frank's determination to enter the greasy-pole contest (no, they don't make the obvious joke about Lenny, although there is of course a "hello" entrance for him and Squiggy when Shirley reacts in disgust to the grease), I feel like the two parts hang together better than the halves of "The Cruise" did.

So Laverne and her father invite Shirley and Edna to a street festival in the old neighborhood, and to stay with Frank's mother.  Grandma DeFazio is played by Penny Santon, who was only 62 (three years younger than Phil Foster) but would have a very long career in television, spanning from Mr. Peepers to Friends.  Frank is reluctant to go because his mama is very critical of him, and he knows she isn't going to like his new mustache.  (I remember Foster with the mustache more than without, but I don't know if he keeps it through the next five seasons.)  Carmine is staying behind to look after the Pizza Bowl, so he and Shirley make out in a phone booth at the bus station.  He also gives Edna, Laverne, and almost Frank quick kisses.  Then Lenny asks, "Hey, Laverne, aren't you going to say goodbye to us?"  And he and Squiggy both grab and kiss her!  Good luck charting the shipping on this episode!  (But I'll try.)

It gets even more complicated when Laverne sees a cute guy, who turns out to be her cousin Anthony DeFazio (John Lansing, who would be a nameless Director in the final season).  They're very affectionate, although he flirts with Shirley, and Laverne reveals that Anthony was pretty cute when they used to play doctor as little kids.  Shirley says, "Smut with relatives, Laverne?"

Then Lenny & Squiggy show up, since, as Lenny puts it, there was nothing keeping them in Milwaukee but their job and their apartment.  They're actually there to spy on Shirley for Carmine, which Lenny takes a lot more seriously (and humorously) than Squiggy does.  I got the impression during the first three seasons that Carmine and Shirley weren't that serious and they were free to see other people, especially during their "breakup" and the whole thing with Lucille Lockwash.  Carmine was more protective than jealous or possessive.  Now she can't even go to New York for a few days without him worrying she's going to cheat on him?  Of course Lenny makes things worse in his phone updates, while still managing to cockblock Anthony (including with, if I caught it correctly, a story that ends, "...And that's how Shirley met Carmine."  And he keeps blinding Shirley and Anthony, who don't seem to do more than a little cuddling, with his flash camera.

As for Squiggy, he wins over "Mrs. Grandma" by eating a lot of her home-cooking, so she's thrilled when Frank lies and says Laverne is engaged to Squiggy, which leads to them kissing, and Laverne definitely doesn't enjoy it.  (Of the four possible straight pairs from L, L, S, and S, Squigerne has always struck me as the least plausible.)  Mrs. DeFazio dotes on Laverne, including in Italian, with Shirley having a hilarious reaction of "Well, I don't know about Gina Lollobrigida, but she is very proud of those" about Laverne's chest.  When Shirley reveals that she has a distant Italian relative, the series is lampshading the fact that Cindy Williams was in fact part Italian.

Grandma is upset about being lied to, so Frank decides to form a team for the pole-climbing contest and win his mother a trip to Italy.  Laverne has fun looking for muscular guys, until they defect to form their own team.  Since Grandma and Edna aren't climbing, that leaves five of the regulars, plus Cousin Anthony, and I guess three nameless relatives to form the required team of nine.  I knew as soon as Carmine showed up to fight with Shirley-- on the pole!-- that the team would "win" but lose on a technicality, and that's just Sitcom 101 and not anything I remember from the time.

Carmine and Shirley of course make up, and Lenny wants a reward, specifically a makeout with Shirley, or a box of Crackerjack.  Guess which one he gets?  (Lenley-- Shirny?-- was always a little more plausible than Squigerne.  He clearly lusted for her in a secondary way, and she sometimes seemed fond of "Leonard," although she's arguably maternal or auntly with him, while Laverne treats Squiggy as at best an annoying kid brother.)

Laverne has to make peace between her father and grandmother, which she does, and they have a tearful group-hug, which Shirley joins without knowing what it's about, because that's how sensitive she is.  The regulars wrap up the festival with a group dance and we never see any of Laverne's Brooklyn relatives, friends, or acquaintances ever again.

Cabbie Ogden Talbot previously was Wilbur and a Delivery Man.  Concessionaire William Sumper would play four other roles on this show

"The Debutante Ball"

"The Debutante Ball"
May 9, 1978
B+

Heavy Lavenny, cannibalistic Squiggy, and a major class clash?  Let's break this bad boy down....

So, after a hiatus of over two months (I don't remember why, maybe ABC was trying out midseason replacements, maybe the cast beheaded half the writing staff, who knows?), L & S came back with this episode written by Ervin & Roth.  I wouldn't necessarily say that the reason it manages to contain a princess fantasy, rich bitches, and sisterhood solidarity is that two women wrote it, but I wouldn't rule that out either.

Laverne and Shirley are eating Chinese food in their kitchen when they find out that Laverne got an invitation to a debutante ball thrown by The Society of Exiled Royalty.  Laverne assumes it's a joke, but it turns out that Lenny is the Count of Kulakowski, and thus 89th in line for the Polish throne.  (As Squiggy puts it, "One good plague, and the kid is practically a queen.")

Laverne says she can't go because she has nothing to wear, so Squiggy says that his Uncle Elliot's Wax Museum will provide costumes.  For once, Shirley encourages Laverne to go out with Lenny, not because she ships them (I don't think she ever does, quite the opposite), but because it's a debutante ball.  Laverne says that she and rich people don't get along, which we've seen examples of in previous episodes, including the first episode.  And Laverne says there are a million girls who'd want to go out with a count like Lenny.

He replies, "Of course a million girls would like to go with me, but I want to go with you!  I mean, you're pretty and you're smart and you happen to be the classiest girl I know."  Shirley nods eagerly, the audience awws, and Lenny more humbly says, "Please, Laverne."

Laverne smiles and accepts, then curtsies (or "crusties" as Lenny would say) and thanks him.  He says that the simple peasant joy on her face is thanks enough.  But his squire Squiggy says with a wink before they exit, "But if you, uh, want to throw in a little royal voe-dee-oh-doe after the ball, it won't break his heart."  Lenny snickers and then bites his wrist.  (Thanks, Judy and Paula, for keeping it real.)

The actual Lizzie Borden

The next scene takes us immediately to the ball, although presumably a longer episode would've had Shirley helping Laverne learn etiquette.  Lenny is wearing a magician's suit and looks surprisingly elegant, despite the pigeon in his pocket.  (Suit pocket, so please hold back your Mae West quotes.)  Laverne looks like something out of Gone with the Wind but it's actually supposed to be a Lizzie Borden gown.

Lenny gets them champagne by reaching behind the server and taking two glasses.  They share a little giggle together and then toast.  But then he "accosts" a woman who throws a drink in his face and says, "Here, Bumpkin!", so he reciprocates, thinking it's like "cheers."  Laverne knows he's been rude, but she tries to dry off his tuxedo, until she realizes that his handkerchief is actually the magician's long scarf.  She sends him to the restroom.

She accidentally flashes her bloomers when she sits down in the hoop skirt.  Then she has to deal with snobbish women, one of whom refers to "dreadful riffraff, rubbing elbows with the rich."  Laverne says she doesn't want to rub their "crummy elbows," and she's there as a debutante being presented by her friend Lenny, the Count of Kulakowski, and points out the tall man who's wolfing down a sandwich.  She proudly says, "Quite a guy, isn't he?"  The two women are aghast and then amused, deciding he's an impostor.

Then it turns out that newcomers have to present their papers that prove their nobility, but Lenny left his in the Pizza Bowl safe.  So we switch to the basement of the Pizza Bowl, where Squiggy tries to frighten Shirley with tales of "the mummy's tomb."  Mr. DeFazio finds "Lenny's royal papers," and a bottle of 100-year-old wine that he's saving for Laverne's wedding.  Shirley hopes that they can all "take a slug" out of it real soon.

Squiggy comes over to look at the bottle, and the door slams behind him, locking the three of them in.  Now, if Squiggy were trapped in a basement with Shirley and a bottle of wine but without Frank, his thoughts might turn to seduction, but instead they turn to, yes, cannibalism.  Or as he puts it, "devouring their comrades."  She gets comically violent with him.  Mr. DeFazio says they'll just have to sit and wait, but for who?  Mary the waitress?  Big Rosie?  Lenny and Laverne after they get kicked out of the ball?

Back at the ball, Laverne waits impatiently for Shirley, while Lenny has lost his "friend," the pigeon.  When he asks Laverne to cover for him while he looks under a couch, she takes him literally and squats over him so that her hoop skirt covers him while he lies face down on the floor.

We return to the Pizza Bowl basement, where the men are sipping wine and Shirley is desperately trying to escape.  Finally, after some more of Squiggy being scary, Shirley makes it out the barred window, although she later reveals that she is not in fact the perfect Size Five she's been telling us she is for three seasons, but from the waist down she's a Seven or an Eight!

Some time later at the ball, the presentations have apparently been going on long enough for Lenny to have started yawning, while Laverne nervously waits to be presented.  Unfortunately, they don't have Lenny's papers and the guards are called.  Shirley bursts in with the papers and Laverne gets them and hands them over.

One of the snobbish women has the guards release L & L, curtsies, and says, "Oh, my apologies, Your Excellency!"

Lenny chuckles and says, "Well, I'm good, but excellent?", which is a variation on a Groucho line from Duck Soup.  Laverne grins and playfully hits his arm.

Then the snobbiest woman says in disbelief, "They're legitimate?", to which Laverne replies, "Yeah, are you?"  Lenny guffaws and pats her arm.

It's now time for Lenny to present Laverne, so after coming onstage without her, he goes back and leads her by the arm.  He tells her, "You're gonna be fine.  I'm really proud to be here with you, Laverne."  He kisses her cheek and whispers, "Go get 'em!"  She's been rehearsing what she'll say to their host, the duke, but she gives Lenny a look of affectionate surprise.

Unfortunately, she trips going down the ramp, knocks over two or three men, and gets a punch bowl spilled on her.  Lenny comes over and suggests she keep going, "maybe nobody noticed."  He helps her to her feet, but the rich crowd is already laughing heartily.  She tearfully says, "I'm sorry, Len," and exits, to the restroom we discover in the next scene.

Shirley scolds the crowd and then goes to tell Laverne that she "put those people in their place."  She tries to make Laverne laugh, including singing lyrics to "the Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss, the louse," which is the main thing I remember about this episode from the time.  Then more seriously, she gives Laverne a talk about true dignity and class, and makes her see that the people at the ball aren't any better than the gang at the Pizza Bowl.  She gives Laverne the courage and support to go out there and face the snobs again.

While Laverne is looking for Lenny, he comes in with the pigeon perched on his hand, but she doesn't see him.  Then the duke invites her to dance with him for the Duke's Dance.  The snobbiest woman looks shocked, while Lenny looks proud and Shirley looks like one of her fairytale dreams has come true.  Now, note that the duke is an older if distinguished gentleman, and he's not presented as a Prince Charming.  It is the honor of dancing with a duke, and one who admires Laverne's courage and true class, that matters, not a potential romance with a stranger.  Shirley starts crying, so Lenny offers her the magician's long scarf, to her confusion.  Laverne beams at her friends: her roommate who saved the day and her pride, and her neighbor that she seems to appreciate in a fresh way.

AND THEY ALL LIVE HAPPILY AFTER.

The Duke and most of the guest stars aren't credited.  Carmine and Edna are both absent, because they eloped.  Kidding!  (Maybe.)

"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.

"Laverne & Shirley Meet Fabian"

"Laverne & Shirley Meet Fabian"
November 22, 1977
C+

Paula A. Roth wrote this episode that doesn't particularly work but is nonetheless interesting.  As the title suggests, the girls meet Fabian, who plays himself.  The problem is that Fabian at 34, especially with gold chains and hair and wardrobe that don't look particularly '50s, seems unable to play himself at sixteen.  (This incidentally makes Shirley even more of a cradle-robber than she was with Richie Cunningham, particularly since we know that "gaga" Shirley has dreamed about Fabian at least twice.)  Furthermore, the girls stalk Fabian, admittedly at the risk of their own lives, and his reaction is to welcome them in off the ledge, offer them coats, pause for the selfie they need to win a bet with Big Rosie (White is good in her couple scenes), and then, with irony that's supposed to be funny, sing "Turn Me Loose" as they cling to him.

Meanwhile there are a couple things going on with Lenny's recent lust for Shirley (Shirlen ship?), as seen on the "cruise" episodes.  One is that it seems to be, for lack of a better term, tag-teaming with Squiggy, as when they grabbed her on the boat and here where he says that they have the right to see her naked since they saved her life (from frostbite waiting on line for tickets).  The other is that it doesn't mean he's lost interest in Laverne, as when he snaps her bra while she's on the phone and when he roots her on in her catfight with Rosie at the Pizza Bowl.  I prefer the moment in the tag, when L, L, S, and S are sitting around playing Monopoly (a scene that should've been longer and less of a throwaway), and Laverne wants Lenny to tell them more about the "midget luau" he and Squiggy went to, but Shirley says, "Don't encourage him" (or maybe it's "Don't encourage them").

Fred Fox, Jr., who wrote "Excuse Me, May I Cut In?" last season, here plays Freddie the Bellhop.

"Call Me a Taxi"

Supplemental income

"Call Me a Taxi"
February 1, 1977
B-

Deborah Leschin and Paula A. Roth wrote this episode that, while not feminist per se, does inadvertently address the pay gap and the double standard.  And it's another episode I sort of remember from the time, both the "taxi dancing" and Shirley's bosom-stuffing.

In 1960 (the year this episode might be set), women who worked full-time made 61 cents for every dollar men made, while in '77 it had dropped to 59 cents.  (It reached 78 cents in 2013, with no more recent stats at this website: https://www.infoplease.com/womens-earnings-percentage-mens-1951-2013).  Now admittedly, Laverne and Shirley aren't doing the same job as Lenny and Squiggy, but when the girls are laid off for three weeks and the guys start making overtime, there is a feeling that it's unfair, especially since the girls are good at their job and the guys possibly aren't.

And when the girls decide to make some money during the three weeks away from the brewery, they get the humiliating work of a-dime-a-dance.  Lenny and Squiggy (who must by the laws of sitcoms show up) think it's normal for guys to be there but shameful for women.  And yet, it's clear that most (maybe all) the customers are "vermin," while our girls are "nice."  Also, Laverne refuses Rosie's pity money but agrees to work minimum wage for her father.  So the gender dynamics here are not that simple.

I will say that I was leaning towards a C+ but Lenny and Squiggy are genuinely funny in their guises as respectively a big-game hunter and a novelist, and I like the irony that they feel they are supplying fantasy to the humdrum lives of the dancers, rather than the other way around.  We know that when they give their tickets to Laverne and Shirley, they will pair off L & L and S & S, but there's also a bit of them accidentally dancing together.  (Not the last time LenSquig will be teased for humorous purposes.)

Larry Hankin is Tall Dancer here and would later play Biff.  Peter Elbling is Dancer (presumably the shorter one), doing a vaguely European accent again after being Eric the German before.  Frances Peach is Mary but would have two other roles.  Julie Payne is Charmayne here and would be Colonel Turner in a two-parter a couple years later. 

And Rose Michtom is uncredited as the elderly Ticket Lady, but she'd later appear a few times as Mrs. Kolcheck/Kolchek.  (I instantly recognized her today from a taping of Too Close for Comfort, where she kept screwing up the line "I'm a drowning victim" by emphasizing "victim" rather than "drowning."  She has no lines here but she was then pushing eighty, and I'm curious to see how she does with L & S dialogue.)

"Anniversary Show"

Oh no, a clip show!

"Anniversary Show"
January 10, 1977
C+

Ah, yes, a dreaded clip show.  This isn't bad as such shows go, although obviously they're harder to sit through on DVD.  The screen during the opening credits says "Laverne & Shirley Birthday Show," but IMDB says "Anniversary Show,"* and the framing story is that the girls' friends, including Rosie, are throwing a party because they won a big bowling tournament.  The girls mistakenly take a train to Canada, so everyone sits around and reminisces about them, including moments that none of the people at the party were present for, like Shirley wooing Richie.  Still, it is nice to see scenes from that episode again, as well as Lenny's proposal, plus a thirty-second montage of some of Lenny & Squiggy's entrances.  And we hear that Mrs. Babish's second husband (of how many I don't know) was named Lloyd.

Paula A. Roth and Roger Garrett wrote the frame story, and he'd write ten more episodes.  I'm mostly just tagging the people listed on IMDB, which means leaving out the various writers and directors of the episodes we see clips from, but I'm also including Winkler and Howard of course.


*The actual anniversary would've been closer to January 27th, but I guess the middle episode of Season Two is close enough.

"The Bridal Shower"

"The Bridal Shower"
November 9, 1976
B-

This story, written by two women— Paula A. Roth (her first of thirteen) and Judy Skelton (her first of two)— is about Laverne and Shirley going to the title event, even though it's being hosted by their frenemy Rosie Greenbaum.  White gives a swaggering, memorable performance as Rosie and understandably became a recurring character.  The script isn't hilarious but it has its moments.  Note that their friend Anne Marie being a nun is mentioned, when the girls try to think of who else in their high school social club, the Angora Debs, is still single.

Although the show is set in the '50s, when "the girls" can be seen as old maids at 21ish, it was made in the '70s, so L & S get revenge by making their single life sound more exciting than their friends' married life.  (I kept expecting Rosie being married to a proctologist to lead to tasteless or at least censor-baiting jokes, but it's just thrown in there a couple times, and this isn't M*A*S*H.)  Their friend Elinor, whose shower it is, says that neither married nor single life is perfect.

I can't think of any shipping notes, other than Squiggy suggesting that Laverne and Shirley pretend to be on a double date with him and Lenny for Couples' Night at the Pizza Bowl to get half-price pizza.  It is notable that Mrs. Babish is more clearly the landlady here and even has a line that sounds looped in later about not understanding her tenants.

Valorie Armstrong, who plays Cookie here, would be Bernice later.