"I Do, I Do"
February 24, 1981
B-
Lesa Kite and Cindy Begel wrote this jaw-dropping episode which includes a cocaine joke, lots of "Mary Jane," a Vegas wedding, and of course the word "tadger."* Either the ABC censors were asleep on the job or they figured the warnings about drug abuse made everything OK.
Things start somewhat normally, with the girls helping out at the restaurant while Frank is away at Cowboy Bill's University. Laverne recognizes two British rockers, cheekily cast with Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, then still only 33, as London (no last name), and a post-
Rutles Eric Idle as Derek DeWoods. The lads are worried about their tax situation, especially since Derek wants to buy a castle. They invite the girls to a party launching their next tour. (Why? Why not?)
At the party, Shirley warns Laverne to not act like it's a brewery party. (Did we ever actually see a brewery party?) But Shirley name-drops people we've seen on other episodes, like Fabian, Julius La Rosa, and Troy Donahue. Laverne is excited when she thinks Simon & Garfunkel are there, but it turns out to be Lenny & Squiggy. Laverne, who wants to touch Lenny's curly hair, says she's "so disappointed," which again makes Marshall's future involvement with Garfunkel ironic.
Derek and London are playing at the party with their band, performing their Number One hit, "Your Love Love Love," which is a nifty little British Invasion parody. (Not on the level of the Rutles, or Spinal Tap for that matter, but not bad.) One of the other guitarists is Malcolm (singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop, who's actually American but giving his all to the accent), who also made a batch of brownies. Yes, that kind of brownies.
As for the cocaine joke, Laverne picks a hand-mirror up off a table and flings the powder off it so she can fix her hair, but only a few in the studio audience get it (I certainly didn't at 13), and there's no dialogue in reference to it.
Lenny and Squiggy want to meet "Mary Jane," who they think is a starlet. So they go in the very smoky "jolly room." Malcolm offers Laverne and Shirley a joint. Laverne is tempted but Shirley can't get over watching
Reefer Zombies in high school. Shirley steers Laverne over to the innocent-looking brownies, "a much better way to enjoy a party."
Lenny and Squiggy emerge from the jolly room, having had smoke blown in their faces. (It's interesting that both pairs take drugs innocently, with others at fault.) They stand on a coffee table and the girls help them down. And then we get one of the oddest Lavenny sequences in the series. (Yes, I'm going to picspam you again.)
While Shirley is worried about and protective towards Squiggy (and, yes, this is pretty S/S, especially since in the previous episode she reluctantly said he was the least attractive person in the room), Laverne asks Lenny what it's like to be high. He first tells her he's always liked her, which she and we know, and he's very touchy-feely in an exploratory tactile sense, stroking her face and hair. But she touches him, too, and she plays with his scarf and looks down at his "pancreas" when he says he can feel it for the first time.
It's hard to care as much when Derek and London propose to the girls and sweep them off to Las Vegas. The girls have been eating more and more brownies and they fortunately pass out in the chapel (after a little Bingo-calling). The lads are chivalrous enough to leave the girls bus fare before catching their flight out.
Anyway, it's an odd episode, even by the standards of Season Six, and it doesn't all hang together, but it's definitely got its moments.
Kathryn Fuller is Ernestine here and would be a Bag Lady the next year. Phil Perez would direct two more episodes.
*In an aside by Idle.
