"Laverne's Broken Leg"

"Laverne's Broken Leg"
May 12, 1981
B-

This Ketchum & DiMarco story takes awhile to get going and, yes, the It's a Wonderful Life trope has been done on other shows.*  And yet, yes, there is a certain poignancy to Cindy W's performance of Shirley as a reclusive, dog-owning old maid, and even more to Foster's version of a homeless, daughter-less Frank DeFazio, ably assisted by Penny M's pained reaction.  Oddly enough, both Frank and Shirley are living in California, but it's unclear where Edna and Carmine are in this alternative universe.  (Lenny & Squiggy are escaped convicts.)  Even more surprising, Rhonda is kind and giving.  So if Laverne was never born, Rhonda's life would be better?  Or just nicer?

My main shipping note is that both Carmine and Laverne seem very pleased by Shirley's suggestion that Carmine undress Laverne and put her to bed, although Shirley soon realizes this is a bad idea.

The Angel is portrayed by Jeffrey Kramer, who played Jeff three years before.


*That same November 1965 calendar stubbornly clings to the kitchen wall, so I have no idea if a local LA station is supposed to be showing IaWL in December like usual, or unseasonally.

"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.

"Dinner for Four"

"Dinner for Four"
December 5, 1978
B-

Alan Aidekman's first of eleven L & S stories has a twist that I saw coming almost immediately, and I don't think that's Sitcom 101; I think it was a vestigial memory of watching the girls think that the two veterinarians who've invited them over want them as dates, rather than "kitchen help."  It isn't said in so many words, but this is a class clash episode, this time the two working-class girls being used for their culinary talents rather than for their bodies.  The girls are impressed by the not-all-that-modern-for-early-1960s-or-upscale apartment.  I mean, this isn't Catcher Block's bachelor pad from Down with Love!  Even the Murphy bed throws them, literally. 

It's sort of surprising that Laverne is the one most interested, to the point of presenting her wifely credentials, in going out with a vet, because that seems more like Shirley's thing, since she loves animals and doctors.  When Laverne says that vets are better than regular doctors, since they won't fool around with their patients, Shirley whispers a story she read about a vet who married some animal, to which Laverne says in delight, "That's disgusting!"  (Along with the "King of Bondage" scene on the "cemetery" episode, as well as much of the "Roxy" episode, the show was definitely getting kinkier in Season Four.)

In order to go out with the vets, the girls break a date with Lenny and Squiggy, who are heartbroken, Lenny in particular, as he was hoping to do the three-legged race with Laverne.  The girls apologize later, after Shirley finds herself quoting Lenny's Merchant-of-Venice-like "Do we not bleed?" speech.  The boys say that no one has ever apologized to them before, but when the girls promise to go anywhere the boys want to take them, Squiggy steers Shirley into the bedroom, and Lenny escorts Laverne.  The girls hit the boys offscreen and then when the boys reemerge, Squiggy asks what Lenny got off them.  Lenny says, "Nothin'," and Squiggy says, "That's progress."  And in a weird sort of way, it is.  The girls definitely seem more tempted to go to the Teamsters' Annual Fish Fry and Moonlight Mud Fight than they did to go to a fancy restaurant on the double date a couple seasons earlier.

The oddly named Timothy Blake has her first of three L & S roles as Veronica, while Jeffrey Kramer, who's Jeff here, would be The Angel later.  Carmine is absent without explanation, but there's not really any need for him in this episode.

"A Date with Eraserhead"

"A Date with Eraserhead"
October 24, 1978
B-

This confused and confusing episode was written by Judy Ervin and I'm sort of OK with that confusion and ambiguity, that things aren't neatly wrapped up in twenty minutes (subtracting credits and commercials).  Laverne thinks that Carmine is two-timing Shirley, and then it turns out that two years ago (presumably when they started dating again post-Lockwash), Shirley and Carmine agreed to have an "understanding" of what would later be called the "don't ask, don't tell" variety.  They see other people but don't want the details.  However, neither of them is entirely comfortable with this as it turns out (and, remember, not that long ago he had Lenny spying on Shirley in New York), so they break up. 

Meanwhile, Mr. DeFazio is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Pizza Bowl.  Shirley and Carmine now need dates to make each other jealous, so Laverne reluctantly agrees to let her new guy find someone for Shirley, but the best he can do is the girls' old classmate Warren, better known by his nickname, yes, "Eraserhead" (Paul Willson in a role he'd reprise four years later).  And later Laverne has to get Carmine and Shirley to make up, which they do, although nothing is resolved except a return to the vague status quo.

The funniest scene here is Squiggy "comforting" Shirley over the break-up, and he remains convinced (as his little black book suggested last season) that she's pining for him, so he gives her a pity kiss, which revolts her.  He has a date for the party, which he's "sharing" with Lenny, who gets to drive the girl back to Chicago.  And then Lenny swallows the keys (!) so the guys (at what is roughly four in the morning) have the Chicago girl (hereafter referred to as CG) sleep in Laverne & Shirley's room.

And then we get this exchange (I'm paraphrasing a little)--
SQUIGGY: We'd let you bed down with us if you was in a fix.
LENNY: (sort of campily) And we mean it, Babes.

Now think about that.  The boys could've had CG sleep over for a few hours and then put her on the next bus back to Chicago.  She could've "slept with" Squiggy, if she hadn't already, and maybe also the man Squiggy refers to as "my Lenny" when he's angry at Laverne for pushing Lenny down the stairs on an exercise bike.  (Lenny doesn't seem to hold any grudge about it, or show any injuries later.)  But for some reason (ABC censors?), they send her downstairs to impose on their friends.  And, with the CG presumably still in earshot, they make a lewd offer to Laverne and Shirley, except Lenny says it like he's gay, although maybe he was trying for Hollywood playboy or something.  So, yeah, an episode that raises more questions than it answers.

Lynne Marie Stewart, who previously played Barbara and a Wrestling Coach, here is Muriel.  Linda Gillin's role of Denise is very different than Amy Babish earlier in the year.  And I don't know what the name of the actress is, but I swear CG shows up in one of the California episodes, as another of Squiggy's silent dates with a black beehive, maybe the episode where Laverne wants to sing at Cowboy Bill's.  (I've seen the clip on Youtube in recent years.)

"The Dance Studio"

"The Dance Studio"
May 23, 1978
B

Nicholas DeMarco's first and only L & S story is very funny and has some surprising shipping.  (He also wrote only one What's Happening!! episode, one of the better ones, about the guys giving their teacher an empty box as a gift.)  Carmine wants to buy the title location, where he's been working I think a couple years, but the bank won't loan him money.  This plays out in ways that are predictable but still enjoyable, and ways that are very surprising.

First he tries boxing but Shirley disapproves (although she's a little turned on).  Then Carmine goes to the bank but finds out that they'd think he'd be a more stable prospect if he were married.  Men were under less pressure to marry in the '50s than women were (despite the previous episode, Mr. DeFazio is still pressuring Laverne about it), but bachelors were seen as less grounded and reliable.  Shirley agrees to pretend to be his wife, although one would think they'd have to offer proof, but just go with it because we are in Farcetown.  Laverne teases them about "practicing," and Carmine grins, but Shirley says that Laverne took the bus to Filthtown.

As soon as the next scene starts and we hear Shirley is late, we know (if we are '70s sitcom fans, and if you're not, why are you here?) that Laverne will be mistaken by the loan officer for Mrs. Ragusa and will have to play along with it.  We also know that Shirley will come in late, although I'll admit I didn't see the "Wong baby" in the carriage joke coming.  (At least the line is a throwaway, unlike the racial humor when Laverne had a Negro "cousin.")  Carmine of course doesn't get the loan.

He decides to go to a loan shark but the girls put a stop to that by drafting Lenny and Squiggy (Lenny tells Laverne they owe the girls a favor) into a wonderfully horrible "hula" dance routine, yes, with costumes.  Penny M. is pretty sexy in this episode, with her Hawaiian dance and in her grass-skirt-less dance costume earlier.  Poor Shirley can't even woo Carmine when he's mad at the girls later.

Mekka gets more to work with on this episode than usual, and Carmine's pain at the failure of his dream is believable.  Laverne makes a comment about banks not loaning money except to people who don't need it, and later Edna says that "people like them" need to stick together, so she and Frank co-sign the loan, understanding why working-class people would want to be their own bosses.

Carmine of course forgives the girls and he gives Shirley a nice kiss, then ruffles Laverne's hair and calls her "Vernie," as he did in Season One.  She says that next time they help someone, she hopes they kiss her and ruffle Shirley's hair.  So Carmine sweeps her off her feet into a big but short kiss.  Shirley tells him to never do that again.  So we've launched Carverne, right?  I know there will be other moments later (in fact, I dimly recall there's a whole episode about Shirley finding out something her bestie and her occasional beau did in the past), but this seems like the first significant Hm moment.  Oh, and I guess I should mention Laverne offering him a banana and later her ice-cream stick to lick, because it's inverted Freudianism.

Garry Goodrow is Mr. (Euripedes) Caulley here and would years later play a nameless Bank Manager.

"2001: A Comedy Odyssey"

"2001: A Comedy Odyssey"
May 16, 1978
C+

This Sotkin & Thompson story is weird for a few reasons, so let's start with the title.  It of course plays on the 1968 film, but the year is wrong.  Squiggy, who admittedly might be bad at math as an old man (or at least in Laverne's dream) says they haven't seen Laverne and Shirley in 48 years, which makes this at least 2008.  But later on, Laverne says she's 83, which would put this in 2021.  However, Penny M. was 34 at the time, so 48 years later she'd almost be 83.  Furthermore, Shirley says something about wanting to beat up Laverne for 60 years.

Of course, nearly all of the episode is Laverne's dream, and I know, dreams aren't supposed to make sense.  Certainly the girls act a lot older than the 63 they'd be in 2001.  Marshall would indeed gain weight by then (when she was 58), but not as much as Laverne fears.  Most of the episode is wrapped up in unfunny fat jokes, which have not aged well.

The dream is brought on by Frank nagging Laverne about getting married and providing grandchildren, as he has before, but maybe it's getting to her more lately.  We see her and a very near-sighted Shirley in the same old apartment, where Laverne has started to cover even more of the inanimate objects with her L's.  Laverne thinks she's at last getting married, and will at last be able to voe-dee-oh-doe (Shirley's "good influence" lasting decades apparently), but her unseen suitor dies.  Meanwhile, Shirley gets her hopes up when Carmine returns, but he's now a priest.

Then Lenny and Squiggy show up, owning the apartment building and other real estate, and they offer a package deal on marriage, and you of course know how the pairs are going to line up.  Laverne is quite eager to marry Lenny, and I don't think it's just that she's desperate  In fact, they make out on the couch after she accepts, and she's excited that Lenny can still perform his "husbandly duties."  Shirley however resists marrying Squiggy and, even when they're about to have a double wedding performed by Father Ragusa, Shirley can't go through with it.

The men leave and the women fight.  Then they decide that they've had good lives and they don't have to marry anyone.

Laverne talks in her sleep and says she doesn't have to marry Lenny.  Frank and Edna rush in from the living room, where they've been watching television.  Again, this is weird, and not dream-like weird.  I understand why, for the purposes of the story, they're there, but they both have places of their own.  It might've worked if Laverne fell asleep on the couch, and then Frank and Edna dropped by, but going into her bedroom, especially when they know she's asleep and Shirley is in the other bed, just feels off, although we do learn that Edna thinks Laverne marrying Lenny would be a nightmare.

It also feels strange that all this fuss doesn't wake up Shirley, but it turns out that she's suppressing her laughter until Frank and Edna leave, he saying she can marry whoever she wants, as long as the groom is Italian.  Of course, Shirley doesn't find it amusing that she was going to marry Squiggy, especially when Laverne pretends Shirley was enthusiastic about it.  And the subtlest shippy note I have here is that when Laverne jokes about the names of S & S's five children, the last two are Godzilla and Rodan, which Lenny would certainly approve of.  (Rodan came out in 1956 but his [its?] next appearance wouldn't be until 1964's Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, where G & R team up with Mothra.  You're welcome.)

So what do we learn from Laverne's dream?  That is, what does her subconscious fear/expect about her future?

1. Laverne expects to be fat and unwed, although it's difficult to say which, if either, is cause and which is effect.
2. She thinks that she will be still be living with Shirley, who will be extremely near-sighted and unwed, although these may not be related.
3. She thinks that fashion and technology (like the phone) will not be significantly different, which makes the sci-fi title a waste in that sense as well.
4. She thinks that she would be willing to marry Lenny for sex, and not procreative sex, although obviously it's too late to give her father grandkids.  (Squiggy hasn't given up hope of kids after twelve childless marriages!)
5. She thinks that Lenny, who literally "lost his wife," would be eager to marry her.  
6. She thinks that Squiggy would want to marry Shirley, who wouldn't want to marry him.
7. She thinks that the guys would be a package deal.
8. She thinks that she'll still end up unwed and living with Shirley.

So, although there are better and funnier episodes, including that season, this is definitely a must-see for anyone who ships Lavenny.

"Citizen Krane"

"Da Doo Ron Ron" came out in 1963 by the way.

"Citizen Krane"
April 5, 1977
B-

I was leaning towards a C+ for Raymond Siller's only L & S story, but I like the admittedly predictable "twist" that impresario Charles Pfister Krane (a parody of then modern-day Orson Welles more than '40s Welles) only wants to continue to mentor Laverne.  Miss DeFazio of course chooses loyalty and friendship over being "molded" into a star.  Note that this episode has a surprising amount of innuendo centered around Mrs. Babish, including a song that refers to her "birthday suit."  Also, this episode arguably gives Boo Boo Kitty her (?) biggest role yet, impacting the plot a little.

Ogden Talbot's second L & S role is as the Delivery Man, while Michael Mann's second is the lackey named Lackey.

Season Two of Laverne and Shirley moved up in the ratings from #3 to #2, just after Happy Days.  (Former king, All in the Family, dropped to #12, just behind newbie Three's Company, but Rob Reiner joked that he wanted his family to continue to rule the airwaves.)  As far as how much I enjoy this season nowadays, well, the grades range from C to B+, averaging out to a B- like Season One, although that didn't have any B+s.  Not every joke or situation works but the show is usually at least a little entertaining and sometimes they do hit those sweet spots.  And I don't think it's a coincidence that some of the best moments, and episodes, involve romance, especially the growing attraction (yes, on both sides) between Laverne and Lenny.  Even the better and funnier Happy Days crossover involves Shirley/Richie.

What doesn't work?  Sometimes the cast is thrown into a situation that is supposed to be automatically funny-- the hospital, the haunted house, etc.-- but no one has worked out what the actual jokes or even ramifications are.  In contrast, the honeymoon suite episode and the one where the gang tries to scare off Frank's girlfriend sound cliched but they work because everyone, including the writers, is giving their all.

I will say, it does feel more like an ensemble this year than last, with Rosie as an honorary regular at times.  Not every episode gets all seven (or eight) onstage at once, and there's not always magic when they do, but the potential is there and (whatever backstage tension was building) the actors and characters do support each well onscreen even in the weaker episodes.  The studio and home audiences knew the characters well enough to anticipate some of the interactions, but it was still fun to see them play out.

From what I recall, Season Three was more of the same, only with, if possible, more slapstick and ridiculous situations.  We'll see if my memories are correct, or if there will be more surprises like this season's "Wait, Laverne and Shirley owned a car?"

"Hi, Neighbor, Book 2"

"Hi, Neighbor, Book 2"
March 1, 1977
B+

"Davy" L. Lander and Michael McKean co-wrote this episode that is not only very Lenny-and-Squiggy-focused but is also very shippy.  And it has some class-clashing, in a French restaurant.

We begin in Lenny and Squiggy's apartment, which we and, it's implied, the girls have not seen since the boys moved in for the first "Hi, Neighbor" episode.  Squiggy is "in love" again, this time with Barbara Tedesco.  (This is the first of six L & S roles for Lynne Marie Stewart but the only one she'd repeat.  And it sounds from the dialogue like her last name is Hummel, but that's not what IMDB says.)  They want fashion advice from Laverne & Shirley, so Squiggy, while Lenny is in the bathroom, yells down the dumbwaiter that Lenny has swallowed his comb.  The girls race upstairs in record time (about fifteen seconds, or the time it takes for Squiggy to pour himself Listerine, despite what earlier was supposed to be three or four stories' difference between the apartments) and slapstick ensues.  The girls recommend that the boys go rent "evening wear" for the double date with Barbara and her (unseen) friend.

Laverne and Shirley are dateless on a Friday night, but it turns out that Mrs. Babish is going out with Laverne's father.  Shirley is instantly a Fredna shipper but Laverne feels uncomfortable about it, even though she likes Mrs. Babish.  (Although arguably, at this point, Shirley has bonded more with their landlady, as when she turned to her about Laverne being in jail and possibly pregnant.)  In any case, this ship is launched and would be somewhat successful, but more on that later of course.

The girls are dressed to clean the apartment, and Laverne ends up accidentally French-kissing a vacuum cleaner!  But she's about to get a better offer.

The guys show up to model their outfits, or as Lenny puts it, "Well, Girls, this is what we'd look like if we was handsome."  Laverne in particular is amused, to the point that Shirley has to quietly scold her for laughing.  While Squiggy calls Barbara to let her and her friend know that he and Lenny are going to go pick them up, Laverne goes over to "Len" and fixes his cummerbund, which he's wearing high enough to be a "brassiere."  He turns out to be ticklish but doesn't object to her touching him.  He and Laverne share amused looks when Squiggy tells Barbara it's "Squiggles."

But when Barbara breaks the date, L & L look concerned.  They also look like she was doing more than fixing his cummerbund.  Shirley is less physical with Squiggy here, but she does brush his suit off a little, like she doesn't want him to have lint on it, even if he probably won't be going out that night.

L & L encourage Squiggy to tell Barbara off, although Shirley doesn't.  And when Squiggy says that there are "plenty of women just dying to go out with us," check out the look L & L share as she strokes his arm, as if he's the one who needs comforting, and maybe as if she is on some level dying to go out with him.

Squiggy puts a very reluctant Shirley on the phone to speak with Barbara, but Shirley is in her too-nice mode and can't insult Barbara.  However, she delights as much as the guys do when Laverne grabs the phone and tells Barbara that she and Shirley are very much looking forward to going out with these two "hunks."  Lenny calls both girls terrific, but it's Laverne he keeps touching on the back.

Lenny assumes that Laverne meant it, while Squiggy wonders if he should call Barbara back.  The girls wonder what they've gotten themselves in for and "solemnly" thumb-swear that they will never tell anyone about this double date.

At the fancy French restaurant, Lenny drags Laverne over to a free table but then pulls her chair out for her, impressing Shirley with his manners, although Squiggy mocks him.  However, both the maitre d' and the waiter are appalled by the foursome's lack of couth and elegance, as when they wear the napkins as hats and can't read the menu.  (The nameless waiter is Gino Conforti, a few years after playing a much nicer waiter, Nino, on That Girl a few times and still a few years from perhaps his best known role as Jack's frenemy assistant Felipe on Three's Company.)

When Laverne tries to teach Lenny not to grab food from across the table, she ends up falling over and the waiter helps to pick her up.  Lenny tells him to let go of his date, and Laverne says the waiter gave her an Indian burn.  Lenny, while still eating, manages to hold Laverne's arm and blow on it, which is sweet if not helpful.

Squiggy goes to borrow butter from another table, and he sees Barbara with a date.  He is distraught to the point of hiding under his own table, although his friends try to get him to come out.  When he finally does reemerge, after, as Lenny puts it, "paying under the table," Shirley puts her arm around his shoulder and says that he's been "a perfect gentleman" all evening.  When she says that they all had fun, Lenny says, "I did," so many times that Shirley tells Laverne to shut him up, which Laverne does.

Shirley convinces Squiggy to leave with dignity, so the four of them get up and stroll over to Barbara's table.  Shirley calls Squiggy "so witty," but the best Laverne can up with is that Lenny is "so...tall," which disappoints him.  Barbara pretends she doesn't know Squiggy, who manages to hold on to his dignity.  But the foursome stop in the doorway when Barbara calls Squiggy a creep and the girls "bottom of the barrel."  Squiggy goes over and yanks the tablecloth off Barbara's table and he and his friends run out, although he does come back to ask Barbara on another date, before Lenny pulls him away.

The tag, which remember, Boys and Girls, is the part of an episode that usually gets chopped for syndication so it isn't supposed to contain any vital information, is set back in the girls' apartment.  The tone is relaxed and surprisingly intimate, considering that one of the premises of this series is that the girls are physically repulsed by their two old friends.  Shirley (in what looks like Cindy flirting with her on-again-off-again boyfriend David L.) is playing with his spit-curl at one end of the couch, while Laverne is amused by Lenny's amusement at the other end.  We find out that Shirley set the lobsters free and the waiters chased the gang three blocks.  Squiggy puts his arm around Shirley as they talk about the lobsters, and she doesn't object.

It's not until Squiggy suggests another double date next weekend, and Lenny puts his arm around Laverne and suggests the Godzilla film festival,* that the girls pull away physically and emotionally.  They fake sleepiness and the guys catch on, leading to one of my favorite throwaway exchanges on this series.
LENNY: A truck doesn't have to hit me.
SQUIGGY: If it does, I'll be driving it.

The guys get to their feet and Squiggy "officially" ends the date.  Lenny adds that since the girls have been so nice, "we ain't gonna try to get anything off ya."  Yet, the guys are still hopeful and they draw out their goodbyes, one of them (I think Squiggy) saying that they'll see them around since they live in the same building.

The girls look at each other and know what they have to do.  It is like and unlike the end of their double date with Richie and Potsie.  Shirley's kiss seems to take Squiggy by surprise, but Lenny is clearly and happily anticipating his kiss from Laverne.  S & S's kiss lasts about four seconds and is enough to make his leg pop and his mouth stay puckered.  Then he slaps himself!

L & L's kiss lasts about six seconds (seven if you count the slow moving in for it), and it causes Lenny to bite his wrist, throw papers around, trip, and bite his wrist again, as Squiggy staggers out the door.

The studio audience oos and whistles, but also laughs and claps, because this is all so over the top.  The girls' reactions are calmer.  Shirley pats her lips, probably surprised at herself for kissing Squiggy for presumably the first time.  Laverne says Lenny "kissed better than the vacuum."  And so ends the girls' quiet Friday night.

Unlike with Frank DeFazio & Edna Babish, this does not lead to immediate romance and eventual marriage.  But the fact that Laverne and Shirley had fun on a double date with Lenny and Squiggy does mean that, despite all those hellos to come, the girls are not as repulsed by their two guy friends as the series will tell us on the surface that they are.  As for the guys, those kisses aren't going to scare them off like Potsie was scared off.  They will see the girls around and they all live in the same building.


*At this point, timeline nitpickers note, there were exactly two Godzilla movies out.  (King Kong vs. Godzilla wouldn't be released until '62.)  So this is hardly "eighteen straight hours of monsters in Tohoscope."  Still, we'll learn in a later episode that Laverne shares Lenny's love of such movies.

"Buddy Can You Spare a Father"

"Buddy Can You Spare a Father"
February 15, 1977
B-


This story, written by Monica Johnson (her first of four) and Eric Cohen (his first of two), is perhaps the saddest one so far.  Shirley's father, Jack, has traveled the world in the Merchant Marines, but he's in town and soon borrowing money and disappointing Shirley's hopes of spending time with her "daddy."  (As with Shirley's mother, we'd never see him again, although that makes more sense in his case, especially since her mom lives in California.)  Since Shirley sees the good in people, she continues to believe in him, even when he sells off her funeral plot, and she goes to a dive bar (on Squiggy's advice!) just to show him how fun she is.  The warped record of "Daddy's Little Girl" is a nice symbol of the dysfunctional relationship.  Meanwhile, Laverne, the comparative realist, hates seeing her friend go through all this and even has a censor-baiting line about Mr. Feeney being "full of it."

The shipping notes are again odd here.  Lenny goes grocery shopping with Laverne (offscreen), but she later says that he insisted on her pushing him in the cart.  Squiggy, while Shirley is removing nail polish that his manicurist date put on his hands (!), finds himself in the unaccustomed role of confidante, hence the suggestion that she go hang out with her father at the docks.  She listens to Squiggy because she's drinking cooking sherry, for at least the second time this season.  (It will later be revealed that her father has a drinking problem, adding another melancholy note even to the comic relief in this episode.)

Speaking of Squiggy, he says that his stepfather used to lock him in the closet, and his only friends were the moths.  That sort of explains his interest in moths in other episodes, although it figures that his backstory is going to be tragicomic in this episode.

Bartender Jack Perkins played a Patient the previous year.  Ray DeVally, Jr., would direct eight more episodes.