Laverne & Shirley

If you seen the movie Wayne's World, there's a reference to the original show Laverne and Shirley where Wayne and Garth parody the intro to the show by working at a factory in Milwaukee, that's how i know the show and also watched it in reruns on TV Land as I was too young to remember the last episode more than 35 years ago. The success of this show led to a cartoon in which the main characters join the army; that cartoon was made by Hanna Barbera, who also did another show with Paramount called Fonz and the Happy Days Gang which later teamed up with Mork and Mindy for an hour long show on saturday mornings. Before this show came out, the producers of the show came out with the hit show Happy Days which was a spinoff show of Love, American Style. Happy Days also spun off Joannie Love Chachi which featured the late Erin Moran. All of these shows first aired on ABC during ABC's glory years in the late 1970s. It's a funny show!!!

It's late 50s. Working class best friends Laverne DeFazio (Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams) are roommates in a Milwaukee basement apartment. Shirley is the sweet one and Laverne is the tougher one. Laverne's favorite drink is milk and Pepsi. Shirley has her stuffed animals like Boo Boo Kitty. They are Fonzie's friends working at the Shotz Brewery with annoying former classmate Lenny (Michael McKean) and Squiggy (David L. Lander). Laverne's father Frank DeFazio (Phil Foster) owns the Pizza Bowl. He starts dating the girls' landlord Edna Babish (Betty Garrett). Their school friend Carmine Ragusa (Eddie Mekka) is a Golden Gloves boxer, singer, and dance teacher.

This popular sitcom is a spin-off from Happy Days. Over the years, there are cameos and cross-over from the mother show. The girls stay independent modern women as they search for Mr. Right. Laverne is hounded by her father to get married and have children. Shirley has a long running romance with Carmine. The sixth season starts with Frank and Edna in California about four years later. When the bottling department gets replaced with machines, the girls follow them to Burbank. They are joined by Carmine, Lenny & Squiggy. The gang is befriended by their new neighbors Rhonda Lee and Sonny St. Jacques. The show fades a little and the move to California doesn't help. California takes away the midwest working class vibe although the show continues to have fun like the earthquake.

This show is legendary for the fights between Williams and the Marshall clan. It never got into the way of the fun on screen except for the last season. Cindy Williams got pregnant and a lawsuit followed. She would miss most of the last season and is the final nail on the coffin. The girls' friendship is modeled after Lucy and Ethel especially during their physical comedy gags. The gags are always fun. I love getting hung up on the coat rack. It's silly fun.

The girls struggle to move beyond singledom. Even with Carmine, Shirley could never go off with him for fear of splitting the girls apart. That is the Archilles heel of the show. The obvious move is for the girls to have more work situations and marry them off in a double wedding. They could live in connected apartments. The show never got to that point. This is a classic girl friendship show but it couldn't figure out how to get past the single girl stage.

Laverne & Shirley was one of the best shows on television between 1976-1983 and continues it's popularity on up until today. Some users have commented above that the show was boring. Well, not some. One. I disagree entirely. If you knew enough about the show to be able to give a good review, I would overlook it. But you don't. The show won the Emmy for best television show in the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons. I doubt you could consider it boring if it won awards of such prestige. The characters of Lenny and Squiggy supplied a lot of the comedy in the show, but the characters of Laverne and Shirley supplied the plot, comedy, and made the show a comedy, but one with heart. If you took the time to watch the show and get to know the characters, you would begin to love them. It's that way with just about any movie, television show, play, etc. But this one in particular is special for different reasons. Please actually take the time to watch the show a few times before commenting and putting it down. I am only 14 years old and can already tell you that it's a comedy classic that deserves to stay on the air for many years to come.

Great show. Laverne and Shirley are great together. Their co-stars are great. In the last season, the show lacked one BIG thing: Shirley. The supporting characters could not make up for this big loss. But it was still good but there was less emphasis on what the show's concept had been.

"Happy Days" spin-off about the two titled characters (Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams) and their total comedic and romantic misadventures as Milwaukee brewery workers in the 1950s and 1960s. The series seemed to work in spite of itself due to the likable leads and their ever-lasting love interests (scene-stealers Michael McKean and David L. Lander). The characters were silly, but had a reality to them that could not be over-looked. Adequate writing and above average direction were sufficient in keeping the show a ratings winner for a good eight years from 1976 through 1983. Still a show that has a strong following as it survives the years in relatively wide-spread syndication. 4 stars out of 5.