Laverne & Shirley

I watch over and over and I still laugh. I feel better after stress. Those two girls are so hilarious. They have great chemistry. The last season wasn't the same without Cindy Williams, however it was okay. The first 5 seasons are the best. But I watch all the way through.

Laverne & Shirley was one of several spin-offs of the popular 1970s Miller/Milkis series Happy Days and centered on two blue collar women living in Wisconsin in the late 1950s/early 1960s. The show was quite popular although it was dismissed by serious critics at the time and returning to it years after the fact only highlights its success. The women, played to perfection by Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, were good-hearted, hard-working individuals making their way in the world on their own power. The show features lots of slapstick humor - which was looked down upon at this time - but it is because of it that this show actually holds up better than such controversial critical darlings of the period such as All in the Family or Maude, which come off as far more dated - even annoyingly so. After this show's demise, it would be many years - until the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, that two talented actresses would again headline a comedy series featuring copious slapstick. Marshall usually got the best lines which she could hit out of the ballpark, but Williams was a tremendous comedienne herself and an able straight man to Marshall's antics - an issue fully realized when the show was without her in its final season. They were ably supported by a venerable cast featuring the idiotic greasers upstairs Lenny & Squiggy (the immortal Michael McKean and David L. Lander), Shirley's steadfast boxer/singer boyfriend Carmine (cute Eddie Mekka), Laverne's bull-headed father Phil Foster, and kind landlady and Laverne's future stepmom Betty Garrett. Guest visits by Carol Ita White as the bane of Laverne's existence - Rosie Greenbaum - were hilarious. Particularly memorable series moments abounded, but two of the best included a murder mystery-themed train trip and a crossover episode with Happy Days featuring a side-splitting square dance. The series started to deteriorate when producers moved the action to save costs from Milkwaukee to California, with all the regulars improbably in tow. New semi-regulars were added to little avail including Leslie Easterbrook as a blonde bombshell named Rhonda Lee and Ed Marinaro as a beefcake neighbor with designs on Laverne. Both actors were perfectly fine, but the writers never seemed to know what to do exactly with Easterbrook and Marinaro ultimately vanished with barely a nod. The talented and criminally underused Garrett left the show with little fanfare as well. Then the final nail was the departure of Williams after acrimonious contract disputes in a ridiculously improbable scenario which left the show without its trademark dynamic. While Marshall was a talented comedic actress, a straight woman was desperately required. A rotating roster of guest stars including Vicky Lawrence, Carrie Fisher and Laraine Newman made their way through, but none of them sparked like Williams did and the show finally whimpered out of existence. Even on that note, the majority of the seasons preceding are definitely filled with hilarity and uplifting fun.

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.

Laverne and Shirley was one of my personal favorites growing up. Of course, we had reruns and repeats in those days. I loved Laverne and Shirley. They were the underdogs and perfectly suited as roommates and best friends. They were played brilliantly by Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. Unfortunately, the show never recovered after Cindy Williams left to have her daughter and who could blame her. She was happily married to Bill Hudson, Kate's father, for twenty years with two children. Penny Marshall and the gang did their best to recover but never fully did. The reason and there are many that this show was so popular was the physical antics that Laverne and Shirley got into. I don't know if I preferred Milwaukee or Burbank but the supporting cast was top notch featuring Lenny and Sqiggy who could have had their own show. The delightful Carmine as the aspiring dancer. Elaine Joyce as the beautiful neighbor in Burbank. Betty Garrett and Al Molinaro as the landlady and Mr. Defazio. The show had plenty of it's moments too and great guest stars. It's certainly still a beloved show even in repeats.