FACT : When the series switched to California, the writers changed the year the show was set , from 1962 , to late 1964. Skipping over 2 & 1/2 years in everyone's life. This is why it's 1967 / 1968 by series end.
My review now :
Being a devout fan of Happy Days and having had Arthur Fonzerelli as a hero,it only made sense I would watch "Laverene and Shirley" as well. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams certainly made an impression on their 1st guest appearance in "Happy Days".
Penny was definitely already "Laverne" but "Shirley" while nice was sort of like Laverene too, thankfully she became the sweet, Boo-Boo Kitty hugging Shirley we know & love. The show debuted in January of 1976 and just took of straight from there. With "Happy Days" as it's lead in of course.
The theme,"Making Our Dreams Come True" by Cyndi Grecco was a top 20 hit (although the music a bit faster than that from the TV version.) After watching the Cunninghams, Fonzie & Ralph & Potsie (etc.) , I sat tight for even bigger, bawdier & sillier slapstick laughs from these two wonderful females.
Those that know this show well, could most likely name of all the best sight gags and stunts. I loved the one with the seemingly alive "Murphy Bed". This was a bed that you could lift up and put away into the wall behind two doors.
The girls open these doors in the apartment of two guys they have dates with (they'll be back later) and the bed hits the floor. They try to put it back but it seems this bed has a mind of it's own!
They walk near it... it lifts itself off the ground. They step back...it goes back. Finally they tackle the bed like football players and it sends them both up into the wall space, then up & down until they come literally 'flipping' out. They land on their feet and slam it back shut!
Laverne: "That thing tried ta eat me"! Lol. If Lucille Ball was tuning in that night, I'm sure she loved the gag and laughed a long time.
Just as important as the physical and verbal humor were the touching stories about the importance friendship and standing by someone through "whatever".
They even stand by the lecherous Lenny & Squiggy ("Hello!"), who are always busting into their apartment and sometimes making inappropriate advances on them. Yet,somehow over the course of the show they become friends.
My favorite episode, before the move to California, was the 2 parter, "The Moosejaw Express". Laverne & Shirley board this train of the same name and end up in the middle of espionage & murder. It's not so much a "funny" episode, it does have that but it shows what had to be the strongest test of their friendship.
The spy / killer on board is trying to sell microfilm to the U. S. S. R. and somehow it's now girls possession. In the climax of part 2, Shirley is seemingly thrown out the door of the luggage car by the villain and Laverne is beyond anger. "You killed her. You killed Shirley!! You killed my best friend!!"
She decks him on the jaw,struggles with him and she's almost thrown off herself but suddenly a hand from outside the car grabs him and he flies out the door. It's Shirley! Who has somehow grabbed onto something outside earlier. She grabs Laverne's hand and they're safe inside again. One of the best shows from between 1976-1980.
Season 5 I have to say, seems to have a direction to "topical" shows that seem more serious and a bit like (hate to say it) 'preaching'. Still good but that's what sort of hurt "Mork & Mindy" in Season 2.
Then comes season six ,the '80-'81 season.
Talk about an overhaul! What in the world possessed producers or whoever to move the girls to Hollywood,California we'll never know. (Unless it was ratings.) Can anyone name more than five of these '80-'83 shows, without using IMDb?
The most telling thing that should have said "end it" was the episode where Shirley has moved out and gone to live with her new husband Walter Meeny (whom she married in the season before,he was in a body cast.) "Shirley Feeny Meeny" leaves Laverne a note letting her know where she's gone so suddenly and why.
So,in the final season we end up with "The Laverne Show" (I called it) with almost forgettable episodes. The worst? There's a ghost in the apartment that is the spirit of an Olympic athlete who cannot ascend until he wins a race that he lost decades ago.
He inhabits Laverne for this race and (this is really stupid)when the race starts we go to slow motion and hear the theme from..."Chariots Of Fire"???!
I will say, a few shows stand out in this era. Shirley dating a man whose only separated from his wife,Squigy's reunited with his con artist father & others. (Watch them on DVD,the good ones do stand out.)
Anyhow,the show by the end, is set in the year 1967. (Happy Days was still somewhere in1963 or 1964 because that show didn't skip ahead in time, like L & S did.) Betty Garrett has departed, Lenny & Squiggy's act has worn thin and Carmine had gotten nowhere in Hollywood.
For those that don't know,the show had no "good-bye" episode and no return visits from Shirley. The last show in May of '83 was about Carmine leaving California.
He heads to New York to try and make it by auditioning for the musical, "Hair". ( I'd only read about this episode, never seen it because, like most, I lost track of the show because it had become almost an "unfunny" series.
(Edit 02/03/2016 : Finally saw ALL of the shows on DVD.)
So, 9 out of 10 stars for mainly 1976 to spring 1980. What many feel are the shows best seasons
(If I rated on '80 to '83 only? 4 stars at best, making those years "Schlemiel/Schlomozzel". (END)
My review now :
Being a devout fan of Happy Days and having had Arthur Fonzerelli as a hero,it only made sense I would watch "Laverene and Shirley" as well. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams certainly made an impression on their 1st guest appearance in "Happy Days".
Penny was definitely already "Laverne" but "Shirley" while nice was sort of like Laverene too, thankfully she became the sweet, Boo-Boo Kitty hugging Shirley we know & love. The show debuted in January of 1976 and just took of straight from there. With "Happy Days" as it's lead in of course.
The theme,"Making Our Dreams Come True" by Cyndi Grecco was a top 20 hit (although the music a bit faster than that from the TV version.) After watching the Cunninghams, Fonzie & Ralph & Potsie (etc.) , I sat tight for even bigger, bawdier & sillier slapstick laughs from these two wonderful females.
Those that know this show well, could most likely name of all the best sight gags and stunts. I loved the one with the seemingly alive "Murphy Bed". This was a bed that you could lift up and put away into the wall behind two doors.
The girls open these doors in the apartment of two guys they have dates with (they'll be back later) and the bed hits the floor. They try to put it back but it seems this bed has a mind of it's own!
They walk near it... it lifts itself off the ground. They step back...it goes back. Finally they tackle the bed like football players and it sends them both up into the wall space, then up & down until they come literally 'flipping' out. They land on their feet and slam it back shut!
Laverne: "That thing tried ta eat me"! Lol. If Lucille Ball was tuning in that night, I'm sure she loved the gag and laughed a long time.
Just as important as the physical and verbal humor were the touching stories about the importance friendship and standing by someone through "whatever".
They even stand by the lecherous Lenny & Squiggy ("Hello!"), who are always busting into their apartment and sometimes making inappropriate advances on them. Yet,somehow over the course of the show they become friends.
My favorite episode, before the move to California, was the 2 parter, "The Moosejaw Express". Laverne & Shirley board this train of the same name and end up in the middle of espionage & murder. It's not so much a "funny" episode, it does have that but it shows what had to be the strongest test of their friendship.
The spy / killer on board is trying to sell microfilm to the U. S. S. R. and somehow it's now girls possession. In the climax of part 2, Shirley is seemingly thrown out the door of the luggage car by the villain and Laverne is beyond anger. "You killed her. You killed Shirley!! You killed my best friend!!"
She decks him on the jaw,struggles with him and she's almost thrown off herself but suddenly a hand from outside the car grabs him and he flies out the door. It's Shirley! Who has somehow grabbed onto something outside earlier. She grabs Laverne's hand and they're safe inside again. One of the best shows from between 1976-1980.
Season 5 I have to say, seems to have a direction to "topical" shows that seem more serious and a bit like (hate to say it) 'preaching'. Still good but that's what sort of hurt "Mork & Mindy" in Season 2.
Then comes season six ,the '80-'81 season.
Talk about an overhaul! What in the world possessed producers or whoever to move the girls to Hollywood,California we'll never know. (Unless it was ratings.) Can anyone name more than five of these '80-'83 shows, without using IMDb?
The most telling thing that should have said "end it" was the episode where Shirley has moved out and gone to live with her new husband Walter Meeny (whom she married in the season before,he was in a body cast.) "Shirley Feeny Meeny" leaves Laverne a note letting her know where she's gone so suddenly and why.
So,in the final season we end up with "The Laverne Show" (I called it) with almost forgettable episodes. The worst? There's a ghost in the apartment that is the spirit of an Olympic athlete who cannot ascend until he wins a race that he lost decades ago.
He inhabits Laverne for this race and (this is really stupid)when the race starts we go to slow motion and hear the theme from..."Chariots Of Fire"???!
I will say, a few shows stand out in this era. Shirley dating a man whose only separated from his wife,Squigy's reunited with his con artist father & others. (Watch them on DVD,the good ones do stand out.)
Anyhow,the show by the end, is set in the year 1967. (Happy Days was still somewhere in1963 or 1964 because that show didn't skip ahead in time, like L & S did.) Betty Garrett has departed, Lenny & Squiggy's act has worn thin and Carmine had gotten nowhere in Hollywood.
For those that don't know,the show had no "good-bye" episode and no return visits from Shirley. The last show in May of '83 was about Carmine leaving California.
He heads to New York to try and make it by auditioning for the musical, "Hair". ( I'd only read about this episode, never seen it because, like most, I lost track of the show because it had become almost an "unfunny" series.
(Edit 02/03/2016 : Finally saw ALL of the shows on DVD.)
So, 9 out of 10 stars for mainly 1976 to spring 1980. What many feel are the shows best seasons
(If I rated on '80 to '83 only? 4 stars at best, making those years "Schlemiel/Schlomozzel". (END)