Personally, The Diner could've been a better season finale, but this is good too. Laverne's phobia is probably relatable to extroverts, because I am like Shirley I enjoy spending time with myself. To see Mr. Miyagi is delightful. Laverne interrupts Frank and Edna having sex. I love that they don't say the word, but she asks 'Were you two fooling around?' and he answers 'No, I meant it'...Awesome answer. You don't need to say more nasty jokes as comedy does today. Anywho, I like it.
2 Reviews
Ridiculous ending to a terrible season
LaverneandShirleysucks21 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
There's a reason why Laverne & Shirley plummeted from the #1 show during season 4 all the way down to #42 ranking for season 5. It got progressively dumber from it's "Shotgun Wedding" season opener to the "Separate Tables" season finale discussed in this review and every episode in between was a mess.
Here in "Separate Tables" the show opens with Lenny & Squiggy bursting into the girl's apartment (who does this?!) with a tub (yes a tub!) and a telephone rigged to a hose in an attempt to invent a phone you can talk on while bathing in the shower. The mouthpiece sprays water on you while you're talking so you can continue lathering up while chatting. How the writers thought this was hysterical is beyond my comprehension. It's so absurd that you just roll your eyes at this pathetic attempt at comedy.
The girls throw them out, but not before they soak the apartment floor with suds and water. Afterwards Shirley gets a mop to casually clean up the mess. In reality if anyone did this, the apartment owners would make them clean it up before tossing them out. But the girls just accept that this is normal and live with it. What's normal is moving the hell out of the apartment and away from those two clowns or at least double bolting their front door so they can't burst in anymore. But it was the 70's and I guess bursting into people's apartment uninvited was funny to people back then.
So the story then begins with Laverne wanting to go to the movies but Shirley wants to stay home because she's building a house with what looks like popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue (is this woman 25 or 5?!) This is the house she says she's going to live in when she's married. This is a grown woman doing this lol. Laverne wants to help her build the house, but like a bratty little child, Shirley won't let her play and wants the house all to herself. When Laverne suggests the movies again, Shirley tells Laverne to just go herself but Laverne is horrified at the thought.
Shirley persuades Laverne to go with her to a Chinese restaurant but they have to sit at separate tables so Laverne can overcome her fear of being alone. I don't know how that's supposed to help with Shirley being just a few feet away, but even so, Laverne just can't do it and makes every lame attempt to walk over to Shirley's table to sit with her. It seems really out of character for Laverne who for the past 5 seasons seemed to be the more independent one and secure in herself that she should have no problem eating alone. But here she's like a child left alone by her parents and doesn't know what to do. It's painful to watch.
Her solution, instead of eating her meal, is to crawl to the desert cart when it goes by and hop underneath it to hitch a ride out of the dining room and out of the restaurant. She has no problem looking like an idiot doing this in front of a room full of diners, but is deathly afraid of eating alone....whatever. Then we reach such an incredibly absurd ending that my jaw just dropped at how stupid it was. Laverne finally comes home and Shirley asks where she went after fleeing the restaurant in terror.
Well, Laverne casually says how she went to the pool hall for hot dogs and played a few pool games with herself for the evening. (BTW, Laverne left her purse at the restaurant and Shirley brought it home for her, so how on earth did she pay?!) Anyway, the total irony of what she did is completely lost on Laverne that Shirley has to jump up off the couch and beat her over the head with the obvious. "Laverne!! You DID IT!! You ate alone after all!! You beat your fear!!" ....And Laverne's unbelievable light bulb (or dim bulb) response is "Yeah, I guess I did!" And she's all proud of herself. How the heck did she not realize this herself as she was eating her unpaid for hot dogs?! What the hell ever lol. My law just dropped at the stupidity of it all and that Laverne needed Shirley to point out the obvious to her.
There's also a bizarre scene where Laverne's Pop and Edna run into the restaurant in their pajamas because Laverne called them and said it was an emergency. The whole thing fell flat and made no sense. Surely they would've gotten dressed first.
I was ok with this show up until season 5 when it became a chore to sit through each episode, but I carried on hoping it would get better, but it didn't and just got worse in my opinion. This was the final season before the California move, and i'm sure the plummeting ratings had a lot to do with that change to try and get viewers back. (It didn't because the show ranked 20 for seasons 6 and 7 and 25 for the final season without Shirley.)
I don't remember much about the California years except the earthquake one which I remember liking and one where Laverne has to get some nasty note she wrote her boss and has to do a Mission Impossible feat to get it back. I loved that one as a kid and will see if I like it again 40 years later. So i'm looking forward to the next season, and really interested in how they explained how the entire cast moved to California together because when you think about it, it's weird how they all would make the move at the same time. Especially Frank selling the pizza place and Lenny & Squiggy going along and actually becoming neighbors again to the girls in California without them getting a restraining order against them for following them halfway across the country.
But good lord, season 5 was just terrible and the slumping ratings showed that audiences back then thankfully agreed.
Here in "Separate Tables" the show opens with Lenny & Squiggy bursting into the girl's apartment (who does this?!) with a tub (yes a tub!) and a telephone rigged to a hose in an attempt to invent a phone you can talk on while bathing in the shower. The mouthpiece sprays water on you while you're talking so you can continue lathering up while chatting. How the writers thought this was hysterical is beyond my comprehension. It's so absurd that you just roll your eyes at this pathetic attempt at comedy.
The girls throw them out, but not before they soak the apartment floor with suds and water. Afterwards Shirley gets a mop to casually clean up the mess. In reality if anyone did this, the apartment owners would make them clean it up before tossing them out. But the girls just accept that this is normal and live with it. What's normal is moving the hell out of the apartment and away from those two clowns or at least double bolting their front door so they can't burst in anymore. But it was the 70's and I guess bursting into people's apartment uninvited was funny to people back then.
So the story then begins with Laverne wanting to go to the movies but Shirley wants to stay home because she's building a house with what looks like popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue (is this woman 25 or 5?!) This is the house she says she's going to live in when she's married. This is a grown woman doing this lol. Laverne wants to help her build the house, but like a bratty little child, Shirley won't let her play and wants the house all to herself. When Laverne suggests the movies again, Shirley tells Laverne to just go herself but Laverne is horrified at the thought.
Shirley persuades Laverne to go with her to a Chinese restaurant but they have to sit at separate tables so Laverne can overcome her fear of being alone. I don't know how that's supposed to help with Shirley being just a few feet away, but even so, Laverne just can't do it and makes every lame attempt to walk over to Shirley's table to sit with her. It seems really out of character for Laverne who for the past 5 seasons seemed to be the more independent one and secure in herself that she should have no problem eating alone. But here she's like a child left alone by her parents and doesn't know what to do. It's painful to watch.
Her solution, instead of eating her meal, is to crawl to the desert cart when it goes by and hop underneath it to hitch a ride out of the dining room and out of the restaurant. She has no problem looking like an idiot doing this in front of a room full of diners, but is deathly afraid of eating alone....whatever. Then we reach such an incredibly absurd ending that my jaw just dropped at how stupid it was. Laverne finally comes home and Shirley asks where she went after fleeing the restaurant in terror.
Well, Laverne casually says how she went to the pool hall for hot dogs and played a few pool games with herself for the evening. (BTW, Laverne left her purse at the restaurant and Shirley brought it home for her, so how on earth did she pay?!) Anyway, the total irony of what she did is completely lost on Laverne that Shirley has to jump up off the couch and beat her over the head with the obvious. "Laverne!! You DID IT!! You ate alone after all!! You beat your fear!!" ....And Laverne's unbelievable light bulb (or dim bulb) response is "Yeah, I guess I did!" And she's all proud of herself. How the heck did she not realize this herself as she was eating her unpaid for hot dogs?! What the hell ever lol. My law just dropped at the stupidity of it all and that Laverne needed Shirley to point out the obvious to her.
There's also a bizarre scene where Laverne's Pop and Edna run into the restaurant in their pajamas because Laverne called them and said it was an emergency. The whole thing fell flat and made no sense. Surely they would've gotten dressed first.
I was ok with this show up until season 5 when it became a chore to sit through each episode, but I carried on hoping it would get better, but it didn't and just got worse in my opinion. This was the final season before the California move, and i'm sure the plummeting ratings had a lot to do with that change to try and get viewers back. (It didn't because the show ranked 20 for seasons 6 and 7 and 25 for the final season without Shirley.)
I don't remember much about the California years except the earthquake one which I remember liking and one where Laverne has to get some nasty note she wrote her boss and has to do a Mission Impossible feat to get it back. I loved that one as a kid and will see if I like it again 40 years later. So i'm looking forward to the next season, and really interested in how they explained how the entire cast moved to California together because when you think about it, it's weird how they all would make the move at the same time. Especially Frank selling the pizza place and Lenny & Squiggy going along and actually becoming neighbors again to the girls in California without them getting a restraining order against them for following them halfway across the country.
But good lord, season 5 was just terrible and the slumping ratings showed that audiences back then thankfully agreed.
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