Laverne & Shirley (TV Series) The Diner (1980) User Reviews

Who's Betty?

[TarantulaC · 10/10 · 16 February 2022]

Just an excellent episode. The scene in the diner is worth the price of admission. Good farce at a hectic pace in the diner.

For French farce at an extremely fast pace you'd need to watch the Three's Company episode "Upstairs, Downstairs, Downstairs".

Penny & Cindy are phenomenal physical comedians.

A must watch for L&S fans.

Simply Hilarious

[TKHabsForever · 10/10 · 27 January 2022]

So many good episodes from Season 5. For me this episode and the two part "Murder on the Moose Jaw Express" would be my favourites. Honourable mentions to "Not Quite South Of The Border", "The Wedding" & "Why Did The Fireman Die".

Got to love Laverne's Diner voice and her new diner name for Shirley as "Betty".

Poor Shirley has to deal with bullies, degenerates, etc....through the dining room scene. She was quite skilled at carrying the plates using arm service. Got to love when she wants to take on the entire diner after she's had enough.

Great episode. Could have easily been the Season finale.

Betty, please!

[mattiasflgrtll6 · 10/10 · 24 March 2020]

After Lenny's grandfather dies, he inherits a diner which he's decided to run together with Squiggy. To their chagrin, it doesn't turn out as well as they hoped. Tired of their stale jobs at the brewery, Shirley and Laverne take over the diner instead. But can they handle the stress that comes with it?

If you want a really laugh-packed half hour this is as good as it gets. Right away I'm amused by Lenny and Squiggy's odd idea of running a business, such as changing the name from Lazlo's Place to DEAD Lazlo's Place as if that really is necessary, and running a dog race track just beside it.

And when they hand over their business to the girls, they sure have a unique way of "shaking on it". Michael McKean and David Lander's body movements as they shake maniacally is hysterical.

The comedy gets ramped up even more when Laverne & Shirley take over the place. When they try way too hard to impress their first customer (such as Carmine singing loudly and dancing on top of a table), he gets annoyed and leaces. Then after changing the formula a bit more customers start showing up, resulting in overworked stress instead. Laverne constantly calling Shirley Betty, spilling pancake batter all over the grill, Shirley getting harrassed by all the annoying customers and just trying not to trip while wading in the sea of hungry consumers is pure comedic gold. I never get tired of seeing them in situations where they're driven insane by all the frustrations they have to deal with.

In the end, the girls are beaten down and disgruntled over having to go back to bottlecapping. Frank cheers them up by saying they will find something else to get passionate about. And indeed, just a little bit later their entire lifestyle would completely change...

At the tail end of season 5, the show delivered one of its most iconic episodes, one of the many demonstrations of how despite the crazy mayhem Laverne and Shirley may get into, they will always be there for each other as a team.

Betty, please pick up your weenies!

[angelahptrio · 9/10 · 4 May 2020]

One of the best episodes of season 5. I can't get enough of Laverne's diner talk. And poor Shirley dealing with rude customers and perverts, but it's a great show. Poor Laverne the only cook, but entertaining. I probably quote this alot: "Betty, please", "Attention, please don't harass Betty", "Betty, please pick up", "Attention, Attention, lucky, lucky for the next ten minutes every thing comes with pancakes".

Painful

[LaverneandShirleysucks · 1/10 · 14 November 2021]

Laverne & Shirley work in a diner Lenny inherited and when they open, they lose all sense of intelligence and act so unbelievably ridiculous you wonder what on earth is wrong with them.

Laverne touches the food with her hands, flips pancakes with a trash shovel, cracks open eggs and tosses the shells on the floor and tosses spaghetti against the wall before dousing it with ketchup to serve customers. You wonder why they're acting so dumb because they're not stupid women, but here they act like Lenny & Squiggy throughout the episode and so out of character and painful to watch.

It seems the more the seasons went on, the quality went steadily down. Maybe the change to California got better but season 5 is just dreadful.