TV Tidbits Shows We Love: Laverne & Shirley

Laverne & Shirley

Aired: 1976-83, on ABC

Stars: Penny Marshall (Laverne), Cindy Williams (Shirley)

Premise: Two working-class women share an apartment and wacky adventures in the late 1950s/early 1960s.

The characters of Laverne and Shirley were introduced on Happy Days, as dates of Richie and the Fonz. Fonzie (Henry Winkler) guest-starred on the first couple episodes of Laverne & Shirley , and he came back several times. (Both series were set in the same time period, and the same town: Milwaukee.)

Comedienne Pat Carroll (Caesar's Hour; The Danny Thomas Show) guest-starred as Shirley's controlling, disapproving mother, in "Mother Knows Worst," at the end of the first season. (The episode title was a reference to the 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best.)

Before L&S , Penny Marshall played Oscar's secretary, Myrna Turner, on the sitcom The Odd Couple. (Her brother was the producer of The Odd Couple.)

At the start of the third season, the girls went on an airplane trip. This being a sitcom, of course they ended up being required to land the plane. (Visiting the cockpit, the wacky girls accidentally knocked the pilot unconscious.) The title was "Airport '59" -- a nod to the Airport disaster movie series of the 1970s.

In the episode "You Oughta Be in Pictures," the girls finally got a big break and were cast in a movie. They were ecstatic until they realized it was an Army training film and they were playing hookers.

In 1981's "Moving In," Laverne moved in with her boyfriend (played by Paul Sands) very briefly -- as in, just for one episode.

Michael McKean wrote a song called "The Look," which he and Penny Marshall sang in a 1981 episode. Years later, he and his wife, Annette Benning were nominated for an Oscar when they co-wrote the song "Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" for the film A Mighty Wind. (Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara performed it on the Oscars telecast, dressed as their Mighty Wind characters, Mitch and Mickey.)

In a 1980 episode, Laverne finally met Mr. Right -- a fireman played by Ted Danson -- but he was killed in the line of duty. Danson later starred as bar owner Sam Malone on Cheers.

In one of the first California-set episodes, the girls got jobs as stuntwomen in a Troy Donahue movie -- and Troy guest-starred as himself.

At the beginning of the episode "The Dentist," Carmine sang "You've Got Personality" at the Pizza Bowl. As he passed the microphone around and let customers sing the word "personality," Mrs. Babbish (Betty Garrett) seized the mic and sang full-out for a while until Carmine wrestled the microphone back from her. Viewers unfamiliar with Betty Garrett's pre- L&S career might have been surprised by her talent. Before she played Mrs. Babbish, she starred in several Broadway musicals and movies, including the 1949 Frank Sinatra film On the Town, and the shows Something for the Boys and Bells Are Ringing.

Golden age movie musical star Betty Garrett (On the Town) was a series regular who also guested as the mother of Julie, the cruise director on The Love Boat.

From 1951 to '56, Phil Foster (who played Laverne's dad, Frank), wrote and starred in a series of short travelouge -style films as a character named Brooklyn. The titles were pretty self explanatory: Brooklyn Goes to Beantown, Brooklyn Goes to Paris , etc.

Alan Alda's dad, Robert Alda, played Harrison, a rich older man who Shirley befriended in one episode.

When Cindy Williams left the show, her name was removed from the credits, but the title remained Laverne & Shirley.

In one of the post-Shirley episodes, Carrie Fisher guested as Laverne's new pal and the girls auditioned to be Playboy Bunnies. Carrie's character got the job, but Laverne got a date with Hugh Hefner (who guested as himself). The episode was directed by Michael McKean. Penny Marshall and Carrie Fisher are still close friends.

The girls' adventures continued in an animated sequel: the Saturday morning show Laverne and Shirley in the Army (1981-83). The characters were also featured in the cartoon The Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour (1982-83).

Joel Zwick, director of the movies My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Adventures in Babysitting , was one of the L&S directors.

After the show was cancelled, Penny Marshall become a successful film director. Her hits have included A League of Their Own and Big .

In 1999, Cindy Williams played the villain in The Patty Duke Show reunion, Still Rocking in Brooklyn Heights.

In the final episode, Carmine tries out for a Broadway play, and gets the part -- in Hair. Eddie Mekka, who played Carmine, had been in a few Broadway plays in the 1970s before joining the L&S cast, including Jumpers starring costarring Jill Clayburgh.

In 2002, the gang reunited for a tribute show: Laverne and Shirley: Together Again. The actors reminisced about the past, then played the characters again in a skit in which they tried to get on a Survivor-like reality show.

Craig Hamrick has written several books about the history of classic television shows. The three most recent, The TV Tidbits Classic Television Trivia Quiz Book, Big Lou and Barnabas & Company, are all currently available on Amazon.com.