Laverne & Shirley


Laverne & Shirley is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley followed the lives of Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney, two friends and roommates who work as bottle-cappers in the fictitious Shotz Brewery in late 1950s Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From the sixth season onwards, the series' setting changed to mid-1960s Burbank, California. Michael McKean and David Lander co-starred as their friends and neighbors Lenny Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman, respectively; along with Eddie Mekka as Carmine Ragusa, Phil Foster as Laverne's father Frank DeFazio, and Betty Garrett as the girls' landlady Edna Babish.
Featuring regular physical comedy, Laverne & Shirley became the most-watched American television program by its third season, and was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award in 1979.

History

The series is a spin-off from Happy Days, as the two lead characters were originally introduced on that series as acquaintances of Fonzie. Set in roughly the same time period, the timeline started in approximately 1958, when the series began, through 1967, when the series ended. As with Happy Days, it was made by Paramount Television, created by Garry Marshall and executive produced by Garry Marshall, Edward K. Milkis, and Thomas L. Miller from Miller-Boyett Productions.
According to Michael Eisner, Cindy Williams had refused to do the Laverne & Shirley spin-off, so her role was recast with Liberty Williams, and a seven-minute screen test was filmed. Between that afternoon shoot and the evening, Cindy Williams was eventually talked into doing the role and the scene was re-filmed that night with who would become the lead actresses. Executives wanted to see both versions, but Eisner hid the first reel of film in a closet of the building and said at the screening that the film from the first shoot had gotten lost, so they only watched the performance of Cindy Williams with Penny Marshall.

Plot

Seasons 1–5

At the start of each episode, Laverne and Shirley are skipping down a Milwaukee street, arm in arm, reciting a Yiddish-American hopscotch chant: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated," which then leads into the series' theme song, "Making Our Dreams Come True" performed by Cyndi Grecco. The hopscotch chant is from Penny Marshall's childhood.
For the first five seasons, from 1976 to 1980, the show was set in Milwaukee, taking place from roughly 1958–59 through the early 1960s. Shotz Brewery bottle cappers and best friends, Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney, live in a basement apartment, where they communicate with upstairs neighbors Lenny and Squiggy by screaming up the dumbwaiter shaft connecting their apartments. Also included in the show are Laverne's father, Frank DeFazio, proprietor of the Pizza Bowl, and Edna Babish, the apartment building's landlady, who would later marry Frank. Shirley maintained an off-again on-again romance with dancer/singer/boxer Carmine Ragusa. During this period, characters from Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley would make occasional guest appearances on each other's series.
During the fifth season, the girls went into the Army Reserve, and they contended with a tough-as-nails drill sergeant named Alvinia T. "The Frog" Plout. While their time in the Army Reserve was brief in the live action series, it did inspire an animated series with the duo in the army contending with their immediate superior, a commanding pig named Sgt. Squealy who was voiced by Ron Palillo who is always threatening to report them to Sgt. Turnbuckle.
Michael McKean and David Lander created the characters of Lenny and Squiggy while both were theater students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lander told an interviewer in 2006 that they created the characters while high on marijuana. After graduating, they continued to perform the characters in live comedy routines before joining the show's cast.

Seasons 6–8

For the sixth season in 1980, Laverne and Shirley and their friends all moved from Milwaukee to Burbank, California. The ladies took jobs at a department store, Frank and Edna managed a Texas barbecue restaurant called Cowboy Bill's, Carmine delivered singing telegrams and sought work as an actor, and Lenny and Squiggy started a talent agency called Squignowski Talent Agency. From this point until the end of the series' run, Laverne & Shirley was set in the mid-1960s. In one of the shots in the show's new opening sequence, the ladies are seen kissing a 1964 poster of The Beatles. With each season, a new year passed in the timeline of the show, starting with 1965 in the 1980–81 season, and ending in 1967 with Carmine heading off for Broadway, to star in the musical Hair. When the series' setting changed to California, two new characters are added: Sonny St. Jacques, a stunt man, landlord of the Burbank apartment building and love interest for Laverne; as well as Rhonda Lee, the ladies' neighbor and an aspiring actress.
In March 1982, Cindy Williams became pregnant with her first child. In August, two episodes into production of the series' eighth season, Williams left the show and filed a $20 million lawsuit against Paramount after they demanded Williams work on her scheduled due date. The case was later settled out of court and Williams was released from her contract.
The series' final season continued with minimal mention of Shirley, who moved overseas with her Army husband. Ratings dipped but were strong enough for the show to be considered for a ninth season. Penny Marshall agreed based on the agreement that the show would move production to New York City. Faced with the high cost of such an endeavor, ABC opted not to renew the series and it quietly faded from the schedule in May, 1983.

Characters

Main

Broadcast history and ratings

Laverne & Shirley debuted in the 1975–76 TV season, with its first episode airing in January 1976. By its third season, it had become the most-watched American television program. In August 1979, before the start of its fifth season, Laverne & Shirley was moved to Thursdays at 8 pm opposite The Waltons on CBS and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century on NBC. Viewership fell sharply. In an effort to improve the show's ratings, ABC moved Laverne & Shirley to Mondays at 8 p.m. in December 1979. The ratings fared no better so, in February 1980, the network moved the series back to its familiar Tuesday-night berth right after Happy Days, where it remained for the next three years. By the end of the fifth season, however, the sitcom failed to make the list of the top 30 programs. Between 1980 and 1982, the ratings improved considerably, but despite having regained its Tuesday-night time slot and changing its format, Laverne & Shirley never regained the popularity it had attained during its first four years on the air.
By the time of its cancellation in 1983, the series ranked at number 25 for the season.

Animated spin-off

During the run of the main show, an animated spin-off called Laverne & Shirley in the Army began airing on Saturday mornings. The first program was aired on October 10, 1981, and featured the voices of Marshall and Williams playing Laverne and Shirley in the Army with a talking piglet drill sergeant named "Squealy". The show was renamed Laverne & Shirley with Special Guest Star The Fonz when the Fonz began working in the motorpool as the chief mechanic, and then again renamed Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour when new segments involving a teenaged Mork & Mindy were added to the mix. The series ran until September 3, 1983.

Merchandise

The program was so successful at the time that it spawned a merchandise franchise. Mego released two models of Laverne and Shirley dolls, and one model of Lenny and Squiggy dolls. Hot Wheels created a Shotz Brewery delivery van, and several novelty toys were sold such as Halloween costumes, a board game, jigsaw puzzles, coloring books, video slot machine and other toys.

Home media

and CBS DVD have released the entire series of Laverne and Shirley on DVD in Region 1, albeit with music substitutions and scene deletions.
On June 16, 2015, CBS DVD released Laverne & Shirley – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.
Season 1 has also been released on DVD in Region 2.
The first three seasons have been released on DVD in Region 4 by Paramount.

Music

The theme song from the series was released as a single from Cyndi's LP by the same name and became a radio favorite, becoming a top-30 American hit in 1976.
In 1976, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams released an album, performed in character, titled Laverne & Shirley Sing, which contained some original songs along with some 1950s and 1960s standards. The album was originally released on Atlantic Records. On November 11, 2003, Collector's Choice released it on CD.
In 1979, Michael McKean and David Lander followed suit with the album Lenny and the Squigtones, also performed in character, featuring mainly original songs penned by McKean. The album was released on Casablanca Records.
In July 1979, McKean and Lander also appeared together on American Bandstand performing the song "King of the Cars", the single released from their Lenny and the Squigtones album. They also performed "Love Is A Terrible Thing", another song from the album.
In 1980, Romina Power recorded a separate theme tune for the show when it was introduced to the Italian market. The track, simply titled "Laverne & Shirley" featured verses in English and Italian. Released as a single in the same year, the track failed to chart.