Laverne & Shirley

Laverne & Shirley

1976
Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley

Laverne & Shirley

7 | TV-G | en | Comedy

Laverne & Shirley is an American television sitcom that ran on ABC from January 27, 1976 to May 10, 1983. It starred Penny Marshall as Laverne De Fazio and Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney, single roommates who worked as bottlecappers in a fictitious Milwaukee brewery called "Shotz Brewery." The show was 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.

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Seasons & Episodes

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EP22  Here Today, Hair Tomorrow
May. 10,1983
Here Today, Hair Tomorrow

Rhonda enters Cowboy Bills to tell Frank that she suspects Carmine is about to commit suicide. She tells Frank that he's packed all his stuff, turned off the gas, and disconnected his phone. Just as the two of them are about to run to try to save Carmine, he walks in and tells them that he's decided he's getting nowhere fast and that he wants to move to New Yrok to try his luck on Broadway. Rhonda and Frank lend him money as he doesn't have quite enough to get there yet. He says his goodbyes to Frank and Rhonda and he goes to tell Laverne. When he walks into Laverne's apartment to tell her his news, Laverne tells him that after weeks of saving she can finally afford to buy a water bed that she's been after. Carmine then tells her that he's sick of being a singing telegram boy and that he's moving to New York but he's $100 short. At this point Laverne offers to loan Carmine the $100 from her bed money. Eventually he takes it and says goodbye to her, too. Carmine arrives in New York and

EP21  Councilman DeFazio
May. 03,1983
Councilman DeFazio

Frank is making his usual contribution to his local councilman. After the guy has taken Frank's money he tells him that he plans to tear down Cowboy Bills and build a high rise on top of it. Frank chases the guy from the restaurant and heads down to see Laverne.Laverne is ill in bed, but Frank vents his frustrations to Laverne and decides the only way to stop him and beat city hall is to run against the current corrupt councilman and stop him that way. Next day back at Cowboy Bills, Frank is busy getting all his friends to help him campaign for him, the councilman walsk in with a camera crew in tow and he's telling them all about his plans for the area. Frank confronts the guy and tells the news crew that the other guy is crooked and that his family has all the companies that he gives the city's jobs too. The anchor woman for the TV station invites Frank to an open debate on tv to air his views against Counilman Pike. Later Frank confesses to Carmine that he's never spoken in public be

EP20  Do the Carmine
Mar. 15,1983
Do the Carmine

Carmine and Squiggy are sitting at Cowboy Bills, as Carmine complains that nobody likes his new record 'Do the Hotfoot', Squigy notices that sitting at the next table is Bobby Bitts, king of the hits. Squiggy tries to talk Bobby into playing Carmine's record on his show ""American Dance Band"" but Bobby's having none of it. Squiggy decides the only way to get Bobby to hear the record is for Carmine to sing it live there at Cowboy Bills. Carmine gets a few verses in and Bobby stops him, says it's ""Superrific"" and books him to sing on his next show. The title is changed to ""Do the Carmine"", and Carmine now fills his head with dreams of becoming a rich rock star, and he asks Laverne if she'll be in the audience of the show to hear him sing. Carmine sings his record and for 1 week he's a success, but some pious do-gooder hears his song and thinks it's rebellious and communist. So he confronts Bobby and demands that he not play Carmine's record or he'll have his group put pressure on the sta

EP19  How's Your Sister?
Mar. 01,1983
How's Your Sister?

Squiggy's bizarre sister, Squendolyn, arrives for a visit and ends up moving in with Laverne and falling for Carmine.

EP18  Please Don't Feed the Buzzards
Feb. 22,1983
Please Don't Feed the Buzzards

Lenny and Squiggy find a treasure map and convince Frank and Carmine to go with them to search for gold.

EP17  Ghost Story
Feb. 15,1983
Ghost Story

Laverne and the gang hold a seance to rid her apartment of a ghost that has taken up residence there.

EP16  Short on Time
Feb. 08,1983
Short on Time

When Frank finds a note from Edna saying that she has left him, he goes to Laverne's to talk to her about it. Laverne, who doesn't know that Edna has left, asks her father to stay at the apartment and babysit Little Chucky who is a chimp, because she has gotten a chance to sing with The Spinners as Rhonda gave her the winning woman. While singing with the group, she feels guilty about leaving her father when he wanted to talk to her so she rushes back home and learns about Edna leaving. The show ends with Little Chucky waiting on tables at Cowboy Bills.

EP15  The Fashion Show
Feb. 01,1983
The Fashion Show

Jealous of all the beautiful girls her new photographer boyfriend has to take pictures of, Laverne goes to a fashion show where he is working and ends up being one of the models in the show.

EP14  Rock 'n' Roll Show
Jan. 25,1983
Rock 'n' Roll Show

Laverne talks her wacky friend Chuck into forming his own band after he plays Beethoven on his harmonica. Laverne is also on a special diet for her ulcer and back at the flat Carmine is trying to stop Laverne from eating all the wrong foods. Chuck shows Laverne his new band, a bunch of geeky looking guys enter and proceed to put Laverne to sleep with their classical playing. Laverne tells Chuck he has to play rock music if he wants to make big money. The guys trust Laverne so much that they've quit their jobs to become big musicians. Laverne tries to show them how to jazz up their act a little, but the results are still terrible. To make things worse, Squiggy has just gotten the band their first job. He tells them that they are to perform in 20 minutes. Laverne has to read out to the massive crowd that the Rolling Stones won't be performing and that instead her friend Chuck's band will be playing instead. Amazingly to everyone, the band plays extremely well and goes over a smash. It

EP13  The Baby Show
Jan. 18,1983
The Baby Show

Sgt. Plout once again shows up on Laverne's doorstep. This time she is pregnant and looking for a place to stay. Plout and Laverne enter a mothers-to-be contest and then go to a funeral home to pay their respect to one of Frank's buddies. While at the funeral home, Sgt. Plout goes into labor and delivers her baby.

EP12  Defective Ballet
Jan. 11,1983
Defective Ballet

Squiggy is mistaken for a Russion ballet dancer who is trying to defect to the United States.

EP11  The Monastery Show
Jan. 04,1983
The Monastery Show

Laverne, upset with the way her life has been going, asks if she can stay at a convent for a couple of weeks to try and sort things out. The Mother Superior lets her stay but then asks her to leave when she has trouble keeping the vow of silence that all the other Sisters have taken.

EP10  The Gymnast
Dec. 14,1982
The Gymnast

Laverne is convinced that the former trapeze artist she's been dating is out to kill her.

EP9  Of Mice and Men
Dec. 07,1982
Of Mice and Men

Laverne's plan to restore her cowardly boyfriend's self-confidence backfires.

EP8  Jinxed
Nov. 30,1982
Jinxed

When Laverne is convinced that she is jinxed after refusing to answer a chain letter, her friends send her a ""gypsy"" to help her.

EP7  Death Row (2)
Nov. 23,1982
Death Row (2)

While waiting to be booked at the police station for the bank robbery, Laverne and her new 'friend' are mistaken for murderers who were on the run. They are both sentenced to be executed at midnight that night.

EP6  Death Row (1)
Nov. 16,1982
Death Row (1)

Laverne makes friends with a group of people that she doesn't know are really a gang who plan to rob a bank. When she goes to the bank with them she thinks it is only to get new dishes that the bank is giving away with every new account that is opened. When she realizes what is actually happening it's too late because the police have already arrived. Laverne is handcuffed along with the rest of the gang and they are all carted off to jail.

EP5  The Playboy Show
Nov. 09,1982
The Playboy Show

Laverne is waiting tables at Cowboy Bill's when Rhonda comes asking if Laverne would be kind enough to go downtown to pick up a Playboy Bunny application form for her as she's busy trying out for her new play. Rhonda suggests Laverne should pick up an application for herself at the same time. Laverne is reluctant to go and even more reluctant to get an application for herself because of her 'chicken ankles'. Next we see loads of beautiful girls at the Playboy auditions when Laverne walks in, the woman in charge is a hypochondriac and says she has a fever coming on so Laverne starts handing out the application forms for her. Laverne becomes friendly with a woman named Kathy. Laverne decides to apply after Kathy (Carrie Fisher) tells her to try after all what's she got to lose. Back at the flat, Laverne is eagerly waiting for a phone call from the Playboy auditions to see if she's allowed to attend ""Bunny Training"". She gets the call and she in. Laverne tells Frank that she's going to tr

EP4  Lost in Spacesuits
Oct. 26,1982
Lost in Spacesuits

The show starts in Laverne's apartment, where she's trying to put together a load of her stuff to sell as she's desperate for money now she's out of a job. In comes Frank with an old army buddy whose life he saved during the war. This army buddy offers Laverne a job at Ajax Aerospace. Laverne's delighted and is told to report for work Monday morning. Come Monday, we see Laverne at her new job which is testing gravity boots. She soon finds this more boring than bottling beer in her old Milwaukee job. When everyone goes for lunch, there's only her and a weird guy called Chuck left in the room. To make things more exciting, Chuck gets Laverne to try on a secret experimental anti-gravity spacesuit. Laverne comes out wearing the the suit and helmet and Chuck who has the remote control soon has Laverne doing acrobtaics in mid-air. The problems start when Chuck can't get Laverne down, Laverne suggests she put on a pair of gravity boots which brings her back down to earth, however she can't ge

EP3  The Note
Oct. 19,1982
The Note

Laverne gets depressed and then angry after she finds a very short note from Shirley saying that she has left to go overseas with her husband who was just transferred there. Laverne just can't believe that Shirley would leave and only write a few words to say goodbye. To try and help cheer her up, each of the gang tries to find Laverne a new roommate. But things turn out okay after Laverne finds the rest of Shirley's note which had fallen under the bed.

EP2  Window on Main Street
Oct. 12,1982
Window on Main Street

The girls agree to live in Bardwell's main show window for a weekend in order to demonstrate the 'House Of The Future'

EP1  The Mummy's Bride
Sep. 28,1982
The Mummy's Bride

Shirley marries Walter Meeney.

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7 | TV-G | en | Comedy , Family | More Info
Released: 1976-01-27 | Released Producted By: Paramount Television Studios , Miller-Milkis Productions Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

Laverne & Shirley is an American television sitcom that ran on ABC from January 27, 1976 to May 10, 1983. It starred Penny Marshall as Laverne De Fazio and Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney, single roommates who worked as bottlecappers in a fictitious Milwaukee brewery called "Shotz Brewery." The show was 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.

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Cast

Penny Marshall , Cindy Williams , David L. Lander

Director

Garry Marshall

Producted By

Paramount Television Studios , Miller-Milkis Productions

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Reviews

raysond Being this was the spin-off to the successful "Happy Days" television series the characters of Laverne and Shirley made their debut premiere in a classic episode "A Date With Fonzie"(Season 3,Episode 10) from the "Happy Days" television series that originally aired on November 11,1975 and from that episode Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams made an astounding impression. The lead characters were introduced in that episode as acquaintances of "The Fonz"(Henry Winkler). It was from that episode and due to the high ratings it achieve,the producers thought it would be a great idea to create a spin-off to "Happy Days" which was at the time the highest rated show on the air not to mention a colossal hit for ABC-TV(which had five of the top ten shows in the Nielsens)."Laverne and Shirley" was the created brainchild of Garry Marshall along with Mark Rothman, Edward L. Milkis and Thomas L. Miller(who also served as executive producers of this series)along with producers Lowell Ganz, Jeff Franklin, Arthur Silver along with Mark Rothman and Milt Josefburg that premiered on ABC's Tuesday night prime time schedule on January 27,1976 as the mid-season replacement for "Welcome Back Kotter"(which moved to Thursday nights). The series from the first episode was a colossal hit becoming ABC's top-rated sitcom that lasted eight seasons and 178 episodes until May 10,1983. During its eight year-run it went through major changes as the network moved the show to different time slots. For the first four seasons it was on Tuesday nights from January 27,1976 until May 15,1979. Then in Season 5 it moved to Thursday nights from September 13,1979 until December 13,1979 and on January 7,1980 moved to Monday nights until February 11,1980 where it was losing viewers and falling ratings. Then for the next three seasons the network moved it back to its original Tuesday night time slot after "Happy Days" from January 26,1980 until May 10,1983.Only actress Penny Marshall was with the series for all 178 episodes. Cindy Williams was with the series for 159 episodes from 1976-1982. Williams left the series at the end of Season 7 to pursue other interests. Other recurring characters included actors David L. Lander("Squiggy" for 156 episodes); Michael McKean("Lenny" for 150 episodes),and Eddie Mekka("The Big Ragoo" for 150 episodes). Phil Foster appeared in 149 episodes while actress Betty Garrett appeared in 97 episodes of the series. The series "Laverne and Shirley" started roughly in the same time period as "Happy Days" with the timeline starting in 1958 when the series began through 1967 when the series ended.Several writers contribute to some of the hilarious hi-jinks and slapstick comedy each week ranging from Lowell Ganz, Garry Marshall, and Mark Rothman(who were the writers for all 178 episodes of the series) along with Jeff Franklin, David W. Duclon, Marc Sotkin, Milt Josefburg, Fred Fox, Ron Leavitt, Winifred Hervey, Babaloo Mandel, Bob Brunner,and Michael Warren. Big time directors ranging from James Burrows, John Tracy, Alan Rafkin, Howard Morris, Joel Zwick, Alan Myerson, Garry Marshall, Jay Sandrich, Jerry Paris, Carl Gottlieb, Chris Thompson, and Tom Trbovich just to name a few. The guest stars who made appearances on this series featured Vicki Lawrence, Ed Begley, Jr., Carrie Fisher, Ed Marinaro, Fred Willard, Billy Sands, Jay Leno, Michael Mann, Anjelica Huston, Laraine Newman, Robert Hays, Roger C. Carmel, Scatman Crothers, Charlene Tilton, Conrad Janis, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Howard Hesseman, Fabian, Pat Carroll, Hans Conried, Troy Donahue, Toni Basil, G.W. Bailey, Severn Darden, Scott Brady, Christopher Guest, Jerry Belson, to Carl Ballantine, Mark Harmon, Fred Dryer, Dennis Haysbert, Ted Danson, and Art Garfunkel. Even had cameos from Jim Lange and Ilene Graff too.During the peak of the show's run "Laverne and Shirley" got there own Saturday Morning cartoon show that aired on ABC on October 10,1981 with Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams as the voices of there characters where it was part of "The Laverne & Shirley/Fonzie Hour". But with the original series the cast was electric not to mention the adequate writing and above average direction not to mention the slapstick antics made this show a solid ratings winner for the eight seasons it was on the air. Several great episodes do stand out here and I will start with the show's top ten which includes the two-part episodes "Murder on the Moose Jaw Express"(Season 5),"The Bardwell Caper"(Season 6), "We're In The Army Now"(Season 5). Other great episodes included "The Diner" (Season 5), "Look Before You Leap"(Season 2), "The Defiant One"(Season 7),and "Laverne and Shirley Meet Fabian"(Season 3). When the series was suddenly canceled by ABC in 1983 it faced strong competition of NBC's "The A-Team" that crushed it in the ratings. The series that replaced it in the fall of 1983 was "Foul Ups,Bleeps and Blunders" aka "The Dick Clark Show" on ABC's Tuesday night schedule.
Robert Ponce When Lavern & Shirely first aired, America was undergoing historic changes in many areas. So were American families. Values once held dear suddenly were facing new ideas, new challenges. So were Lavern & Shirely. Stereo typing women was not going to be tolerated any longer. Neither in the home, Entertainment, common work place and in politics. Lavern & Shirely's writers were aware of women's rights and wrote accordingly...with taste and humor. I loved watching the show for several reason but mostly on account Cindy Williams was my personal "Girl Next Door" ever since seeing her portrayal of 'Laurie' in American Graffiti (1973). Above all that, I was the same age as Laurie and Steve then Shirely. I could totally relate to what they were up against. Lavern & Shirely just took the experience to a different level and a different city. Gr8 Program.
Syl Laverne and Shirley was one of my personal favorites growing up. Of course, we had reruns and repeats in those days. I loved Laverne and Shirley. They were the underdogs and perfectly suited as roommates and best friends. They were played brilliantly by Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. Unfortunately, the show never recovered after Cindy Williams left to have her daughter and who could blame her. She was happily married to Bill Hudson, Kate's father, for twenty years with two children. Penny Marshall and the gang did their best to recover but never fully did. The reason and there are many that this show was so popular was the physical antics that Laverne and Shirley got into. I don't know if I preferred Milwaukee or Burbank but the supporting cast was top notch featuring Lenny and Sqiggy who could have had their own show. The delightful Carmine as the aspiring dancer. Elaine Joyce as the beautiful neighbor in Burbank. Betty Garrett and Al Molinaro as the landlady and Mr. Defazio. The show had plenty of it's moments too and great guest stars. It's certainly still a beloved show even in repeats.
tfrizzell "Happy Days" spin-off about the two titled characters (Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams) and their total comedic and romantic misadventures as Milwaukee brewery workers in the 1950s and 1960s. The series seemed to work in spite of itself due to the likable leads and their ever-lasting love interests (scene-stealers Michael McKean and David L. Lander). The characters were silly, but had a reality to them that could not be over-looked. Adequate writing and above average direction were sufficient in keeping the show a ratings winner for a good eight years from 1976 through 1983. Still a show that has a strong following as it survives the years in relatively wide-spread syndication. 4 stars out of 5.