Laverne & Shirley [TV Series] (DVD)

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Critics called it TV "junk food," not dinner, and ABC chief Fred Silverman responded by claiming it was the modern-day equivalent of Moliére´s satirical farces. In truth, "Laverne & Shirley" falls somewhere in-between. The show didn´t have the edginess of "All in the Family," "Maude," or "M*A*S*H," nor did it have the crisp writing and character banter of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Sanford and Son," or the wholesome family realism of "Happy Days" or "One Day at a Time." But debuting, as it did, during one of television´s golden ages for situation comedies, "Laverne & Shirley" was a hit with the public, if not critics.

The other shows overshadowed it at the Emmys, but there was something about these two young women from Milwaukee who worked in a brewery and talked like longshoremen that made them fun to watch. Though it was a mid-season replacement, "Laverne & Shirley" shot to number three on the Nielsen´s in 1976, eight places ahead of "Happy Days," the show that spun it off. The next year "Laverne & Shirley"placed second, and the show´s third and fourth seasons were popular enough to land them in first place both years.

Maybe it was because "Happy Days" awakened a Fifties nostalgia that "Laverne & Shirley" rode to success. Or maybe it was that the show revived Fifties´ style comedy, the heir apparent to the School of Lucy, with its low-brow physical comedy, running gags, and shows built around the predicaments that are drawn to these hapless women like iron filings to magnets. There are episodes where Laverne and Shirley act out some positively "I Love Lucy" moments—like the premier, which saw the young women attending a society dinner and accused of wearing stolen goods, at which point they take a blue-collar stand and shock their hosts by stripping down to their slips and handing over the dresses. Fonzie (Laverne´s date, who makes occasional Season One appearances) gave it thumbs up. So did viewers.

Some TV shows take a while for the characters to find themselves, but "Laverne & Shirley" came out of the studio fully formed: two blue-collar, no-nonsense girls who talk about wanting to "voh-dee-oh-doh" but end up being quintessential fun-loving "good girls." Penny Marshall, as Laverne De Fazio, and Cindy Williams, as Shirley Feeney, have an "Odd Couple" chemistry that makes them fun to watch even when they´re just talking in their basement Milwaukee apartment or in the break room at Shotz Brewery. Laverne was the hothead prone to threaten "knuckle sandwiches," while Shirley was the naïve and trusting peacemaker who both benefited from her tougher friend and helped Laverne to temper her temper. But there were some great performances by minor characters as well. Comedian Phil Foster is hilarious as Laverne´s father and the owner of the Pizza Bowl, a basement bowling alley and pizzeria where Laverne helps out occasionally. Mrs. Babish (Betty Garrett), the girls´ landlady and Mr. De Fazio´s eventual love-interest, doesn´t appear until the second season, but the girls chronically stupid co-workers and neighbors, Lenny and Squiggy (Michael McKean and David L. Lander) provide the kind of foil to these undereducated women that you didn´t think possible: people with even less education and street smarts. And their entrances were always announced in the script, with lines like "Can there be anything more disgusting?" Then the door would slam open and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman would say, "Hell-oo" in a way that gets laughs every time. The boys got the parts after they did Lenny & Squiggy at a Hollywood party and cracked everyone up. If it´s possible to supply comic relief in a television sitcom, these guys do it, and they nailed their characters right from the beginning. Even Carmine Ragusa (Eddie Mekka) came to the show fully-formed as Shirley´s ever-dancing, ever-shadow boxing, and Tony Bennett singing beau.

Here´s the episode rundown on Season One, produced by Garry Marshall and presented in the same order in which they were telecast:

The Society Party—Tad Shotz, nephew of the local Beer Baron, invites the girls to a society dinner to prove to his father that he can connect with the "little people." Shirley convinces Laverne to go, but the night turns into an embarrassment for them when a snooty couple accuses them of wearing dresses stolen from their daughters.