Laverne and Shirley: The Fourth Season
BY Ryan LaMarca / 2008-06-20
Going back to revisit a great television series like "Laverne and Shirley" is such a worthwhile and wonderful experience, almost like going back and meeting up with old friends. This fourth season which ran on ABC from 1978 to 1979 is a perfect example to highlight the show's greatness. During this season, "Laverne and Shirley" was the highest rated television series in prime time, surpassing even the ratings of "Happy Days," the show it spun off of. Certainly one of the most memorable shows from the 1970s, and later the 1980s, "Laverne and Shirley" is truly one of television's finest classic sitcoms and features such great and funny characters and stories. I was actually very surprised as to how well the show has held up to this day and age, but it just goes to show you that classics never grow outdated.
Set in 1950s Milwaukee, Laverne De Fazio (Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams) are now in their fourth year of making it on their own and trying to make their dreams come true. This hilarious duo live together and work together at the local Shotz Brewery. Laverne and Shirley are joined in their most of their crazy adventures by their slimy goofball friends Andrew "Squiggy" Squigman (David L. Lander) and Leonard "Lenny" Kosnowski (Michael McKean); Laverne's father, Frank De Fazio (Phil Foster); their landlady, Mrs. Edna Babish (Betty Garrett); and Shirley's boyfriend, Carmine "The Big Ragu" Ragusa (Eddie Mekka). Throughout the days of their lives, Laverne and Shirley try to make it through life and hope to one day find the right man for them, and get married.
One thing no one can deny about "Laverne and Shirley" is that is is downright funny. However, the humor found in a show like this is driven almost ninety percent by the actors and the characters they play. As opposed to a show like "Mary Tyler Moore," where it was both the actors and the writing playing a large part, the writing and the scripts in "Laverne and Shirley" are very, very simple. The humor relies more on the execution of the lines from fantastic character actors, people like Michael McKean and David L. Lander who do such a hilarious job as Lenny and Squiggy. It has a lot to do with their innate sense of timing and the characters' personalities.
As for the two stars of the show, it's a given to say that both are phenomenal. The work these two actresses do in every episode is something that's to be commended. And it's really a shame that the show and the actors never got very many awards. During this season, the show was nominated for its only Emmy Award ever, but did not win. It was nominated for one of the season's funniest episodes, "The Third Annual Shotz Talent Show" in which Laverne and Shirley perform a marionette dance called "The Wedding of Jack and Jill" and save the show after Lenny and Squiggy are named the directors. Although Penny Marshall won two Golden Globes for her performance, it really is a shocking that the show wasn't acknowledged with more awards. It certainly deserved them.
Even though there are some really fantastic episodes present in this set, there are unfortunately a few duds as well. Most of them are featured on the first disc and it was quite distressing. "Playing the Roxy," for one makes use of the perennial split personality storyline. In it, Shirley falls down the stairs and hits her head. When she wakes up, she thinks she is a stripper named Roxy and she goes on a rampage while Laverne and everyone else try to snap her out of it. Aside from a great performance that allowed Cindy Williams to step out of the confines of the Shirley character, the episode is just not funny. It was almost to the point of annoyance. That and "The Robbery" are probably the only bad episodes out of the bunch. Every other episode ranged from mildly funny to laugh-out-loud hilarious and I'm not joking. These episodes are just so funny.
Some of the best episodes from the season, and there are a lot include the two-part season premiere called "The Festival," where the gang travel to New York to visit Laverne's grandmother and Frank tries to prove himself a worthy son, "The Quiz Show," where Laverne, Shirley, Lenny, and Squiggy compete on a game show to see who can act the silliest, "Laverne and Shirley Go to Night School," which is self-explanatory, and "A Date with Eraserhead" in which Shirley and Carmine have a fight and start seeing other people. Laverne gets her date to fix her up with someone else and she gets stuck with Eugene, dubbed the Eraserhead in high school. The only episode that seemed a little bit hokey and implausible for the show was an episode called "There's a Spy in My Beer" in which Laverne witnesses corporate espionage at work. It just seemed like a place a show like "Laverne and Shirley" wasn't meant to go in because it got a bit bizarre at times, but it was still funny, nonetheless.
There's also one episode that I must point out. It's called "The Feminine Mistake" and it features Laverne trying to impress a guy that she can act ladylike so he'll take her to a dance. Well, as I was watching it I thought the guy looked familiar and then when I got to the end credits, my suspicions were correct. It was a young Jay Leno playing the role of Joey, the prospective boyfriend. I had no idea Leno did a little bit of acting before he took over "The Tonight Show." It was certainly odd to see him in the role, for one thing.
If you've read enough of these articles, you'll know that Paramount doesn't like to attach any special features to these classic television series and "Laverne and Shirley" is no exception. Almost everybody from the principle cast is still around and I'm sure there are people who would like to see some extra material about the series, but it really doesn't matter. Getting to see all twenty-four episodes in one set is enough to please me and probably most "Laverne and Shirley" fans.
If you haven't seen "Laverne and Shirley" then you need to see it. Plain and simple, it is one great show and one of television's finest. "Laverne and Shirley" is a classic and why they don't air it on television anymore is beyond me. There's no reason they can't air it on TV Land. They own the show for goodness sakes! Well, DVD is the only place you can go and see "Laverne and Shirley" so this fourth season set is a must have for fans of classic television and just about everyone, and even though it lacks any special features, you have to give Paramount credit for its track record of releasing almost all of its classic television library.
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