History Series / LaverneAndShirley

When the series began, the {{shared universe}} with its parent series was extremely evident. The girls worked at a UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}} brewery in the late [[TheFifties 1950s]], setting the show in the same city and time period as ''Happy Days''. There were numerous episodes in which characters from one show would appear on the other (or the occasional offhand mention). Gradually, as the show developed its own identity, this lessened, with the final proper {{crossover}} episode being the season five opener "Shotgun Wedding: Part 2" (the first part was on ''Happy Days''), in which Laverne and Shirley almost married Fonzie and Richie, respectively. The season six opener saw the show experience a small TimeSkip (from 1962 to 1964–65) and the whole cast moving to California after the girls were laid off from their bottle-capping jobs. After that, Laverne and Shirley worked in a department store and repeatedly had brushes with fame thanks to their new Hollywood setting. The rest of the cast found alternate employment on the west coast too: Frank now ran a western-themed resturaunt named Cowboy Bill's (as did Mrs. Babish until Garrett departed from the show) while Carmine worked as a SingingTelegram and Lenny and Squiggy ran "The Squignowski Talent Agency" out of an old ice cream truck. A couple new recurring characters were added as neighbors for the girls: Sonny St. Jacques (Ed Marinaro), a stuntman and their new landlord, and Rhonda Lee (Leslie Easterbrook), an attractive but ditzy blonde actress who occasionally [[ThirdPersonPerson spoke in third person.]]

When the series began, the {{shared universe}} with its parent series was extremely evident. The girls worked at a UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}} brewery in the late [[TheFifties 1950s]], setting the show in the same city and time period as ''Happy Days''. There were numerous episodes in which characters from one show would appear on the other (or the occasional offhand mention). Gradually, as the show gained its own identity, this lessened, with the final proper {{crossover}} episode being the season five opener "Shotgun Wedding: Part 2" (part one was on ''Happy Days''), in which Laverne and Shirley almost married Fonzie and Richie, respectively. The season six opener saw the show experience a small TimeSkip (from 1962 to 1964-1965) and the whole cast moving to California after the girls were laid off from their bottle-capping jobs. After that, Laverne and Shirley worked in a department store and repeatedly had brushes with fame thanks to their new Hollywood setting. The rest of the cast found alternate employment on the west coast too: Frank now ran a western-themed resturaunt named Cowboy Bill's (as did Mrs. Babish until Garret departed from the show), Carmine worked as a SingingTelegram, and Lenny and Squiggy ran "The Squignowski Talent Agency" out of an old ice cream truck. Two new reoccurring characters were added as neighbors for the girls - Sonny St. Jacques (Ed Marinaro), a stuntman and their new landlord, and Rhonda Lee (Leslie Easterbrook), an attractive blonde actress who occasionally [[ThirdPersonPerson spoke in third person.]]

The first episode of the eighth season saw Shirley get married - and, after one more appearance, she left Laverne (and the show) for good. Ratings weren't great, but still good enough for a ninth season to be considered - but to many viewers ''Laverne and Shirley'' minus Shirley [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks just wasn't the same,]] and the series came to a close in 1983 after 178 episodes.

Interesting side note: Two record albums came out of the show, both featuring the actors recording in-character: the first, ''Laverne & Shirley Sing,'' featured Marshall and Williams singing a mix of original and 50s/60s numbers. The second was ''Lenny and the Squigtones,'' which was, ostensibly, a live album of Lenny and Squiggy's band performing original songs, with plenty of banter being exchanged between the boys. All tracks, both songs and spoken word comedy, were written by [=McKean=] and Lander (save for two songs which are credited to [=McKean=] alone). Now out of print, the album is considered a collector's item by many - possibly in part due to the presence of Christopher Guest - [[EarlyBirdCameo credited as]] [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap Nigel Tufnel]] - on guitar. Guest and [=McKean=] would, of course, go on to be in ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' together - making ''Squigtones'' a sort of proto-Spinal Tap FakeBand. [[note]] For the curious, [[https://youtu.be/mS5qlEcttEw?si=mAul76PSr6AveGQM here's a clip of them]] appearing on Series/AmericanBandstand.[[/note]]

When the series began, the shared universe with its' parent series was extremely evident. The girls worked at a UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}} brewery in the late [[TheFifties 1950s]], setting the show in the same city and time period as ''Happy Days''. There were numerous episodes in which characters from one show would appear on the other (or the occasional offhand mention). Gradually, as the show gained its own identity, this lessened, with the final proper {{crossover}} episode being the season five opener "Shotgun Wedding: Part 2" (part one was on ''Happy Days''), in which Laverne and Shirley almost married Fonzie and Richie, respectively. The season six opener saw the show experience a small TimeSkip (from 1962 to 1964-1965) and the whole cast moving to California after the girls were laid off from their bottle-capping jobs. After that, Laverne and Shirley worked in a department store and repeatedly had brushes with fame thanks to their new Hollywood setting. The rest of the cast found alternate employment on the west coast too: Frank now ran a western-themed resturaunt named Cowboy Bill's (as did Mrs. Babish until Garret departed from the show), Carmine worked as a SingingTelegram, and Lenny and Squiggy ran "The Squignowski Talent Agency" out of an old ice cream truck. Two new reoccurring characters were added as neighbors for the girls - Sonny St. Jacques (Ed Marinaro), a stuntman and their new landlord, and Rhonda Lee (Leslie Easterbrook), an attractive blonde actress who occasionally [[ThirdPersonPerson spoke in third person.]]

''Laverne & Shirley'' was a {{sitcom}}, [[SpinOff spun off]] from ''Series/HappyDays'' and airing for 8 seasons (1976–83) on Creator/{{ABC}}, centering on two characters introduced in the ''Happy Days'' episode "A Date with Fonzie" as street-smart acquaintances of the Fonz.

--> '''Laverne:''' ''[seeing Shirley coming out holding several knives]'' Maybe it's all those phone calls I made to Milwaukee... \\

* LocalHangout: The Pizza Bowl (when the show was set in Milwaukee) and Cowboy Bill's (during the Los Angeles years). Laverne's dad Frank ran both establishments.

-> '''Laverne:''' ''[seeing Shirley coming out holding several knives]'' Maybe it's all those phone calls I made to Milwaukee... \\

%%* KnifeThrowingAct- Zero Context Example. Please explain where in the series this took place before removing the percent signs.

** Lenny dated Amy in "The Slow Child".

Created by Creator/GarryMarshall with former ''Happy Days'' writers Lowell Ganz and Mark Rothman, the show starred Creator/PennyMarshall (Garry's sister) as Laverne [=DeFazio=] and Creator/CindyWilliams as her roommate Shirley Feeney. The most popular supporting characters were their zany upstairs neighbors, [[ThoseTwoGuys Leonard "Lenny" Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman]] (played by Creator/MichaelMcKean and Creator/DavidLander, who had created their characters while in college and suggested adding them to the show after having been brought on as writers). Also in the regular cast were Laverne's widowed father Frank (Phil Foster), who owned a pizzeria/bowling alley the aptly named The Pizza Bowl, the girls' friendly landlady Edna Babish (Betty Garrett), and Shirley's on-again, off-again boyfriend, dancer-singer-boxer Carmine "The Big Ragoo" Ragusa (Eddie Mekka).

When the series began, the shared universe with its' parent series was extremely evident. The girls worked at a UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}} brewery in the late [[TheFifties 1950s]], setting the show in the same city and time period as ''Happy Days''. There were numerous episodes in which characters from one show would appear on the other (or the occasional offhand mention). Gradually, as the show gained its own identity, this lessened, with the final proper {{crossover}} episode being the season five opener "Shotgun Wedding: Part 2" (part one was on ''Happy Days''), in which Laverne and Shirley almost married Fonzie and Richie, respectively. The season six opener saw the show experience a small TimeSkip (from 1962 to 1964-1965) and the whole cast moving to California after the girls were laid off from their bottle-capping jobs. After that, Laverne and Shirley worked in a department store and repeatedly had brushes with fame thanks to their new Hollywood setting. The rest of the cast found alternate employment on the west coast too: Frank [=DeFazio=] now ran a western-themed resturaunt named Cowboy Bill's (as did Mrs. Babish until Garret departed from the show), Carmine worked as a SingingTelegram, and Lenny and Squiggy ran "The Squignowski Talent Agency" out of an old ice cream truck. Two new reoccurring characters were added as neighbors for the girls - Sonny St. Jacques (Ed Marinaro), a stuntman and their new landlord, and Rhonda Lee (Leslie Easterbrook), an attractive blonde actress who occasionally [[ThirdPersonPerson spoke in third person.]]

!!This series contains examples of:

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/laverne_and_shirley.jpeg]]

* ThirdPersonPerson: Rhonda speaks in third person.

* WhenItAllBegan: The episode "Why Did the Fireman..." was the first time Creator/TedDanson appeared in a TV series produced by Creator/{{Paramount}} Television. After a 1982 guest appearance on Paramount's ''Series/{{Taxi}}'', he began his 11-year run on ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' for the studio as Sam Malone, a role he reprised in 1995 episode of spin-off series ''Series/{{Frasier}}''. Three years after appearing on the latter series, he reunited with Paramount for a 6-year run as the title character on ''Series/{{Becker}}''.

Interesting side note: Two record albums came out of the show, both featuring the actors recording in-character: the first, ''Laverne & Shirley Sing,'' featured Marshall and Williams singing a mix of original and 50s/60s numbers. The second was ''Lenny and the Squigtones,'' which was, ostensibly, a live album of Lenny and Squiggy's band performing original songs, with plenty of banter being exchanged between the boys. All tracks, both songs and spoken word comedy, were written by [[=McKean=]] and Lander (save for two songs which are credited to [[=McKean=]] alone). Now out of print, the album is considered a collector's item by many - possibly in part due to the presence of Christopher Guest - [[EarlyBirdCameo credited as]] [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap Nigel Tufnel]] - on guitar. Guest and [[=McKean=]] would, of course, go on to be in ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' together - making ''Squigtones'' a sort of proto-Spinal Tap FakeBand. [[note]] For the curious, [[https://youtu.be/mS5qlEcttEw?si=mAul76PSr6AveGQM here's a clip of them]] appearing on Series/AmericanBandstand.[[/note]]

Interesting side note: Two record albums came out of the show, both featuring the actors recording in-character: the first, ''Laverne & Shirley Sing,'' featured Marshall and Williams singing a mix of original and 50s/60s numbers. The second was ''Lenny and the Squigtones,'' which was, ostensibly, a live album of Lenny and Squiggy's band performing original songs, with plenty of banter being exchanged between the boys. All tracks, both songs and spoken word comedy, were written by McKean and Lander (save for two songs which are credited to McKean alone). Now out of print, the album is considered a collector's item by many - possibly in part due to the presence of Christopher Guest - [[EarlyBirdCameo credited as]] [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap Nigel Tufnel]] - on guitar. Guest and McKean would, of course, go on to be in ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' together - making ''Squigtones'' a sort of proto-Spinal Tap FakeBand. [[note]] For the curious, [[https://youtu.be/mS5qlEcttEw?si=mAul76PSr6AveGQM here's a clip of them]] appearing on Series/AmericanBandstand.[[/note]]

''Laverne & Shirley'' was a {{sitcom}}, [[SpinOff spun off]] from ''Series/HappyDays'' and airing for 8 seasons (1976–83) on Creator/{{ABC}}, centering on two acquaintances of the Fonz who, when the series began, worked at a UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}} brewery in the late [[TheFifties 1950s]].

Created by Creator/GarryMarshall with former ''Happy Days'' writers Lowell Ganz and Mark Rothman, the show starred Creator/PennyMarshall (Garry's sister) as Laverne [=DeFazio=] and Creator/CindyWilliams as her roommate Shirley Feeney. The most popular supporting characters were their zany upstairs neighbors, [[ThoseTwoGuys Leonard "Lenny" Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman]] (played by the underrated Creator/MichaelMcKean and Creator/DavidLander); also in the regular cast were Laverne's widowed father Frank (Phil Foster), the girls' friendly landlady Edna Babish (Betty Garrett), and Shirley's on-again, off-again boyfriend Carmine "The Big Ragoo" Ragusa (Eddie Mekka).

* PromotedToOpeningTitles: Michael [=McKean=] and David L. Lander beginning in season 7.

* WholeEpisodeFlashback: Season five's "One Heckuva Note", in which Shirley finds the titular note that reveals that Carmine cheated on her by kissing Laverne in the apartment and thanking the latter for such a session. Laverne then tells a pissed and hurt Shirley what had happened, leading to the note. The episode also reintroduced Edna as the gang's landlady and Frank's love interest.

** At one point, when Shirley says, "I don't vodeo-dodo" (referring to sex), Laverne replies, "You vodeo-''do''" (referring to something unknown). Shirley replies that she only did that once.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: To levels that only Creator/LucilleBall matched.

* BerserkButton:
** ''Never'' call Laverne a bimbo.
** RealLife Example: The mere mention of this show was this for many Milwaukee locals for decades after the show went off the air. Not only was it thought to give the city a stodgy, outdated image, but "the home of Laverne & Shirley" became overused to the point of cliche by national media when referencing Milwaukee. This was even mentioned by Milwaukee's mayor upon being elected in 2004, quipping that "Laverne and Shirley don't live here anymore."

** On the animated side, Fonzie and [[CoolPet Mr. Cool]] from ''WesternAnimation/TheFonzAndTheHappyDaysGang'' joined ''Laverne & Shirley in the Army'' in season two, when the show became ''Laverne & Shirley with the Fonz''.