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"One, two, three, four,
Five, six, seven, eight!
Schlemiel! Schlimazel!
Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!"

"We're gonna do it
Give us any chance, we'll take it
Read us any rule, we'll break it
We're gonna make our dreams come true...
"

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

Created by Garry Marshall with former Happy Days writers Lowell Ganz and Mark Rothman, the show starred Penny Marshall (Garry's sister) as Laverne DeFazio and Cindy Williams as her roommate Shirley Feeney. The most popular supporting characters were their zany upstairs neighbors, Leonard "Lenny" Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman (played by Michael McKean and David Lander, 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 Ragu" Ragusa (Eddie Mekka).

When the series began, the shared universe with its' parent series was extremely evident. The girls worked at a Milwaukee brewery in the late 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 Time Skip (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 Singing Telegram, 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 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 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 - credited as Nigel Tufnel - on guitar. Guest and McKean would, of course, go on to be in This is Spın̈al Tap together - making Squigtones a sort of proto-Spinal Tap Fake Band. note 


Troping it our way:

  • Accidental Murder: Not of a person, but in "One Flew Over Milwaukee", Shirley mentions having accidentally stepped on someone's goldfish when it jumped out of the tank.
  • Animal Lover: Shirley, as demonstrated by "One Flew Over Milwaukee" where she adopts a canary and nurses him back to health, then falls into a slump when he flies away.
  • Animated Adaptation: Laverne & Shirley in the Army (although on-screen it simply read Laverne & Shirley), which was produced by Hanna-Barbera and featured Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams voicing their characters.
  • Artifact Title: Shirley left the cast in the final season. Averted in the cartoon series; Cindy Williams did not return to voice Shirley in season two, and was replaced by Lynn Marie Stewart.
  • Baffled by Own Biology: In "Look Before You Leap", Laverne wakes up nauseous, and worries that she might be pregnant because she can't even remember if she had sex the previous night or not. As it turns out, she was just hungover (which also explains why she couldn't remember -- she was drunk).
  • Bank Toaster: In one episode, Laverne agrees to help a woman who she thinks wants more of the bank's free dishes that they are giving away. Instead, she turns out to be a bank robber, and she and Laverne are both arrested.
  • Bathroom Stall Graffiti: An early episode has the girls discovering their names and numbers have been written on a men's room wall at a local pool hall, leading them to disguise themselves as guys to try removing it.
  • Bizarre Beverage Use: "New Year's Eve 1960", Laverne is feeling down because her boyfriend dumped her, and tries to cheer herself up by drinking Pepsi from a bucket. Shirley tries giving her a pep talk and says that if she doesn't go out and celebrate New Year's Eve, "You might as well drown yourself in Pepsi!". Laverne sticks her head into the bucket.
  • Bizarre Taste in Food: An episode has one of the girls promise to make sandwiches for an event but then gets too busy to follow thru and recruits the other to make them. That one gets busy too and recruits Squiggy as a last resort. The first girl is initially appalled, knowing his odd tastes, but is relieved to hear he fixed BLT's...until she finds out his definition of BLT is "baloney, liverwurst and turkey."
  • Brought To You By The Letter "L": Most of Laverne's sweaters and shirts have a cursive "L" on them.
  • Candy Striper: In "Angels of Mercy", Shirley convinces Laverne to join her as a hospital volunteer as a way of trying to win over Laverne's crush, Jerry, who is undergoing knee surgery. The two wear the traditional striped pinafore and hat as they get up to silly shenanigans while on duty.
  • Catch Your Death of Cold: Mentioned in "One Flew Over Milwaukee", after Shirley has spent time sitting beside an open window on a snowy day, Carmine tells her to change clothes so she doesn't catch pneumonia.
  • Chain Letter: An episode has Laverne enduring a spell of bad luck after throwing one of these away.
  • Christmas Episode:
    • Season 2's "Oh Hear the Angels' Voices" (a.k.a. "Christmas Eve at the Booby Hatch") has the cast putting on a Christmas show for the patients at a mental hospital.
    • Season 4's "O Come All Ye Bums" has the gang trying to raise funds for Frank's annual Christmas dinner for the homeless.
    • Season 7's "Friendly Persuasion" has the girls' boss's cousin, actor Charles Grodin (appearing as himself), drop by around the holidays, with a series of misunderstandings leading Laverne to think he wants to date her and Shirley to think her wants her job.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The girls' Milwaukee landlady Edna Babish, later Laverne's stepmother and Frank's wife, just kind of vanished sometime after their move out to California. Sadly, it's revealed in season 8's "Short on Time" that she left Frank.
  • Class Reunion: Season 7's "Whatever Happened to the Class of '56?" has the girls and Carmine going back to Milwaukee to attend one. Then it's revealed that Lenny and Squiggy spread a lie that the former trio have all become big Hollywood stars.
  • Commuting on a Bus: Lenny didn't appear in many episodes during the final season, as Michael McKean was busy preparing This is Spın̈al Tap. With Squiggy appearing alone in many episodes and Shirley gone from the show entirely, some joked that it should have been re-titled "Laverne and Squiggy."
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: Laverne liked drinking a mix of Pepsi and milk together in the same glass.
  • Crossover: With its parent program Happy Days, in both directions.
    • Laverne appears with Happy Days' Fonzie in the Mork & Mindy pilot.
    • Penny Marshall also appeared as Laverne in an episode of ill-fated Happy Days spinoff Blansky's Beauties.
    • On the animated side, Fonzie and Mr. Cool from The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang joined Laverne & Shirley in the Army in season two, when the show became Laverne & Shirley with the Fonz.
  • Death Row: Laverne somehow winds up there in a season 8 episode. She's eventually exonerated.
  • Diagonal Billing: Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams in the opening titles, television's first instance of this form of billing (which had been invented just two years earlier for The Towering Inferno). However, the opening titles also "cheat" this billing in favour of Marshall in two ways: the title of the show is also oriented diagonally in the reverse order (top-left-to-bottom-right), making it impossible not to read the name Laverne before that of Shirley; in addition, as Marshall and Williams are credited on screen, their names are superimposed over their bodies in a scene of the two of them smiling for the camera — with Marshall standing on the left. (It's good to be the sister of the show's creator and producer.)
    • A variation of this was implemented on the Complete Series DVD cover art. Marshall was billed first, but Williams was pictured first.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: When the two first appeared on Happy Days, there was very little difference between Laverne and Shirley. For this series, though, Laverne was made more of a tomboy and Shirley a girly girl.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: During the fifth season, the girls went into the Army, and contended with a tough-as-nails drill sergeant named Alvinia T. Plout (Vicki Lawrence, using her Mama voice).
  • Drop-In Character: Lenny and Squiggy fit this trope to a T, with either or both of them just showing up at the girls' places randomly and without warning, frequently accompanied by Squiggy's signature greeting of "Hallo!" After the cast moved to Burbank, new neighbor Rhonda Lee also did this.
  • Drop-In Landlord: Laverne and Shirley's landlady, Edna Babbish, is a wacky supporting character who eventually becomes more deeply entwined into the girls' life by marrying Laverne's father.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • The first season opening titles displayed the characters' full names: Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney.
    • Carrying over from their Happy Days appearances, Cindy Williams gave Shirley a strong accent in the pilot, as she felt the producers wanted her to in order to better match Laverne. After Williams was told she didn't have to use it, she toned it down for subsequent episodes and did away with it entirely by the end of the first season.
  • Embarrassing Middle Name: Whenever it's brought up that Shirley's middle name is Wilhelmina, she seems embarrassed by it.
  • Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Downplayed for the titular characters. Laverne is very loud and Shirley is normally pretty demure, although she's still energetic and can be quite a drama queen.
  • The '50s / The '60s: The show's nominal setting, albeit with elements of the '70s and '80s often bleeding through.
  • Fight for the Last Bite: In "Guinea Pigs", Laverne tries to eat the last shrimp at a party, but Shirley, who hadn't eaten in a while, tries to steal it out of Laverne's mouth.
  • Five-Temperament Ensemble: Lenny (melancholic/phlegmatic), Shirley (phlegmatic/sanguine), Laverne (choleric), Frank (melancholic), Edna (phlegmatic), Squiggy (sanguine), and Carmine (leukine).
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Though the girls occasionally refer to Lenny and Squiggy as their friends, more often than not they merely tolerate their presence and are largely annoyed by their behavior.
  • Game Show Appearance: Lenny and Squiggy on The Dating Game.
  • Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Shirley's beloved "Boo Boo Kitty", although averted for Laverne, who doesn't seem to like plushies.
  • Grievous Bottley Harm: Subverted in a scene involving many prop bottles and one real glass bottle.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: The girls' boss at the brewery, Mr. Shotz, was never seen in person, always speaking to them and other employees from offstage, usually through a photo of himself or, if he had a more important part in the episode, something that obscured him, like a spotlight.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: A rare female example. Laverne and Shirley are best friends, but they're certainly not gay, judging by the fact that they're often dating men.
    • Lenny and Squiggy also qualify, in fact they're rarely seen apart.
  • Hypno Fool: In one episode, the duo find themselves acting like chickens every time a bell rings.
  • Inadvertent Entrance Cue / Incoming Ham: "Hello!" Lenny and Squiggy were the undisputed champions of this.
  • Irrevocable Message: The two-part episode "The Bardwell Caper" involves the duo trying to retrieve a nasty letter they sent to their boss.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lenny and Squiggy. More "jerk" in Squiggy, more "heart of gold" in Lenny.
  • The Klutz: Both of the title characters appear to be pretty clumsy, often tripping, knocking things over, etc.
  • Knife-Throwing Act: The girls perform one for the grand opening of Cowboy Bill's in "Grand Opening." Shirley takes an injured Sonny's place as the thrower, much to Laverne's surprise. The stunt is a trick in-universe, too - Shirley points out that the knives were popping up from behind the board to an angry Laverne later.
    Laverne: [seeing Shirley coming out holding several knives] Maybe it's all those phone calls I made to Milwaukee...
  • Local Hangout: The Pizza Bowl (when the show was set in Milwaukee) and Cowboy Bill's (during the Burbank years). Laverne's dad Frank ran both establishments.
  • Love Interests:
    • Both Laverne and Shirley have had several dates and crushes, including Carmine, Fonzie, and Randy.
    • Lenny dated Mrs. Babish's daughter Amy in "The Slow Child".
  • Missing Mom: Laverne's father Frank is a widower. During the series he dates and eventually marries Edna Babish.
  • Mood Whiplash: The season 5 episode "Why Did the Fireman...?" has Laverne dating a fireman named Randy. On the night he plans to propose to her, he is interrupted several times in typical humorous fashion. The last interruption is a fire emergency that Randy has to respond to. He tells Laverne to go home and wait for him. She does... and is then told that Randy was killed in the fire. The rest of the episode takes a dark turn as Laverne must come to terms with Randy's death.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Rhonda (Leslie Easterbrook), a sexy blonde added as a ratings-boosting gimmick when the show moved to L.A.
    • To some extent Laverne herself became this in the final season.
  • New Year Has Come: A season 3 episode has the girls welcoming in 1960.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • At one point, when Shirley says, "I don't vodeo-dodo" (referring to sex), Laverne replies, "You vode-o" (referring to something unknown). Shirley replies that she only did that once.
    • In "One Flew Over Milwaukee", when Shirley brings home Duane the canary and claims he has bronchitis, Laverne asks if it would be like the time she thought her hamster had a headache. Shirley replies, "My hamster did have a headache."
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Nearly the entire cast. One would think Milwaukee was located just outside of Brooklyn.
    • Justified with Laverne and her father Frank: they grew up in New York.
  • One-Episode Fear: In "Drive, She Said", Laverne is afraid to drive, which was unknown up until then. She then learns to drive and stops being afraid.
  • Only One Who Likes Spam: Laverne's favorite beverage is Milk & Pepsi. Everyone else thinks it's disgusting.
  • Planning with Props: In "The Bardwell Caper", Laverne and Shirley do this while planning to retrieve a nasty letter out of their boss' office.
  • Poorly Disguised Pilot: The final episode is actually one of these, following Carmine as he moves to New York to pursue a Broadway career and auditions for Hair. A very odd way to end the series, and what's more we never do learn whether he lands the role (since the planned spinoff never materialized).
  • Present-Day Past: Like its parent show Happy Days, the series increasingly fell victim to this as time went on. Clothing, hairstyles, etc. from the 1970s and '80s began bleeding into a program that was still ostensibly set in the '50s/'60s.
  • Promotion to Opening Titles: Michael McKean and David L. Lander beginning in season 7.
  • Put on a Bus:
    • The last season had Shirley marrying an Army medic and going overseas with him.
    • "Big Rosie" Greenbaum, once the show switched settings to Burbank. When the girls returned to Milwaukee for season 7's "Whatever Happened to the Class of '56?", so did Big Rosie.
  • Required Spinoff Crossover: With Happy Days. This practice was dropped after the girls moved to Burbank.
  • Retool:
    • Season 6 has the entire cast move from Milwaukee to Burbank, CA.
    • When the girls joined the U.S. Army in the Season 5 two-parter "We're in the Army Now", viewers were suddenly faced with a possible retool... but the producers got cold feet and tossed that idea in the bottom drawer. However, the Army episodes inspired the Animated Adaptation Laverne & Shirley in the Army.
  • Reunion Show: Two of them, in 1995 and 2002. The second one included an in-character skit.
  • Running Gag: Either Laverne or Shirley says something, then she gets Instantly Proven Wrong (or it turns out to be Tempting Fate) with Squiggy and/or Lenny bursting in without knocking at the door. If it's Squiggy, it's always with his trademark "Hello!".
  • Ruptured Appendix: "Shirley's Operation." involves Shirley needing the titular operation on her appendix.
  • Sanity Ball: Both title characters have turns being rational while the other is being irrational.
  • Shout-Out: The opening credits were spoofed by Wayne and Garth in Wayne's World.
  • Sick Episode:
    • When Duane the canary is introduced in "One Flew Over Milwaukee", he apparently had bronchitis.
    • In "Bowling for Razzberries", Laverne has a cold.
    • In "Shirley's Operation", Shirley gets appendicitis.
  • Sitcom Archnemesis: "Big Rosie" Greenbaum for Laverne during the Milwaukee years. Toned down some as the series went on.
  • Smitten Teenage Girl: Maybe not teens at the time, but the cartoon's intro heavily implies they enlisted because their recruiting officer was cute.
  • Sneeze Interruption: In "Bowling for Raspberries", the ladies argue over whether or not Shirley takes too many steps while bowling. Shirley says, "With your feet, you wouldn't need any steps!" and Laverne says, "With your mouth—" but then sneezes. Shirley gets a doctor involved and it turns out Laverne has a cold.
  • Snowball Fight: The opening title sequence during the Milwaukee seasons includes a brief clip of Laverne and Shirley engaging in one of these with Lenny and Squiggy.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: After Cindy Williams left the show, several episodes paired Laverne with a female guest star who replaced Shirley as her girly girl slapstick partner, including Laraine Newman in "Death Row" and Carrie Fisher in "The Playboy Show."
  • Syndication Title: Laverne & Shirley & Friends, Laverne & Shirley & Company.
  • Tickle Torture: In the episode "Festival Part 1", Laverne pumps Shirley for $70 out of Shirley's vacation funds in order to help a guy she just met win a trip to Italy. When Shirley denies any knowledge of her vacation fund, Laverne recalls that she keeps money in her shoes as well. Shirley denies this too, stating all she has in her shoes are Zeno pads. After tricking Shirley into turning around, Laverne throws her over the armrest of the couch and rips both her shoes off. Laverne's assumption is correct, finding two $20 bills taped to the bottoms of her socks, and tickles her foot into letting go of the second $20 bill. Shirley submits and retrieves the remaining $30 after Laverne threatens to wrestle her for it.
  • Thematic Theme Tune: "Making Our Dreams Come True". The song, performed by Cyndi Grecco, was issued as a single and reached #25 on the Billboard chart.
  • Third-Person Person: Rhonda speaks in third person (though not exclusively, like some other examples of the trope do).
  • Thriller on the Express: "Murder on the Moosejaw Express."
  • Title by Year: There's a season three episode called "New Year's Eve 1960".
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Laverne is a tough-talking girl who prefers her men the same way, while on the other hand, Shirley is about as girly as a girl can get.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Laverne's is Scooter Pies.
  • Under Strange Management: Lenny inherits his uncle's diner ("Laslo's Place"), which he & Squiggy decide to rename ("Dead Laslo's Place") and run themselves, hiring Laverne to be the cook and Shirley as the waitress.
  • Unfolding Plan Montage: In one episode, Laverne outlines a plan to break into an office and steal back some important papers. As she explains it, we see the plan in action, which they pull off perfectly. Then it turns out it was just a visual depiction of the plan being described. Once they implement the plan it goes awry and Hilarity Ensues.
  • What Does She See in Him?: One Character of the Week falls for Squiggy. Laverne cannot even fathom that being possible.
    Laverne: What does she possibly see in him?!
    Shirley: Love is blind?
    Laverne: Blind, yes. But deaf, dumb and unable to smell?!
  • Whole Episode Flashback: Season 5'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.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In "Drive, She Said", Laverne claims to be scared of driving and says it's like being afraid of heights, snakes, or the dark. Lenny replies that Squiggy is afraid of all three but he still laughs at Laverne because even he isn't afraid to drive.
  • Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: In "One Flew Over Milwaukee", Shirley awakens in the night and starts playing music to her pet canary Duane, who she claims has bronchitis. Her roommate Laverne complains about how late it is and calls Shirley crazy.
  • Your Favorite: For Laverne - Milk and Pepsi. Together.

And we'll do it our way
Yes, our way
Make all our dreams come true
Yeah, we'll do it...our way
Yes, our way
Make all our dreams...come true
For me and you...

Alternative Title(s): Laverne And Shirley

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Laverne and Shirley

Laverne's about to make some rude comment about Shirley's mouth, but sneezes before she can.

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