Laverne & Shirley
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Laverne & Shirley was a popular American television situation comedy which ran on ABC from 1976 to 1983. It starred Penny Marshall (Laverne De Fazio) and Cindy Williams (Shirley Feeney) as roommates working in a Milwaukee brewery in the late 1950s. It was a spinoff of Happy Days, as the two lead characters were originally introduced on that show as acquaintances of Fonzie.
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The opening
The opening sequence is very popular and has been parodied in many pop culture outlets, including the movie Wayne's World. In the beginning, the girls are skipping down the street, arm in arm, reciting a hopscotch chant which has little meaning: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight! Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!"
The sequence has also been parodied in other languages, on Friends in a Spanish-language track under the title Laverne y Shirley and on Saturday Night Live, in Japanese, under the name Rabun to Shuri.
Other characters
Michael McKean and David Lander portrayed their obnoxious, yet loveable, greaser neighbors, Leonard "Lenny" Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggmann. Betty Garrett played Edna Babish, the girls' landlady. She eventually fell in love with Laverne's father Frank De Fazio, Phil Foster, and married him. As Shirley's singing and dancing boyfriend, Carmine "The Big Ragoo" Rugusa, Eddie Mekka, provided a little romance and a strong right arm for the gang. The Big Ragoo was also the former Golden Gloves boxing champion of Milwaukee.
Location
In 1980, all of the remaining characters in Laverne & Shirley, and therefore the setting of the show, moved from Milwaukee to Southern California. At this point and until the end of the show's run, Laverne & Shirley was set in the mid-1960s.
In the last season, Cindy Williams left the show. Although Penny Marshall was featured solely, the show was still called Laverne & Shirley.
External links
- The Laverne & Shirley TV Show (http://www.crazyabouttv.com/laverneandshirley.html) page at Crazy About TV contains trivia, theme song lyrics, a description, cast information, and an episodes list for the series.