Laverne & Shirley

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What’s the Story?

A spin-off of Happy Days, LAVERNE & SHIRLEY is a slapstick-heavy sitcom that follows the adventures of tough-talking cynic Laverne De Fazio (Penny Marshall) and refined, perky Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams), two twenty-something working-class women trying to make it on their own in Milwaukee, Wisc., in the late 1950s. The roommates workat a brewery and enjoy a life full of bowling, dating, and getting out of mishaps. Characters include pesky neighbors Lenny Kosnowski (Michael McKean) and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggmann (David Lander); Laverne's over-protective father, Pizza Bowl owner Frank De Fazio (Phil Foster); landlady Edna Babish (Betty Garrett), and Shirley's on-again/off-again boyfriend, Carmine Ragusa (Eddie Mekka). Many plotlines revolve around bad dates and the search for the ideal man, and the duo's frequent attempts to help family and friends always lead to hilarious situations.

Is It Any Good?

While Laverne & Shirley is guilty of some gender stereotyping, it's primarily used to demonstrate the tensions that exist between Laverne and Shirley's desire to be true to themselves and the traditional expectations placed on them as women in the late '50s and early '60s. While both women look at men as potential marriage material, they're not willing to stay with someone just for the sake of getting married. Furthermore, their overall choices usually defy conventional gender stereotypes, making them two of television's first liberated women.

It's worth noting that the show suffered considerably after the characters left Milwaukee for L.A. in the sixth season; several regular cast members eventually left, and things just weren't the same. The first five seasons are definitely the ones to watch.