Laverne & Shirley: The Fifth Season

I was dead-certain "Laverne & Shirley" was stalled indefinitely on DVD because it's been four long years since Season Four was released, but CBS shocked everybody by announcing Season Five will come out April 10, 2012.

This is the last season to feature the girls in their original locale of Milwaukee and contains several classic episodes, perhaps the most memorable being "The Diner" in which Laverne and Shirley toil in a greasy spoon Lenny has inherited from his late uncle. The title of this review is a line from the episode that everyone seems to remember.

Also included among the 26 episodes to be found on this set are "Shotgun Wedding", which was originally the conclusion of a story arc that began on a "Happy Days" episode (which will be included as a Bonus Feature so we fans will get both parts); as well as two separate two-parters: "Murder on the Moosejaw Express" and "You're In The Army Now" which features Vicki Lawrence as the intimidating Seargant Plout. The girls perform "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" in the episode "The Fourth Annual Shotz Talent Show".

The following episodes will be included on the set and Episode Promos for ALL of them are included. The single bonus feature is a Blooper Reel which is fun but a little short at only three minutes.

13/Sep/79 Shotgun Wedding (Part 2; Part 1 is a "Happy Days" episode)
20/Sep/79 One Heckuva Note
27/Sep/79 Fat City Holiday
04/Oct/79 Upstairs, Downstairs
18/Oct/79 What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor? (guest Ed Begley Jr.)
25/Oct/79 You've Pushed Me Too Far
01/Nov/79 The Wedding
08/Nov/79 Bad Girls
15/Nov/79 You're in the Army, Now (2 parts) (guest Vicki Lawrence)
22/Nov/79 Take Two, They're Small
06/Dec/79 The Fourth Annual Shotz Talent Show
13/Dec/79 Testing, Testing
07/Jan/80 Not Quite South of the Border
14/Jan/80 You Oughta Be in Pictures
21/Jan/80 The Beatnik Show (guests Art Garfunkel, Paul Kreppel)
28/Jan/80 The Right to Light (guest Richard Stahl)
04/Feb/80 Why Did the Fireman . . . (guest Ted Danson)
11/Feb/80 The Collector (guest Billy Sands)
26/Feb/80 Murder on the Moosejaw Express (Part 1) (guests Charlene Tilton, Charles Pierce, Scatman Crothers, Roger C. Carmel, Conrad Janis, Wilfred Hyde-White)
04/Mar/80 Murder on the Moosejaw Express (Part 2)
11/Mar/80 Survival Test (guest Vicki Lawrence)
25/Mar/80 The Duke of Squiggmann
01/Apr/80 Antonio, the Amazing
06/May/80 The Diner
13/May/80 Separate Tables

The show lost a little something the following year when Laverne, Shirley and their friends moved to California, so enjoy this last hurrah of those hilarious "brewery belles"...just don't call them bimbos!

This is by far the best year for the series. Laverne and Shirley had fallen from the Neilson Ratings top 5 shows only because ABC with all of its "intelligence" decided to move it to Thursdays to allow a show called Angie to have the spot after Happy Days on Tuesday nights. The late 70s and early 80s were a big time for networks to shuffle series in order to compete. Most of the time it never worked. Remember the series Taxi was moved to two different time slots on ABC then it moved to another network? Needless to say Laverne & Shirley was moved back to Tuesdays but in terms of ratings numbers it never recovered. For this season it did remain in the top 30. It's a shame because this season was when it fully hit its stride. The Diner- "Dead Lazlo's Place" with "Betty please pick up your hash blacks!" and "Murder on the Moosejaw Express" with "We're knife targets for a bald guy" and "Frank and Edna's Wedding" - In an African American Baptist Church are the three quintessential L & S episodes.
Laverne and Shirley was a huge hit for ABC yet I believe it was looked down upon by Hollywood. It never won a single Emmy award for acting or writing yet the public loved the show and it was number 1 for two seasons prior to this one. This is the season just before they moved to Hollywood which was when the series "jumped the shark" and spiraled downward with lackluster writing and Cindy Williams suing and leaving the series. Then they just let it fade away. The last episode of this huge hit centered on Carmine becoming a working actor/dancer. A forgetful end to a wonderfully funny television show that centered on two independent women navigating through life after high school. I see how shows like Friends- Monica in the fat suit, Three's Company- the physical comedy, and other shows borrowed from Laverne and Shirley which set a standard. I miss the family hour of television. I miss shows like Laverne and Shirley. I'll buy this dvd set for my kids to enjoy. Thanks for reading.

FINALLY, after a four-year gap and believing that Laverne & Shirley was shelved indefinitely, Season 5 is upon us. Paramount left many fans in suspense and wonder of whether or not the series had been abandoned, and I had honestly lost all hope that we'd ever see S5 released. We need not worry anymore! This long-awaited set focuses on what I(and many others)consider to be the best season yet. The two-parter "Murder on the Moose-Jaw Express" will finally be seen in its entirety(not the edited version that was shown on reruns), the much anticipated "Diner" episode where L&S go to work for Lenny & Squiggy running a greasy-spoon diner and of course everything that can go wrong does, to the tragic "Why did the Fireman?" episode, starring a then unknown Ted Danson as Laverne's boyfriend who ends up being killed in the line of duty. That particular episode displayed how versatile the characters could be at times, mixing comedy in the face of tragedy, yet somehow it seemed to work here which is more that can be said about many other TV shows today.

However, with that said, I think this should be a wrap, folks. Frankly something changed when the series and characters moved to California, although the first season in Burbank had a few funny moments(the earthquake episode), and the girls misadventures working at Bardwell's Department Store, it was all downhill from here. The very atmosphere of the show changed. I could never quite put my finger on it, but something just didn't seem "right" after the move out west. The new format, change of scenery, and chemistry between the new characters just never seemed to "click"(I always found Rhonda(Leslie Easterbrook)to be annoying as hell and I don't think her character added much to the plot or scripts). Many agree that the show definitely lost something. I say perhaps release the 6th season as a reminder of how great the "Milwaukee Years" were, and then call it quits. The show pretty much had run its course by that time. Ed Marinaro left after only 1 season in California, Betty Garrett left by 1981, Cindy Williams left in '82, and Michael McKean was missing from the final episodes. This is usually the first clue that a series is essentially on borrowed time. Everyone was jumping ship and by the time Eddie Mekka's character bid farewell to the cast, the show had honestly become unwatchable by then.

In any case, this is THE one we've all been waiting for and I'm glad CBS/Paramount finally caved in to our demands and heard our voices. Others have previously mentioned how the series was not very well received on DVD and that's why they've been slow in coming with the subsequent releases. Personally I think Laverne & Shirley caters to a certain demographic. Namely Generation X'ers and their parents who grew up watching it(remember the Happy Days/Laverne&Shirley/Three's Company lineup), and working class folks who found the "blue collar" theme of the show easy to relate to. Sure some of the episodes have aged better than others, and looking back now some don't seem as funny as they were back then but that's besides the point. I think part of it is the "kitsch" factor too. Or maybe perhaps you just had to be there living in that particular time to "get it". Nonetheless, I'm glad we finally have Season 5 to add to our collection and can reflect on when L&S was one of the most popular and celebrated series on prime-time TV. Thanks for listening, CBS.

ENJOY folks!

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