I've been rewatching the entire series and have been really enjoying the show. Even the last season which is the weakest season has a few gems in there, but one episode made a huge error. The one called The Gymnast Show with Adam West. Now in the episode Rhonda sets up Laverne with his character who is a circus performer. The mistake comes in the end tag, when Frank asks Rhonda to set him up on a blind date. The writers totally ignore the fact he's married to Edna! I realize the actress hasn't been on the show for awhile, but come on! That's just lazy writing for a quick laugh when it ends up being the bearded lady. The joke would have worked fine if it was Carmine instead of Frank.

There's an episode during the last season where Frank reveals at the end that Edna has left him.

There's an episode during the last season where Frank reveals at the end that Edna has left him.

Oh wow! I must have missed that. Kind of sucks that they broke them up.

Although the late Betty Garrett would attempt to claim her absence was due to some kind of contract mix-up and she really didn't want to leave the show, I have to wonder what else could they have done to explain Edna's absence? Having Frank dump her would have been totally uncharacteristic of the gruff-on-outside but softie within character and it would have even more of a bummer to have Edna die. I guess the best way they could have spun it might have been that Edna was having to tend a sick relative for an extended period but even that wouldn't have been any kind of funny.

Ok, I just came to the break up episode today. It happens late in the last season after the one with Adam West. So there is a mistake there unless the episodes on the dvd are out of order.

Yeah, one explanation I heard was that the sixth season was going to be the last and Betty Garrett made a commitment to a play and couldn't come back when they decided to do season 7. Of course, that doesn't explain why she wasn't in season 8, but by that time they were probably trying to keep the budget down and figured what was the use of bringing her back.

Honestly, aside from Lenny and Squiggy, the supporting cast on this series was disposable.

I just finished the series today and found another mistake. In the second to last episode, Carmine moves to New York to pursue his dream. There were some pretty sad goodbyes to him from all the characters left on the show. It even felt like a pilot for a spin off. So when I go to watch the final episode, Carmine is back with no explanation. It was like he never left. The last season really turned into a mess. It also felt like towards the end Penny Marshall gave up. Laverne was barely in episodes. Sometimes like 2 minutes and then disappeared. It's a shame how the series just limped along until the end and the finale was nothing special. Just another episode.

All-in-all, it would have been better to have just wrap things up in Milwaukee and let everyone end things together on a high note rather than keep beating the dead horse well past time for the glue factory with everyone scattered to the winds.