Why did Cindy Williams leave L&S?

[Schmo]

Was it because writers were no longer able to work around her pregnancy, or were there other reasons?

[Chocolate Moose]

IIRC her back hurt from stunts and she wanted to have her baby in peace

[PracTz]

Of course, it didn't help matters that Miss Williams's then new-husband Bill Hudson seemed to essentially want her to be bedridden on the set during her entire pregnancy and although Miss Williams didn't think that was necessary was still too enthralled with him to openly defy him. I know things hadn't been entirely smooth for her and the Marshalls for some time even before her marriage but I can't help but wonder if she wound up regretting having ended things on L&S on such an angry note- especially after her split from Mr. Hudson in 2000!

[TVFactFan]

The show had ran it's course anyway by the time.

[80s Dude]

Because she was not getting along with Penny Marshall at the time. Since Penny's brother had control of the show, she probably felt she could not get her view across.

[TV Guy]

PracTz is correct. There’s an interview with Penny and Cindy on Youtube - for the Archive of American Television - where the interviewer asks why Cindy left. Penny says in that deep voice of hers, “It was the husband.” And Cindy says dreamily, “I was in love!”

[shotzette]

Originally Posted by TV Guy

PracTz is correct. There’s an interview with Penny and Cindy on Youtube - for the Archive of American Television - where the interviewer asks why Cindy left. Penny says in that deep voice of hers, “It was the husband.” And Cindy says dreamily, “I was in love!”

I love those interviews!

It's interesting that per Penny's book, none of them wanted to come back for S8, but Cindy had a dream that made her want to do it. It was a little awkward since Betty Garrett had already accepted a role on Broadway, and Michael McKean had to have it written in his S8 contract that he would only do a few shows since he had to promote "Spinal Tap".

[TMC]

Originally Posted by PracTz

Of course, it didn't help matters that Miss Williams's then new-husband Bill Hudson seemed to essentially want her to be bedridden on the set during her entire pregnancy and although Miss Williams didn't think that was necessary was still too enthralled with him to openly defy him. I know things hadn't been entirely smooth for her and the Marshalls for some time even before her marriage but I can't help but wonder if she wound up regretting having ended things on L&S on such an angry note- especially after her split from Mr. Hudson in 2000!

Here's some experts from Penny Marshall's autobiography:

Over the years I had seen Cindy in a number of relationships, but never one where she fell as fast or as hard as she did for Bill Hudson. Best known as one-third of the musical comedy trio The Hudson Brothers, he had split with Goldie Hawn following a brief marriage that produced two children, Oliver and Kate, before meeting Cindy at a celebrity softball game in 1981. In March 1982, Cindy got pregnant, and two months later, after Bill finalized his divorce from Goldie Hawn, they married. I went to the wedding. There was a lot of pink. Everything seemed good.

I was happy for Cindy and supportive. I thought, She’s pregnant; let her be healthy and happy, and we’ll figure out a way to deal with her growing belly on the show. At the time, we were headed into our eighth season. We had the show down. I didn’t see why it had to be a big deal.

But it was. In May she told the studio about her pregnancy and began negotiating an out date of her own. I was in New York and followed the details long-distance. She was due in November and only wanted to act in thirteen episodes, insisting she finish in October so that she could rest through the end of her pregnancy. She also indicated a willingness to make small appearances after the first of the year if more episodes were ordered. In any event, whether she did thirteen or slightly more, she wanted to be paid for a full season of episodes, and she wanted her hours kept to a minimum. Everyone said okay.

A month later — the same month Tracy graduated from high school — Bill, now acting as her manager, delivered an additional set of demands, including more money, a Winnebago trailer, and shorter workdays not to exceed eight hours. I think Bill wanted credit, too. But Paramount balked. I guess they’d had their fill of demands the previous month.

By the time we began shooting in July, Cindy was one very unhappy pregnant actress. I thought I could talk sense to her the way I had years earlier, alone and logically. I said, “Take all the dialogue. Go home after four hours. Have them write all your scenes with you lying in bed. Be the biggest pain-in-the-ass pregnant person. I’ll do the running around. Let’s just do the work.” But she deferred to Bill. She was in love and thought Bill was taking care of her.

Whatever the reason, we managed to get through the first two episodes, “The Mummy’s Bride” and “Window on Main Street,” and then she was gone. It all just blew up. I tried calling Cindy at home, thinking I could work out the problem. Bill refused to let me speak to her. I ended up not talking to her for years because Bill wouldn’t let me.

Soon lawyers got involved, allegations flew, and she went to the press, claiming the studio wanted to exclude her from the series or “drastically reduce her participation.” She also told TV Guide, “What they want to do is axe me out of the show, and finally give it all to Penny.” It was all absurd.

As this transpired, I realized that I had to get out of directing The Joy of Sex. I couldn’t handle developing a movie at the same time the show was blowing up. I jetted to New York, where I hid out at Lorne’s house in Amagansett while the studio negotiated with Cindy. If she wasn’t going to do the show, I didn’t want to do it, either. It was Laverne AND Shirley. However, my agent said I had to come back. Mike Ovitz explained that walking out, or in my case, hiding out, was not an option. “We did enough episodes,” I said. “Let’s just stop.”

That’s not the way it works,” he said. “It’s not your call.”

“I don’t want to come back,” I said.

“You have to,” he said. “They’ll sue you.”

I flew back and met with Gary Nardino, Paramount’s president of TV. I asked for double or nothing. I didn’t even go to Ovitz. I said, “Since I’m here and it’s Laverne AND Shirley, I get her money and her points. If she comes back, it reverts. But if I’ve got to do it alone and explain to the goddamn audience why she ain’t here, it’s got to be worth more money.”

They gave me the money.

I went back to work, but the show was a mess. Although the show’s title stayed the same, Shirley was edited out of the opening montage and her absence was explained in a note she left behind saying that she moved suddenly overseas with her husband. I recall the log in the TV Guide saying that Laverne was depressed and then angry that Shirley would only write a few words and not say good-bye. I felt the same way in real life. I was depressed, angry, and hurt.

The following week things went from bad to worse. I was injured on the set. In the episode, Laverne takes a job at an aerospace company. Bored, she slips into an antigravity suit. As we shot the big comedic scene, I was in a harness attached to wires and spun all over the room. During rehearsals, my brother and I had a to-do because I didn’t wear a helmet. It was hot.

“I don’t care,” Garry said. “The next time you do it, you put on the damn helmet.”

That was at the taping. I did as my brother said. I wore a helmet — and I was lucky I did. As I flew over the stage, one of the wires snapped and I fell to the floor with a thud that just stopped time. Everyone froze. Director Tom Trbovich yelled cut as my driver, Clarence, watching from the wings, raced over to me. I told him not to touch me. I stayed down and assessed the damage. My toes moved. My fingers moved. I was breathing. But my upper body hurt like hell.

Phil Foster was already entertaining the audience, distracting them with jokes that Garry had written for his act twenty-five years earlier. Ironically, my brother wasn’t on the set that night. I heard someone say they were going to take me to the hospital. Then I could come back to finish. No, I didn’t think so.

Slowly, I got up on one knee and said I wasn’t going anywhere. I called the cast together and said I didn’t want to come back and do this **** over again. Instead, I showed those who still had scenes with me where they could touch me (my head, the right side of my body) and where they couldn’t (my left shoulder, the left side of my body). Then we finished the show. I could’ve sued, but I didn’t want some prop guy to get reamed. **** happens.

Later, I did go to the hospital. That was funny — trying to explain to the ER doc that I hurt myself while flying across the room in an astronaut suit. Luckily, nothing was broken. I’d heal. I went home, took a Quaalude, and reported to work the next day.

The rest of the season was simply painful. At least I still had my November “out” date from the movie. I wouldn’t have to work through March. To get through the remaining episodes, I called friends, including Laraine Newman, Carol Kane, Louise Lasser, Anjelica Houston, Jimmy Belushi, and Larry Breeding, who I’d gone out with for about a month while Artie was off walking God knows where. Carrie also came on; she was a Playboy bunny with me.

We taped that episode (Laverne gets a job as a Playboy bunny) the same week Tracy left for Bennington College. My niece took her; I had to work. I was in a bunny costume as I hugged her good-bye in front of the soundstage. Carrie cracked, “Study hard and one day you can be as successful as your mother.”

Finally, after 178 episodes, Laverne & Shirley taped its final episode (“Here Today, Hair Tomorrow”). The series went out with a whimper. The last show focused on Carmine (Eddie Mekka). I was barely in it, Michael had left to work with Rob on This Is Spinal Tap, and Cindy was long gone. Although lawsuits from her departure made the end more bitter than sweet, the memories from the eight seasons were positive. We had done more good episodes than bad ones and provided millions of people with laughs. I was proud. Between reruns and syndication around the world, I felt confident that Laverne & Shirley would always be best friends.

It turned out I was right.

[king of comedy]

It should have went out after season 5.

[Cbalducc]

I wonder if the unpleasant experiences in filming L&S’s final season led Penny to give up acting in favor of directing.

[RetroGuy2000]

Thanks TMC! I have never seen such a detailed explanation from Penny's side, other than brief comments like, "It was the husband!"

Cindy's original demand, for reduced episodes (13+a few additional spots) seemed like a reasonable request as a pregnancy exemption, and although the show would have been inferior to earlier seasons, it wouldn't have been the trainwreck Season 8 became.

[Cbalducc]

Did Bill Hudson not only manipulate Cindy Williams into leaving L&S, did he also ruin her post-L&S acting career?

[PracTz]

Of course, while Miss Marshall went into some detail in her autobio re her side of what happened with Miss Williams's departure, Miss Williams herself was incredibly coy and vague about it even all those years after the fact (and after her split from Mr. Hudson). She more or less just said that she'd gotten pregnant and the departure happened- as though she herself had had no say-so whatsoever in parting ways with the show! In fact, she only would admit that a late season cast picture showed everyone looking sad and tense in the caption but didn't say a word as to WHY that might have been in her autobio. It was a rather disappointing book.

[Goldeneye]

I believe the late Dave Lander also confirmed Penny's reports of Bill Hudson being the cause of Cindy Williams leaving L&S.

Two people almost certainly cannot be lying about it. Also with Bill Hudson's behavior in disowning his first two children with Goldie Hawn a few years back - that certainly carries weight in terms of Penny's description of it.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Goldeneye

I believe the late Dave Lander also confirmed Penny's reports of Bill Hudson being the cause of Cindy Williams leaving L&S.

Two people almost certainly cannot be lying about it. Also with Bill Hudson's behavior in disowning his first two children with Goldie Hawn a few years back - that certainly carries weight in terms of Penny's description of it.

It's kind of telling that Kate and Oliver view Kurt Russell as more of a dad to them then their actual biological father.