Season 8 question regarding Cindy Williams' departure

[MacLeaper]

I'm finally on the home stretch for "Laverne & Shirley". I'm watching the last few episodes of Season 8 on DVD. And yes- it was definitely quite sad to see Shirley's last appearances on the show. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams both made this show and it really didn't work well without both of them. Of course, as a big fan of this series, I still love everything related to it- and I enjoy all the episodes. There have been a number of great episodes in Season 8- but of course, when I see all the guest stars there- I can't help but thinking how the episode would have been different if Shirley were there. (In some episodes I can see roles where I feel like Shirley probably would have been playing that role. From my understanding, a number of the scripts had already been written that featured Shirley and then they had to quickly be rewritten to insert guest stars instead to make up for that, when Cindy Williams left the show.)
On the plus side of that, it was neat to see a ton of great guest stars like Carrie Fisher, Adam West and so many others. But it's sad watching the episodes and missing Shirley and ol' Boo Boo Kitty.
I was thinking though- if it were the other way around for some reason, and Penny had left the series- I wonder if it would have worked as well for Shirley to carry the series on her own. I think she could, probably with the same array of guest stars coming to make up for Penny's absence, but it would be a bit harder. For one thing, if Laverne had been written out of the show for some reason, more than likely Frank would have left as well, as it doesn't seem like there would be much reason for him to be showing up anymore. Surely he would have wanted to be near his Muffin (considering he moved from Wisconsin to California for that reason mostly.) And that would have crippled the cast even further. Cowboy Bill's was one of the main hangouts and scenes for shots outside of Laverne & Shirley's apartment- so that would also likely have taken that hangout spot away- and then the series would have really had less to work with.
Of course, neither scenario really works well- it's best with Penny and Cindy there as Laverne and Shirley. I love these characters and this show!
And I'm also glad for supporting characters like Lenny and Squiggy and Carmine and Frank DeFazio- I love them just as much. Rhonda Lee kinda grows on you eventually, I think- and though she does add to the series at times, I think I would be okay without that character as much- but she is funny in her own way and Leslie Easterbrook did a great job with the character (and it's fun for me to watch the series and keep thinking of Callahan from the Police Academy movies when I see Rhonda show up.)
Okay- and I know this is taking a while to get to all this- but here's some of the main questions I have at this point.
In what episode is Frank and Edna's divorce mentioned? This seems like such an odd thing. She last showed up in Season 6, but was mentioned fairly often by Frank through Season 7. So it seems like they were still happily married throughout that season, but for whatever reason, Edna just wasn't seen on the show. (Obviously because Betty Garrett had already left the series.) My understanding is that they quietly divorce somewhere in the last season- however, I just recently watched an episode ("The Gymnast", I think it was), where Rhonda was apparently setting up a date for Frank. Yet the series had made no mention of any divorce yet. Perhaps they were assumed to be separated at this point? Now keep in mind that I haven't finished watching Season 8 yet, so please don't spoil the episodes for me.
But if someone could tell me the episode where they break things off, I would be interested to know that. It seems that "Short on Time" mentions Edna again, so perhaps that's the one? It seems really odd; Season 7 worked fine with Frank mentioning Edna here and there just so you knew she was still around- they could have just left it at that, I think.
Okay- that's one question and set of observations out of the way. I'm also curious about Cindy Williams' departure from the series. Even without Shirley there, I am still interested in the lives of the other characters and as a dedicated Laverne & Shirley fan, I'm definitely gonna to watch the whole thing- and I have been enjoying all the episodes.
But the first two episodes of the season- "The Mummy's Bride" and "Window on Main Street"- detailing Shirley's wedding and subsequent announcement of her pregnancy- from what I can tell from the episodes, we can presume that Shirley has been dating Walter for a while before getting married and that some amount of times passes between the first and second episode of the season I guess?
What I want to know is this- was it always the plan for Shirley to get married that season and then get pregnant? Was her husband ever to be seen on the show? The excuse of him being off in the Army seemed like a great way to expand the series by having Shirley married (and to an Army medic, no less- glad she got to marry a doctor finally! ) and keep the original premise at the same time. But surely even that arrangement couldn't have lasted too long.
I assume this storyline change was to accommodate for the fact that Cindy Williams and her husband were having a child at the time. But was this in place before Cindy left the show or was it put into place in order to write Shirley off the series?
I wonder how long the series would have kept going, especially if Cindy Williams had been convinced to come back. From what I understand, the ratings were still pretty strong even in the last season and Penny Marshall was asked to do a ninth season. I could totally see a situation where Shirley and Walter both had to wind up moving in to the apartment with Laverne to save money- or maybe all of them got a house together. That way they could all still be together and have their usual hijinks and keep the show running. I think a good ending would have been to have Laverne finally get married too. Of course, if I had my choice on that, I think I would have definitely seen Shirley and Carmine married and Laverne and Lenny married. (And of course, Laverne and Lenny would probably be dealing with eternal bachelor Squiggy moving in.)
For that matter, I would have liked to have seen Frank and Edna still together too.
Oh well- I still love and enjoy the show for what it is. And for the situation they had to deal with, I think "The Note" episode still came off pretty well- even though certainly a big farewell episode with Cindy Williams would have worked better. I almost wondered while watching that episode if it was meant as a thinly veiled criticism of Cindy for the way she left the series. I'm glad that Laverne found the rest of the note at the end though and things ended on a much happier note. And I'm also really glad that Laverne continues to keep up their Laverne & Shirley message board in the apartment. I'm also really glad that the name of the show stayed the same, even though Shirley wasn't in the picture for most of Season 8. I suppose that also kept hope alive that perhaps she could return later.
Anyway- it's still a great series from start to end- I love watching this sweet, funny show. And I definitely love the celebration of friendships on the show and all the (good) craziness that comes with it.
"We're gonna do it! Give us any chance- we'll take it. Read us any rule- we'll break it. We're gonna make our dreams come true doing it our way."
Because we've got high hopes- we've got high hopes- we've got high apple pie in the sky hopes! Yeah- this balloon doesn't land until it reaches the top. And we've got the most dedicated and lovable friends behind us all the way- Frank and Edna DeFazio, Rhonda Lee, Carmine "The Big Ragoo" Ragusa, Lenny and Squiggy- and Laverne & Shirley- love these characters and this show.

[PennyMarshallFan]

Ok, I only know this stuff because I have spent way too many years of my life obsessing over this show. Like many other people, I have trouble watching Season 8 though and due to the gaping absence of Cindy, Michael, Betty, and even less Penny towards the end of the show (it became the Frank/Squiggy/Carmine show) it's hard to watch BECAUSE I love it so much. It should have ended with Season 7.

Anyway, here ya go!
-Frank and Edna's separation/divorce is mentioned at the end of the episode "Short on Time". You probably haven't gotten to it yet, so I won't spoil the episode for you. My own opinion of this whole thing though is that it was unnecessary. They were already able to have many episodes with the missing Betty Garrett. No need to break them up when the show only has a few episodes left!

-No, Shirley's marriage and pregnancy was NOT planned. Cindy Williams became pregnant and they had to work around it. She had just married Bill Hudson and gotten pregnant. So the reason they had Walter be in the army was so that Shirley could still be "home and pregnant" with Laverne and not with her husband. THEN when Cindy left the show, it became an excuse for Shirley to leave, but that was not the intent.

I agree I would have loved Shirley and Carmine together and Laverne/Lenny. What a sad way to end such an AMAZING and epic show.

Now apparently, they filmed an alternate "ending" at the end of Season 7 that was never aired because they thought Season 7 would be the last. They even had a wrap party and everything. I REALLY wish they would have put that ending as an extra on the DVDs.

[MacLeaper]

Thank you so much for the insightful comments! I appreciate that. I have since finished watching every episode of "Laverne & Shirley"- and it is great to finally have finished the series. (But bittersweet too, as it is every time I get through a great series I like- because now I have no new episodes to see. But then I can go back and watch it again! And I'm still looking for other appearances of the characters- like all their appearances on Happy Days and Laverne's appearance on Blansky's Beauties- but that seems fairly hard to find. And of course, I'm interested in seeing the "Laverne & Shirley in the Army" cartoon now too.

Anyway, here ya go!
-Frank and Edna's separation/divorce is mentioned at the end of the episode "Short on Time". You probably haven't gotten to it yet, so I won't spoil the episode for you. My own opinion of this whole thing though is that it was unnecessary. They were already able to have many episodes with the missing Betty Garrett. No need to break them up when the show only has a few episodes left!

Okay- on this point. The show producers and everyone involved didn't know the series would be over after this season though, right? So they had to plan as if the series would get a 9th. season.
But I agree that this seems rather unnecessary regardless. I suppose they were thinking that if the series continued for another season, eventually fans might wonder whatever happened to Edna. I guess they could have tried "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Family Matters" solution if it got to be a big issue (i.e. hire a new actress to play the wife)- but I honestly didn't notice her absence too much. [But I'm watching in retrospect, knowing that Betty Garrett had already left the series. And that's not to say that she didn't add a lot to the series too.] Of course, the fact that Edna ran off with a jockey shouldn't be a huge surprise I guess- didn't the series say she'd already been married 5 times before marrying Frank?
Still- sad that it worked out that way.
Oh, well- thanks for clarifying on that. However- what was the deal with "The Gymnast" episode? Was that supposed to air after "Short on Time" then?

-No, Shirley's marriage and pregnancy was NOT planned. Cindy Williams became pregnant and they had to work around it. She had just married Bill Hudson and gotten pregnant. So the reason they had Walter be in the army was so that Shirley could still be "home and pregnant" with Laverne and not with her husband. THEN when Cindy left the show, it became an excuse for Shirley to leave, but that was not the intent.

Okay- that helps. So, had Cindy Williams not gotten married and gotten pregnant, the series most likely would have continued on its status quo into Season 8. But because of all the sudden changes, the series had to accommodate so that Shirley was now suddenly married and then quickly got pregnant afterwards.
But even if Cindy Williams had stayed and the scenario of a pregnant Shirley staying with Laverne while Shirley's husband was in the Army going- even that couldn't have lasted forever. Surely Shirley would have had her baby by the end of the season, I would think, and then Walter would come to be there for that.
And then the only way I could see a 9th. season going forward (and keep the original premise somewhat intact) would be to have Shirley, Walter, the baby and Laverne all move into a house somewhere, maintaining Laverne and Shirley's roommate arrangement in order to save on rent and/or payments, etc. Or maybe they all move into the apartment perhaps?
Shirley getting married and having a baby definitely brought the series a spark of change to the status quo that it probably could use- but I wish it could have been planned out better. If they were going to do this, I wish the episode from Season 7 where Shirley and Carmine almost got married could have been reworked to where they actually did get married. And then maybe they could still have the same scenario where Shirley, Carmine and Laverne all get a bigger house and/or apartment together or something. And the series could end with Laverne and Lenny finally getting married.
Oh well- just ideas. Even in the later episodes of Season 8, where they largely featured Frank and Carmine and Squiggy, I still enjoyed those- maybe because I enjoy those characters just as well. I like Carmine, Lenny and Squiggy and Frank and Edna and the supporting characters almost as much as Laverne and Shirley themselves. So I don't mind those episodes. It was great to see Lenny and Squiggy together again one more time in "Please Don't Feed the Buzzards". (And I know why Lenny didn't show up much, since Michael McKean was busy filming "This Is Spinal Tap" at the time.) It was also neat that Sgt. Alvinia Plout got to make one more appearance- I loved that her baby was a plastic pig in "The Baby Show"- I wonder if this was a reference to Laverne and Shirley's superior officer on the cartoon being a pig?
I like that in some ways some of the characters got a bit of closure. It was nice to see Shirley get her dream of getting married to a doctor and then having a baby. (Even if the way it happened was unfortunate.) It was nice to see Frank able to move on from Edna leaving him (although, again, that was unfortunate too) and become City Councilman. And Carmine finally got his big break on Broadway and got a part in a production of "Hair". (I liked that episode and maybe since I just like the character of Carmine Ragusa so much, I think maybe a spinoff could have worked.) I was happy to see him finally make it big like he wanted to do (you know, he goes from rags to riches! )- but at the same time, I also like him being there for the girls like a big brother. Even Lenny and Squiggy seemed to have some success with their talent agency and that was nice to see them get some closure, sort of. Laverne got another job and the character of Chuck was interesting. I just wish Laverne could have finally gotten married too, preferably to Lenny.
I also love how this series was always big on singing and dancing. It seems most every season they had a big episode that featured the gang doing musical and comedic performances. (The Shotz Annual Talent Show episodes- I'm glad that tradition continued somewhat in the California seasons too- "Sing, Sing, Sing", "That's Entertainment" and "The Rock Show" all seem to be episodes that could fit in with that tradition.
I'm also glad that they did the "Window on Main Street" episode as Cindy Williams' last appearance. It was great to see a classic Laverne & Shirley episode there with the girls' usual hijinks in ludicrous situations.
Well, it's done now- it's unfortunate the way things worked out in the last season, but I'm still glad for every episode- such a fun, funny and sweet show- and I can always enjoy the reruns- all 8 seasons for their chant- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8- Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!" We're gonna do it!