Where Were Laverne & Shirley in Season 7?

[lj01]

I don't know if this has been addressed, but I don't see it in the reviews or anything so thought I would ask...

Season 8 is of course famous for the absence of Shirley, among other characters, however...

What was the deal with so many S7 episodes featuring the Laverne & Shirley characters in such limited quantity? For instance E21, "Crime Isn't Pretty" basically L&S make a cameo at the beginning and not seen rest of the episode. Was this related to some sort of off-(or on-) set turmoil?

I've got these:
E6-Night at the Awards, mostly Lenny & Squiggy
E11-Love in the Tar Pits, again mostly Lenny/Squiggy
E13-Rocky Ragu-mostly Carmine
E18-Helmut Weekend-mostly Squiggy
E19-That's Entertainment-everyone BUT Laverne/Shirley though they are present for the opera finale (about 4 minutes or so)
E20-Lightning Man-Carmine, Lenny & Squiggy
E21-Crime Isn't Pretty-Frank & Carmine

That's about a third of the season! Noticeably, there's a stretch (E18-21) of four episodes in a row, which to me indicates something was going on in the background which caused the main characters to be written out for a time period.

Too much Squiggy in that season, of course his character is meant to be somewhat unlikable but that really doesn't work when he becomes the main character for weeks at a time.

Thoughts or insights?

[shotzette]

Originally Posted by lj01

I don't know if this has been addressed, but I don't see it in the reviews or anything so thought I would ask...

Season 8 is of course famous for the absence of Shirley, among other characters, however...

Per Penny's book, they had originally decided to end the show after S6. However, Cindy Williams changed her mind at the last minute and TPTB used that to leverage most of the cast back.

Most of S7 was shot in a hurry to accommodation Cindy William's visible pregnancy. If you look in the later eps, you can see that she's showing. In the two S8 episodes she was in, she looked like she was ready to pop.

Penny Marshall had lost interest in the series by S7 and did what was only contractually required of her. Michael McKean was shooting/shopping "This is Spinal Tap" and making/promoting "Young Doctor's in Love". He's said in multiple interviews that the show had been very lenient with him regarding his other projects.

Betty Garrett had already committed to a play on Broadway when she was told that the show was going to run another year, hence Edna's "divorcing" Frank.

[lj01]

Interesting, thanks for the info - I wasn't aware that the pregnancy went back to S7, I was just familiar with how things unfolded at beginning of S8.

[PennyMarshallFan]

Yeah the show should have ended after Season 6 or 7. Season 8 is the worst and even Penny says she knows it is and she wishes they didn't even do it.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by shotzette

Per Penny's book, they had originally decided to end the show after S6. However, Cindy Williams changed her mind at the last minute and TPTB used that to leverage most of the cast back.

Most of S7 was shot in a hurry to accommodation Cindy William's visible pregnancy. If you look in the later eps, you can see that she's showing. In the two S8 episodes she was in, she looked like she was ready to pop.

Penny Marshall had lost interest in the series by S7 and did what was only contractually required of her. Michael McKean was shooting/shopping "This is Spinal Tap" and making/promoting "Young Doctor's in Love". He's said in multiple interviews that the show had been very lenient with him regarding his other projects.

Betty Garrett had already committed to a play on Broadway when she was told that the show was going to run another year, hence Edna's "divorcing" Frank.

Supposedly, the 7th season of the show was intended to be the last so much of the cast had made plans for other projects. At the last minute, it was decided to go on for one more season so that's why David L. Lander is a regular but Michael McKean (Lenny) only made a few guest appearances. Betty Garrett was doing a Broadway show so they wrote her character had run off and left Laverne's dad. Apparently the episode where Laverne finds the note that Shirley has left was supposed to be the one dealing with Edna leaving Frank but when Williams left they rewrote it to deal with the more pressing void. The Edna-Frank situation was ignored until the second half of the season.

[James]

Originally Posted by TMC

Supposedly, the 7th season of the show was intended to be the last so much of the cast had made plans for other projects. At the last minute, it was decided to go on for one more season so that's why David L. Lander is a regular but Michael McKean (Lenny) only made a few guest appearances. Betty Garrett was doing a Broadway show so they wrote her character had run off and left Laverne's dad. Apparently the episode where Laverne finds the note that Shirley has left was supposed to be the one dealing with Edna leaving Frank but when Williams left they rewrote it to deal with the more pressing void. The Edna-Frank situation was ignored until the second half of the season.

If Betty had moved on, why did they have Frank and Edna separate? Frank could have talked to Edna over the phone or gotten letters from her in those episodes; she just would have been invisible like Sara the telephone operator on "The Andy Griffith Show."

[Dr. Thong]

Originally Posted by James

If Betty had moved on, why did they have Frank and Edna separate? Frank could have talked to Edna over the phone or gotten letters from her in those episodes; she just would have been invisible like Sara the telephone operator on "The Andy Griffith Show."

I agree. It seemed like such a downer that Edna not only walked out on Frank, but took up with another man if memory serves me correctly.

It seemed so out of character. But then again, that last season was just so wrong. The show just slowly ran out of gas and just limped along to the finish line.

As I understand it, the network wanted one more season, but Penny was burned out and knew the show had seen better days and declined.