The 10 Best LAVERNE & SHIRLEY Episodes of Season 4 & 5

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The Ten Best LAVERNE & SHIRLEY Episodes of Season Four

Season Four, the second consecutive year where Laverne & Shirley was Nielsen’s #1, is a fascinating collection that rounds out my “Long Golden Age,” the three-year period in which I find the series most capable of being the best version of itself on a regular basis, and with the least amount of harm from evident shortcomings. Like its two predecessors, Four is unique though, and that’s because some of these shortcomings are directly addressed, highlighting the increasing tension between conflicting elements but emerging with a surprising amount of reconciliation. I’m referring to the series’ long-gestating self-conscious quest to counteract criticism about its juvenility by pushing for a dramatic foundation that — because of its routinized broadness, feverish pursuit of slapstick, and shallow characterizations who always reiterate a one-dimensionality common to Garry Marshall — this series has simply never been able to supply as effective support for its aggrandized humor, let alone a meaningful alternative to it. For despite the obviousness of the series’ limitations, there is an organized crusade this year to fight through these handicaps and make dramatic earnestness — beyond just the central Laverne & Shirley relationship (which as we noted last week, is a sweet emotional center, but not adept at sparking story or earning serious moments) — a fundamental part of the show’s makeup. This mission, which we started to see last week, is most present here in segments like “A Visit To The Cemetery,” an outing that completely loses the genre’s comic objective and the show’s particular raison d’être by veering to a maudlin extreme that also makes even more glaring the equally gimmicky “big laugh” excursions on the other figurative side, which has heightened in tandem but also lacks dramatic justifications for its ostentatious ideas (such as “The Quiz Show”). They harken back to seasons past, but with a newfound polarized intensity. However, both sets of extremes are actually exceptions to the rule, for the show’s awareness of our expectations for its comedy keeps that always-crucial aspect of its identity vitally reinforced, with most entries (save only a few) striving for more dramatic sincerity while also delivering the excellent physical humor needed to allow Four to exist in this “Golden Age.”

The Ten Best LAVERNE & SHIRLEY Episodes of Season Five

For many years, the long-accepted narrative about Laverne & Shirley’s trajectory was that the show is good-to-great (depending on your mileage) in its initial Milwaukee seasons before suffering a steep decline upon Six’s move to California. Then, about ten years ago when the series was being released on DVD, updated appraisals tended to take a more nuanced approach, asserting that there is a drop already evident here in Five, when Laverne & Shirley went from being the #1 most watched show in the country to falling somewhere around 40th place (depending on your source), largely because it was moved away from Happy Days and tasked with anchoring another night’s lineup. Since then, I’ve started to see online discourse resettle back to the pre-DVD party line, with many fans lauding this season for its seemingly high number of classics, particularly by viewers who rightly recognize the series’ use of broad comedy — slapstick — as its raison d’être. But I note the evolving perception of this transitional season to point out that there’s truth in all of it. Well, except for any attempt to link creative quality with popular success — that is, if every dip in Nielsens has to represent an erosion of value, then a rise (like the one between Five and Six) would have to reflect the opposite, and that proves the argument to be false. However, I am open to the possibility that Season Five’s new slot and reduced Nielsens did affect the nature of the storytelling, which affected the show’s quality, as the series hoped to retain and then recapture viewers with gaudy hooks and flashy tricks, and I say this because, if Four made a push to go smaller with its episodic narratives, opting for low-concept ideas that put its leads in more believable relationship-based plots, then Five moves in the exact opposite direction, engaging gimmicks and higher concept trappings that project a shameless desire to maintain viewer interest. From a crossover premiere, to another dream sequence, to a November Sweeps wedding, to a halfhearted “girls in the military” reformatting (meant to be used “once a month”), to an unearned drama about the death of Laverne’s beau-of-the-week — Season Five is BIG.

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Welcome back to Night After Night's top 5 lists and Chris Jayawardena takes on Season 5! A look back at the wild, inventive, and experimental year of situational comedy, poignant dramatics, and crazy new ideas to try and get the fans back to watching after a ratings dip. This is the last full season of the Milwaukee Years... what does Chris, the newbie on the NAN podcast, think?

And we're back with more Top 5 goodness! Lisa of the Night After Night podcast counts down her Top 5 favorite episodes of Laverne & Shirley's powerful 5th season, where the ratings crash of the show ignited an explosion of creative freedom and experimentation! There's the high-concept thrills of Murder on the Moosejaw Express, the boisterous insanity of The Diner, and more. What did Lisa pick?

It's Christopher's Nerd Time Supreme, baby! Here, he counts down his Top 5 favorite episodes of Laverne & Shirley's contentious but poignant 4th season, throwing in as many nerdy references as he can!

And we're back with more Top 5 goodness! Lisa of the Night After Night podcast counts down her Top 5 favorite episodes of Laverne & Shirley's contentious but poignant 4th season, one chock-full of depth, complicated emotions, and laugh-out-loud stunt-laden sequences!

[Missygal21880]

Thank you for the promo!