Laverne and Shirley have one good year left
1979 wasn't a good year for this show. Even though Cate still watches the show, the national ratings for the show have fallen.
"Laverne and Shirley" was the most successful spinoff from "Happy Days" as it lasted 8 years and still runs in syndication.
The series premiered in 1976 after the characters were introduced as two friends of Henry Winkler's character "The Fonz" on Happy Days. This series rose to the top of the ratings immediately. The theme song by Cindy Grecco was released as a single. According to www.songfacts.com the song peaked at 25 on the charts.
The show featured Penny Marshall, who had already made a name for herself as Myrna on The Odd Couple. Cindy Williams was in the movie, The Conversation with Gene Hackman and she was Laurie in American Graffitti.
David L Sanders and Micheal McKean played neighbors, Lenny and Squiggy. Eddie Mekka was the on again/off again boyfriend of Shirley.
The most interesting cast member was Betty Garrett, who played landlady, Edna. She and her husband, Larry Parks were blacklisted in the 1950s because the House Committee of UnAmerican Activites ruled her a Communist.
Laverne and Shirley were two young women that worked for a brewery in Milwaukee. The first seasons were about their lives meeting men, working, and hanging at Laverne's father's pizza place.
Good fun.
In 1979, the show fell out of the Top 30 show ratings for the first time. Many ABC shows were faltering at this time and the powerful Tuesday night line-up wasn't as powerful for the network. The writers took a chance the following season. They moved the show from working class Milwaukee to Los Angeles. Even though the show lasted a few more years, that was the shark jump. The show never got back in the top 20 shows and they lost cast members until it was cancelled.
After the show was cancelled, Penny Marshall became a director. I get the feeling that due to contract negotiations on the show, when Cindy Williams left, she got blackballed from television. David Sanders was pretty much typecast, but continued to work. Micheal McKean had a very successful career.
The information came from Wikipedia and IMDB.
The link to the theme song:
The link to Dear Pen Pal: