Lately, I'm a slave to my TV at a very specific time. A time not known for its gripping TV content. A time ruled by game shows and that filler in between the news, and the good stuff. That time, is 7:30 pm.
The show: Laverne and Shirley. That in itself wouldn't be quite so odd...but what is odd is that what has enslaved me is the worst possible type of 70s sitcom...the episodes after the show has jumped the shark .
CTS (the christian channel) has been airing re-runs of Laverne and Shirley, specifically the episodes after the gals moved away from Milwaukee to Burbank. It gets worse...Shirley leaves the show, pregnant and married to a dude named Meenie ( get it? Shirley Feenie-Meenie). We never even see this guy. I think she was pregnant in real life and wanted off the show. Apparently she even filed a $20 mil. lawsuit against the studio.
They re-edited the opening sequence to get rid of any traces of Shirley, but the show is still called Laverne and Shirley. But there is no Shirley. It so, so totally jumped the shark. It is so bad. Penny Marshall looks about 42 years old. Every episode she has a different boyfriend, what was funny 7 years ago is starting to reek of pathos. It's so utterly heinous it's somehow totally compelling - everything exciting happens in Frank DeFazio's "Cowboy Bill" restaurant. Carrie Fisher makes a guest appearance, as does a young Jim Belushi. My favorite guest star so far is Charles Fleischer, who turned up in a great episodes of Barney Miller. The guy is a fantastic comedic character actor...he also played Carvelli in Welcome Back Kotter. He has a website where he plays around with math formulas.
Ah, Barney Miller. Fuck, I loved that show. Best guest actors, every episode had some total gem of a line. Some brilliant guy who showed up in the tank all the time, he played Mr Kopekne, a guy who thought he was a werewolf, and a guy who thought he was Jesus. Brilliant dude, my brother and I would just wait for the episodes when that guy was on.
*runs off to check IMDB...*
Kenneth Tigar!
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