YMMV / Laverne & Shirley

• Alternative Character Interpretation: In "One Flew Over Milwaukee", was Shirley lying about Duane the canary having bronchitis (making her line "Would I ever lie to you?" a Suspiciously Specific Denial), was she just paranoid (since Laverne did mention a Noodle Incident involving Shirley thinking a hamster had a headache), or did Duane actually have bronchitis?
• Broken Base: Was the move to California good or bad? A lot of people don't like it because they would have preferred the show to follow the Status Quo Is God rule at least to some extent and/or they think that having Lenny, Squiggy, and Carmine move to California as well seems contrived. On the other hand, some people don't mind the move to California. However, as a rule of thumb, both sides agree that getting rid of Shirley was a bad decision.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • If Laverne is shipped with Shirley, the story usually has the plot "One of the leads finds out she's bisexual and worries if it'll affect their friendship" or "The leads get married". If she's shipped with Lenny, the story usually centers around "Look Before You Leap" or "Lenny's Crush".
  • If there's a Dark Fic, it'll usually be about everyone reminiscing when one of the protagonists dies of old age.
• Growing the Beard: Some viewers think the show got better when Shirley didn't have the earlier accent that she spoke with for the first few episodes.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In "Laverne and Shirley Move In", Shirley is expected to move to California to be with her mother. At Shirley's going away party, the devastated Lenny and Squiggy say goodbye to her. They then say goodbye to Laverne, leading to an exchange that had new meaning after the last, Shirley-less season.
  Laverne: I ain't goin' nowheres.
  Squiggy: Yeah, I know. But without her, what good are you?
• Hollywood Homely: Averted with Laverne; Penny Marshall didn't have conventional Hollywood looks but was usually portrayed as a very attractive woman.
• Ho Yay:
  • Laverne and Shirley kissed in "Airport '59."
  • Shirley kisses a reluctant Laverne at the end as part of her disaster of a Mother Goose fairytale-based play in "Child's Play". Laverne was impressed.
    Laverne: Not bad.
  • They have yet another unintentional kiss thanks to their former classmate Terry Buttafuco shouldering them way too close in "Whatever Happened to the Class of '56?"
• More Popular Spin Off: The series blew past Happy Days in domestic ratings almost from episode 1. In the long run however, Happy Days has clearly left a far greater cultural impact, be it for nostalgia of The '50s (which Laverne & Shirley didn't really exploit) never quite fading away or the iconic Fonzie. Not to mention the fact that Happy Days was quite widely exported abroad, Laverne & Shirley not so much.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Archie Hahn, from the British Whose Line Is It Anyway?, appeared as one of two men who spy on the girls.
  • Jeff Goldblum appears in the Burbank-era episode "Watch the Fur Fly" as one of Laverne's boyfriends.
• The Scrappy: Walter Meany gets a fair amount of hate because he was the one who married (and impregnated) Shirley and led to her moving away, something which most people agree was a bad move on the writers' part (true, Shirley's actress was pregnant but they could have simply put the show on hold for a while — or even cancelled it right then and there, since it was clearly on the way out anyway). Even though there are some who don't blame Walter, he has very few actual fans.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • The last season. It's Laverne and Shirley... without Shirley. What Were They Thinking?: The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History placed this at #88.
  • Many fans (and cast members) feel the rot started even earlier than that, with the ill-advised move to California in season six. Most can agree the quality of the series tanked hard in these final few seasons.
• Tear Jerker : The season 5 episode "Why Did the Fireman...", in which Laverne's almost-fiancé, a fire fighter, dies on the job comes to mind. Especially in that Laverne is in denial that he's actually dead until the end of the episode. Could also fall under Very Special Episode.
• Values Dissonance: In various episodes Laverne and Shirley have to physically fend off unwanted, rather violent sexual advances from male co-workers, superiors and employers. These incidents are mostly played for comedy and, in many cases, treated as an ordinary part of the characters' lives.
  • The utterly creepy and forceful antics and behavior of Lenny and Squiggy are also played for comedy.
  • In "Look Before You Leap", Laverne thinks she might be pregnant. However, because the girls are supposed to be virgins, the writers didn't want Laverne willingly having sex. So instead, they had her think she got pregnant because she was taken advantage of while black-out drunk. Yes, really. It turns out that she wasn't really taken advantage of, but she still thought she was. And the whole development is played for laughs.

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