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How Laverne & Shirley made the ultimate underdog series
"Two girls who work in a brewery, coping with life."
The beauty of a show like Laverne & Shirley is that it isn't their material gains that make them appealing; it's their friendship and zest for life.
"Laverne & Shirley is about the survival of the underdog," said Thomas Miller, one of the show's executive producers, during an interview with The News and Observer. "It's 'I'm O.K., You're O.K.' It is totally the working-class ethic. Two girls who work in a brewery, coping with life."
While the phrase "coping with life" can seem like a harsh statement to some, to many it's a totally appropriate term. Plenty of life can feel like bright spots of joy surrounded by dark periods of trudging through the mud to get what you deserve. Laverne & Shirley didn't sugarcoat things like its sister series, Happy Days, which seemed to glorify earlier decades, and viewers could appreciate that.
"It has a harder, more satiric edge than Happy Days," said Miller. "Viewers can root for the underdog."
Laverne & Shirley offered an honest look at what the day-to-day life of a middle-class working woman looked like. By combining that with the outlandish comedic talents of actors like Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, the series was able to offer a relatable series that still managed to entertain audiences endlessly.
"Not every woman in the country looks like Doris Day," said Miller. "Neither do Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. Cindy's kind of cute, but she doesn't look like a movie star. Of course, it's a fantasy, and it works because both girls and the actors who play Lenny and Squiggy will make the total commitment to lunacy on the screen. It's very physical comedy."
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