Tony Maietta:
Hello. I'm film historian Tony Maietta.

Brad Shreve:
And I'm Brad Shreve, who's just a guy who likes movies.

Tony Maietta:
We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's golden age. We go behind the scenes and share our opinions too.

Brad Shreve:
And of course, being the average guy, my opinions are the ones that matter.

Tony Maietta:
As does your self delusion. Welcome to going Hollywood. We're back. We are back for our second visit to the beautiful city of Milwaukee. Have you ever been to Milwaukee, Brad? I should ask you that.

Brad Shreve:
You know, I was debating. I don't think I have.

Tony Maietta:
It's, as I said before, it's a very, very pretty, pretty city. It's like Chicago in a dryer, like somebody shrunk Chicago. It's got the lake, it's got a lot of breweries, ironically. And it does have the Hotel Pfister. I had lunch at the Hotel Pfister. I think I got a manicure, pedicure at the Hotel Pfister, which is odd cuz I never get mani-pedis. But what it has, of course, that makes me love it is it has our 2 pals that we're talking about today still there, in my opinion, in my mind, Laverne and Shirley, still in Milwaukee, still on Knapp Street, living in that basement apartment, looking up at people's feet. And dog bellies, as Laverne said.

Brad Shreve:
And you know, since you brought that up, when people think of iconic sets, I really think this set, this very simple little apartment set, is really up there with the Stevens house, the Frasier house, Mary Tyler Moore's apartment. I, I think it's right up there.

Tony Maietta:
Oh yeah, I agree with you.

Brad Shreve:
It's that window up there.

Tony Maietta:
I love that because of the fact that they live in a basement. It's, it's symbolic. When they move to California, they're not in the basement anymore. And that's just indicative of what went wrong with the show when they were no longer the underdogs, literally underdogs. I just said it. That's what Laverne said. Uh, the bellies of dogs. Um, and that's one of the reasons why, and I love that set because no other show did the characters live in a basement.

Tony Maietta:
And, and everything that entails and everything that signifies. So I love that set too. I, I think it's a great, it's such a fun set and I love, they had the dumbwaiter and I love their bedroom. It was just, it was perfect. It was all, and I love the fact, why was one of them always in the closet? You know, the famous beginning where Shirley, Laverne comes outta the closet and Shirley comes in the door.

Brad Shreve:
I always wondered like, who are they stopping and staring at?

Tony Maietta:
What is Laverne doing in that closet? Um, we didn't talk about the theme song of Laverne and Shirley yet, and I think it's important because, my God, you can't think of Laverne and Shirley without thinking of Making Our Dreams Come True, right?

Brad Shreve:
No. And you know, that is, uh, it's really funny because we have talked about, uh, we've talked about the loss of opening scene, opening credits.

Tony Maietta:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
On TV shows. And as a rule, I think it's a good thing.

Tony Maietta:
We— I don't agree, but go ahead.

Brad Shreve:
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I— so much of the time in an episode, was taken away by that. But there are ones like this one, which I gotta tell you, we watched how many episodes? We watched, well, we were talking about 8, but we both watched more than 8.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
It never got, every time it came on, I was smiling and singing with this theme song.

Tony Maietta:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
So one, it's a great song. And 2, it is one of the best introductions to a show and tells what this show is about. than— granted, Green Acres is dead on. It's almost too on the nose. This one is really about what this show is about.

Tony Maietta:
Making Our Dreams Come True for me and you is right up there with You're Gonna Make It After All, as far as I'm concerned. It is so— it just encapsulates the theme of this show so well. A wonderful theme song, which was a big hit by Cyndi Greco. And You can't think of Laverne and Shirley without that. First of all, without the 1, 2, 3, 4 with a little chant, but the song, because it just encapsulates it all. And then when Shirley left and she's singing, we're gonna make our dreams come true for me and you, and it's just Laverne, you're like, what the fuck? Uh, anyway, they should have changed the theme song then. But anyway, I'm glad we talked about this.

Brad Shreve:
They also should have changed the name of the show instead of still calling it Laverne and Shirley, but that's a whole Laverne and Laverne. Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah. It's just not, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. Cuz we're gonna talk about that. And this is part 2 of our Laverne and Shirley. Happy birthday, Laverne and Shirley. 50 years ago, which is astounding to me, Laverne and Shirley debuted. So we got through, um, a handful of episodes of Milwaukee episodes, but there are so many wonderful Milwaukee episodes.

Tony Maietta:
We have more. We have more folks. We are not done with Milwaukee yet. So yay, I'm happy about that. We ended up in season 3 and we're gonna jump ahead to season 4 because in my opinion, season 2, 3, and 4 are truly, truly, truly the best seasons of Laverne and Shirley. And I think season 5, there were some problems and we'll talk about why that led to the California move. But I think it's interesting, Brad, that there's your theory again, that a show really after 5 years, really might, they really might consider ending it because after the 5th year of Laverne and Shirley, that's when the problems started. So there you go again.

Tony Maietta:
Another 5, another 5, I think 5 and 6, I think maybe 6 seasons, but you have 5. So there you go.

Brad Shreve:
I think 5 is the, is the magic number. I think there can be exceptions.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
That show could go on 6.

Tony Maietta:
There has to be a big change. There has to be some—

Brad Shreve:
Off the top of my head, I would say—

Tony Maietta:
Well, Cheers went on after, you know, Frasier, certainly Friends. We've talked about Golden Girls.

Brad Shreve:
Parks and Rec, I think was good for 6 I would, I really question whether Cheers, of course I questioned, I so disliked Kirstie Alley's character so much.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, but I love their character.

Brad Shreve:
But yes, 5, maybe 6 if the show is really good.

Tony Maietta:
There needs to be a significant change. I think that's the key. You know, we talked about this with Golden Girls. Golden Girls got an entirely new creative team and that helped because in my opinion, the last 2 episodes of Golden Girls, the last 2 seasons of Golden Girls are their best. Um, there, there's usually, there has to be a big overhaul, a big change, a big event, I think, in order to refreshen the show. And that's what the writers tried to do with California and Laverne and Shirley, but didn't work. So we'll get to it though. We'll get to it right now.

Tony Maietta:
We're back in Milwaukee and their first episode up is my episode. It's from season 4. It's episode 4. It's called The Robbery. It's written by Mark Sotkin, directed by Howard Storm, and it originally aired on September 26th, 1978. I gotta tell you, this is one of the episodes I couldn't remember. I remembered the scene and I'm like, what episode is that? What episode is that? And so I put into Google the episode where Shirley and Laverne are stuck on coat hooks and they can't get down. What episode is that? And it turned out to be The Robbery.

Tony Maietta:
And I'm so glad I did that because This whole episode is really, really a lot of fun, in my opinion, from the beginning to the end. I think it's a fantastic episode. What happens is, is that Shirley disapproves of Laverne's newest boyfriend, whose name is Jake, who is a self-proclaimed bad boy with no regard for society or manners. And this really excites Laverne until she becomes an accomplice when he robs a grocery store. So they confront him to get him to surrender to the police and mayhem ensues. And that's the A part of the story. The B part of the story, and this is the part I really loved, is that they set it up like Shirley is finally gonna vodeo dodo with Carmine. Did you see that, Brad?

Brad Shreve:
Mm-hmm.

Tony Maietta:
I love that. 'Cause the episode starts out and they're on the couch, Carmine and Shirley, and they're making out and, you know, they're— it's the struggle, the, No, no, no, no, no, no. It's so funny. And then Shirley decides she's actually gonna give it to him, but she doesn't, of course, because of what happens. I love that about this episode.

Brad Shreve:
Because Carmine's water bill was $80 last month from all the cold showers.

Tony Maietta:
From all the cold showers. So they did. And I see, I totally forgot that. So they did address the fact that Shirley is constantly cockteasing Carmine. Which, you know, Eddie Mecca in 1978, it's okay with me. I think he's a little cheesy, but he's okay with me in other, in every other respect. I just love the fact that they finally addressed the fact that Shirley is not giving it up for Carmine and she's almost going to, and she has this whole elaborate thing. But of course that's when Laverne breaks in and says that she just robbed the grocery store.

Tony Maietta:
So what do you think about, what do you think about this episode, Brad?

Brad Shreve:
I, uh, I didn't remember this at all. I mean, I, I almost questioned why I'd ever seen it before. Um, so it was delightful. As far as the show goes, there's a couple things that are really important to me, not because they're groundbreaking, because they really emphasize a couple things from the show about me. But once they were put on, once I saw him put Laverne on that coat hook.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
I'm like, like you, I'm like, it's this episode.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, it's so funny because it's so great.

Brad Shreve:
It is. Them running with the coat, it's just, it's so classic.

Tony Maietta:
Again, here we go again. But it is such a Lucy and Ethel thing. It's such a Lucy and Ethel thing, but it is logical. Now, of course, you could not be hung on a coat hook. We all know that's not true. So you gotta suspend your disbelief a little bit. But the fact that they're up on this coat hook and they can't get down and the things they do, they try to swing to get to the door, then they try to run, but they're not going anywhere. This is real Chaplin, Keaton stuff.

Tony Maietta:
Harold Lloyd stuff.

Brad Shreve:
Yes.

Tony Maietta:
This kind of comedy. And that's what I love about Laverne and Shirley. It's very Lucy and Ethel. It's very silent film slapstick. And they're so good at it. And it makes perfect sense. He puts them on the coat hook to get them out of the way. And it's just, it's, it's a brilliant moment.

Tony Maietta:
And, uh, I think it's, it's one of the funniest moments. And it's these little moments, as I said, I didn't remember this episode either. I just remembered that moment. And I love the fact that I like the rest of the episode just as much.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. Yeah. And here's the 2 things that this show really, uh, stood out to me as. One, it once again gets into the, how complicated Shirley and Carmine's relationship is.

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
It's almost like they have an open relationship. It's, it's, it was confusing then and it still kind of is confusing now because there aren't many other relationships on television like this one. Where they clearly have, they, they date other people. They're not exclusive, but they have their jealousies. And given that time period, that seems incredible to me. One of the frustrating things I have with today's era is people don't date. You go on a date with somebody 3 times and you're supposed to be exclusive from then on. I don't, that may have always been true, but when I watch TVs and movies, that's not the way it was.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
And like, after— before I met Maurice, after my last relationship broke up, I said, I'm, I'm dating. I'm just gonna meet a few guys and just date. And it took a while to find guys that were interested in doing that as well, because nobody does that. Here was a case where this was an era when people did just kind of occasionally go out with this guy and this guy, but their relationship was more than that. He wasn't just this occasional date. He was the occasional date, but it was more than just a date and It, you know, he clearly had sex with other women.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
Just not Shirley.

Brad Shreve:
He always hinted at—

Tony Maietta:
Not Shirley. Not Shirley.

Brad Shreve:
No, not Shirley. But he always was there for Shirley. Uh, is very interesting.

Tony Maietta:
It is. It's a little bit like when they made Miles, they put Miles on Golden Girls. You know, it's okay with Blanche to date hundreds and hundreds of guys and, well, poor Dorothy, but you know what I mean? But, but Rose, because of Rose's character, she really couldn't, you know, so they gave her a steady. And it's kind of that way with Shirley because Shirley is so, is so invested in maintaining her purity.

Brad Shreve:
Mm-hmm.

Tony Maietta:
There's an episode where they get the fake honeymoon, they get, they win the honeymoon hotel and they have to pretend, she has to pretend to be a bride. And Mrs. Babish brings all her old wedding dresses and there's a red one, there's a peach one, there's a white one. And she says, which one, Shirley? And Shirley goes, The white one. I've earned it. And just the frustration in her voice with, I've earned it, is so great. And that's the thing about Shirley is she's so invested in her, in maintaining her virginity that they kind of have to give her a steady just, just to, to maintain that basically to keep that story going.

Brad Shreve:
So.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. And the other thing this show emphasized is, yes, Laverne was turned on by this guy because he was a bad boy. But also could really— it was never heavy-handed, but Laverne also was with him because he gave— he paid attention to her and she's very insecure.

Tony Maietta:
He's exciting. Who doesn't love a bad boy? You know, who hasn't— whose head hasn't been turned by a bad boy once in a while? Hello, it happens. I'll say it right now. But it's a great episode. It's a lot of fun. Highly recommend it. So, so Brad, I believe you're up next.

Brad Shreve:
Yes, I am. My next one was season 4, Episode 5, The Quiz Show, and it was written by Monica Johnson and directed by Howard— I almost said Howard Stern— directed by Howard Storm, uh, and originally aired October 10th. You didn't know that he wrote for Laverne and Shirley, did you?

Tony Maietta:
I didn't know he wrote for Laverne and Shirley.

Brad Shreve:
It originally aired on October 10th, 1978.

Tony Maietta:
Explains a lot.

Brad Shreve:
So this episode I only remembered slightly. Uh, and one of the reasons I picked it when I was going through the list of episodes and, uh, trying to see which ones either the name jumped out at me or the description jumped out at me, and I looked at very simple descriptions because I didn't want anything ruined. I tried to ignore the, um, ratings because ratings are really tough with this show because it's not around for people to watch a lot. But I did keep, kept seeing ratings and, and this one consistently was ranked near the top.

Tony Maietta:
Mm-hmm.

Brad Shreve:
So I remembered thinking it was funny and I kept seeing it rated really well, so I chose it. And I'm glad I did. It was funny. It was— this is probably the, to me, the weakest of all the ones that we're talking about.

Tony Maietta:
Mm-hmm.

Brad Shreve:
Um, just because it was kind of, it was kind of sloppy.

Tony Maietta:
I would agree. I would agree. Um, the comedy is not really, really con— when the comedy is cemented in reality, it works much better. This is just comedy for comedy's sake, I think, in this show.

Brad Shreve:
Yes. In fact, one of the things I was gonna bring up and, uh, slightly in this one is one of the beauties of Laverne and Shirley, to show what a great duo this is. A lot of times the actual premise of the episode, it almost doesn't happen until like 15 minutes in the episode because they just have in there—

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
They may mention what it's going to be about, but there's like this just everyday interaction of, I don't know, folding napkins or, or something where they're having funny conversations or doing silly antics that really have nothing to do with what the actual episode is supposedly about. And that—

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
I just sat there in amazement on several of these, like, they got away with that because they are so good. This one, it just kind of showed that it was weaker, but it was still funny. It was still funny. And it had a little too much of Lenny and Squiggy, though I do think they were funny on this episode. I gotta say, the fact that they turned down winning Furniture, even though it was a bit frou-frou, as they said, or whatever the word they used.

Tony Maietta:
For a salami.

Brad Shreve:
For a salami was very Lenny and Squiggy. Yes.

Tony Maietta:
They wanted the salami. That's all they cared about was the salami. And I liked where they're eating the salami later. They're just tearing into that salami.

Brad Shreve:
And they made money off their salami.

Tony Maietta:
But Brad, we haven't told them what it's about. Tell 'em what it's about, the show.

Brad Shreve:
Well, I guess that, that is true. So there's a TV game show called Be Silly for Dollars, and it comes to Milwaukee. And so Laverne, Shirley, Carmine, and Lenny and Squiggy go and they get in the studio audience and they're hoping to be able to get on the show. It's kind of like a Let's Make a Deal. They pull people from the audience and Carmine has his grin already. But of course, the ones that are chosen to be up there are Lenny and Squiggy and Laverne and Shirley, 2 separate rounds. The guys are going to do one skit and then the girls do. And as we just said, Lenny and Squiggy, Squiggy win a salami, and the girls have to perform zany stunts to win the grand prize from the world of luxury.

Tony Maietta:
And of course they lose. Of course, because it's Laverne and Shirley, they lose. And what is their, what is their big stunt they have to do in order to win the grand prize?

Brad Shreve:
Was it the cake one that was the end?

Tony Maietta:
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Brad Shreve:
Okay. I was trying to remember if that was in the middle or the end, the cake stunt. That's the end. And this is where I felt like it wasn't all that good. First of all, the stunt where they were dressing each other blindfolded, I didn't find that all that funny.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
I'm like waiting for something more to happen. But the second one was pretty funny 'cause it was much more their typical slapstick thing. And that is that they are tied back to back to each other and Shirley has to toss a cake over a, like a bar. Uh, that's up in the air and then Laverne has to catch it.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And they, so it's called Catch the Cake, I think.

Tony Maietta:
Catch the Cake.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
It's, it, you know, it's a bit silly. It is a bit silly. But whenever, you know, whenever characters are in game shows, like I'm thinking about, uh, The Golden Girls and Grab That Dough and Lucy did game shows, you know, it, that's where you really have to kind of give 'em a little leeway and go, okay. Yeah, it's a little silly. I mean, would you really be throwing a game show where you're throwing cakes? in the air at each other. I don't know. Well, hello, Amazing Race, shit like that. So I guess I'm not right, but I found it.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, I do.

Tony Maietta:
I did find it kind of weak too, although it's still a fun episode. It's still a lot of fun.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. It's not bad. It just didn't rank near the top. I will— there is one exception to the game show episode, and that is when Cliff was on Jeopardy on Cheers.

Tony Maietta:
Oh yes. Well, I love when they go on Jeopardy, when Dorothy's on Jeopardy too on Golden Girls. Hysterically funny.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
So in the vein of the, of the, uh, the game show kind of thing, we have a similar episode coming up, which is Brad's choice. Brad's choice. But like, Brad, I gotta tell you, when I told people we were doing Laverne and Shirley, talking about Laverne and Shirley, almost every one of them asked me, are you gonna do this episode? Are you gonna do this episode? And I was like, yes, we will probably most likely do this episode because it's the most, probably the most famous, if not the most famous episode of, of Laverne and Shirley. It's certainly in the top 5. So why don't I think you can tell people what this episode is, Brad.

Brad Shreve:
Absolutely. This episode is season 4, number 17, Supermarket Sweep, written by Ron Levitt and directed by Joel Zwick, and originally aired February 6th, 1979.

Tony Maietta:
Do you know, do you know what famous film Joel Zwick directed not long after this? I'm gonna really test you here.

Brad Shreve:
Do tell.

Tony Maietta:
My Big Fat Greek Wedding. So, you know, there's some talent. Oh, there's some talent in this. But yes, I love this episode. I think everybody loves this episode. Tell the people, what is this episode, Brad?

Brad Shreve:
Well, Laverne and Shirley are going grocery shopping and Laverne gets up to the register and kind of a secondary story here between the two of them. But Laverne goes up to the register and she is the 1 millionth customer at this tiny little grocery store. So It must have been around for about 200 years because she's their 1 millionth customer. And so she wins a shopping spree. So we have the rest of the story is leading up to the actual shopping spree and the conflict between Laverne and Shirley. All their friends and neighbors want them to grab food for them. And then we have the actual shopping spree at the end. And what's funny to me is when we each chose our episodes and I gave you my list.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And there was an episode I wanted to see that, that, uh, originally I didn't think was available, and we, we got it. You suggested— I, I picked another episode and you said, well, why don't you drop Quiz Show because it's so much like Supermarket Sweep?

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Well, you're wrong. It— I just think they're completely different. I do wish I dropped Quiz Show because it wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but they're very different to me. First of all, Supermarket Sweep is good, but there's differences as well. This was Absolutely hysterical.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah. Yeah. The, uh, the grocery store that they're shopping at is called Slotnik's. Nice little, again, nice little Polish grocery store. We're in Milwaukee. I love those little details. It's called Slotnik's. And what happens is, is that they're fighting over Scooter Pies because Laverne wants her Scooter Pies and Shirley doesn't want— Shirley put them back.

Tony Maietta:
So Shirley says, Laverne, you go check out. I will go back and get your Scooter Pies. Here's the money. So that's the rub. There lies the rub. Because of the fact that Shirley went back to get the scooter pies for Laverne, then Laverne became the millionth customer. So Shirley feels like she should be the millionth customer because she was going back to get Laverne scooter pies. Anyway, they decide— Slotnick is very nice and decides that you can do this 5-minute shopping spree together.

Tony Maietta:
And that's what happens. And I know— Everybody knows this episode. It is so famous. I love it too. First of all, product placement. Hello. They're talking about corn. They're talking about Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes.

Tony Maietta:
I see Viva towels. I'm like, do they get paid for all of this?

Brad Shreve:
Tide.

Tony Maietta:
Tide.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, I, I was absolutely astonished at all the real products that were there in the store.

Tony Maietta:
Bosco.

Brad Shreve:
Well, we're going to talk about Bosco in a minute, but yeah, go ahead.

Tony Maietta:
Lenny and Squeaky keep asking for Bosco. It's, it's No, that's all I was gonna say is there's some product placement in this episode.

Brad Shreve:
Yes. I, I was astonished by that because that was, you see that more today than you did back then. Back then it was always phony.

Tony Maietta:
I love this episode because there's of course an appearance of Boo Boo Kitty. This is the first time we've talked about Boo Boo Kitty. Oh, and here's an interesting, an interesting tidbit for you, Brad. Do you know Boo Boo Kitty, when he was first, when they first found Boo Boo Kitty in the warehouse at the studio? Everybody thought he was a stuffed animal. He wasn't. It was a thing in the '50s for children to keep their pajamas in. He was— he— to keep their rooms neat. So he had a zipper on him and kids would put their pajamas inside Boo Boo Kitty and zip it up.

Tony Maietta:
So when Boo Boo Kitty became this big hit, and that was, by the way, an improv of Cindy Williams, she said she called him Boo Boo Kitty. That wasn't in the script. They thought, we gotta get another one of these cats in case something happens to this cat. Well, they didn't— they couldn't find it because he wasn't a stuffed animal. He was this thing they made in the '50s. So when they weren't shooting with Boo Boo Kitty, they would have to keep him in a safe on the set because he was so valuable. And that's a little backstory of Boo Boo Kitty.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, I'm, I'm gonna go off on something here regarding Cindy Williams.

Brad Shreve:
All right.

Brad Shreve:
Because I wanted to bring her up last episode, but we had a lot to talk about, and I know we have a lot to talk about on this one, but I want to make sure I, I bring this up, and I don't want to do it at the end of the series, at the end of this episode. One of the things that I think Shirley was so well developed because we think of Shirley as being Miss Prim and Proper, almost like on another episode, like she would've come from a, you know, a very upscale family. She was always about appearance, keeping up appearances and—

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
acting appropriately and wanting to be, you know, she had, she's, Laverne wanted to get a head. Laverne surely in many ways already saw herself as a head, but they never lost sight of the fact that wasn't true, that she was from the wrong side of the track. She didn't, she didn't talk about like a person that was highly educated.

Tony Maietta:
No, she didn't.

Brad Shreve:
She got words wrong a lot. She, there were moments where you clearly could see this is, a working girl that did get in scraps. And that— so they, they kept this thing as that was her desire, but you never lost sight of that's not who she was. And I think that is so well done. That is something that could have gotten lost in a show like this that, that was really very slapsticky. And I, I think it was really to the credit that they didn't lose sight of that. And I think it's really to the credit that, that Cindy Williams played it so well.

Tony Maietta:
It's perfect because she's the dreamer. Laverne is the realist. Laverne's the realist. Shirley's the dreamer. You know, she's always up there with that balloon. Doesn't that balloon ever come down? No, it doesn't. She's aspirational. And that's what makes this work.

Tony Maietta:
They're yin and yang, the dreamer and the realist. And the dreamer gets a little realistic sometimes, and the realist can dream sometimes. And I actually absolutely agree with you. Cindy Williams paints so many wonderful colors into Shirley. Shirley could be a stock character, just a virgin, a prude. She's not. Williams gives her so many— that's why I couldn't believe she didn't even get nominated for one Emmy. She gives Shirley so many colors and so much nuance.

Tony Maietta:
That's why I love her so much in this show. And they're both brilliant. They're both funny.

Brad Shreve:
Absolutely.

Tony Maietta:
I love this episode. It is justly famous. Uh, because it is hysterically funny at the end. I feel like it's a little bit labored. I mean, would Laverne really jump up and down on the groceries to make more room? I mean, come on, let's be serious. Let's be a little real here. But what I love in the fact is the fact that they're— here's a, like, a moral story. Their greediness in trying to grab everything makes the cart too heavy to push, so they end up crossing the finish line with what? With one item each.

Tony Maietta:
And I can't remember what Shirley's is, but I know Laverne's is Scooter Pies. So, it all goes back to Scooter Pies in the very end.

Brad Shreve:
And it's not only because the cart was too heavy to push. They were— they couldn't— even after they gave up on the cart, they couldn't get to the finish line because they loaded so many groceries inside their sweatpants.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, they loaded so they could barely walk and they could only get across the line with the one item. And that's, that's life for you folks. That's life. And that's Laverne and Shirley for you. At the very end, you end up with less than $5. and Scootapies. That's the way that works.

Brad Shreve:
So Tony, I think it's time for you to wrap up with our— not wrap up the episode yet, but wrap up your final episode that we selected.

Tony Maietta:
Yes. Yes. And this is the penultimate episode of the original format. How about that? I've been waiting and waiting for over 100 episodes to be able to use the word penultimate. ultimate basically means next to last. And it is one of my favorite episodes for, for reasons I'll go into. It's from season 5, it's episode 25, and it's called The Diner. And it's written by Bob Perlow, directed by Linda McMurray, and it originally aired on May 6th, 1980.

Brad Shreve:
Laverne, Laverne, where are my hash browns?

Brad Shreve:
That woman's You threatened my life!

Brad Shreve:
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And where are my eggs? I'm working on them, Cheryl, okay? All right, I got one tuna melt and one chicken tetrazzini. Chicken tetrazzini? Chicken tetrazzini? What are they, crazy? Chicken tetrazzini? Oh, that's too hard. That's just too hard. Pancakes, pancakes, make her make pancakes. Hey twerp, where's my hash browns? Where are those hash browns? They're coming, they're coming.

Tony Maietta:
And as I said, this is the next to last episode of the original format, uh, end of the 5th year. In Brad's mind, this is where the show should have ended. I kind of agree with you on that. I have very sentimental feelings about this episode. Let me tell you the episode. Basically what happens is is that Lenny and Squiggy inherit a rundown diner from Lenny's deceased Uncle Laszlo, and it's called Dead Laszlo's Place, which is such a great name. Their ideas about food service, however, don't bring any business in, so they hand it over to Laverne and Shirley, and the ladies have initial success. But of course, it's Laverne and Shirley.

Tony Maietta:
It's gonna fall to pieces. There are so many sitcoms where characters buy diners. I can't even tell you. It's another I Love Lucy trope. They buy a diner on I Love Lucy for one episode. It's a fun episode, but what I love about it is it's very personal. So, here's a little personal thing. Do you remember Lucky Supermarkets, Brad, in Los Angeles when you lived here? I don't.

Brad Shreve:
I think that was after I moved there, but I know I've heard a lot about Lucky. I know Maurice's family talked about Lucky. He grew up there.

Tony Maietta:
Lucky was like a lower— it wasn't a lower class, but it wasn't your Pavilions. It wasn't your Vons. It was a little bit lower. Than, than that. A little cheaper.

Brad Shreve:
Probably like Food Lion in the South.

Tony Maietta:
Yes. So when I first moved to Los Angeles, we lived across the street from a Lucky's supermarket. They don't exist anymore, unfortunately. So this is the episode in which Laverne is at the grill because they, they have the diner now, and Laverne is the cook and Shirley is the waitress. And Laverne spills pancake mix on the griddle and everything gets covered with pancakes, and she goes into the mic and she goes, Lucky Lucky, for the next 10 minutes everything comes with pancakes. So whenever we would go to Lucky's, we'd go, Lucky Lucky, for the next 10 minutes everything comes with pancakes. But it's also the very famous Betty Please, because Laverne called.

Brad Shreve:
This episode was so Stupid in all the best ways.

Tony Maietta:
Well, why does, why does Laverne call Shirley Betty?

Brad Shreve:
Because it sounds diner-like.

Tony Maietta:
Because Shirley doesn't sound like a diner name. Betty does. So when Laverne is at the Griddle and she has a pickup for Shirley, she goes to the microphone and she goes, Betty, please pick up.

Brad Shreve:
Why did you think that sounds like a diner voice?

Tony Maietta:
Betty, please. Um, it's just so funny throughout the whole episode. And it's funny cuz my Aunt Shirley actually worked in a diner. So I think Shirley's a diner name. So this is not the best episode of Laverne and Shirley. It gets very, very silly, of course, as you can imagine, but it's such a sentimental favorite for me for those, for those reasons. It's just so much fun.

Brad Shreve:
I, uh, didn't remember what this episode was, uh, when you first suggested it, I thought, oh no. And then I'm like, okay, it's a diner episode. And like you said, that's done so many times. I'm like, okay, another diner episode. And so I was not looking forward to it. Uh, not hating, but I'm like, okay, well, this is gonna be okay. I, like I said, it was so stupid. It was just so stupid.

Brad Shreve:
And I I was almost embarrassed because I kept laughing. It was so fun. Just first of all, I thought Dead Lazlo's was a great name for a diner.

Tony Maietta:
Dead Lazlo's. Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And the actual logo looked pretty good.

Tony Maietta:
You mean silly, don't you mean? You know what I mean? I don't know. Do you mean stupid or do you mean silly? See, I think it's silly. I can tolerate silly, not stupid. What do you think? You mean silly or do you think it's just stupid? Well, but funny.

Brad Shreve:
You're showing your age now. You know, silly is stupid is the word for silly these days, you know?

Tony Maietta:
Oh, is it? I didn't— oh, I didn't know that.

Brad Shreve:
But no, it actually is kind of stupid in some ways, but not, not, not horribly so. It is super, super silly. Yes.

Tony Maietta:
It's a silly episode.

Brad Shreve:
Silly is probably a better word.

Tony Maietta:
Betty, please pick up. Um, I just love that. It's so funny. It's, yeah, it's a silly, you know, and this is what's happening with the series is they're kind of running out of steam. They're at their end of their 5th year. And Brad's, you know, thesis about shows should really end after 5 years has kind of borne itself out because there was one more episode of the 5th season and then a tragic, tragic thing happened to Laverne and Shirley beginning in their 6th year. What happened, Brad?

Brad Shreve:
Uh, they moved them to California. They took everything that made this show special and they ripped it away from them.

Tony Maietta:
Just blew it up. Blew it up. Oh God. It's so, yeah, it's so sad because why didn't they just end the show? I mean, I think they could have. What happened was, was that ABC had a number one show in its third year and its fourth year, and then ABC did what networks do. They moved it. They moved it from its very, very nice 8:30 Tuesday birth and they moved it to Thursdays and the show dropped from number one to not even the top 40 in its 5th year. And of course ABC's like, oh, we gotta fix the show, we've gotta fix the show.

Tony Maietta:
No, you just need to move it back with Happy Days. That's why it was a hit, because of Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. They were a pair. But the CBS— but the CBS— well, CBS isn't that much brighter either. But the ABC executives didn't think that. They thought, oh, we have to rehaul the show because now no one's watching it. So that was why They moved it. They moved the characters to Los Angeles, to California, to Hollywood, because they thought for some reason that was gonna make the show better.

Tony Maietta:
And for, to her credit, Penny Marshall hated it. She hated the idea. She thought if they're gonna move anywhere, they should move to New York, cuz that's where Laverne is from, not LA. But to appease Penny Marshall, ABC told her, all right, we'll let you direct some more episodes. So at least that came out of it. Penny Marshall started to cut her teeth as a director in these last seasons, and we have some wonderful films to thank for that.

Brad Shreve:
We do. She didn't really direct that many, but she did at least—

Tony Maietta:
She started to.

Brad Shreve:
Get her foot in the door.

Tony Maietta:
She started to direct.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. And we are all the better for that. That, boy, talk about a silver lining.

Tony Maietta:
So, yeah, exactly. So what happens in, with the whole move to California is the girls lose their jobs at Schatz Brewery because Mr. Schatz buys a big machine that can do the bottle capping. Laverne's father and Edna, who are now married, have already moved to Hollywood, to Los Angeles, to Burbank. Actually, they're in Burbank. So Laverne and Shirley don't know what to do, and they think, let's just move to California. So Lenny and Squiggy have 2 weeks off, and they drive them to California in an ice cream truck. Can you imagine? Now, I've driven Across the country so many times, but never in an ice cream truck.

Tony Maietta:
And never would I want to drive in an ice cream truck.

Brad Shreve:
No.

Tony Maietta:
So they end up in California, they end up in Hollywood, and they get a job as gift wrappers at a department store. Just the same thing, except now they're— but now they've got glamorous neighbors, handsome neighbors. Do you wanna tell 'em, you know, a little bit about the neighbors, right? You, when you were doing the cast rundown, you were gonna talk about them.

Brad Shreve:
Well, you know, it's kind of like they did with With Rhoda, and this was done in other shows as well. I can't think off the top of my head, but you know, Rhoda, when they moved her away from having her own business, they put her— was it a costume store?

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
And Lucy wound up working in a costume store. It just— I don't know what, what the— this thing is that they think they can put somebody in a department store and have it continue to be funny. It just, it just, it I, I don't know. I, uh, it almost hurts to talk about these episodes and I think it's important we do. Hopefully somebody will learn from it. Some future writer. Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
So they added new characters, thought they would freshen up the show. Uh, the characters are Rhonda Lee, who is your stereotypical tall, buxom blonde actress. Her, she was played by Leslie Easterbrook and Sonny St. Jacques, who was a very young and just off the football field, Ed Marinero. Um, who is delicious. I will admit that when they meet him, you're like, wow. He of course had a, he went onto a really good career. He was on Hill Street Blues for many, many years.

Tony Maietta:
So he is a good actor, but these characters don't bring anything new to the, to the show.

Brad Shreve:
They're not even, they're not the least bit, nothing against the, the actors. They're not the least bit interesting as far as characters go at all.

Tony Maietta:
They're not, they're not.

Brad Shreve:
Uh, and the whole, the, here's the thing that I distinctly remember, and I was, I almost stopped watching the series. because I was so angry about this. And Coach did the exact same thing. Yeah, Coach moved to Florida, Laverne and Shirley moved to California, and both took the entire cast with them, like magically. Now granted, Coach had a team with them, but even people that shouldn't have moved with them moved with them. Same thing here. So now granted, Laverne and Shirley lost their job, I think. Did Lenny and Squiggy lose their job too?

Tony Maietta:
No, they were on vacation, but they ended up leaving. they ended up leaving their jobs cuz they also stay in California. So everybody's in California now as opposed to—

Brad Shreve:
Including Carmine.

Tony Maietta:
So including Carmine, Carmine at least makes sense. He's a dancer, he's a singer, he should be in a showbiz capital. But it, it's just so, yeah, I hate, hate, hate when they do it. I hate it when they move Lucy to Los Angeles and I hate it when they move Laverne and Shirley to Los Angeles.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, it just, uh, it, Yeah, it is.

Brad Shreve:
Okay.

Brad Shreve:
Good. Try not here and continue to whine about this whole—

Tony Maietta:
No, because you know what? But that being said, there are some decent episodes in the last 2 years of Laverne and Shirley. And we would, we do wanna touch about 'em. We're not gonna go in depth about them because, but they are, there are some ones that are watchable. It's not like the show totally went into the toilet. It just didn't have the magic that it had when it was set in Milwaukee. And the show is getting older, but there is a fun episode. It's like the second one called Welcome to Burbank. And that is when the girls experience their very first California earthquake, which goes on for about 5 minutes, by the way.

Tony Maietta:
Was that not the longest freaking earthquake you've ever seen?

Brad Shreve:
It's ridiculously long. It's like no earthquake ever really is, but they pull it off because it is actually one of the shining points of this era. 'Cause it was very funny.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
I mean, Laverne and Shirley, it's very similar to, uh, Fred and Ethel shuffling around the hotel room with, because of the train.

Tony Maietta:
Yes, exactly. It is. It again, another, here's another I Love Lucy, another Lucy moment.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, I didn't even mean to do that, but yeah, you're right.

Tony Maietta:
You're right. Well, it's a very, yeah. I mean, all you have to say is Laverne, Shirley earthquake, and you can imagine they're all over that room in their beds. They're swinging on the lamp. It's the most destructive California earthquake, I think, since Northridge, or Northridge was after this. So I don't know, it was a very, very long earthquake, but that's a fun episode, them getting used to being in California. There's a very cute episode. It's a 2-parter.

Tony Maietta:
It's called The Bardwell Caper. It's also from the 6th year, and they're working in this department store and they get passed over for a raise. So Shirley writes this note to the boss, but Laverne changes it, adding an insult, and it gets sent. And later the boss tells them they didn't get the raise. They didn't get their raise because they're getting even more money. So now they have to get the note back and it's this whole Mission: Impossible episode. Did you have, were you able to watch it at all, Brad?

Brad Shreve:
I wasn't able to watch this one. I, I wa— I picked 2 and I wasn't really wild about either of them. Uh, the first one was the Not Quite New York. That was the very first episode of the season when they got fired. Uh, so I actually thought that was the one where they moved out to California, but no, it was the Catalyst.

Tony Maietta:
It gets them there.

Brad Shreve:
Why they're gonna have to move.

Tony Maietta:
Well, let me just talk about the Bardwell caper and then we'll talk about you.

Brad Shreve:
Sure, sure.

Tony Maietta:
So yeah, so part 1 is this whole Mission: Impossible fantasy of how Carmine and Laverne and Shirley, they're— it's total Mission: Impossible. Everything goes perfectly. They have everything timed out. They're all in black. They scale the wall, they get into the air shafts of the department store, they get to the guys. Really elaborate things to get the note back because he's got, he's got electric beams, alarm systems, and it's great. And they get the note back. And then part 2 of the Bardwell Caper is what really happens.

Tony Maietta:
And as you can imagine, it's Laverne and Shirley, it's the Three Stooges, it's a mess. All this careful planning, it just goes out the window. It's cute. It's cute. If you're going to watch something, I would recommend that. But you had other ones that you watched too, right? Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. The, the, the first one I watched was the, the first episode of season 6. It was the introduction that they lost their jobs. I thought it was the, um, I thought it was them actually moving. I remember them in the ice cream truck and that's why I thought this was gonna be, but no, it's actually all takes place in Milwaukee. I think it's the last time they showed the, the mall Milwaukee opening.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Um, It opens with them talking to, uh, the dad and Edna on the telephone. They're already out in California. And then right after that, the girls are fired and that's when they decide they're gonna have to move to California. So it wasn't really well done. It, it was cute. You had the whole, uh, Mr. Schatz talking through the speaker, which was generally pretty funny. But it was kind of dull.

Brad Shreve:
And the other I watched, um, I'm just gonna get it outta the way because there are, as you said, there are— The one that I think was actually almost more criminal than, than Moving to California was the episode The Note. And that was season 8, episode 3, when Shirley was gone.

Brad Shreve:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
And Cindy Williams decided to leave the show. So once again, rather than shut the show down, they continued it with Laverne and Shirley with just Laverne. And here's what the crime was. It should have opened with Laverne saying, you know, I really miss Cheryl since she decided to move out and be with her husband.

Tony Maietta:
Like Lucy did.

Brad Shreve:
That's how it should have started.

Tony Maietta:
Like Lucy. It's exactly what Lucy did when Viv left.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
You know, it was handled in like 2 lines. Viv is all— Viv got married, she's gone. And yeah. Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
That is the way it should have been. Instead, they took 8 years or 7 years of the world's best friendship and threw it to the ground and stomped on it.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
That Shirley left while Laverne was working and left a note that didn't even say, I love you. Just said, I'm leaving. And I'm like, I couldn't even watch. I watched half of it and I had to turn it off. I'm like, this, this is— I was fucking furious. So it, to me, it doesn't even exist. Season, season 8 shouldn't even exist. Wipe it from your mind.

Tony Maietta:
It really is a violation of everything that's gone before. That's what's so— why? And what happened is, in the backstory of this, is that the show wasn't supposed to go for an 8th year, but then it got picked up. So that's one reason why also Betty Garrett's gone, because she's had another gig. And Edna leaves Frank, which you're like, oh my God, that's so terrible.

Brad Shreve:
But yeah.

Tony Maietta:
So what happened was, was that Cindy Williams got married. She married one of the Hudson brothers, Bill Hudson, I think. I don't know. Anyway, and she was pregnant. She got pregnant. And so they, she asked the producers to please work with her, maybe give her a little time off while she got through this pregnancy. And they absolutely didn't. She, when she received her contract, she discovered that the production schedule had her working on her due date.

Brad Shreve:
Okay.

Tony Maietta:
And they refused to change it. She also asked maybe if they would put a bed in her dressing room to kind of help her out. They wouldn't do it. Why wouldn't you do that?

Brad Shreve:
I—

Tony Maietta:
So she really tried to work out some kind of accommodation with the studio, and the negotiations went back and forth and back and forth. And according to Cindy Williams, they refused and she walked. And that's what happened. That's why Shirley is suddenly gone like that. There was no goodbye. There was a marriage episode, and then there's another episode, and then Shirley leaves a note for Laverne saying, I'm outta here, and that's it. It's terrible. Terrible.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. I mean, okay, so you're gonna carry it after she leaves. Fine. Bad decision, but fine. But to do it this way was just— it's a crime.

Tony Maietta:
And the absolute crime, the ludicrous new opening is just Laverne. Meanwhile, same theme song, you know, we're gonna do it for me and you. And it's just, it's, there's this one when they're showing Laverne and Shirley and it's Penny Marshall dancing and there's 3 of her. Like in a mirror. It's so stupid. It's so stupid.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
And this caused a lot of bad blood between Garry Marshall and Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall. They didn't speak for like 15 years. Williams sued Paramount like for $20 million and sued Garry Marshall for, you know, alleging that promises had been made to accommodate her, but they weren't, and guaranteed her, you know, employment. The case was eventually settled, But the damage was done and they didn't— they did not speak. These 2 friends, not just Laverne and Shirley. So when you think about it, if you wanna make it meta, but Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall, who were good friends, didn't speak for over 15 years. Isn't that sad?

Brad Shreve:
That's very sad. It's very, very sad. Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
And, you know, and that's how the show ends. The show ends. with just Laverne. And the actual final episode of Laverne and Shirley was a backdoor pilot for Carmine. That's how— so you have a show which has the most glorious beginning and the most ignominious ending, I think, in TV history. That pilot didn't get picked up, by the way.

Brad Shreve:
But there are some positive— there are some positive things that did happen in those final California— I'm sure you have— are going to bring some up.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, well, we talked about those 2 and there is actually, and this is for you, Brad, there's actually an episode of Laverne and Shirley which features, silence please, goddess herself, Carrie Fisher. Now, did you know, first of all, did you know this episode existed and did you know that Carrie Fisher and Penny Marshall were best friends?

Brad Shreve:
I knew that they were best friends. They were famous for having their parties together. I did know that.

Brad Shreve:
Right, right.

Brad Shreve:
Right. I did not know that, that she had ever been on this episode, probably because I, I had stopped watching at this point. Uh, so I had no idea. You told me to watch it, but of course I, I did the ones we were gonna cover first and I didn't got— didn't get around to it, but I definitely will watch it just to see Carrie. You know how much I adore Carrie.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, she's— folks, I wanna say, first of all, if you hear background noise, the gardener's here and I can't tell him to leave because he'll never come back. So, but hopefully it's okay. Um, She is, you know, she's your dream Carrie Fisher. You know, it's a few years after Star Wars. She looks fabulous. That voice. Yeah. And she and Penny Marshall were good friends.

Tony Maietta:
They were introduced to each other by Lorne Michaels, and they would have these mythic birthday parties because their birthdays were like in within a week of each other in October. So they began having these joint birthday parties, which grew into like events rivaled only by the Vanity Fair Oscar party. I mean, think about it. Where else are you gonna go to a party and see everyone from Eddie Mecca and Carol Ida White talking with Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand? I mean, that's, that's how big their parties were.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
So it's really fun to see Carrie Fisher and Penny Marshall together. It's a cute episode. Um, the episode, the plot of the episode is Ronna, their new neighbor, asks Laverne to pick up a job application for her at the local Playboy Bunny Club. And Laverne gets a job offer and accepts it as a bunny. And then so does Carrie, and there's all this kind of shenanigans. But what's really great about this episode is Carrie Fisher sings. She sings My Guy, you know, nothing you can do to my guy. And it's Carrie Fisher's glorious singing voice.

Tony Maietta:
So it's fun to watch it, to see Carrie Fisher and Penny Marshall in a bunny suit looking pretty fantastic. So that was definitely Something to say, but that's it.

Brad Shreve:
I'll have to watch it. And I don't remember great episodes. I do remember great, like there's an episode where they get robbed.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And I remember the reason they got robbed is Shirley lost her keys and she had their address written on the keys in case any, if they, she lost them and somebody found them, they could return the keys. And I remember thinking that was hysterically funny. It's like, there's little nuggets in there.

Tony Maietta:
Yes. Like always, there's little nuggets, but it's like the other episodes. It's just not worth it.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
If you're gonna watch something, watch the first 5 years.

Brad Shreve:
So, yes, absolutely.

Tony Maietta:
But I do wanna put in, I do, I do wanna wrap up this whole Penny, Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams thing.

Brad Shreve:
Okay.

Tony Maietta:
Uh, because as I said, they didn't talk for 15 years, but, and this is really kind of sweet, after Williams separated from her husband, who do you suppose encouraged Penny to reconnect with her. Squiggy, David Lander, brought them back together. So they sat down and they talked everything out and they became friends again, and they were actually able to spend some time before they died. You know, Penny died in 2018, and Cindy spoke about her with great affection, calling her one in a million, and talked about the good times. And then Cindy died in 2023. So it's, you know, it's, it's nice that they were able to find that love again and have that healing and be together. So we have that, at least we have that happy ending to this, to these people, to these characters. And you think Laverne and Shirley together.

Brad Shreve:
I agree. So let's, let's ignore that. No, I'm glad they, I'm glad they got to, I'm glad they got to patch it up.

Tony Maietta:
So the moral of this story is watch the first 5 seasons. of Laverne and Shirley. Once they moved to California, don't bother. Don't bother.

Brad Shreve:
Wow.

Tony Maietta:
That was Laverne and Shirley. That was a lot, but it was so much fun. I really, really enjoyed revisiting Milwaukee and revisiting and reliving some of these wonderful memories from my, from my youth.

Brad Shreve:
Well, you know, you always choose these highbrow episodes.

Tony Maietta:
But we're not done. We ain't done because we're gonna— we're finally— today's the day we're finally gonna read some reviews. We always wait, pick our longest episodes to read reviews. I don't know why, Brad, but we do have some reviews. We want to say thank you and give the love back to people. We really do. So I think, Brad, you have some you want to talk about.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, I— and I'm gonna say I apologize if I've missed some because we did do a long gap and, uh, they're not as easy to find on Spotify after that happens. but I'm going to go through some of them. One is from Tom Sullivan, good friend of the pod. And Tom just wanted to say that he wants to know how Brad and Maurice can say that Crawford was not sexy. This is when we did the woman episode. Maurice and I both thought—

Tony Maietta:
Oh, Joan.

Brad Shreve:
Yes, Joan Crawford.

Tony Maietta:
Joan wasn't sexy.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, not Cindy Crawford, Joan Crawford. He's wondering how we could think that Joan Crawford was not sexy.

Tony Maietta:
Um, I don't know either. I don't know either.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, but I— we neither of us found her very sexy. I don't think Joan cared, would care if she was around today, but we just didn't. So I just thought that was funny. We— well, we encourage people nicely to disagree with us, as Tom just did.

Brad Shreve:
Sure.

Brad Shreve:
We also got a comment from Maggie Wagner, and she just wanted to comment that I want to say how great you two are. Um, and thank you. She had additional comments, uh, as far as show suggestions as well.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, good.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, good.

Tony Maietta:
Did we get a voicemail, Brad?

Brad Shreve:
We did get a voicemail from Kevin Bannerman. And, uh, so let me play that for you.

Brad Shreve:
Hey guys, my name's Kevin. I had a podcast called Squash and Stretch for about 20 episodes before my partner bailed, but I heard Tony talk about movies on Brandon Davis's podcast. Mm-hmm. So I started following you guys and, and really enjoying it. So to Mame, I thought you'd enjoy this story. I worked with an engineer. who worked on Mame recordings. And he said Lucy, not surprisingly, had struggled a lot with the score.

Brad Shreve:
She would say shit or goddamn or whatever after she messed up a take. He thought it'd be really cute if he compiled all those takes and played them for her one day and hahaha, isn't that fun?

Tony Maietta:
Oh my.

Brad Shreve:
And he played them for them and she fired him the next day.

Tony Maietta:
Oh my Lord.

Brad Shreve:
I begged him to let me hear those takes. To his credit, he was kind of an upstanding guy and he would not play them for me. And I was so sad. But anyhow, I thought you might enjoy that story given your name podcast episode. Thanks.

Tony Maietta:
That's so funny. Oh my God, I wanna hear those too. That's hysterical.

Brad Shreve:
I know. Thank you. We're gonna— Kevin, you need to give us his friend's name. We're gonna bribe him cuz we wanna hear it.

Tony Maietta:
Thank you, Kevin. Thank you, Kevin.

Brad Shreve:
While we're on the voice, my, my, We did have another one. Unfortunately, he didn't get— the person didn't give us their name. They're from the United Kingdom is all we have. This was a text message that came in. Uh, he just said, guys, I love the podcast. It would be great to have anything with Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, or Elizabeth Taylor loaded. We've done some of those. Stay tuned for others.

Tony Maietta:
We've done all of them. We've done all of them except Lana. Yeah, we've done all except Lana. So, and there's more to come. There's more to come. Well, we got a very lovely email to our goinghollywoodpod@gmail.com address. And this was a really, really, this was about our Streisand specials episode. Hello, gorgeous.

Tony Maietta:
And it is from Martin in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. And basically Martin just told us all about the fact that how much he loved the episode, how excited he was to listen to it. And that he saw Barbara when he was a kid. He was obsessed with Barbara from the '60s. And it's a very long email. I don't want to read it all, but I just want to say how sweet and lovely it was. He listens to our podcast on YouTube, and I don't think a lot of people know that the podcast is also on YouTube, which I thought was really, really interesting. I thought it was amazing that he mentioned that, first of all.

Tony Maietta:
And also that he said he's been a Streisand fan ever since first seeing her for the first time on Ed Sullivan in 1962. So that would make him a true dyed-in-the-wool Streisand fan. So thank you so much, Martin, for— and he also sent a clipping of Streisand appearing in Canada in the Towers, 3 shows nightly. It was after her Jack Parr, uh, um, I'm sorry, it's at Town and Country. I apologize for that. In the towers at Town and Country. So that's really cool. It's a very, very old clipping.

Tony Maietta:
Thank you so much, Martin. We really appreciate that.

Brad Shreve:
Yes. Thank you so much, Martin. And, uh, do wanna clarify, we are on YouTube, but it is audio only. So yes, you won't see our sunshiny faces, but yes, we are there.

Tony Maietta:
And, and not videos yet.

Brad Shreve:
Nope.

Brad Shreve:
Not as of yet. Okay. So I got one, uh, and I have to bring it up so I can gloat a little bit. It's from Kurtz. Dianic, and, uh, this came in just recently and I wanna bring it up because he says, I always like when people agree with me. I agree with Brad. What's Up, Doc is superior to Bringing Up Baby. This is from a diehard Cary Grant fan.

Tony Maietta:
Oh wow.

Brad Shreve:
But to your credit, Tony, he says, I agree with Tony, not a Jimmy Stewart fan at all. Now you have emphasized that you don't necessarily dislike him.

Tony Maietta:
I don't dislike Jimmy Stewart. He's just not my go-to. He's not my go-to. That's— well, there you go. Something for you and something for me. That's good. And I— please, we know I love What's Up, Doc too. There was no shade to What's Up, Doc whatsoever.

Brad Shreve:
And I do want to— he did go on and end it with— it clearly showed that he talks about us talking about those 2 movies, What's Up, Doc and Bring Up Baby. And he said it clearly showed the love and appreciation both of you have for each movie. And that is true. We both love them.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, that's nice. I like to hear that. All right, and we have one more, and it's from our friend of the pod, Caliph Brett, who suggested A Place in the Sun to us. And after, after we did our episode on A Place in the Sun, he left us another review. Thank you, Caliph Brett. He said, thank you for the episode. I'll be rewatching to pay attention to the static camera work on the long shots and the dissolves that Tony pointed out. And then he says, Great discussion, and I'm glad we got Brad to admit that George Stevens did a good job directing it.

Tony Maietta:
Thank you very much, Calafret. My job here is done. My job here is done.

Brad Shreve:
Yes, Calafret, you did say that you hoped that I would redeem myself someday, something of that. I'm paraphrasing, but yes, you steered me right.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you for those reviews. There are some more which we'll read at a later time as they come in. We so appreciate the feedback. We so appreciate everything that you do for us. That little celebration you had for us last week for our 100th, what was that, a kazoo and I think 2 people?

Brad Shreve:
Thank you.

Tony Maietta:
We appreciate it. But Brad, before we sign off, is there anything else you want to say about Laverne and Shirley or about the reviews or about the podcast or anything else?

Brad Shreve:
Absolutely. As you heard, we love to hear from you folks. So, you can do it in numerous ways. You can text us or voicemail. Right at the top of the show notes on your phone there or wherever you're listening to this podcast, you will see it says text or leave a voicemail. Click that and it gives you the option to do one or the other. We'd love to hear from you. That text space is pretty limited, though.

Brad Shreve:
So, if you want to send us more, Go to our email, and that is goinghollywoodpod@gmail.com. So we love to hear your voice so we can play it, or we'd love if you have a lot to tell us about, send it to the email. Um, or what would— is really wonderful if you will rate and review this podcast. People looking for new shows, sometimes when they see a lot of reviews on there, that will encourage them to hit that play button. So if you do that, you'll encourage others, and maybe they'll enjoy the show as much as you you do. And just a general thank you for being with us.

Tony Maietta:
Well, schlemiel, schlimazel, Brad. I gotta go get some Hossenpfeffer. Although I don't know what Hossenpfeffer Incorporated means. Anyway, lots of fun. I loved visiting our friends in Milwaukee, but I have one more thing left to say, but I don't want to say it. So let's not say goodbye. Let's just say Just what makes that little old ant think he can move that rubber tree plant?