Television: November 2007 Archives

Laverne & Shirley was yet another spin-off of the hugely successful Happy Days. Laverne DeFazio (Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams) were first introduced on an episode of Happy Days during the shows third season in 1975. Laverne & Shirley premiered as a midseason replacement on January 27, 1976 and finished the season at number 3 in the Neilsen ratings. By the end of the third season, Laverne & Shirley was the number one show on American television.

I will readily admit that I was a huge fan of Mork & Mindy almost from the day it premiered on September 14, 1978. It seemed everyone at my elementary school was Mork crazy for awhile; there where Mork lunchboxes, thermos, and t-shirts. I even had a pair of Mork suspenders I wore almost everyday for almost six months (I swear, most kids didn't think it was too weird then.) Mork & Mindy was a spin-off from a February 1978 episode of Happy Days, where a wacky alien from the faraway planet of Ork arrived on earth in a dream and attempted to abduct Richie Cunningham. Robin Williams' frenetic, childlike characterization of Mork was so popular that ABC immediately built a whole show around him.

In the fall of 1969, the American landscape was changing. Earlier that year, “the summer of love” had changed how many of the youth and their elders discussed such previously taboo subjects as dating and sex. With the seventies upon us, there was a new openness associated with social issues that was being reflected in television series. Given the phenomenal success of sketch comedy shows like The Carol Burnett Show, and Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Love American Style premiered on September 29, 1969 as part of the ABC Friday night line-up.