Laverne & Shirley : Wow this show really jumped the shark in the final season!

I am watching the final season for the first time in a while and it is really bad. With Shirley gone, it is like the writers ran out of decent storylines and began to come up with really far fetched ones. There is an episode where Laverne ends up on death row by mistake. There is another one where they are talking to a ghost. This show should have ended after Cindy Williams' departure.

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This show should have ended after Cindy Williams' departure.

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Agreed. I've only watched three without her as they've come up on MeTV. The Ghost Story (1983) was a disappointment because she is shown in the cast on IMDb, but she never appeared in the episode or its screen credits. Vicki Lawrence showed up as Sgt. Platt just as Mama's Family (1983) was getting underway. If she had become Shirley's replacement instead it might have worked for a while.

DrakeStraw

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I & my girlfriend just re-watched that Ghost episode on ME-TV too.

Yes, it is the 'stupidest' of the entire series (IMO).

Hard to believe for a show that was at it's outset, somewhat grounded in reality. Especially the show where Laverne's fire fighter boyfriend dies in a blaze.

To go from that to an Olympic athlete ghost
spooking the apt. is just sad. (Not boo-hoo sad, pathetic sad.)

The d. row episode isnt' horrible, just a weird
idea for a 2 part show. ..and a musical number too?
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I've mentioned it before but a close 2nd is the guys
setting a booby trap in the apt. to catch an alleged burglar.

3rd is that treasure map episode and 4th (and just plain dull) is Perfidy In Blue
about Laverne's missing blue purse & Shirley's bad dream. (That one's from season 7.)

5th, :"I do, I do" from season 6. I just really don;t like that one.
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There are a few good one's in the final year though :


The Note
The Playboy Show
Of Mice and Men
The Monastery Show
Defective Ballet
The Rock and Roll Show
Short on Time
Do The Carmine
Councilman DeFazio


You'd have to judge the others for yourself.

Personally, when I watched the series on DVD, I played The wedding
episode & then the note back to back, like they were a one hour special finale.



Go for it or just be a gopher!
(MR.) happipuppi13 *arf,man!*

Couldn't agree more!
The last season was pretty screwed up.It didn't make any sense whatsoever to sustain the series' title "Laverne & Shirley",with Laverne left on her own.It was no surprise that the series went belly up after that.

Thanks 'Nostaligia'.

You know, as one who watched TV series change at the end of the 1970s/
start of the 1980smany shows suffered from changes then. From the simple to the bizzare!

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Happy Days - Ron Howard & Don Most leave but before that Arnold's burns down and a whole new Arnold;s set is made. We then get Ted McGinley as Roger & many other characters. (Thankfully though, the show got back to more 'realistic' episodes. No more aliens, angels & bad guys.)

Archie Bunker's Place (formerly All In The Family) : After Rob Reiner & Sally Struthers leave in early 1978, the show changes names & the Bunkers adopt a girl. Jean Stapleton stays 1 more year but then wants to lweave and gives the green light for her character to be 'offed'. Then (like the show above) new & old characters fill the void. It all ands with no finale.

Three's Company - The much publicized battle of Suzanne Somers vs. ABC. 2
roommate changes. The failed Ropers spin-off, leading to them replaced by Don Knotts.

TAXI - Axed by ABC after 4 seasons, picked up by
NBC but canceled again in 1983. Andy Kaufman dies 1 year later.

One Day At A Time -
McKenzie Phillips' substance abuse problems, Many new characters in 1980/1981.

M*A*S*H - Mainly that they filmed more on the indoor set than at the outdoor 'ranch' set. This took away from the more realistic look of the show. Gary Burghoff's leaves as well.

Mork & Mindy - ABC's infamous screwing with a show that wasn't broken. More 'topical' story-lines and firing Mindy's dad & Grandma, to bring in more 'youthful' cast members.

The Dukes Of Hazzard - Schneider & Wopat walk out in a disupte and get replaced by clone characters Coy & Vance. Plus Enos (Sonny Shroyer) leaves for hs own show & the newe 'duke' deputy isn't as funny. Enos flops & returns.

Diff'rent Strokes - 3 housekeepers!

Alice - 2 replacements for Flo, after polly Hollday leaves for own show.

The Jeffersons - Mainly (and this a subject of a TV guide article) the show seemeed to lose it;s edge. Or in the mag. article "The White-Wshing of The Jeffersons". MEaning, the show had lost it's 'blackness'and/or issue oriented topics.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TV-Guide-1583-Whitewashing-The-Jeffersons-Jul-30-1983-No-label-blank-crossword-/172009440039?hash=item280c8fc327:g:0YoAAOSwBahVC3gF

(Just the magazine, I can't find the article online, but I read it back then.)



Go for it or just be a gopher!
(MR.) happipuppi13 *arf,man!*

I agree with you on all of them except "Taxi". In the final season of "Taxi", there was really no drop-off in the quality of the writing. Unlike the other series, there were very few cast changes throughout the series (the departures of John Burns, who no one really missed, and Bobby Wheeler, who was dearly missed). The only thing that was a little bit out of the realm was the multiple personalities of Latka which I thought produced some of the funniest episodes. I never really cared too much for the Latka character and I think that the multiple personalities made him cool for a change.


"Happy Days"- ran about 5 years too long and introduced the term "Jump the Shark". By the end of the show, they are introducing nieces and brothers of characters who are now cast members. You are supposed to believe that the Cunninghams will take in long lost relatives but have completely disowned their own son Chuck. Jenny Piccolo who was previously never seen, is now a major cast member even though her best friend Joanie is pretty much off the show. They introduce the cute kid who is the daughter of Fonzie's new love interest.

"Mork & Mindy"- was doing great in the ratings after the first season and for whatever reason, the producers begin to introduce absurd plot lines, even for a show with an alien premise. By the final season, they try to bring back viewers by marrying Mork & Mindy and introducing a "baby" in the form of Jonathan Winters.

"Dukes of Hazzard"- Never seemed to recover from the Vance and Coy debacle. By the last season, it seemed like the producers had run out of ideas.

"Diff'rent Strokes"- Once Gary Coleman was no longer the cute kid, they introduced Sam who was pretty lame. They also decide to get Mr. Drummond married. While Dixie Carter was decent as Mrs. Drummond, her replacement Mary Ann Mobley was awful and had zero chemistry with any of the other cast members.

"The Jeffersons"- While it did not drop off significantly in the later seasons, it lost its edge and was no different than any other sitcom that was airing at the time.

There was one thing you didn't say about Taxi. After ABC cancelled it prematurely and NBC picked it up for an additional season, the show's toned changed. It became less of a sit-com and more of a dramedy, very similiar to what happened to All In The Family whenever it was morphed into Archie Bunker's Place.

I think that's what happens when the sales and marketing people have more influence than the so called creative.

The sales people are just trying to squeeze every dollar out of a format.

That and considering that by the late 70s early 80s the sitcom format was said to be dead.

The networks were desperate to try anything that's why there were so many bad spinoffs and continuations of series that just fell flat.

Sanford Arms 1977 just looked bad from the opening credits.

Sanford 1980 a nicer version of Fred Sanford.

The various Happy Days spinoffs were all gone by 1984

MASH had lost its edge by the 1980-81 and ideas

All in the Family without Mike and Gloria there was no conflict.

Gloria was brought back as single mother living in New York.

The Jeffersons and Good Times had no real direction in the last seasons

Miss Garrett on Diff'rent Strokes was only spun off because NBC was so desperate for another successful sitcom

There was a legitimate reason why there was no finale episode for Archie Bunker's Place. The series was still in the Top 30 and everyone thought CBS was going to bring the show back for another season. They didn't and there was never a chance to do a series finale. They did the same thing to The Jeffersons and Alice too.

One thing they didn't do to Archie Bunker's Palce, was shuffle it around the schdule.

Both The Jeffersons and Alice went though this.

I recall Linda Lavin being interviewed on Entertainment Tonight and my guess is, it was attempt to let peple know they were still on the air. (I beleive they['d been moved to Wednesdays!

The Jeffersons lost their place on Sundays and got moved too. Prompting Isabel
Sanford to say (angrily) in a printed interview, "CBS is 'trying' to get us cancelled!"

It a rotten sneaky trick networks do and I'll never understand why. If you no longer want to invest time & Money in a show (especially one that's been on for a decade), then let the cast do a final and say goodbye.

but no, they simply let it fade out by July of 985 and for years, we had to hear Isabel say more than once, "We never got to have a finale". Made me wish for a reunion but once Roxie Roker passed on first in 1995, I knew it wouldn't happen.

Closest ending to The Jeffersons you get is when Louise and George
end up buying the Banks' Mansion in Bel Air on "Fresh Prince" 's finale.



Go for it or just be a gopher!
(MR.) happipuppi13 *arf,man!*

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They didn't and there was never a chance to do a series finale. They did the same thing to The Jeffersons and Alice too.

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I believe "Alice" had a series finale. I haven't seen the final season in years, but didn't Mel sell the diner? I seem to remember a bunch of flashbacks in the final episode.

If I recall, Linda Lavin wanted to end the show. She was barely in the that last season. (similar to Bob Newhart in "The Bob Newhart Show")