The only sad episode..

Lenny and Squiggy were at the scene of the tragedy and didn't know how to break the news to Laverne who was in enraged denial, later on her Pop Frank came by to console and comfort the heartbroken Laverne.

Don't forget Ted Danson is now on CSI/LasVegas.

"The Fashion Show" in 1983 was a very sad episode. Yes, I know most of the California episodes stunk. Actor Larry Breeding played Mike Bailey in that episode. Breeding also guested in two previous episodes. He had been dating Penny Marshall after her divorce from Rob Reiner. Breeding was killed in an automobile accident on the Hollywood Freeway on October 1, 1982. His third Laverne & Shirley appearance aired posthumously. Penny Marshall must have been heartbroken.

Actually, this episode is why I prefer comedies like Seinfeld: "No hugging! No learning!" It was just funny. If a show is upfront about having serious content all the time, and using that as a source of humor, like All in the Family, that's one thing, but for a show to divert from its format, especially a show in an early timeslot, it isn't fair. I was a kid when that episode aired, and my brother was a very little kid. He refused to watch the show after that, because he was afraid it would be sad again. It spoiled the show's format, for me, because one of the reasons we can laugh at some of the embarrassing, or slapstick things that happen, is that the characters are cartoonish. If we are asked to think of them as real people, it gets harder to laugh when Shirley falls off a piano, or Laverne gets her hand stuck in an urn, with what she thinks are ashes of a corpse. Those are horrible things in real life; they're funny on a sitcom, which is why the sitcom needs to maintain the sitcom format. This episode side-swiped the audience when it first aired; no matter how good it may have been as a stand-alone piece, it cheated people out of what they tuned in for, and gave them something they didn't want instead.

That's your opinion. While the episode was well done, most people watch a comedy to get a laugh, not to get depressed. As for your uninformed opinion on marriage, it's how we as a society define it, and you're in the minority. In a democracy, majority rules, so get over yourself. You have no business attempting to dictate your personal religious beliefs as a rule of life for anyone else. If you don't like same sex marriage, don't have one. That doesn't give you the right to tell someone else how to love.

That was a great moment. Lenny said he and Squiggy flipped a coin to decide who would propose to Laverne. Laverne asked Lenny if he lost. Lenny said he won.