LEVERNE & SHIRLY

LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY
1976-1983 ABC

The second part of our look at takes on Laverne and Shirley, this time concentrating on all the versions Cracked did. They often did more than one.

LEVERNE & SHIRLY
Cracked # 136, October 1976
a: Sigbjorn (John Severin)

The program started out as a spinoff of Happy Days so The Fonz often made appearances on many of the early shows.

Laverne DeFazio (Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams), two single women, worked at the Shotz brewery in Milwaukee. Laverne had a monogrammed L on every article of clothing.

Laverne's father Frank (Phil Foster) was the owner of a pizza parlor and bowling alley.

Lenny (Michael McKean) and Squiggy (David Lander) were the creepy upstairs neighbors who would happen to show up any time anyone mentioned greasy losers or something being gross. Squiggy is the only one they use in this parody.

LEVERNE AND SHURLEY
Cracked #145, October 1977
a: John Severin

Here's the second of their parodies. Rocky was one of the properties they claimed as their own that they would use on their covers to sell copies.

Okay. Here's Lenny as well.

To show Lenny and Squiggy were degenerates, they were shown as being into comic books and cartoons, but look at people like you and me now (Don't think I'm leaving out girls). They never actually showed Lenny and Squiggy's apartment.

Another supporting character was Carmine Ragusa a/k/a The Big Ragu (Eddie Mekka)

Here's Rocky Balboa in an example of Cracked's slash fiction.

Lucy and Ethel from I Love Lucy and Ralph and Norton from The Honeymooners are some of Rocky's students, despite their being from a different era.

14 Charlie's Angels was another entity Cracked would try to fit into every one of their movie and TV parodies, especially with Farrah Fawcett-Majors being the biggest TV sex symbol of the mid-70s

From If King Kong Guest Starred on TV in Cracked #140, March 1977, illustrated by Howard Nostrand

Eventually Laverne and Shirley left the brewery and joined the army.
LEVERNE AND SHURLEY
Cracked #166, January 1980
a: John Severin

Shirley had a stuffed kitten, Boo Boo Kitty, she would hold onto at home.

Their landlady was Edna Babish (Betty Garrett)

Eventually they all moved to Los Angeles and the show took place there. Frank DeFazio and Edna Babish married and started a business. Cindy Williams left, even though the show continued to be called Laverne and Shirley, and was replaced by Rhonda (Leslie Easterbrook), a vapid actress. The show jumped a few years and took place in the sixties.