It’s been 50 years since Laverne & Shirley made its debut. The Happy Days spinoff, starring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams as Schotz Brewery bottle cappers Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeny, premiered on Jan. 27, 1976, on ABC. Laverne & Shirley was one of the most beloved sitcoms of the 1970s and early '80s, ending its eight-season run in 1983.
But early on, one of the main stars of the series had doubts that the show would make it.
In a resurfaced interview with Sirius XM’s Unmasked, Michael McKean, the last living main cast member from Laverne & Shirley, said Williams warned him they might all need a backup plan.
“Once we had finished rehearsal and we were going to do the show, shoot it in front of a live audience, we knew that if this works, you know, this could be a lot of fun,” McKean, 78, recalled. “But right before the very first scene, Cindy Williams turned to the rest of us and said, ‘You know this is going to flop but you guys are so much fun, let's do something else. Let's open a pie shop or something, a car wash. It doesn't matter, we're going to have a good time.’”
In a 1976 interview with the Corpus Christi Times, Williams admitted she was ”terrified" when Laverne & Shirley premiered. "We were terrified, I mean, we were terrified, either direction it might take," Williams said, per Catchy Comedy. "We were certain we were going to go into the toilet."
While Marshall and Williams admitted they thought the show would get canceled after 13 weeks, McKean acknowledged that none of them knew what they were getting into when Laverne & Shirley debuted in 1976.
"The very first show before an audience, Cindy is saying, 'You know, this probably won't go, but we're really having a great time. Let's open a car wash or something,'" he once said, per ABC News. “We were having a good time, [but] we had no idea what was happening."
RELATED: Henry Winkler Addresses Rumors That ‘Laverne & Shirley’ Stars Were a ‘Nightmare’
McKean and David Lander played Laverne and Shirley’s neighbors, Lenny Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman, in the series. The cast also included Betty Garrett as landlady Edna Babish, Eddie Mekka as Shirley’s love interest, Carmine Ragusa, and Phil Foster as Laverne’s pizza shop owner, Frank.
Lenny & Squiggy weren’t originally meant to be main characters
McKean, who created his Lenny character as part of a comedy act with Lander years earlier, revealed he was originally hired as an apprentice writer for Laverne & Shirley because he wasn’t in the Screen Actors Guild. Producers thought they’d pay him and Lander “a little something” and then maybe work their characters in for “a few shows down the line.”
“So the first script they had was in such trouble they wrote us into that first script,” McKean recalled on the Unmasked podcast. “And they made us kind of a MacGuffin, you know, in the story they made us actually something kind of happened for us, and we were in every show, you know, until like the sixth season or so.”
?SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox?
Hence then, the article about last surviving laverne shirley star reveals cindy williams predicted the show would flop was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Last Surviving ‘Laverne & Shirley’ Star Reveals Cindy Williams Predicted the Show Would Flop )
Also on site :
- Maria Shriver Sends a Clear Message About America's Future: 'No More Excuses'
- Aldi's 3-Piece Vintage-Inspired Apothecary Jar Set Will Elevate Your Bathroom Organization Beautifully
- Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,433