RIP Laverne, 1943 -2018Posted on 12/19/2018 4:58:37 AM PST by NOBO2012
Yes, yes, I know: the theoretically Republican House was unable to muster up a measly $5 billion for the border wall but coughs up nearly $11 billion for “aid” to Central America and Mexico. And the left’s continuing efforts to deplatform Tucker Carlson because the only free speech they approve of is that which they don’t find offensive. Then there’s the weirding of the Flynn sentencing. I’m too numb to do anything other than acknowledge all of the above and move along at this point. So I’m just going to focus on the passing of Penny Marshall who gave us one of the most endearing characters of the 20th century in the form of working girl Laverne DeFasio, constantly broke and perpetually seeking romance.
Sclemeel, schlimazel, hasenfeffer incorporated!
It’s a bit disconcerting to realize that we now have legislators like the Occasional Cortez who were not even born at the time this true bit of Americana completed its 8 season run (1976-83). Set in the mid-60’s the only thing AOC had in common with the characters of Laverne and Shirley is the fact that they were all broke – albeit Alexandria after having spent $280,000 on an economics degree from Boston University, so you decide who is the dumb one. Oh, plus all three of them worked in establishments that moved a lot of beer.
But while Laverne and Shirley knew how to have fun, AOC found her job to be underpaid, repressive, and indicative of everything that is wrong with America. That seems to be the only thing she learned in college.
So I choose to ignore everything else today and just celebrate the joy Penny Marshall brought into the world through her movies (Big, A League of Their Own, Awakenings) and TV characters, especially Laverne. Let’s celebrate the season, Laverne and Shirley style, and call it a day.
“Almost everyone had a theory about why ‘Laverne & Shirley’ took off,” Marshall wrote in her 2012 memoir “My Mother Was Nuts.” ”I thought it was simply because Laverne and Shirley were poor and there were no poor people on TV, but there were plenty of them sitting at home and watching TV.”
I think it was just because it was fun.
Posted from: MOTUS A.D.
What is this TV of which you speak?
Night after night.
I like watching the Dinah Shore shows made from about 1959 to about 1961 and are among the oldest surviving colour videotapes. That must have been really something to have been wealthy enough to own a colour TV set back then and to have watched them that way originally. And the musical numbers and other acts featured are still real treasures to watch.
...American Graffitti”
...my gosh! I forgot about that. Makes me want to rent the movie and All of Happy Days right now. At least up to the shark jumping bologna.
Very nice television.
Or as some would say ... It’s more than a feeling.
It’s so bad that I even will just put on an upload to YouTube of a recording someone made of the “local on the 8s” segment from the Weather Channel.....from back in the 90s!
You have to come to terms with a hard fact that it’s never coming back.
What I do is say “ayyyyyyyy” when seeing pretty ladies. Rarely is it appreciated.
"She said my crack about your tie was crude. Hmmf. I gave huh crude."
Even PBS has really dropped in recent years. The fundraising things they do with the one in my local (WPBS in Watertown, NY) feature some absolutely awful stuff that likely very few (outside the retirement residences) would honestly watch and then give money because of that material.
Barney Miller was one of my favorites.
TCM, The Military Channel and Velocity, that’s about it.
LOL, that was my first initial thought too..
You left out: Get Christie Love...on right before The Love Boat.
I agree. Hillarious and way under appreciated LP. Lenny and the Squigtones. Creature without a Head!!
I Mostly watched the show for those two.
There was, I think, one episode that was virtually all Lenny and Squiggy. That would have been my favorite from the series.
Luckily, at about age 10 we moved over to Southeast Asia and lived in Thailand for 5 years. So I really never develop the television habit because of that. We barely had electricity where we were living up country. Then listen to the radio though and shortwave. But when I got back there was a TV in the house I even had a little black and white portable (Monkey Wards) that sat in my living room for years and when there was a newsworthy thing going on I would turn it on and watch the newsworthy thing.
I watch more YouTube instructionals or DIY’s vids. But even that can be a time constraint. I don’t have the time because I’ve got other things going on.
In summary, moving overseas and getting away from a lot of media was a blessing at least as far as prioritizing my leisure time goes.
Back in the olden days there was 25 minutes of programing for 5 minutes of advertisements.
Now it is 10 minutes of advertisements for 20 minutes of programing, so 1/3 of all shows are now advertisements.
Now they are broadcasting advertisements during the shows by using up to 1/4 of the screen for small advertisement windows.
I have a bad habit. If I turn on a channel and hit an advertisement, I never go back to that channel.
Just curious but I wonder if the girls ever got to ..”Fo-de-o-de-o-do.” It always got a laugh.
I mean, I didn't know Robert Reed (the dad of the Brady Bunch) was gay, nor David Orgen Steigers (MASH) or Paul Lynde, until I read it later in life.
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