Laverne & Shirley

Laverne & Shirley is a spin-off of Happy Days, with both title characters first introduced as acquaintances of Fonzie before getting their own series.

The original working title of the show was Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney, and the characters were initially conceived as 'two girls who date the fleet' before being toned down for family-hour television.

Cindy Williams initially refused to do the spin-off, so Paramount recast her role with Liberty Williams and filmed a screen test; Cindy was later talked into the role that same evening and re-shot the scene with Penny Marshall.

To hide the alternate casting from executives, Paramount president Michael Eisner hid the reel of Liberty Williams's screen test in a closet and falsely claimed it had been lost, so only Cindy Williams's version was screened.

Michael McKean and David Lander created the characters of Lenny and Squiggy while theater students at Carnegie Mellon University, reportedly while high on marijuana, and performed them in live comedy routines before joining the show.

Lenny and Squiggy were originally conceived with the character name Anthony Squiggliano, but producers changed it to the German-sounding Squiggman because they felt there were already too many Italian characters on the show.

Michael McKean's role was reduced to just five episodes, credited as a guest star, during the eighth season because he was filming This Is Spinal Tap.

Cindy Williams left the show two episodes into production of season eight after becoming pregnant and being asked to work on her due date; she filed a $20 million lawsuit against Paramount, which was later settled out of court.

Ed Marinaro left the show in season six to star in Hill Street Blues, and his character Sonny St. Jacques was written out and rarely mentioned again afterward.

Penny Marshall got the idea for Laverne's trademark monogrammed 'L' on her sweaters after seeing a vintage sweater in the wardrobe department with an initial sewn into the corner, meant to help audiences remember which character was Laverne.

Shirley's stuffed toy cat was named Boo Boo Kitty after Cindy Williams forgot a line in rehearsal and blurted out the name, which was also the name of her real-life mother's cat.

The show's opening chant, 'Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!', came from a Yiddish-American hopscotch chant from Penny Marshall's own childhood.

In 1979, McKean and Lander released the album Lenny and the Squigtones in character, which introduced future This Is Spinal Tap character Nigel Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest.

In 1980, Italian singer Romina Power recorded a separate bilingual English-Italian theme song titled 'Laverne & Shirley' for the show's Italian market release, though it failed to chart.

By its third and fourth seasons, Laverne & Shirley had become the most-watched television program in the United States according to Nielsen ratings.