Actress Cindy Williams dies at 75

January 30, 2023 9:38 PM

She played straight-laced Shirley in "Laverne & Shirley" from 1976 to 1983.
posted by NotLost (46 comments total)

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posted by OHenryPacey at 9:41 PM on January 30, 2023

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posted by UhOhChongo! at 9:50 PM on January 30, 2023

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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!
posted by j_curiouser at 9:50 PM on January 30, 2023 [22 favorites]

Always liked her. I recommend her oddball film The First Nudie Musical. A fun, weird, probably-hopelessly-naïve-and-dated-by-now (I haven't seen it in a while) movie about Sex in the Seventies.
posted by Dr. Wu at 10:15 PM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

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posted by pt68 at 10:53 PM on January 30, 2023

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Cindy Williams' Star Wars audition.
posted by fairmettle at 10:56 PM on January 30, 2023 [3 favorites]

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posted by bryon at 12:23 AM on January 31, 2023

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posted by JustSayNoDawg at 12:47 AM on January 31, 2023

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posted by fleacircus at 12:48 AM on January 31, 2023

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Michael McKean stands alone.
posted by Etrigan at 3:55 AM on January 31, 2023 [11 favorites]

Michael McKean stands alone.

Too much fucking perspective.

L&S was part of my Tuesday night TV life as a tween/teen. A cute apartment and a fun roommate to have (reasonably) fun adventures with seemed like the ideal life. Mary Richards' existence felt too elevated, but I could aspire to be Shirley Feeney. To this day we still quote her intro scene when they were guest stars on Happy Days, before they got their own show.

Shirley: "Laverne's got a mouth like a sewer."
Ritchie: "A sewer?"
Shirley: "Yeah! A SEWER!"

They (especially Shirley) were much... shall we say, EARTHIER in this first incarnation. So funny. No wonder they got a spin-off. Rest in peace, Cindy.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:14 AM on January 31, 2023 [10 favorites]

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posted by cupcakeninja at 4:20 AM on January 31, 2023

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Realized today I've never seen The Conversation. Gonna have to fix that. Like so many GenX kids, she's the star of one of the shows that form the background of a lot of my childhood.
posted by DigDoug at 4:23 AM on January 31, 2023 [2 favorites]

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posted by Spike Glee at 6:08 AM on January 31, 2023

Well damn, I’d missed the passing of David L. Lander during the cruel end of 2020.

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posted by mubba at 6:26 AM on January 31, 2023

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posted by JoeZydeco at 6:55 AM on January 31, 2023

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posted by jquinby at 7:02 AM on January 31, 2023

I grew up on Laverne & Shirley. So did Mike White, the showrunner for White Lotus. He gave a fun interview on Fresh Air where he talked about the influence 70s and 80s TV had on him. The two young Italian women in the most recent season are modelled after Laverne & Shirley. In his words, "I'm doing basically a reboot of Laverne & Shirley meets Fantasy Island with some Survivor dropped into it." So props to Cindy Williams for starring in what seemed like a fluffy sitcom but had more influence than anyone expected.

I didn't realize that she also was the main actress in The Conversation. It's a great film, you're in for a treat DigDoug. Maybe I should finally see American Graffiti.
posted by Nelson at 7:06 AM on January 31, 2023 [4 favorites]

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posted by Melismata at 7:24 AM on January 31, 2023

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posted by mfoight at 7:37 AM on January 31, 2023

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As a tribute: Johnny Cash doing the L&S theme song (Nissan commercial).
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:34 AM on January 31, 2023 [3 favorites]

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posted by Joey Michaels at 8:42 AM on January 31, 2023

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posted by gentlyepigrams at 8:53 AM on January 31, 2023

By way of a eulogy, I'll repost a comment I made in 2021:

Hey, if we're tossing around classic sitcom recs, I'd like to put in a good word for the early seasons of Laverne and Shirley. I recently started watching old episodes on YouTube (sadly they were recently taken down) and was surprised by how well they've held up, which is something that can definitely not be said of its parent show, Happy Days.

As a child I watched both shows religiously, so in my mind, they were interchangeable. But whereas Happy Days is pure audience-pandering nostalgia, with corny jokes and lots of mugging for the cameras, L&S is comparatively subtle, with more character-driven humor, great chemistry between the two leads (both Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams are gifted physical comedians) and much less of a reliance on period-specific cultural references as a crutch for the writing. Plus on a few occasions, David Lander and Michael McKean get to perform songs from their actual stage act at the time that are surprisingly transgressive and funny.

posted by Atom Eyes at 9:30 AM on January 31, 2023 [5 favorites]

Michael McKean stands alone.

I know the later seasons, set in Burbank, weren't as memorable, but Leslie Easterbrook (Rhonda) is still with us.

I also wanted to point this out from the show's Wikipedia entry:

During the fifth season, the girls went into the Army Reserve, and they contended with a tough-as-nails drill sergeant named Alvinia T. "The Frog" Plout (Vicki Lawrence). While their time in the Army Reserve was brief in the live action series, it did inspire an animated series with the duo in the army contending with their immediate superior, a commanding pig named Sgt. Squealy who was voiced by Ron Palillo (best known for his role as Arnold Horshack on Welcome Back, Kotter) who is always threatening to report them to Sgt. Turnbuckle (voiced by Kenneth Mars).
posted by bgrebs at 9:41 AM on January 31, 2023 [4 favorites]

I've been thinking it's about time to rewatch American Graffiti.
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