Cindy Williams’ run on Laverne & Shirley got here to a seemingly abrupt finish within the fall of 1982, when she left the present two episodes into its eighth season.
Whereas viewers at residence had seen Williams’ Shirley Feeney marry Walter Meeney within the eighth-season premiere (making her Shirley Feeney Meeney), it was a startling growth for one-half of the present’s titular duo to depart so out of the blue.
The change was simply as stunning behind the scenes, and for good cause: In March 1982, Williams received pregnant together with her daughter, Emily. She coordinated with the present to proceed working by means of her being pregnant, recalling on At this time in 2015, “I assumed I used to be going to return again and so they’d disguise me behind benches, couches, pillows, and that wasn’t it.”
As an alternative, Williams stated, the present had her scheduled to work by means of her due date that fall, all of which was stipulated in her contract. “When it got here time for me to signal my contract for that season … I stated, ‘I can’t signal this,'” Williams informed At this time. “And it went backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards, and it simply by no means received labored out.”
Watch the Opening Credit to ‘Laverne & Shirley’
The actress selected to stroll away from the sitcom as an alternative of signing what at the moment could be thought of a discriminatory and unrealistic contract. With then-husband Invoice Hudson, she’d later sue the present for $20 million (the case was settled out of courtroom for an undisclosed quantity). Williams informed At this time that quickly after she left Laverne & Shirley she observed that an increasing number of reveals had been constructing nurseries on units and offering nannies for his or her stars.
On the time, movie star media wasn’t what it’s at the moment, and Williams’ resolution to depart the collection was left pretty opaque to each viewers and folks watchers. Some stories stated {that a} longstanding feud with costar Penny Marshall led to her resolution to depart, whereas others claimed that Williams had made outrageous calls for throughout contract negotiations, resulting in her being fired from the position.
Watch a 2016 Interview With Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall
In actuality, whereas Marshall and Williams’ relationship had turn into a bit strained as a result of Marshall thought Williams’ husband was “a ache within the ass,” Marshall did attempt to get her costar to remain on the present, providing to do no matter it took to maintain the duo collectively. “I don’t care, Cin. Lay in mattress the entire time and be the most important pain-in-the-ass pregnant individual you’ve ever seen,” Marshall recalled saying. “I’ll run round! Simply deal with the dialogue.”
When Williams selected to depart the present as an alternative, Marshall tried to name her, however forces saved the 2 from talking. “They wouldn’t put me by means of to her,” Marshall stated. “I missed her not being there.”
Followers additionally missed Williams, and the actress’ abrupt departure left Marshall in an uncomfortable state of affairs. “I used to be going out in entrance of the [studio] viewers and so they stated, ‘What occurred with Cindy?’ It was a drag.” Ultimately, Williams and Marshall reconciled and frolicked incessantly till Marshall died in 2018.
The best way Laverne & Shirley handled Williams’ departure on-air was jarring. Within the second episode of Season 8 – which aired on Oct. 12, 1982 – issues had been seemingly regular with the wacky duo, because the pair spent per week in a retailer show earlier than one way or the other being hypnotized to assume they had been chickens each time they heard a bell.
Watch Cindy Williams’ Closing Episode of ‘Laverne & Shirley’
Within the present’s subsequent episode, nevertheless, Shirley was gone, having disappeared whereas Laverne and Carmine had been out at a dance contest. The plot famous that Shirley had packed up all her issues and left within the area of a few hours underneath the guise of her new husband being transferred abroad, leaving solely a notice to say goodbye. It was an ignominious ending to Williams’ long term on the present, however one which mirrored the local weather for working moms on the time.
Laverne & Shirley wasn’t renewed on the finish of its eighth season, and the present quietly pale from ABC’s schedule after its season finale in Could 1983. In the meantime, Williams continued to have an extended and profitable performing profession, showing in a wide range of different TV reveals and movies. In 2017, she launched the memoir Shirley: I Jest!: A Storied Life, which chronicled her life on the traditional sitcom and elsewhere in Hollywood.
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