The Look: Laverne DeFazio/Lenny Kosnowski 'Ship Manifesto (Laverne And Shirley)

[one_more_cherry]

TITLE: The Look
AUTHOR: one_more_cherry
EMAIL lasfic@yahoo.com
FANDOM: Laverne and Shirley
PAIRING: Laverne DeFazio/Lenny Kosnowski
SPOILERS: For the entire run of the show, plus reunion shows and spin-offs.
THANKS: to Shotzette and lily_mars for reading this monster through and giving their thoughts. Also thanks to Emily for use of her screencaps to illustrate, and

Comments

[rosehiptea]

Wow, this was amazing. I used to love this show, and I have so many fond memories of it. I guess I'd stopped watching by the time they ended up in California though, because I don't even remember it, though maybe I did watch and I just forgot the setting. I guess I was in it for the earlier, more "innocent" years. But I remember Laverne and the firefighter, and I definitely remember Lenny and Amy Babbish, an episode that nearly made me cry

[one_more_cherry]

Thank you so much!! You're not alone in dropping out when the California seasons happened - it seems to be a common thread among fans of the show. There's a thoughtline among fans of the show of "WTH were they thinking?" with a great deal of those three seasons.

I don't remember "shipping" them per se, but I always thought Laverne did truly respect Lenny. *NODS*. I think there's a strong friendship between the characters, regardless of any romantic notions, which is why I'm a little annoyed by the implication in the Reunion Show that Laverne never kept in touch with him. I can see Shirley not keeping contact with the boys, but Lenny's arguably as close to Laverne as Shirley (and Carmine, if we take the California episodes into consideration). I'm not mad that the reunion didn't make the 'ship canon, it just doesn't quite make sense that that particular friendly bond didn't stick.

I'm remembering the episode where they were held hostage by robbers and Laverne suggests they should at least have sex before they die... Shirley

[brightredglow]

*satisfied sigh*

This a great manifesto and so unique too.

I remember Lenny being after Laverne and she seemed to not mind. And they did have those "alone" moments when you could think, "What if" or "Why not?"

Thank you for putting this together. It brought back some really good memories.

[one_more_cherry]

Glad you enjoyed :-) . If you feel the inclination, come on and hang out with us at the message board - we love kind new faces :-)

[cephiedvariable]

OH.

OH MY.

I used to watch this show all the time with my grade school babysitter and just... I shipped them pretty hard, yes. Thank you for this random and bizarre trip down memory lane! ♥

[one_more_cherry]

*bows!* happy to provide you one :-) . Thanks for reading!

[liadela]

I can't even tell you how great it was reading this manifesto

[one_more_cherry]

Thanks so much!!

The Slow Child is about the most perfect episode at which to fall in love with Lenny - his character grows so much during that particular ep and the writers give him such great depth.

I'm glad I managed to hook you up with the archive link - I hope you'll come join us over at the site and board :) . The fandom itself is pretty obscure and small, and my site's the only big resource going at the moment, so I'm not surprised you couldn't find recs before this.

I've seen those interviews - I share your sigh. Penny usually follows that up with "I thought they were gonna be our boyfriends!", but apparently the "we need someone to look worse than you!" rationale was mostly Garry Marshall's. Squiggy/Shirley is an intriguing 'ship in of themselves, but Lavenny, IMOHO, works on a level all by itself because it's got a lot of mutuality going for it, just like you pointed out.

You're much welcome for the manifesto, enjoy the recs and I hope I'll see you on the site some day!

I love you for including this joke, btw.