Michael McKean and David Lander co-star as their friends and neighbors Lenny Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman, respectively; along with Eddie Mekka as Carmine Ragusa, Phil Foster as Laverne's father Frank DeFazio, and Betty Garrett as the girls' landlady Edna Babish.

[5] The characters were originally "two girls who date the fleet", but for family hour, they had to be changed and mellowed down, which, in Cindy Williams' opinion, gave the show more depth.

Between that afternoon shoot and the evening, Cindy Williams was eventually talked into doing the role and she re-filmed the scene that night with Penny Marshall, who became her co-star in the series.

Hasenpfeffer Incorporated," a Yiddish-American hopscotch chant, which then leads into the series' theme song, "Making Our Dreams Come True" performed by Cyndi Grecco.

[9] For the first five seasons, from 1976 to 1980, the show was set in Milwaukee (executive producer Thomas L. Miller's home town), taking place from roughly 1958–59 through the early 1960s.

Michael McKean and David Lander created the characters of Lenny and Squiggy while both were theater students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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).

When the series' setting changed to California, two new characters are added: Sonny St. Jacques, a stunt man, landlord of the Burbank apartment building and love interest for Laverne; as well as Rhonda Lee, the ladies' neighbor and an aspiring actress.

[11] The series' final season continued with two episodes with Williams still playing Shirley; then it was just Marshall as Laverne, who now worked for an aerospace company.

Laverne & Shirley debuted in the 1975–76 TV season, with its first episode airing in January 1976, in the Tuesday night time slot after Happy Days.

In August 1979, before the start of its fifth season, Laverne & Shirley was moved to Thursdays at 8 pm opposite The Waltons on CBS and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century on NBC.

The ratings fared no better, so in February 1980 the network moved the series back to its familiar Tuesday-night berth, where it remained for the next three years.

During the run of the main show, an animated spin-off also called Laverne & Shirley began airing on Saturday mornings.

[19] In 1976, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams released an album, performed in character, titled Laverne & Shirley Sing, which contained some original songs along with some 1950s and 1960s standards.

[21][22] In July 1979, McKean and Lander also appeared together (in character) on American Bandstand performing the song "King of the Cars", the single released from their Lenny and the Squigtones album.