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 dwelling 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 purpose: In March 1982, Williams obtained pregnant together with her daughter, Emily. She coordinated with the present to proceed working by way of her being pregnant, recalling on In the present day in 2015, “I assumed I used to be going to return again and so they’d conceal me behind benches, couches, pillows, and that wasn’t it.”
As an alternative, Williams mentioned, the present had her scheduled to work by way 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 mentioned, ‘I can’t signal this,'” Williams instructed In the present day. “And it went backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards, and it simply by no means obtained 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 this time can 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 instructed In the present day that quickly after she left Laverne & Shirley she observed that increasingly reveals had been constructing nurseries on units and offering nannies for his or her stars.
On the time, celeb media wasn’t what it’s at this time, and Williams’ resolution to go away the sequence was left pretty opaque to each viewers and other people watchers. Some reviews mentioned {that a} longstanding feud with costar Penny Marshall led to her resolution to go away, whereas others claimed that Williams had made outrageous calls for throughout contract negotiations, resulting in her being fired from the function.
Watch a 2016 Interview With Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall
In actuality, whereas Marshall and Williams’ relationship had change 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 largest pain-in-the-ass pregnant particular person you’ve ever seen,” Marshall recalled saying. “I’ll run round! Simply handle the dialogue.”
When Williams selected to go away the present as an alternative, Marshall tried to name her, however forces saved the 2 from talking. “They wouldn’t put me by way of to her,” Marshall mentioned. “I missed her not being there.”
Followers additionally missed Williams, and the actress’ abrupt departure left Marshall in an uncomfortable scenario. “I used to be going out in entrance of the [studio] viewers and so they mentioned, ‘What occurred with Cindy?’ It was a drag.” Ultimately, Williams and Marshall reconciled and frolicked regularly 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 by some means being hypnotized to assume they had been chickens each time they heard a bell.
Watch Cindy Williams’ Remaining Episode of ‘Laverne & Shirley’
Within the present’s subsequent episode, nonetheless, 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 house of a few hours beneath the guise of her new husband being transferred abroad, leaving solely a word 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 Might 1983. In the meantime, Williams continued to have a protracted and profitable appearing 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 basic sitcom and elsewhere in Hollywood.
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