"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight! Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!"

Any successful television series is likely to have a spin-off or two emerge, and the enormously successful Happy Days was certainly no exception. But while most spin-offs are lucky if they last a full season, this time lightning struck twice. Following the lives of two lovable female brewery workers who lived in Milwaukee in the 50s, Laverne and Shirley won the hearts of television viewers almost immediately and enjoyed a longevity that few spin-offs have ever managed to achieve.

Debuting in 1975, Laverne and Shirley followed the lives of Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney, two friends who worked as bottle cappers for the Shotz Brewery and shared an apartment together. Laverne’s father, Frank, owned the local hangout, The Pizza Bowl, and his sweetheart was Edna Babish, the lovable landlady at the apartment complex where the girls lived. Also in residence at the apartments were two harmless dimwits, Lenny and Squiggy, who preferred to walk in unannounced at every opportunity. Shirley frequently dated a hunky dancer named Carmine “The Big Ragu” Ragusa.

A charming saga of two blue-collar friends trying to better their careers and their love lives, Laverne and Shirley relied less on plot and more on silly slapstick-type humor that annoyed the critics, who regularly panned the series. It didn’t matter to the loyal fans of the show, which made the show an instant ratings hit and made the one-two punch of Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley a formidable Monday night lineup.

But after many years of success, it was inevitable that the ratings would eventually falter and, as a result, drastic changes were made to the premise in the final years. In 1979, Laverne and Shirley left their Milwaukee surroundings for a sunny new life in California. Frank and Edna, now newlyweds, tagged along, as did Lenny, Squiggy and Carmine. And audiences were introduced to two new characters – Rhonda Lee, an up and coming model/actress with an acerbic wit, and Sonny St. Jacques, Hollywood stuntman and the girl’s new landlord.

Before the eighth (and final) season rolled around in 1982, a pregnant Cindy Williams (Shirley) got into a contract dispute and decided to leave the series. To account for her absence, it was explained the Shirley wed an army medic and joined him on an overseas assignment. With the show’s chemistry forever altered, it spelled the end for Laverne and Shirley in 1983.

A few years earlier, in 1981, the show’s popularity managed to spawn a Saturday morning animated series, which ran until the original series ended. The show also managed to have its theme song reach the Top-40 charts – “Making Our Dreams Come True,” which was composed by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. Cindy Williams continues to appear on television and in films, while Penny Marshall has found success as a director, producing such films as Big and A League of their Own.

Laverne and Shirley ran for a very respectable 178 episodes - a story of inseparable friends trying to survive their blue-collar existence and find true love along the way. And each week, audiences tuned in by the millions to laugh along with their antics. It was a charming glimpse into a simpler time that won the hearts of all that watched - and proved that a spin-off can be mightily successful in its own right.