Laverne & Shirley

Laverne & Shirley was an animated spin-off series of the 1976 live-action sitcom of the same name, in which best friends Laverne De Fazio and Shirley Feeny joined the army to see the world. Stationed out of Camp Fillmore as enlistees, their animated escapades took them to the far flung corners of the globe, and even into space.

As Privates, they found themselves under the direct command of a literal pig named Sergeant Squealy, who had a personal vendetta against them. He had a wish to see Laverne and Shirley fail due to their inability to take a pig seriously. To counter their misconduct, much of the time Squealy had to threaten to report them to Sergeant Turnbuckle, a hard-nosed superior who instilled real fear in the camp recruits.

To all of their dissatisfaction, Squealy and the girls regularly found themselves assigned to the same missions. Despite Laverne and Shirley’s lack of protocol and general ineptitude, the trio always managed to join forces and overcome whatever challenge they faced.

The first season of the series is sometimes distinguished as Laverne & Shirley in the Army in reference to the text appended to the title card, which changed to Laverne & Shirley with The Fonz for the show’s second season, when Fonzie and his dog Mr. Cool joined the cast to work as mechanics in the camp’s motor pool. In this format the show was teamed with an animated adaptation of the live-action Mork & Mindy sitcom to form the Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour, which lasted for one season.