"Laverne & Shirley" is remembered by many for its ugly ending, with one of the titular stars not even on the show any longer, the Milwaukee setting swapped out for Hollywood, and stories of the two female leads arguing over who got more lines than the other in a given episode. That's a shame considering the show came outta the gate like a beast. An immediate hit, it eclipsed "Happy Days" in the ratings often, the series that was both its lead-in and where the the two characters first appeared.
In my family Penny Marshall had already been cracking us up on Friday nights on "The Odd Couple." Plus, being the TV addicts that we were, we couldn't get over the fact that - at the time - Marshall was married to "Meathead," aka Rob Reiner, of "All In The Family Fame." They divorced and, interestingly, both went on to find success behind the camera, directing many hit films each.
I managed to find a commercial I remember airing in my childhood, where Marshall plays roommate to someone famous in another 70's series at the time. Check it out!