Meet a couple of delightful dolls who make life in a brewery a barrel of laughs.

Like the foam on a mug of Milwaukee brew
Laverne and Shirley
Will Tickle You!

Shirley Feeney is a dreamer waiting for Mr. Right to sweep her away from the bottle-capping belt and into his arms. Laverne DeFazio sorts out the Rights from the Wrongs as only a realist can. They're roomates, workmates - and they scrap and scrape through wacky adventures on and off the job. Chuckle as you chug-a-lug through LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY, as high-spirited and bubbly in paperback as they are on TV.

Shirley Feeney Has Stars In Her Eyes...Again!

This time Shirl's all in a whirl about a comic team called Striker and Coogan - the slapstick, socko stars of such epics as The Jerk, The Schnook, The Foul-Up, The Clumsy Oaf, The Dolt and The Nitwit. You can relax, Laverne, there's no danger to Shirley's virtue, in the worship of two crazy commedians as far away as Hollywood. Except...

that they aren't in far-off Hollywood. They're right here in Milwaukee, giving a live performance! And Shirley's so in love she'll do anything - well, almost anything - to get tickets to that show!

Shirley goes to the movie "The Jerk" and falls head-over-heels for the comedy team of Donny Coogan and Mitch Stiker. A fascinated Shirley is so desperate to see their act that she goes on a date with Roscoe the Scalper at Club Delux. When Roscoe puts the moves on an unreceptive Shirley, a jealous Carmine shows up and punches out Roscoe. In desperation, Shirley turns to "The Great Caruso". He scores both girls seats in the orchestra pit for the comedy team's Milwaukee stop.

When an angry Roscoe the Scalper shows up at the show and tries to toss a tomato at the comedy couple, Shirley knocks him out with one punch. Shirley gets backstage for her heroic effort, and Donny Coogan is so pleased with her that she gets invited to dinner - leaving a jealous Laverne home and alone.

Laverne becomes concearned that Shirley will go further than she intends to with her date. Though she sends Squiggy in to interrupt things, Mister Coogan is not dettered. He then invites Shirley to spend the weekend with him at Lake Wannatabe in Michigan. When Shirley takes up the invitation, a horrified Laverne follows Shirley by bus to Lake Wannatabe. But Shirley's worst problems definately aren't a worried best friend...

This first LAS novel has a sort of quality about it that's almost fever-dream like. It's obvious that Striker is a roman-a-clef for Dean Martin (Striker's hit on Capitol Records is "My Heart Keeps Saying 'Mama Mia!'"; Martin was known for the song "That's Amore") and Coogan a stand-in for Jerry Lewis ("Oh Mitch!" is obviously code for "Oy Lady!"), but more bizzarely, it's plain that "The Great Caruso" is a stand-in for The Fonz - a fun example of how far a license will extend.

There are a few general problems with the way the characters match up to their TV precescessors. The Andrew Squiggman of this novel is perhaps more thoughtful and intelligent than his counterpart onscreen. Lenny (whose last name is unfortunately miss-spelled "Kowalski") is a bit more brutish in this incarnation as well - the boys indescriminately call one another "clod" throughout, another feature that's unlike them. Their side-trip through the backroads, cults and greasy spoons of the midwest to "rescue" Laverne, Shirley and Carmine from their problem has an interesting flavor to it - it feels inspired by "The Blues Brothers".

This version of Laverne is perhaps a little more invested in Shirley's chastity than the canon version, but the girls are pretty spot-on. So is the earstwhile and yet occasionally neglectful Carmine. The general plot itself, with its hints to mob activities and play on the way night clubs were really run in the late fifties, is definately something you'd never see on the show itself, but it serves it purpose by broadening the girl's existance.

Inside the jukebox Fats Domino was complaining about something, and when he finished, Chuck Berry started in.