Did Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams Really Feud Behind the Scenes of ‘Laverne & Shirley’?
What To Know
- Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams experienced real tension during the peak years of Laverne & Shirley, largely due to creative imbalance and pressure from the show’s immense popularity.
- The friction culminated in Williams’s departure from the series in 1982, fueling rumors of a lasting feud, though Marshall later downplayed the severity of their disagreements.
- Despite past conflicts, the two actresses reconciled in later years, maintaining a friendship and publicly expressing mutual respect and affection before Marshall’s death in 2018.
For fans of Laverne & Shirley, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams will always feel inseparable. On screen, their chemistry was effortless, helping turn the Happy Days spin-off into one of the biggest sitcoms of the late ’70s. Off-screen, though, rumors of tension followed them for decades, raising the question of whether Marshall and Williams truly feuded behind the scenes, especially after Williams’s unexpected exit during the final season.
Why did Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams come into conflict?
According to the Mercury News, there was real friction during the show’s peak years, fueled largely by pressure and perceived creative imbalance. In Happier Days: Paramount Television’s Classic Sitcoms, 1974–1984, author Marley Brant wrote that Williams felt early on that Shirley Feeney was being sidelined in favor of Marshall’s more broadly comic Laverne DeFazio, and that Williams once walked off the set in frustration.
Williams also addressed the issue publicly in a 1977 interview with TV Guide, saying Marshall’s character was getting most of the attention. At the time, the show was not just popular but dominant, finishing as television’s top-rated series in the 1977–78 season, which only intensified the pressure on its two leads.
ABC/Everett Collection
The tension reached a turning point in 1982, when Williams left the series while pregnant. Laverne & Shirley continued briefly with Marshall as the sole lead and guest stars, but ratings declined, and the show was canceled the following spring. For many viewers, Williams’ exit seemed to confirm years of speculation about a lasting rift between the stars. Marshall said, according to Fox News, “That was rumors. Any show you work on for eight years, you’re gonna argue at some point. Way overblown.”
Did Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams ever make up?
Bob D’Amico/ABC/Everett Collection
The pair reunited on TV in 1995, for The Laverne & Shirley Reunion. However, their real-life reconnection wouldn’t happen for several more years.
In her 2012 memoir, according to MeTV , Marshall wrote that after Williams’ 2000 divorce, “I was eager to reconnect. I had seen Cindy once or twice over the years at TV Land specials, but these occasions were more professional than personal, always fleeting and in crowds. We never sat down and talked about the unfortunate way we had parted on Laverne & Shirley, or how much I had missed her over the years. I still considered her a friend. We had shared too much for me to consider her anything but a special person in my life.”
After Williams finished a theater commitment, “we got together at my house and had the conversation I wished I’d been able to have 15 years earlier,” Marshall wrote.
The two women stayed reconnected, even reuniting on screen for a 2013 episode of Sam & Cat. In another 2015 interview, Williams noted that they saw each other often and spent time watching television together, suggesting whatever rivalry once existed was long gone.
When Marshall died in 2018 at age 75, Williams released a heartfelt statement remembering her former co-star as both a friend and a singular talent. “What an extraordinary loss,” Williams said, calling Marshall “one in a million” and reflecting on how much fun they had working together.
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Classic Comedy Duos
March 2021
Chuckle at television & films funniest comic duos.
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