Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“They were just a couple of gals trying to make it in the 1960s. The cynic tomboy and the perky, perfect lady lived together harmoniously in a basement apartment. Through thick and thin, they bottled beer and played hopscotch and did it their way to make all their dreams come true,” as noted on a list of the 35 greatest TV Duos of all time when referring to comedic duo Laverne De Fazio & Shirley Feeney (Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams) of the CBS hit Laverne and Shirley – 1976-1983. Think Ren & Skimpy, Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz, Jerry Seinfeld & George Costanza, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Felix Unger & Oscar Madison. On AOL, they are among the top 20 of all time.
Hollywood on the Potomac sat down with Cindy Williams at a book launch in her honor at Mama Ayesha’s in upper Northwest Washington, DC hosted by her agent Diane Nine. “We are great friends today,” she said referring to Penny Marshall. “We sit and watch TV together, we have the same take on life like we had while doing the show. That being said, we are very different people. On the show, she was very regimented, I am very hang loose. She can dance. I can sing. But you could walk us into a room together, pick out the same thing in the same room at the same time and make the same comment – and that was part of the test of the show. We had utter respect for each other, but we did have our differences.”
Cindy Williams and Diane Nine
Cindy opened up about having an alcoholic father, competing against her friends in Hollywood, and what her life is like now. “I am happy, although in my mind I think I am nineteen.”
