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Cindy Williams had a hard time adjusting to the fame that came with Laverne & Shirley
"One minute, you know, you're living from hand to mouth and the next minute you're this person with this incredible salary," she said.
Instant fame can be difficult for anyone to adjust to. For Cindy Williams, she certainly wasn't expecting to become a star when she appeared in Happy Days for the first time. Still, becoming a celebrity was a welcome change for Williams, who had previously appeared in successful films like American Graffiti and The Conversation.
During an interview with The Detroit Free Press, Williams explained that success on a show like Laverne & Shirley was surprisingly fickle. "Three laughs," she said. "That's what it comes down to. Get three laughs a week and you're a hit. That's all we have to do."
However, Williams expressed some frustration during the show's beginnings, particularly with her own character, Shirley Feeney, who Williams said the writers "couldn't get a handle on."
"It was very difficult when Laverne & Shirley got started," she said. "It just became a hit overnight, and it's difficult to deal with. I thought there was imbalance in the scripts, and it was corrected. But I had to straighten myself out, too."
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Williams had seemingly become a leading lady overnight, and she admitted that the shift was harder to get used to than she had previously imagined. "Think of it like a culture shock," she said.
"One minute, you know, you're living from hand to mouth and the next minute you're this person with this incredible salary. And you go through this period of nouveau riche, at least I did, not knowing how to spend your money or when to spend it or if you should spend it."
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