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Cindy Williams walked off Laverne & Shirley during the first season
"I went through hell," said Williams
Integrity is a tricky thing. While our principles might seem like the most important thing to us, is there a dollar amount for which we'd be willing to sacrifice them?
It turns out that Cindy Williams, who played Shirley in Laverne & Shirley, wasn't willing to sell out. She had a strong sense of what she wanted out of the show and wasn't willing to compromise to appease the producers. So, with the bases loaded in her favor, Williams left the ballpark.
The issue with the popular sitcom, as Williams saw it, was that Marshall was getting all the best character beats in every script. So, Cindy Williams put her money where her mouth was, less than two months into production in the fall of '76, and walked off Stage 20 on the Paramount Studios lot.
She spoke with TV Guide in an article published June 18, 1977, just a few months after the incident.
"I had signed to do this terrific character," Williams explained, "but the show was thrown together so quickly that the terrific part got washed away. 'Come on, fellas,' I said, 'let's get back on the track.' But they never did. The thing was that Laverne, the cynic, was easier to write for than Shirley, the idealist. That's when I really started to get unhappy."
In August 1982, just before production on the show's last season, Williams again sat down with TV Guide and explained her perspective.
"What happened was that all the writers knew Penny," she said. "They knew she could do physical humor. They didn't know me. They thought I was the one who did the sweet stuff. I was disappointed, and I kept telling them I was... and they didn't hear me. So one day, with my knees knocking, and shaking all over, I slithered off the lot and came home. Honestly, I thought they might arrest me. When a woman stands up for herself, they call her a b****, and worse. And there's no getting around it: I went through hell and so did everyone else."
The walkout lasted two days. Williams requested, and got, a change in the writing staff. The show's head writers were let go, and production resumed as more Shirley-focused writers began penning episodes.
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