One of our favorite show business friendships has to be Penny Marshall and Steven Spielberg.

Marshall and Spielberg became close friends after connecting through their mutual friend and fellow writer, Jerry Belson. Marshall said that she and Spielberg became "instant friends" in her book, My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir.

Spielberg cast Marshall in his film, 1941. While the actor's scene was small, she stayed on set simply out of a fascination with watching Spielberg direct on set. In turn, Spielberg also came to support his friend during a very special episode of Laverne & Shirley, a show in which Marshall starred.

"One of the funniest Laverne and Shirley episodes we ever did was "Not Quite South of the Border," wrote Marshall. "Our one-hundredth show, had the girls going on a vacation somewhere near Mexico where everything went wrong. They checked into a bungalow that was missing two walls...their luggage was lost. And then a hurricane hit."

If you've seen "Not Quite South of the Border," you know that the hurricane scene is one of the funniest of the entire series. It fully demonstrates the physical comedy of Laverne & Shirley. It's widely remembered as one of the most iconic episodes of the series, and it was an episode that even impressed Spielberg.

See More

Penny Marshall: ''I didn’t want to be in show business''

"The hurricane itself was one of the most spectacular scenes we had ever attempted, and we'd done a lot of physical bits over the years," wrote Marshall. "When we shot it, Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, and Steven Spielberg came to watch. My brother [series creator Garry Marshall] was nervous about Steven there, especially afterward, when Steven was silent. 'What's the matter?' my brother said. 'You didn't like it?'

'No,' Steven said. 'The opposite. It would take me eleven days to do what you just did in fifteen minutes.'"

Watch Laverne & Shirley on MeTV!

Sundays at 11:30 AM

*available in most MeTV markets

 Add to Favorites  Remind Me