"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale" of a time when television shows began with awesome TV Theme Songs. "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name" and sometimes you want to go back to when TV Theme songs were special. "Here's a story... of a lovely" time when TV Theme Songs served to identify, distinguish and set the stage for the television program that followed. "You take the good, take the bad, take them both and there you have" what unfortunately has become a lost artform. "Believe it or not", sadly it seems no effort or pride is taken in the TV Theme Song ever since Seinfeld proved a short synth-bass riff could be used instead. “Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!” This regular feature may not "make all our dreams come true", but it will remember some of the best TV Theme Songs from years past (with a focus on the '80s decade). "Come aboard, we're expecting you."
This time we will cover the theme song for Laverne & Shirley titled "Making Our Dreams Come True". It starts with the iconic, Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated! followed by "We're gonna make it. Give us any chance we'll take it. Read us any rule we'll break it." Laverne & Shirley debuted back in January of 1976 as a spin-off of Happy Days. It went on to run eight seasons and 178 episodes crossing into the early-80s ending in 1983. It was such a funny show starring two hilarious women in Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, but the rest of the cast were great compliments. The show has one of the most iconic TV Theme Songs of all time in my opinion.
"Making Our Dreams Come True" was written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. Fox co-wrote the 1973 Roberta Flack hit "Killing Me Softly With His Song" as well as the themes to several other memorable TV Theme Songs including Happy Days, Wonder Woman, Love American Style, The Love Boat and the original Monday Night Football theme among others. Gimbel had also co-wrote both "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and the Happy Days theme song with Fox previously. They wrote the theme song without knowing very much about what the show was going to be about.
Fox said in another interview: "All we knew about them - because there wasn't even a pilot script yet - we knew that they were blue collar workers, they worked in a factory in Milwaukee in a brewery, and they had hopes and dreams and ambitions about getting out and seeing life and doing things. So we wrote kind of a gentle song that was called 'Hoping Our Dreams Will Come True.' And we played it for the producers, and they said, 'You know, it's really a nice song, but this is not our characters. Our characters are not going to 'wish and hope.' They're going to take the bull by the horns; they're going to make life happen. It's two strong-minded girls.' So we made a change, and Norman wrote instead of 'hoping our dreams will come true,' 'making our dreams come true.' And that, of course, is a whole different song."
Producer chose little-known singer Cyndi Grecco to perform the theme song. Here are the opening credits of Laverne & Shirley featuring "Making Our Dreams Come True" performed by Cyndi Grecco…
"Making Our Dreams Come True" was released as a single in May of 1976. It actually spent 12 weeks on the U.S. charts, peaking in early July at #25 in July on the Billboard Hot 100. It also reached #13 on the Adult Contemporary chart while also peaking at #16 on the Canadian pop chart.
If you are wondering what Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated! means, you are not alone. Though most of us know these funny words because of this song, many don't know what they mean. Schlemiel and Schlimazel are actually two Yiddish terms. A Schlemiel is an inept clumsy person and a Schlimazel is a very unlucky person. Hasenpfeffer is actually a German stew. The better question is why they were grouped together to start this iconic TV Theme Song. "And we'll do it our way yes our way. Make all our dreams come true for me and you."
Hope you enjoyed tuning in for another "episode" of TV Theme Songs!