We now return to our regular programming already in progress.
And the day the cast reunited to help their friend fight the disease.
I thought that it was incredibly brave that he had fought it alone for so many years.
Damn little weak, but I've been feeling real good lately.
What life was really like making an episode of Laverne and Shirley?
The process was very intense.
There was no question there was fighting.
The trouble brewing behind the scenes that caused the series executive to quit.
That's coming up.
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Monday on Entertainment Tonight, a new book never before heard details about Sharon Tate
and the Manson murders.
They turned on her and she started to beg for her life.
The author reveals what happened inside the home the night she was killed and new allegations
that her husband, Roman Polanski, was having an affair with a Hollywood actress.
A plus-sized model's battle with anorexia that began when she was 12 years old.
What I ate in one day is less than most people eat in a meal.
Today she weighs 175.
Now Kate Dillon talks about overcoming the eating disorder and returning to the runway.
I was starving, definitely.
That's Monday.
Welcome back to Entertainment Tonight's Laverne and Shirley secrets from the set.
Squiggy, David L. Lander, had the comic timing to provide constant laughs on the show.
But real life dealt David a blow he was not prepared to take.
In 1984, he was diagnosed with a crippling disease, multiple sclerosis.
It felt like the world had come to an end.
And I was told that the chances were good that I would probably never walk again.
It seemed like a pretty, you know, black scenario that was being laid out for me.
He can remember getting the news as if it were yesterday.
But in fact, it was 15 long years ago that David L. Lander first found out that he was
suffering from multiple sclerosis.
He kept it a complete secret until last year.
I didn't want people to know that I had it because I didn't want them, one I thought
the obvious thing was they'll never hire me, no matter how nice a guy I may be or talented
or whatever.
It just seemed like, why would they hire me?
During his eight seasons as Squiggy, David was TV's most lovable dim bulb.
And along with Michael McKeon's Lenny, the two proved to be the perfect comic foils for
Penny and Cindy.
How about 50 cents apiece?
OK, that's a deal.
Still could David have imagined that barely a year after his last episode was filmed,
his life would change irrevocably.
At first, the first, I guess, five or six years, I would have certain, I would have
attacks from time to time where I just couldn't, couldn't walk.
My leg would buckle and I would just fall down like completely out of nowhere.
I still have lots of pants with holes in the knees and I could say, oh, I remember this
day.
May I?
No.
David continued to work as best he could but his efforts to hide his condition from producers
sometimes opened the door to other misconceptions.
You could see the producers were, what's wrong with him?
Oh, boy.
And I think one of the producers in particular, who kept taking me out to drink with him all
the time, he said, well, I think you have a drinking problem.
I said, well, you should know you're paying the bill.
But rather than say, well, no, I don't have a drinking problem and I'm offended that you
would ever think that, I just went, well, OK, I have a drinking problem.
I still didn't feel safe to say I had MS because I went, well, even if I lose this job, I don't
want to lose a whole series down the road.
And that was tough at times when you'd suddenly get cast in a thing where you suddenly say
you have to run around and they're chasing you and you'd have to say, well, I need a
double for that.
Why can't you run?
It's just across the street.
Well, yeah, but I was in a car accident and I hurt my back and now my leg has never been
this, oh, OK.
But I would never say, well, you see, I have MS, which they might have said, oh, OK, but
I wasn't going to take that chance.
I'd rather come up with some other thing I have.
On the other hand.
Nearly a year ago when we visited David, the effects of his MS were largely in remission.
There's no reason to call Dr. Kevorkian.
Well, now it's tough to get him, I guess, because he's got an unlisted number.
But anyway, though, it's not the end of the world.
It's not a chronic disease.
And you've got to just learn how to live with it.
You know, it's great to wait.
And when someone says, oh, the cure, oh, the cure, when the cure, well, the cure is fine
and dandy.
But I'm not waiting for a cure.
I'm just glad that there are things out there I can take now that I couldn't take when I
was first diagnosed.
I won't do it, Mike.
I can't do it.
Yes, you can.
Come on.
Come on.
You can do it.
You can do it.
Just last month, however, at an MS benefit at which David was honorary chairman and which
brought out his old castmates from the show, he was having a bad day.
I want to thank everyone who's here today, especially the people who are holding me for
fear I will fall down.
Well, today I'm a little weak, but I've been feeling real good lately.
You never know.
It's like an earthquake.
You hear the fall line and it could erupt any minute.
I just want to thank Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams, Michael McKean.
For his colleagues, coming together to support David was a testament to their affection for
him.
I thought that it was incredibly brave that he had fought it alone for so many years.
I know many people might argue with me on that, but I felt it was very brave of him
to keep it inside and then even braver, of course, to expose it.
He's doing great now.
He's talking about it.
He's going around to different places.
So now he doesn't have to hide.
It's not something to hide anymore.
He's been doing something enormously important, I think, which is getting up in front of people,
standing there with the disease and being funny and talking very specifically and very
frankly about what life is like and also about what his hopes are.
When I asked these people to come in a moment's notice to help me with the walk, there wasn't
a hem or a haw in their head.
As he looks ahead, David says he would kind of like to see another Laverne and Shirley
TV reunion, but one in which Squeaky has to deal with the same problem he's been facing.
There's no reason that Squeaky won't have MS.
I mean, I blame it on Lenny because he's a carrier and I know I caught it for him.
But nonetheless, I'd like to see this guy with MS because he can say a lot of things
I can't and also he represents the absolute last person you want to get it, simply because
there'll be such a pain in the neck, you know.
He won't let anyone forget he's got it and they gave it to him.
David's good health means a healthy Hollywood career as well.
Right now, he can be heard in a live action show for Nickelodeon called 100 Deeds for Eddie
McDowd.
Next, on Entertainment Tonight, Laverne and Shirley, secrets from the set.
The all-out brawls behind the scenes.
Happy day sketches, take a break and listen at the Walter Hill, Laverne and Shirley chairs
fighting.
The stars threatening to walk, entire writing staffs fired.
There wasn't us versus them mentality.
Why working on the show was no laughing matter.
I didn't feel as happy as I could have.
Cindy Williams, her pregnancy and her arguments with producers.
They had me scheduled to be working the week I was supposed to, you know, deliver Emily.
What led her to leave Laverne and Shirley?
That's coming up.
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Welcome to McDonald's.
Oh, I'll have a crispy chicken extra value meal.
And I'll have a happy meal please.
One crispy chicken extra value meal and one happy meal.
Dinosaurs are taking over McDonald's and they're taking over theaters in Walt Disney Pictures
Dinosaur.
Get one of four lifelike puppets or one of four posable dinos in every $1.99 hamburger
happy meal.
Don't forget your toys.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Come again.
Did somebody say McDonald's?
Paying the house boys needs one of you to help.
Have you?
I'll tell you what Ken, how about you help dad paint the house this time?
And I'll paint it every time after.
Really?
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Thanks for watching Entertainment Tonight and this is Laverne and Shirley, Secrets from
the Set.