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FAUN .*0 Lander recounts the saga of Lenny and Squiggy Michael McKean (left) and David Lander by Chuck Bins as Lenny and Squiggy. . i story. Considering what's happened to Michael McKean and David Lander since they started doing those creepy school boy characters back in 1965, the fact that Lenny and Squiggy ever made it to network TV is really quite an accident. FINE TUNING The duo met as drama students at Carnegie Tech. They im­ mediately hit it off and started doing the characters while hang­ ing out with their friends Together they made the Dean's list, but oops, not the academic one They were booted out before the end of the first year for missing stage crew. "I never felt I was learning anything," Lander says in that squeaky voice of his. "So we us­ ed to wait for the guard who'd come by and make sure we were working to pass by. Then we'd go upstairs and start fool­ ing around, playing the piano and writing some songs-and then come down in time for his next pass so he'd still find us working diligently " It wasn't long before their ruse was discovered, but by the third cut, Lander knew he would be going to another col­ lege The expulsion split them up for a while. Lander went to NYU which was just starting a drama department, and by the time McKean enrolled a year later, •Lander was already on the West Coast. In a case of history repeating itself, Lander again got on the wrong Dean's list. "At NYU, I was cast in a play called 'Thieves Carnival.' In the beginning of the play I come out as the town crier, which is only one monologue, and then you never see him again. He basically sets up the whole What does David Lander think? About the Nielsen ratings: Obviously, since our show has gotten good ratings, I like them. About Ronald Reagan: I /ust hope he's a better Presi­ dent of the United States than he was a Screen Actors Guild president. He is responsible for why it took us lac tors] so long to get residuals In i960, Ronald Reagan said it would be bad for the studios to give away residuals. About Iran: I think it's going to be a very interesting situation because we'll end up being allies with Iran. Whether we like it or not, it seems to make sense, because Iraq is being handled by the communists. So it will be em­ barrassing, but we'll probably have to support Iran. About nuclear power: I certainly don't believe there should be nuclear power plants. I really do believe there will be a major accident, and they'll later call it World War III. About the gas crisis: I think the crisis is over and the gas companies will live through it. From what I unders­ tand, the crisis is the best thing that ever happened to Tex­ aco and Standard Oil and every other oil company. About Lenny and Squiggy: They've changed. They're not as rough as they used to be. Also they've grown up. They started out in junior high. Now they're men of some repute. They've had to have learned something in their sil­ ly lives. About David Lander: I'm pretty satisfied with me. I think I'm O.K. I'm not really worried about my future. I guess I should be--oh, no, I guess I shouldn't be. I didn't plan on 'Laverne and Shirley' happening, and I would just like to work in the theater again eventually "It was the first rehearsal, and I did my part I was reading like everyone else was and I figured they were going to block the rest of the play, so I went home " But Lander failed to check with the stage manager before he left, which was a fatal mistake Since it was the drama department's first play, they decided to make an example of him, telling him he couldn't participate in any more acting classes. Because he was an acting major, Lander just quit He travelled to California, worked for an answering service (where he created a wide range of voice characterizations), wrote a script for a variety show with Rob Reiner (whom he met through a mutual friend), and finally, joined a radio comedy revue called the Credibility Gap. When McKean graduated, tie was reunited with Lander on the West Coast, and in 1975 they got their big break. They were invited to a party given by Rob Reiner and Penny Marshall shortly after 'Laverne and Shirley' was picked up as a series They did their gig, and the producers liked them so much, they signed them as writers That was the biggest twist of all David Lander explains why. "Lenny and Squiggy, when they were first con ­ ceived, were a composite of kids we knew and didn't like in junior high and high school. These guys are very filthy -they're street boys There was no pilot for 'Laverne and Shirley'--it was put on the air when it was decided That's how we got into it--we were writers and we were told to write ourselves into the first script But if we had gone through the pilot system, an ABC executive told me, he says, 'Well, I would have never allowed those characters to go past the first episode because they're a bad example ' We were lucky to get through, but if we had gone through the pro­ per channels . ., "