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Laverne & Shirley wraps up its eight-season run with its 178th and final episode, in which Carmine (Eddie Mekka) decides to leave Burbank and seek showbiz fame in New York. With 100 dollars loaned to him by Laverne (Penny Marshall), Carmine arrives in the Big Apple and auditions for the upcoming musical "Hair." Although his prospects for success look bleak, at least our hero finds a new roommate and kindred spirit in the form of a funky African American actor named Rick (Ben Powers). This episode was clearly intended as the pilot for a spinoff series starring the multitalented Eddie Mekka, but such was not to be.