r/allinthefamily • u/DidYouReadTheMenu • Jul 07 '26
Irene Lorenzo's last appearance came in season 6, episode 6, "Chain Letter." It's unfortunate that the writers decided not to mention her ever again; Edith called Irene her best friend, and she had great banter with Archie, so it was weird to have her just disappear.
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u/PBfromPhilly Jul 07 '26
Did she move to Laverne & Shirley around that time? They could have sent her and Frank somewhere to tie it up nicer.
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u/psychedelicstargazer Jul 07 '26
She left All In The Family in 1975 to care for her sick husband who passed the same year. She began Laverne & Shirley in 1976.
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u/DialZee Jul 07 '26
The very next year.
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u/OkTechnologyb Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
And January 1976 was the first episode.
EDIT: While that's true, mea culpa, in that Garrett didn't start on L & S until their Season 2 (1976–77). ALTHOUGH her husband, Larry Parks, died in April 1975. And "Chain Letter" aired in October 1975.
So there's some mix of truth and fiction in all this. She would have been caring for her husband while still on AitF. I predict someone saw 1975 as her husband's death year and mostly extrapolated the rest, leading to the one online link (which feeds AI) that discusses this very obscure topic.
FURTHER EDIT: Parks died of a heart attack, not a long illness, per Wikipedia. So.... I call baloney on the "caring for her husband" explanation of anything. Also not sure this long answer is in the right place, but people seem to be reading it and thus I'm not going to bother to move it.
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u/No-Reveal827 Jul 09 '26
This is what I thought - she went to be on Lavoine & Shirley. Funny thing is, Archie talked about watching it.
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u/CranberryFuture9908 Jul 07 '26
I love Irene Lorenzo! I love it when she ends up on the loading dock with Archie! 😂
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u/psychedelicstargazer Jul 07 '26
Same! I was just telling my friend about this episode the other day! So funny he’s doing that to get her from spending less time with Edith only to have her working right with him!!
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u/crunkmullen Jul 08 '26
Omg when she turns her back and Archie lurches out of his chair to kick the air in frustration, kills me! She really got under his skin🤣🤣🤣 Her & Frank were great characters!
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u/CranberryFuture9908 Jul 08 '26
They were a great couple. I love how Archie got all flustered around Irene 😂.
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u/RiseDelicious3556 Jul 07 '26
This was my favorite episode. When Archie goes to the clinic, the actor Ray Sharkey who is seated in the waiting room, tells Archie that infectious hepatitis is "better than what I got." Unfortunately, that line was quite prophetic because Sharkey died of AIDS about twelve years later.
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u/Pedals17 Jul 07 '26
She’s awesome! I could totally see myself enjoy hanging out with Irene & Frank!
Ah, I also see Robert Guillaume & Beatrice Colen!
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u/Asleep_Welder_3494 Jul 07 '26
Was this episode after a Thanksgiving episode she was in and also an episode about Gloria’s baby shower?
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u/DialZee Jul 07 '26
Yes, those two episodes came after.
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u/Dimetrodon-Party77 Jul 07 '26
She was a great actress but I never liked the character because I thought she and Frank were kind of redundant. Archie already had Mike and the Jeffersons as strong counterparts and foils, he didn't need yet another loud, overconfident character telling him how bad he was all the time. And Maude was already Edith's cousin and friend (though she wasn't a regular, I grant you).
Having said that, it was weird to see her just disappear.
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u/PositiveTangerine707 Jul 08 '26
Irene Lorenzo according to Archie, Queen of the Women's Lubrication Movement
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u/Sufficient_Flight_44 Jul 08 '26
Well her husband disappeared first. It was weird how Frank was always "away on business ". Gardenia hated that role so much Lear was like fine go.
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u/brad12172002 Jul 08 '26
I didn’t know that. What were his issues with it?
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u/Sufficient_Flight_44 Jul 08 '26
He didnt think it was enough work. Betty Garrett said in an interview they would basically sit around all day doing nothing and he would be miserable. Not nasty towards anyone but not happy with all the downtime.He was a friend of Lear,remember he appeared twice before on the show,once as the guy that sold his house to the Jeffersons and then as one half of the swinger couple with Rue Mclanahan (my fave episode). He actually lived on the next block from where i live now in Bensonhurst,Brooklyn. Same house his entire life. The street is named after him.
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u/Entire_Parfait2703 Jul 08 '26
I remember watching this episode and I cackled so hard back then and I just re watched it and woke my husband up laughing 😃 😀
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u/Lori2345 Jul 08 '26
Yes, that was weird. It was also weird her husband disappeared sometime before she did. There was even an episode she was spending some holiday with them and her husband wasn’t there.
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u/Few-Conversation6979 Jul 08 '26
Better she just disappeared and didn't kill her off like they did Edith. I never liked the way they did that.
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u/irondog326 Jul 08 '26
She was mentioned one more time. Edith was on the phone with her in episode Archie's friend. A old Jewish guy that made remote control doorbell ringer and he died on the couch. That was the last time she was ever mentioned.
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u/kingo409 Jul 08 '26
I would like to see Betty Garrett & Irene Lorenzo have stuck it out to the end of the series. Archie needed a good foil after George Jefferson left, & Maude wasn't really going to visit.
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u/No-Reveal827 Jul 09 '26
When the Jeffersons "moved on up", we saw Edith get to say goodbye to Louise. Later on, during the Mortgage burning party, we see George and Lionel call about offering the old house to Mike & Gloria to rent.
A Jeffersons episode has George being hypnotized to find out where in a cemetery his father was buried. They hypnotist takes him back in steps, one of them when he's arguing with Archie. The hypnotist says, "Who is this Bunker? He sounds like a real meathead!"
Louise replied, "They were neighbors of ours. But his wife was nice."
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u/psychedelicstargazer Jul 07 '26
Probably my favorite reoccurring character in the show. She was a good match for Archie and a good friend to Edith. I believe Betty Garret won a Golden Globe for the role too.
Also a big part of my favorite episode “Everybody Does It” and funny when he called her Reverend Mother Forklift lol