Comedy stars in Hallmark movie

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES

Sitcom favorites Shelley Long and Cindy Williams get to strut their comedic stuff together for the first time in the Hallmark Movie Channel’s new film, “Strawberry Summer,” which airs at 8 p.m. Saturday. Both stars say they are surprised it took them this long.

“It seems strange that we haven’t worked together,” said Long, who came to fame 30 years ago as waitress Diane Chambers on NBC’s “Cheers.” “I feel like I know her.”

“We shared a nanny,” recalled Williams, who demonstrated her uncanny mastery of slapstick as Shirley Feeney from 1976 to ’83 on ABC’s “Laverne & Shirley.” “I had a nanny who left me and went to work for her. We were talking about Nancy on the set, who we both loved. This was eons ago when the children were babies!”

Their styles of comedy were completely different. Long won an Emmy for her first season on “Cheers” playing an overly educated college graduate who finds herself working at a Boston bar where she falls in love with its owner, former baseball player Sam Malone (Ted Danson). The wordplay between the erudite Chambers and the jock Sam has rarely been matched on TV.

As Shirley, Williams, along with Penny Marshall, who played her roommate, Laverne, were much more in the Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance mold from “I Love Lucy,” always getting into trouble and scrambling to right the situation.

The styles merge in “Strawberry Summer.” The story revolves around a small-town music teacher (Julia Mond) and queen of the annual Strawberry Festival, who finds love with a country singer (Trevor Donovan) she’s invited to perform at the festival.

But it’s Long, 62, and Williams, 64, who really are the stars of this souffle. Long plays the teacher’s caring mom, who not only is a mean cook but a guiding force for her daughter. Williams is her good friend Ruth, who is heavily involved in the festival but is also fretting that she and her husband will lose the family farm.

“She has this innate rhythm,” said Williams of Long. “You just know you could throw a ball and she could catch it. I don’t know how to explain it.”

“They are so funny and witty and clever and fast,” said the film’s director, Kevin Connor (“The Land That Time Forgot,” “Moonlighting”). “It’s an absolute joy.”