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Episodes Disc One: “The Runaway”, “The Birthday Present”, “When Daddy Comes Marching Home”, “My Three Tons”, “Saturday’s Hero”, “The Burger Queen”, “Speak For Yourself Dwayne”
Episodes
Disc Two: “Shirley’s Date”, “The Sunday Father”, “Christmas”,
“The Maid Did It”, “The Incomplete Shakespeare”, “The Hospital
Stay”, “The Firing Squad”
Episodes
Disc Three: “The Boarder”, “Dwayne’s Dilemma”, “The Tickets”,
“What’s Wrong With Raj?”, “Nice Guys Finish Last”, “From Here To
Maternity”, “Puppy Love”
Stars: Ernest Thomas, Haywood
Nelson, Fred Berry, Danielle Spencer, Shirley Hemphill, and Mabel King
Writers: Alan Eisenstock, Larry
Mintz, Saul Turteltaub, Bernie Orenstein, Jim Mulligan, Fred S. Fox, Seaman
Jacobs, Robert Illes, James Stein, Marty Farrell, Mort Scharfman, Rick Mittleman,
Jerry Ross, Richard Baer, Gene Farmer, Carol Gary, Bill Richmond, and Gene
Perret
Suggested By The American
International Picture “Cooley High” Written By: Eric Monte
Directors: Dennis Steinmetz, Bud
Yorkin, Jack Shae, Alan Rafkin, Mark Warren, Dick Harwood, Hal Alexander, and
Anthony Chickey
Executive Producers: Bud Yorkin,
Saul Turteltaub, and Bernie Orenstein
Feature length: 520 minutes
Languages: English Monaural Sound
Subtitles: English Closed Captions
Packaging: Three-Disc Digipack
Gatefold Within A Glossy Cardboard Slipcase
Sound: Monaural Sound
Year of Television Broadcast:
1976-1977/DVD Release: 2004
Home Video Distributor: Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
Inspired by the film “Cooley
High,” “What’s Happening!!” followed three African American students
living in Los Angeles and their misadventures and life lessons. The series was
originally given a four-week trial run during the summer of 1976 and proved so
popular it returned as a part of the regular fall network primetime schedule
that same year. In many ways the series was sort of like a contemporary African
American version of “Happy Days” with Roger “Raj” Thomas filling in as
the aspiring Writer who often gets into humorous situations and some minor
trouble with his best friends Dwayne (Haywood Nelson, Jr.) and Freddy (Rerun)
Stubbs (Fred Berry), so named because he often ends up retaking all of his
classes in summer school in order to get promoted to the next grade. Raj has a
sassy little sister named Dee (Danielle Spencer0, who often tattletales on Raj
to their single working mother played with great humility and presence by the
late and great Mabel King. Raj and his friends hang out at “Rob’s” a diner
where they are served by a surly waitress and friend of the boys named Shirley,
played by Shirley Hemphill.
Unlike many of the existing
sitcoms that aired in the late 1970s, “What’s Happening!!” did not focus
so much on serious issues with the same directness as a show like “Good
Times,” but it did not shirk them either. Some of what the show presented was
not said so much as it was presented through the actions of the characters.
Mabel King is a single mother raising two growing kids, but she is presented as
both a voice of authority and compassion. She is a strong woman that can be
tough with her kids when need be, but she also is a very fair person. Ms.
King’s natural screen presence made her a very likable character not because
of the way she looked, but because of the grace in which she carried herself and
delivered her dialogue. At times you can almost see her as the surrogate mother
figure for Roger’s friends Dwayne and Rerun too. Fred Berry was another hook
to the series because in addition to being a good comedic actor and overall good
sport, he was a gifted dancer.
Another way the series was
different was in the way it tackled social problems. For instance there is an
episode entitled “The Hospital Stay” where Raj spends the night in a
hospital room next to a man who was once a great baseball player in the Negro
leagues in the late 1920s through the 1930s and has not spoken to his daughter
in 12 years because she married a white man. Dee breaks through the man’s
built up anger with her own signature attitude and as a result wins some
admiration from him, which is how she learns about his past and so on. When Mrs.
Thomas learns about the reasons behind the man’s anger, she says something
akin to “I judge people by what they do and not the color of their skin.”
That is a pretty good example of how “What’s Happening!!” addressed social
issues without getting up on a soapbox. Also noteworthy is while the show takes
place in Los Angeles, we are never quite sure where the Thomas family lives. It
is obvious they don’t live in Beverly Hills, but there are never any cracks
about how bad their neighborhood is like you might hear on “Sanford And
Son.” The place where Raj and his pals hang out is an African American owned
diner, but the patrons are quite integrated in such a way where it is never made
an issue. The world of “What’s Happening!!” is simply presented as it is
and I suppose as viewers we ourselves see into it what we want rather than be
told this is good or this is bad.
Among the noteworthy episodes
included in season one are the series premiere entitled “The Runaway” as
well as “The Birthday Present”, “My Three Tons”, “The Hospital
Stay”, “The Firing Squad”, and “The Burger Queen.” Actor Joe Morton
appears in the second episode “The Birthday Present.” “What’s
Happening!!” aired for approximately three seasons and nearly ten years after
the original series premiere, a syndicated TV series sequel “What Happening
Now!!” debuted on television reuniting much of the cast from the original
series.
All 21 first season episodes of
“What’s Happening!!” are presented in their original (1.33:1) broadcast
aspect ratio. The picture quality is quite good too. It has been awhile since I
have caught repeats on TV so this might be something one can notice on regular
broadcasts, but I found the DVD to be so clear that one can see that Ernest
Thomas’s character Raj’s glasses have no lenses in them in at least part of
the episodes. The English Two-Channel Monaural Soundtrack is very clear and
perfectly fine for this DVD release. English Closed Captions for the hearing
impaired are encoded onto the discs as options. There are a few bonus trailers,
but no real extra value materials in the set. The menus are standard interactive
still frame menus that are easy to navigate. Episodes can be viewed individually
or as a whole by utilizing the “Play All” feature on each disc.
“What’s Happening!!: The
Complete First Season” on DVD box set will debut on DVD-Video on Tuesday,
February 3, 2004 from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.
© Copyright 2004 By Mark A.
Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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