| What's Happening!! | |
|---|---|
What's Happening!! opening titles from the show's third season |
|
| Format | Sitcom |
| Created by | Eric Monte |
| Starring | Ernest Lee Thomas Haywood Nelson Fred Berry Danielle Spencer Mabel King (Season 1-2) Shirley Hemphill |
| Opening theme | Henry Mancini |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 65 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Bernie Orenstein Saul Turteltaub Bud Yorkin |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Bud Yorkin Productions TOY Productions |
| Distributor | Columbia Pictures Television (1979-1996) Columbia TriStar Television (1996-2002) Sony Pictures Television (2002-present) The Program Exchange (2006-present) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | August 5, 1976 – April 28, 1979 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | What's Happening Now!! |
What's Happening!! is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from August 5, 1976 to April 28, 1979. The show premiered as a summer series. With good ratings and reviews, and after the failure of several other shows on the network, What's Happening!! returned in November 1976 as a weekly series. It remained a regular show until 1979; ratings were modest. What's Happening!! was loosely based on the motion picture Cooley High, also written by Eric Monte.[1]
Contents |
What's Happening!! follows the lives of three working-class African-American teens living in the Watts section of Los Angeles. The show stars Ernest Thomas as Roger "Raj" Thomas, Haywood Nelson as Dwayne Nelson, and Fred Berry as Freddy "Rerun" Stubbs. Co-starring are Danielle Spencer as Roger's little sister, Dee; Mabel King as Roger's and Dee's mother, Mabel; and Shirley Hemphill as Shirley Wilson, a waitress at Rob's Place, the neighborhood restaurant where the boys are regular patrons. Recurring characters include Rob (Earl Billings), owner of Rob's Place; and Miss Collins (Fritzi Burr), a sarcastic history teacher and the sponsor of the school newspaper.
Unlike Good Times, a contemporary show that also had an African-American cast, What's Happening!! only rarely and mildly ventured into social commentary. TV Guide once famously referred to What's Happening!! as "a look at urban black life that manages to capture the offensiveness of Amos and Andy while avoiding that program's fun." Most episodes focused on the goals of teenage males — meeting girls, finding after school jobs, and planning for the future. Episodes sometimes featured subplots involving Mrs. Thomas, Raj's bratty sister Dee, or waitress Shirley.
Roger "Raj" Thomas (Ernest Thomas), the show's protagonist, is a teenager living in a house in Watts with his divorced mother Mabel and his younger sister Dee. Raj is an intelligent, well-mannered, young man who sports large, black horn-rimmed glasses and has aspirations of becoming a writer. Many episodes find Raj taking steps to pursue his dream, such as saving up for a screenwriting course or a typewriter. He is still in high school at the beginning of the series' run; he later graduates as valedictorian, moves out of his house, and attends college (ostensibly, the University of Southern California).
Frederick (Freddy) "Rerun" Stubbs (Fred Berry) is an overweight, bumbling, comedic young man, commonly seen wearing a red beret and matching suspenders. He is often teased by his friends for being overweight and unintelligent. However, Rerun is a very skilled dancer and is commonly seen entering dance contests or trying to get on TV commercials. He is nicknamed "Rerun" because, due to his failures in school, "every summer he has to go to school to rerun the stuff he did all winter." In the third season, Rerun shares an apartment with Raj and works as a page for ABC.
Dwayne Clemens Nelson (Haywood Nelson) is the youngest member of the group. Dwayne has an unassuming, good-natured demeanor and suffers from debilitating shyness and acute fear of the dark. While Rerun attempts to enter dance contests and Roger aggressively pursues his dream of becoming a famous writer, Dwayne's plotlines often deal with his problems with girls and bullies. Dwayne's character is well known for his greeting, "Hey, Hey, Hey!" (which differs slightly from the "Hey, Hey, Hey!" greeting of Bill Cosby's Fat Albert character). Dwayne is the only character who appears in every episode of What's Happening!!
Mabel Thomas (Mabel King) is Raj's 'large and in charge' mother. She is typically the voice of wisdom, and the parental authority over the main cast. Mabel's ex-husband drifts in and out of her life during the first season. Her role became less important in later episodes until eventually she disappeared from the show, though her character was never written out and still mentioned off-screen. Purportedly, actress King disagreed with the show's concept and direction and decided to leave the show.
Dee Thomas (Danielle Spencer) is Raj's younger sibling. She personifies the typical 'annoying little sister'. Dee is obsessed with making money, usually by blackmailing her brother and his friends a quarter at a time. She is also shrewd and difficult to keep secrets from. As the series progressed and Dee grew older, her caustic personality mellowed into a sly sense of sarcasm. While Dee still enjoyed occasionally scamming Raj out of a quarter every so often, she became much more likable and got along better with him. After Raj moved into an apartment in the third season, Dee remained in the Thomas house with waitress Shirley moving in to help out. Her trademark phrase is "Ooooohh, I'm tellin' Mama!" Her favorite food is peanut butter.
Shirley Wilson (Shirley Hemphill) is a portly waitress at the local neighborhood restaurant, Rob's Place, where the main cast is regular patrons. She is a brash person who likes to take shots at the boys, and most often clashes with Rerun (with whom she exchanges "fat jokes", both characters being overweight). Some episodes turn the spotlight briefly on Shirley and her joys and sorrows. Shirley moves into the Thomas residence in the last season to supervise Dee after Raj moves out and Mrs. Thomas leaves to tend a sick relative.
Bill Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) is Mabel's ex-husband and the father of Roger and Dee. He divorced Mabel, ran out on his family, and became a shady sort of character. When he first appears, he tries to con Mabel out of money. Later episodes in which he appears depict him in a more positive light and culminate with his marriage to a woman named Lee Henderson (Lee Chamberlin). After his marriage, Bill was never seen again on the show, although he is mentioned.
Gene Walker (Ray Vitte) is a college student at the University of Southern California. He is a political science major, and a member of the school's track team. He appears in several episodes of the first season as a boarder at the Thomas home, renting Dee's bedroom. In his first appearance, he is referred to as "Dean". Gene took a liking to Dee, giving her the nickname, "Small Portion".
"Big Earl" Barnett is a police detective who lives in the apartment building Raj and Rerun move into and was introduced in the third and final season.
"Little Earl" Barnett is the son of Big Earl. Little Earl has a huge crush on Dee (who is about five years older than he is).
Rob (Earl Billings) is the owner of Rob's Place.
"The Snake" (Leland Smith) is a basketball player whom Roger tutored. He eventually became a friend of Roger, Dwayne, and Rerun.
Miss Collins (Fritzi Burr) is a high school teacher. She admired Roger, while Rerun had trouble getting along with her.
Marvin (Bryan O'Dell) is a schoolmate of Roger, Dwayne and Rerun at their high school. He was a reporter for the high school newspaper and was sometimes seen at Rob's Place.
Diane Harris (Debbi Morgan) is a classmate of Roger, Dwayne and Rerun. For the first two seasons she was frequently seen in the classroom or at Rob's Place with them, and at a birthday party for Roger. (In the pilot episode, she was referred to as "Diane Stewart.")
Larry Nelson (Greg Morris) is a local politician who was also Dwayne's father.
What's Happening!! altered their opening sequence every season.
Season 1 - Joint scenes featured Ernest Thomas (Raj), Haywood Nelson (Dwayne), and Fred Berry (Rerun) taking turns dribbling a basketball down the neighborhood sidewalk. Individual scenes introduced each character. Raj appears on his front porch, enjoying the temperature and throwing his jacket back inside the house, giving an indication that he didn't need it. Dwayne skateboards down his driveway, falls down as he reaches the sidewalk, then bursts out laughing. Raj and Dwayne then meet up in front of Rerun's home, who appears on a balcony eating. Later, the three hitchhike a ride from a pickup truck on a street corner; unbeknownst to Rerun (who was looking in the other direction), the truck stops long enough for Raj and Dwayne to hop onboard. When Rerun realizes this, he starts to run after the truck as it fades to commercial. Mabel King (Mabel) and Danielle Spencer (Dee) are named but not shown.
Season 2 - Same as Season 1, but with the following changes:
Season 3 - Completely new series of individualized scenes. Mabel King, who left the show after Season 2, is now removed. Ernest Thomas' on-screen credit changes to display his full name (Ernest Lee Thomas). The opening sequence now begins with the entire cast inside Rob's Place (at their favorite table). Raj, now sporting a fuller Afro, is running to class on a college campus. Dwayne, a bit more muscular (and sporting a significantly less of an Afro), is jogging alone to the apartment building which Raj and Rerun now live and yells out to them. Rerun, who was looking in the refrigerator for something to eat, hears Dwayne's call and goes to the window to answer, motioning Raj to come greet him as well. Back at the Thomas house, Dee is preparing to leave for school. Shirley (who now lives there) has made breakfast for Dee and is bringing it to her but Dee declines, obviously running late. After Dee declines, Shirley appears to head to the breakfast table to sit down and eat the meal she originally cooked for Dee. It ends with Raj and Rerun at Rob's Place (appearing to be listening to the theme music of the show), with Dwayne and Dee entering the diner together, and Shirley bringing their orders to the table. The theme music is slightly altered with a fuller, stereophonic sound.
The closing scene for all three seasons, however, always remained the same, with the sidewalk basketball dribbling scene shown in slow motion.
The third season marked drastic changes for the show. Roger and Rerun moved into their own apartment. Mabel King left the show, but the character of Mabel Thomas was not written out. Instead it was said that Mama was working or not around. To take the place of an adult presence in the house for Dee, Shirley would move into the Thomas household as a boarder. Several new recurring characters were introduced. The first was a basketball player whom Roger tutored nicknamed "The Snake" (played by Leland Smith). The other characters were Caucasian detective "Big Earl" Barnett (played by John Welsh) and his son "Little Earl" Barnett (played by David Hollander), who were neighbors in the apartment building where Roger and Rerun lived. These changes/adjustments would ultimately cause the show to "Jump the Shark", as the ratings began to drop.
Fred Berry started causing problems for the producers during the second season. Using the show's limited success as leverage, Berry began to demand a higher salary and better studio accommodations for the actors. The accommodations issue eventually led to a full-fledged walkout by Berry and cast mate Ernest Thomas during the second season episode "If I'm Elected" (leaving Haywood Nelson alone to carry the entire episode). During the final season (1978-79), Fred Berry caused additional problems on the show, and threatened to strike. This time, both Thomas and Nelson joined Berry in the strike, leading to the executive producers to cancel the series. They were at their wits' end dealing with the three co-stars demands for more money and constantly walking out during rehearsals.
What's Happening!! aired its last episode on April 28, 1979. A year later, Hemphill starred in her own sitcom, One In A Million, which premiered in January 1980, and ended on July 23, 1980, after being on ABC for a few months.
What's Happening was a ratings' success breaking in the top 30, during the series run:
What's Happening!! held the title and became the first African-American teen sitcom to break into the Nielsen ratings, as part of the top 30 Rated Programs from 1976 until 1979, although the 1977–1978 season did not break the top 30.
The show was a modest success in its network run, despite some serious production problems. But repeats of the show's 65 episodes did reasonably well in syndication. In some markets, the show was perceived to appeal to both children and adults in a similar way that shows like The Brady Bunch and Happy Days did. The show was often aired in transitional hours where stations would go from the cartoons to the evening sitcoms. In a few markets the show actually had far higher ratings in syndication than during the network run. With this in mind, a revival of the show was produced entitled What's Happening Now!!. It ran from 1985 to 1988 in first-run syndication.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released all three Seasons of What's Happening!! on DVD in Region 1.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Complete 1st Season | 21 | February 3, 2004 |
| The Complete 2nd Season | 22 | October 5, 2004 |
| The Complete 3rd Season | 22 | August 23, 2005 |
| The Complete Series | 65 | June 10, 2008 |
As of February 2009, the show can be streamed for free in the US on Hulu, clips are available on TV Land, and Minisodes and full episodes are available on Crackle.
In 2009, the show was available on Comcast-on-demand Tube Time service.