"Dee, you know something? You're a pain in the neck!" - Mabel King as Mama
What's Happening!!: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
What are the hallmarks of a classic television series? Bravura performances from a well-honed cast? Polished, innovative scripts filled with sparkling dialogue? Lush production values? What's Happening!! falls short of each of these goals, and many other that might be added to the list. Yet this genial series possesses many charms. Like a television equivalent of junk food, it may not be high in nutritional value, but boy does it hit the spot.
In the mid 1970s, ABC scored a major hit with Happy Days, producer Garry Marshall's riff on the movie smash American Graffiti. Always on the lookout for another youth oriented hit, the network returned to movie theatres for inspiration, this time setting their sights on the film Cooley High, itself a black variation on Graffiti. The movie also had the added cache of being written by Eric Monte, who, a few years earlier, had helped to create Good Times for CBS.
Cooley High was a nostalgic look at a group of African American friends in 1964 Chicago. The series it spawned, What's Happening!!, bears little resemblance to the film. Joining ABC's schedule in the summer of 1976, the setting of the series has been changed to contemporary Watts. High school student Roger "Raj" Thomas (Ernest Thomas) is a poet and aspiring screenwriter. His family is poor - his no-good father ran out on Raj, no-nonsense, hard-working Mama (Mabel King), and mouthy, peanut butter craving little sister Dee (Danielle Spencer) - but they somehow manage to get by.
Raj's best friends are Rerun (Fred Berry) and Dwayne (Haywood Nelson). Overweight Rerun is the constant butt of fat jokes, but he is the envy of all his friends when he dances. Dwayne is the wallflower of the group - shy, naïve, and easily fooled. Together, the three hang out at Rob's, a diner near school where wisecracking waitress Shirley (Shirley Hemphill) works.
One of What's Happening!!'s problems is that it is extraordinarily schizophrenic. It relies heavily on stereotypes - both general sitcom stereotypes and racial stereotypes. Rerun is the fat, buffoonish, dancing clown. Dee, the bratty sister. Mama is loving and seems smart, but she sometimes comes up with elaborately idiotic schemes to teach Raj and the boys little lessons. Just when the action seems ready to veer toward Amos and Andy territory, the writers pull back, softening the antics with a touch of progressive thinking, such as when Raj works to save money so that he can take a writing class, or buy a shirt for Mama's birthday. Of course "works," in the case of Mama's birthday present, means "playing a game of dice."
One fine example is "My Three Tons," the series' fourth episode. In it, Rerun auditions for a hot synchronized dance group that performs on local television. He is elated when he is chosen to fill the group's empty spot, but after the audition, Dwayne overhears the group's manager discussing his plan to use the tubby new dancer as comic relief. The plan is to humiliate him on television. With Mama's help, Dwayne is able to break the news to Rerun. The group discusses how terrible it is to make fun of people for being overweight, and Mama comes up with a nonsensical plan for turning the tables on the dance troupe. Mama's plan (which is truly lame) works, and everyone is happy. The end.
Of course, the problem is that even while the gang derides the dance troupe and its manager for taking advantage of poor, overweight Rerun, they continue to hurl fat-related insults at him. Sure, they might be mitigated by an insincere "just kidding," but by the next episode, everyone is back to teasing him mercilessly without disclaimers. Still, it is hard to become upset at such an essentially harmless series. It's like a spastic child who makes a special breakfast in bed for his parents, wrecking the kitchen in the process. Yes, there's a mess, but he meant well. Sort of.
The effect is that the show is funny on several different levels. Many of the one liners, put downs, and zingers are hysterically funny, even if they aren't particularly P.C. Some of them are funny BECAUSE they aren't P.C. While it is great that we have moved beyond this type of humor, it's refreshing to be reminded of a time when this unsophisticated, borderline offensive humor was still allowable. Some of the plots are so ridiculously inept and shoddily put together that their very terribleness becomes a source of unintentional humor.
The cast is unpolished but engaging. Thomas, Berry, and Nelson make for a likeable trio. Hemphill is a perfect foil, especially for Berry. Spencer's sullen, beyond-deadpan delivery is always good for a laugh, even when she's given inferior lines. King is a strong presence as Mama, but it is shameful that the scripts often let her down.
The twenty-one episodes that make up the first season are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in a colorful digipak featuring stylized renderings of publicity stills from the show. A fold-out booklet housed in a folder panel of the digipak contains an episode guide, complete with the show title, brief description, and show credits. The digipak slides into a cardboard sleeve. The discs' simple menu design is similar to that of Columbia/TriStar's Charlie's Angels: The Complete First Season. Viewers can choose to play all episodes or can choose from individual episodes. Chapter stops are included at commercial breaks.
[Editor's Note: Previously, What's Happening!!: The Complete First Season was available for purchase only from Time-Life. This review is based on the now discontinued Time-Life set. What's Happening!! is now available at Amazon and other retailers.
