What's Happening Now!!: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Casey Richards
Ah, summertime! If you're a movie fan, you probably have a list of movies you want to head to the theatre to see. Chances are, many of them are sequels. Well this summer, thanks to the release of What's Happening Now!!: The Complete First Season on DVD, you can spend some time watching one of the rare sequels to a TV show.
What's Happening!! joined ABC's primetime schedule in August 1976 and ran for three seasons. The series was not a huge ratings winner-it never cracked the top twenty-but after its cancellation in 1979, syndicated reruns of the first three seasons greatly expanded its audience. Capitalizing on its newfound success, much of the cast returned in 1985 for the syndicated follow-up What's Happening Now!!.
After graduating from high school, Roger "Raj" Thomas (Ernest Thomas) moved away from Watts and became a novelist. An unsuccessful novelist. His book didn't exactly tear up the bestseller list and, as Raj discovers, his mom bought many of the copies that were sold. Looking for inspiration, he decides to return to his childhood home along with his new wife, Nadine (Anne-Marie Johnson, In the Heat of the Night), a social worker. With Mama remarried and living in Arizona, Raj and Nadine buy her home. Little sister Dee (Danielle Spencer) is off at college, but she occasionally stops by for a visit.
Raj has been gone for a while, but nothing has really changed. His best friends, Dwayne (Haywood Nelson) and Rerun (Fred Berry) still live in the neighborhood. Dwayne learned computer programming while in the army. He's still a little shy, but he's also become a ladies man. Rerun has put his dancing skills to good use, becoming Swami Stubbs in a successful series of commercials for used car dealer K-Doe.
When Raj shows Nadine the neighborhood, he is disappointed to discover that Rob's Place, the gang's old hangout, has gone out of business. Determined that the locals should have a place to call their own, Raj teams up with former waitress Shirley (Shirley Hemphill) to reopen Rob's. Soon, a customer leaves an unusual tip-ten year-old orphan Carolyn (Reina King). Rather than sending her back into social services system, Raj and Nadine decide to become Carolyn's foster parents.
What's Happening Now!! doesn't exactly break any new ground. You've seen the plots on a million other sitcoms...maybe even on the original What's Happening!!. When a customer uses a horse as a trade-in at the used car lot, Rerun stores the horse in Raj's backyard while arranging to sell the nag. Thanks to a misprint in the newspaper ad, Raj accidentally sells his house ("A Horse is Not a Home"). Raj thinks he knows best when Dee opts to quit college and sell cosmetics ("Dee's Dilemma"). Carolyn misunderstands the motives behind Raj and Nadine's romantic weekend getaway, so she decides to run away ("Aunt Shirley"). Rerun makes a killing in the stock market, but learns that money is fleeting...especially when your broker is a crook ("Rags to Riches"). A head injury sends Carolyn on a Wizard of Oz-style journey ("The Improbable Dream"). After attending a Tina Turner concert, Dwayne and Dee consider becoming more than friends ("Dee and Dwayne").
No, What's Happening Now!! isn't very imaginative. Its numerous fat jokes are stale even by What's Happening!! standards. But, in a way, that misses the point. What's Happening Now!! is less a sitcom than a reunion with old friends. Sure, they tell the same old stories and lame jokes, but that's why we're friends-for the reassurance, sameness, and comfort that only an old pal can give.
Familiar faces in season one include Teddy Wilson (That's My Mama), Susan Rattan (L.A. Law), Ray Girardin (Charlie & Co.), Meshach Taylor (Designing Women), and Bernadette Stanis (Good Times).
The twenty-two episodes that make up What's Happening Now!!: The Complete First Season are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in two slim, clear plastic keepcases, one of which holds two discs. The fronts of the cases feature a montage of the series' cast. The backs of the cases include titles and brief synopses for each episode along with more cast photos. More pictures and the series' title can be found over a starburst design on the case interiors. The keepcases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve.
The DVD menus are simple and easy to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or choose them individually. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus. By the way, the menus on disc three feature characters-including one played by Martin Lawrence-that do not appear until later seasons.
