| What's Happening!! | |
|---|---|
 S3 title screen | |
| Created by | Eric Monte |
| Based on | Cooley High |
| Starring | Ernest Lee Thomas Haywood Nelson Fred Berry Danielle Spencer Mabel King (S1–2) Shirley Hemphill |
| Music by | Henry Mancini[1] |
| Opening theme | "What's Happening!!" |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 65(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Bernie Orenstein Saul Turteltaub Bud Yorkin |
| Running time | 22–25 minutes |
| Production companies | Bud Yorkin Productions (1976–1978) (seasons 1–2) TOY Productions (1976–1979) (seasons 1–3) |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | August 5, 1976 (1976-08-05) – April 28, 1979 (1979-04-28) |
| Related | |
What's Happening!! is an Americansitcom television series that first aired onABC from August 5, 1976, premiering as a summer series. It returned as a weekly series from November 13, 1976, until its April 28, 1979 conclusion.What's Happening!! was loosely based on theEric Monte-penned filmCooley High.[2] From September 7, 1985 until March 26, 1988, a sequel series titledWhat's Happening Now!! aired in first-run syndication, with most of the major cast members reprising their roles.
What's Happening!! wasBud Yorkin's second series after he ended his partnership withNorman Lear andTandem Productions. The show was produced by TOY Productions, which was formed by Yorkin,Saul Turteltaub, and Bernie Orenstein after their split.
What's Happening!! follows the lives of three working-classAfrican-American teens living in theLos Angeles neighborhood ofWatts. The show starsErnest Thomas as Roger "Raj" Thomas,Haywood Nelson as Dwayne Nelson, andFred Berry as Freddy "Rerun" Stubbs. Additional co-stars includeDanielle Spencer as Roger's younger sister Dee,Mabel King as Roger and Dee's mother Mabel.Shirley Hemphill stars as Shirley Wilson, a tough but lovable waitress atRob's Place, the neighborhoodsoda shop where the boys are regular patrons. Recurring characters include Rob (Earl Billings), owner of Rob's Place, and Mrs. Collins (Fritzi Burr), a sardonic but caring history teacher and the sponsor of the school newspaper.
The pilot episode, "The Birthday Present", was videotaped in front of a live audience at ABC Television Studios in theLos Feliz section ofLos Angeles on March 16, 1976. Three additional episodes were videotaped that June, with the plan to releaseWhat's Happening!! as a short-duration "summer series" in August, 1976. The first episode aired, "The Runaway", was actually the second episode taped, but was used as the premiere because it featured Fred Berry's dancing skills in a short scene.
The series was picked up after a successful summer run, and additional episodes were ordered for a November, 1976 airdate. Production was moved from ABC toGolden West Videotape Division Studios, an older, but larger facility, where it would remain for the rest of the series.
During the second season, Fred Berry demanded pay increases and improved studio accommodations for the actors by using the show's first season's success as leverage. The accommodations issue eventually led to a walkout by Berry and Thomas during the second-season episode "If I'm Elected" (leaving Haywood Nelson to carry the entire episode, with Shirley Hemphill stepping to the forefront, along with Bryan O'Dell andDebbi Morgan in featured speaking parts). ProducerBud Yorkin, in turn, suspended the pair and forced them to sign $25,000 promissory notes to return to the show and prevent further walkouts.[3]
In addition,Mabel King offered producers input on her character and storylines during the second season, specifically that her character's ex-husband, Bill (Thalmus Rasulala), return full-time in order for the children to have (once again) married parents, showcasing what she felt would be a strong Black family. The producers did not incorporate King's suggestion, which resulted in additional tension on-set and a much-reduced role for King during the second season. Her character, Mama, was not written out of the show but rather limited to brief appearances on set (where she would say she was "leaving for work" or "going to the store") or mentioned in passing by other characters as being "at work".
The show changed significantly in the third season, with Raj and Rerun graduating high school (Rerun after seven years, ostensibly due to alearning disability), with the two moving into their own apartment near theUniversity of Southern California. Mabel King left the show (her character, in storyline, moved toPhoenix, Arizona, to "tend to a sick relative"), and Shirley moved into the Thomas household as aboarder and Dee's guardian. Also, several new recurring characters were introduced. The first was a basketball player whom Roger tutored and nicknamed "The Snake" (played by Leland Smith). The other characters werewhite police 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.
What became the role of "Little Earl" was initially created to be filled by ten-year-oldGary Coleman at the suggestion of ABC PresidentFred Silverman. Silverman was a proponent of Coleman and, feeling that breakout stardom was around the corner for the young talent, wanted him added to the show. When Silverman left ABC in 1978 to head rival network NBC, he hadDiff'rent Strokes created for Coleman; it ran for eight years and was highly rated.[4]
During the third season (1978–79), Berry, still dissatisfied with his pay, again threatened to strike (as a result he did not appear in the third-season episode "Dee, the Cheerleader"). Thomas supported and joined Berry in his efforts which led to a heated meeting with the executive producers, culminating with Berry accusing them of racism.[5] Unable to come to terms, the producers opted to cancel the series.[6]
What's Happening!! aired its last episode on April 28, 1979. A year later, Hemphill starred in her ownsitcom,One in a Million, which premiered in January 1980 and ended on July 23, 1980, after being onABC for several months.[7]
What's Happening!! was a modest ratings success.
| Season | Time slot (ET) | Rank | Rating[8] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976–1977 | Thursday at 8:30–9:00 pm(Episodes 1–4, 10–21) Saturday at 8:30–9:00 pm(Episodes 5–9) | 25 | 20.9 |
| 1977–1978 | Thursday at 8:30–9:00 pm(Episodes 1–15, 22) Saturday at 8:00–8:30 pm(Episodes 16–20) Thursday at 8:00–8:30 pm(Episode 21) | 42 | N/A(Tied withDallas andThe Rockford Files) |
| 1978–1979 | Thursday at 8:30-9:00 pm(Episodes 1–12) Friday at 8:30–9:00 pm(Episodes 13–18) Saturday at 8:00–8:30 pm(Episodes 19–22) | 28 | 19.8(Tied withMonday Night Football) |
What's Happening!! was widelysyndicated in the 1980s. Appealing to both children and adults in a similar way toThe Brady Bunch andHappy Days, it accordingly aired during transitional hours where stations would change their after-school programming from cartoons to evening sitcoms. In many markets,What's Happening!! garnered higher ratings in reruns than during its initial broadcast.
With this success in mind, a spinoff of the show was produced entitledWhat's Happening Now!!, airing from 1985 to 1988. Over its 66 episodes, the show was a modest success.[citation needed]
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released all three seasons ofWhat's Happening!!
On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library includingWhat's Happening!![9] On September 2, 2014, they re-released the first two seasons on DVD.[10]
On April 21, 2015, Mill Creek released a budget-priced complete series set, a 6-disc set featuring all 65 episodes.[11]
| DVD name | Ep # | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| The Complete 1st Season | 21 | February 3, 2004 September 2, 2014 (re-release) |
| The Complete 2nd Season | 22 | October 5, 2004 September 2, 2014 (re-release) |
| The Complete 3rd Season | 22 | August 23, 2005 |
| The Complete Series | 65 | June 10, 2008 April 21, 2015 (re-release) |
The show was syndicated on many local channels (with all 66 episodes of sequel seriesWhat's Happening Now!! joining the syndication package in the fall of 1988 to total 131 episodes) and continued in an on-again, off-again manner until 2009.
BET reran both series from September 20, 1993, to October 27, 1995.
TV Land reran the show during the 2005–2006 season.
As of March 1, 2013, cable networkTV One shows reruns ofWhat's Happening!!
On December 2, 2013, the newly rebrandedEncore Black channel started airingWhat's Happening!!
Starting January 2, 2017, the digital broadcast networkAntenna TV began airing the original series.
