WHAT'S HAPPENING!! The Complete First Season DVD
By
Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

Starring
Ernest Thomas (Raj)
Haywood Nelson (Dwayne)
Fred Berry (Rerun)
Danielle Spenser (Dee)
Mabel King (Mrs. Thomas)
Shirley Hemphill (Shirley)

1:33:1 Full Screen / 3 DVD’s / 520 minutes / 21 episodes / 1976-77 season / not rated / English Dolby Digital
Distributed through Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment

I haven’t seen “What’s Happening!!” in years, and I think it is still pretty funny. I was actually surprised that I had seen most of the episodes, and even remembered some of the character’s punch lines before they said them.

Our three heroes, Raj, Dwayne, and Rerun hang out at the soda shop, and usually enter a room shouting “What’s happening!” or “Hay, hay, hay!” Raj is their leader, a skinny nerd with glasses who was cool by seventies standards. As smart as Raj is (a straight-A student and an aspiring screenwriter), he finds himself getting arrested twice in the first season for scalping Stevie Wonder tickets, shoplifting a blouse for his mother’s birthday, gambling when he needs money, nearly gets expelled from school for performing cruel pranks on a teacher, and stealing his best friend Dwayne’s ‘girlfriend.’

Mrs. Thomas, a loving and hardworking mother, peremptorily beats Raj with a belt for his misgivings. Despite all this, Raj is a thoughtful kid (why did these kids in seventies shows all look like they were in their early thirties?) who gets a lucky break with cash and gives it to someone in need. He loves his mother and his selfish sister, Dee. Raj, Dwayne and Rerun do all kinds of good deeds in each episode and stick together through thick and thin.

Rerun, Mrs. Thomas, and Shirley, the sometimes-sweet, sometimes-obnoxious waitress who works at the soda shop, are all fat. Rerun’s mission in life is to eat, and Shirley and Rerun hurl hurtful fat jokes at one another. Dee is constantly calling Rerun a ‘blimp.’ Shirley is so fat she can’t find a date to Raj’s party. In one episode Rerun gets a job as a dancer for a TV show only to find out he’s been hired to be made fun of by the skinny dancers.

Raj’s wisecracking sister Dee gets the best lines in the show. She lives for getting Raj into trouble while brownnosing Mama. Dwayne is the shy, good-looking kid who is literally afraid of the dark and very impressionable, though Rerun is the real dunce (the nickname comes from having to ‘rerun’ a whole school year every summer).

It’s hard to believe “What’s Happening!!” first aired thirty years ago; gone are those horrible clothes kids thought were cool back then, going to the movies was a dollar and a kid could make $60 a week working at the grocery store (and that was good money in ’76!). No Internet or DVD’s back then. Hell, even “Star Wars” hadn’t come out yet! “What’s Happening!!” is a great slice of American life for teenagers when things were oh-so-simple back in the day.

Victoria Alexander can be reached by visiting FilmsInReview.com or, directly, at masauu@aol.com.