What's Happening!!: The Incomplete Shakespeare

What's Happening!!: The Incomplete Shakespeare
ABC
January 13, 1977
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This is the only WH episode written by Mort Scharfman, who'd write one for Three's Company.  It's an odd, almost meta story, with Raj submitting a script to a show called Central Avenue, i.e. a sitcom set in Watts.  Dee rejects some of the earlier script ideas, including one about someone hiding in their room because of braces, since she saw that plot on the Brady Bunch (presumably in syndication), and yet, no one points out that Raj's idea, which has been recycled by the network since '65, was in fact a BBunch plot (three boys find some money lying around).  Then Raj, because he's young and black and lives on Central Avenue, is hired as an "ethnic consultant," but quits when he realizes that he's only being used to provide slang, not to offer the truth.  (He says no kid in Watts gets $20 a week allowance.  I don't think anyone in my middle-class Southern California suburb got that much in '77 either, although it might've been different for high school kids.)

Warren Berlinger, who's Ben Martin, had a couple roles on That Girl, including as Ann's cousin, while Sheila Rogers, who's Madge the secretary, was Mrs. Kling on That Girl and would go on to multiple appearances on Three's Company.