Generations: Sample Episode #1

Sam Whitmore

Generations: Sample Episode #1
NBC
1990
Soap Opera
VHS
B-

This short-lived, 1989-91, soap was one I watched pretty faithfully but it just didn't catch on.  (Wikipedia says it came in 12th in the ratings out of 12 or 13 soaps each season.)  It was interracial and only half an hour, two things that set it apart from other soaps of its time and before.


The regulars who appear in this episode:

• Robert Gentry as Jordan Hale
• Debbi Morgan, who was a semi-regular on the first season of What's Happening!!, as Chantal Marshall
• Stacey Nelkin as Christy Russell
• Gail Ramsey as Laura Whitmore McCallum
• Kelly Rutherford as Sam Whitmore 
• Robert Torti as Lt. Kyle Masters

Watching this today, I could easily remember the story lines, and not just because of the helpful expository dialogue that comes with the territory.  Sam was arguably the star of this episode and the series.  She was gorgeous and glamorous but also self-deprecating, feeling in the shadow of her perfect niece Monique, who was only one year younger than her.  

Chantal Marshall, also gorgeous and glamorous

This episode showcases not only her insecurities, especially in regard to her mother, but also her position in a romantic quadrangle.  Wealthy, middle-aged businessman Jordan Hale is interested in her, while her boyfriend Kyle's fellow police officer Christy is after Kyle.  We see Christy setting up a scheme, with Jordan's help, to make Sam think that Christy slept with Kyle while Sam was in Hawaii, and we get to see the scheme succeed, all in thirty minutes, mixed with other plots, like Chantal's ambivalence about the sports star she successfully prosecuted.  (For drunk driving?  Something like that.)  Kyle and Chantal are friends and have a couple nice scenes together.  The main weak point is Sam's older sister Laura and her even blander husband, whose name I've re-forgotten after a few hours.

I don't think I was trying to preserve this show for historical reasons and I wasn't collecting it, although we do have another episode coming up.  Probably I just taped it for viewing later and then it ended up preserved in amber as it were.

What's Happening!!: The Play's the Big Thing

What's Happening!!: The Play's the Big Thing
ABC
November 3, 1977
Sitcom
DVD
B

In the main story by Orenstein & Turteltaub, Roger has to decide whether to let Rerun act in the play he's written for Miss Collins (Fritzi Burr)'s Drama class.  (Does the woman teach every subject?)  Rerun is a terrible actor and may ruin Raj's chance to impress the visiting producer of Happy Times (there's a '70s sitcom mash-up name), but on the other hand Rerun desperately needs an A to pass the class.  No one thinks to suggest he dance, so instead he does the play with Diane (Debbi Morgan) as his mother, and we find out that her last name is Harris.  The real reason to watch the show though is for what's probably the funniest sequence in the entire series, Dwayne's rendition of "Handyman," with the disgusted reactions of his classmates.

Donald Blackwell, who plays Johnson, would be Graham the next year on M*A*S*H.  That's the entirety of his screen career, but if Johnson is the organist, he's already got immortal fame.

What's Happening!!: If I'm Elected

What's Happening!!: If I'm Elected
ABC
October 27, 1977
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Rose Fonseca makes her last WH appearance, here as Dwayne's new girlfriend Connie.  The Eric Monte story focuses mostly on Dwayne and his relationship with his father Lawrence "Larry" Nelson (Mission Impossible's Greg Morris), but Connie does impact the plot.  Mr. Nelson is running for the city council, and Dwayne and Connie witness him firing family friend Ted Howard (Hank Rolike, who would return in another role) from the campaign.  She's sympathetic to Dwayne and urges him to talk to his father.  And yet the tag expects us to believe that she would leave him for another guy and write a "Dear John" letter that she has Shirley give him.  (Thus lowering the grade from a B to a B-.)

The episode feels almost like a back-door pilot, since Raj, Dee, and Rerun are absent, while Bryan O'Dell as Marvin and Debbi Morgan as Diane are in more than one scene.  Note that there's another Amy Carter reference, this time because Dwayne imagines his father going on to be the first black President.

What's Happening!!: Rerun Gets Married

What's Happening!!: Rerun Gets Married
ABC
September 22, 1977
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Irene Cara, after The Electric Company and before Fame, plays illegal alien Maria, whom Rerun almost marries so she can stay in the country.  Roger turns 17, while Rerun is 19 and in his third senior year.  (I recall Dwayne as a year younger than Raj, although I haven't come across a line verifying that yet.)  Eric Monte wrote this episode.

Bryan O'Dell returns as Marvin.  Thirty-one-year-old Earl Boen has one of his more sympathetic roles, as Judge Barnes.  Note that the opening credits for this season have edited in shots of the female half of the regular cast.  Also, this show was still paired with Welcome Back, Kotter on Thursdays, but the schedule would change as the season went on.

What's Happening!!: Speak for Yourself, Dwayne

What's Happening!!: Speak for Yourself, Dwayne
ABC
November 27, 1976
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Dwayne falls for new girl Nancy (Ronalda Douglas, who previously played a Secretary).  This Fred S. Fox and Seaman Jacobs story is predictable, especially when Roger acknowledges the "Miles Standish" parallels, but it works, and it is fun to hear the studio audience heartily participating, from making comments to cheering.

Debbi Morgan returns as Diane.  This is the first of two WH episodes directed by Hal Alexander.  I don't know if it's fault that there's a visible hanging mic, like on Welcome Back, Kotter sometimes.  (The cameras in the above picture suggest that this is behind the scenes.)

What's Happening!!: The Birthday Present

What's Happening!!: The Birthday Present
ABC
August 12, 1976
Sitcom
DVD
C+

I suspect that this episode was made before the one that aired previously, since Diane (Debbi Morgan) is new to school and Dwayne explains Rerun's nickname to her.  I think going with this second was a good idea, since it's a weaker episode, with not only Mama spanking Roger (off-camera) but too much back & forth about buying the birthday blouse.

Manager Joe Morton had been on M*A*S*H as Capt. Saunders a few months earlier.  Helen Martin returns as Millie.  Bernie Orenstein  and Saul Turteltaub, who wrote a lot for That Girl, would do four more for this show.

What's Happening!!: The Runaway

What's Happening!!: The Runaway
ABC
August 5, 1976
Sitcom
DVD
B

First, a few general observations.  One, the opening (and closing) theme must be the funkiest thing Henry Mancini ever wrote.  Two, the entire main cast are Danza-ly named before Danza (see below).  And three, I don't recall why there was a summer preview of a handful of August episodes and then nothing till November, but I am sure that I was a regular viewer early on.  At eight, this was my kind of show.

And I got a kick out of watching the series opener just now.  It can certainly be objected to on p.c. grounds-- fat characters making fat jokes, black parents who threaten to spank their teenage opposite-sex children, etc.-- but I was impressed with how into their characters everyone is, right from the start.  Yes, these aren't the most complex characters, but the characterization, catch phrases, and even interactions are locked into place earlier than on Welcome Back, Kotter.  Note that we even get a Rerun dance number.

Nineteen-year-old Debbi Morgan makes her first of six appearances as Diane.  Theodore Wilson, who did a guest shot on M*A*S*H a couple years earlier, makes his first of four WH cameos, as Mr. Wilson, while Helen Martin (probably best known for 227) makes her first of three, as Millie.

Our six regulars:

• 25-year-old Fred Berry as Freddie "Rerun" Stubbs
• 29-year-old Shirley Hemphill as Shirley Wilson (presumably not related to Mr. Wilson and his family, since I think her last name came later)
• 43-year-old Mabel King as Mabel "Mama" Thomas
• 16-year-old Haywood Nelson as Dwayne Nelson
• 11-year-old Danielle Spencer as Dee Thomas (and I think Dee is short for Danielle)
• and 26-year-old Ernest Thomas as Roger Thomas.

Alan Eisenstock and Larry Mintz would co-write seven more WH episodes, while Dennis Steinmetz directed the first Land of the Lost episode.