| Runtime: | 22–25 minutes |
| Based On: | Cooley High |
| Opentheme: | "What's Happening!!" |
| Composer: | Henry Mancini[1] |
| Num Seasons: | 3 |
| Num Episodes: | 65 |
| List Episodes: | List of What's Happening!! episodes |
| Country: | United States |
| Company: | Bud Yorkin Productions (1976–1978) (seasons 1–2) TOY Productions (1976–1979) (seasons 1–3) |
What's Happening!! is an American sitcom television series that first aired on ABC from August 5, 1976, premiering as a summer series. It returned as a weekly series from November 1976 until its April 1979 conclusion. What's Happening!! was loosely based on the Eric Monte-penned film Cooley High.[2] From 1985 until 1988, a sequel series titled What's Happening Now!! aired in first-run syndication, with most of the major cast members reprising their roles.
What's Happening!! was Bud Yorkin's second series after he ended his partnership with Norman Lear and Tandem 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-class African-American teens living in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts. The show stars Ernest Thomas as Roger "Raj" Thomas, Haywood Nelson as Dwayne Nelson, and Fred Berry as Freddy "Rerun" Stubbs. Additional co-stars include Danielle 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 at Rob's Place, the neighborhood soda 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 the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles on March 16, 1976. Three additional episodes were videotaped that June, with the plan to release What'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 to Golden 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 a higher salary and better studio accommodations for the actors by using the show's first season's success as leverage. The accommodations issue eventually led to a full-fledged 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 and Debbi Morgan in featured speaking parts). Producer Bud Yorkin, in turn, suspended the pair, forcing them to sign $25,000 promissory notes to return to the show and guard against further walkouts.[3] The dispute was quickly settled, and both returned for the following episode.
In addition, Mabel King offered producers input on her character and storylines during the second season. She requested that Mabel'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 disagreed with King's unsolicited input, 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 a learning disability), with the two moving into their own apartment near the University of Southern California. Mabel King finally left the show (her character moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to tend to a sick relative), and Shirley moved into the Thomas household as a boarder 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 were white 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-old Gary Coleman at the suggestion of ABC President Fred Silverman. Silverman was a huge 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 had Diff'rent Strokes created for Coleman; it ran for eight years and was highly rated.[4]
During the third season (1978–79), Berry again threatened to strike over a drastic salary increase (not appearing in the third-season episode "Dee, the Cheerleader"). Thomas joined Berry in the strike threat, which led to a heated meeting with the executive producers, culminating with Berry making accusations of racism.[5] In light of the unverifiable accusations, and being unable to come to terms, the producers opted to cancel the series, which was only moderately successful at the time.[6]
What's Happening!! aired its last episode on April 28, 1979. A year later, Hemphill starred in her own sitcom, One in a Million, which premiered in January 1980 and ended on July 23, 1980, after being on ABC for several months.[7]
What's Happening!! was a modest ratings success.
| Season | Time slot (ET) | Rank | Rating[8] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | ||
| 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 with Dallas and The Rockford Files) | ||
| 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 with Monday Night Football) |
See main article: What's Happening Now!!. What's Happening!! was widely syndicated in the 1980s. Appealing to both children and adults in a similar way to The Brady Bunch and Happy 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 entitled What's Happening Now!!, airing from 1985 to 1988. Over its 66 episodes, the show was a modest success despite some serious production problems.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released all three seasons of What'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 including What'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) |
See main article: List of What's Happening!! episodes.
The show was syndicated on many local channels (with all 66 episodes of sequel series What'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 network TV One shows reruns of What's Happening!!
On December 2, 2013, the newly rebranded Encore Black channel started airing What's Happening!!
Starting January 2, 2017, the digital broadcast network Antenna TV began airing the original series.