WHAT'S HAPPENING!!: THE RUNAWAY {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The premiere of this comedy series about African-American teenagers living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
Raj, Dwayne, and Freddy plan on attending a house party, and Dwayne is urged to invite Danielle Spencer, a girl he has a crush on. However, Mabel asks him to stay home to babysit Dee. He protests this but reluctantly agrees, with Dee smirking at him all the while. Freddy and Dwayne come to pick him up and learn that he cannot go. They come up with a plan for Raj to have his elderly neighbor Millie babysit for him so that he can go to the party, and he convinces Dee not to tell their mother. Millie falls asleep shortly after Raj leaves, and Mabel comes home to find Millie on the couch with Dee, eating peanut butter after specifically instructed not to. Furious, she takes Dee with her to go to the party and scold Raj in person. The party itself is interrupted by the arrival of the parents of the girl hosting it, who are quite upset. Everyone except her flees from the house, except for Dwayne, who has an awkward encounter with the girl’s mother before leaving.
Only Millie is home when Raj returns, leading him to conclude that Dee made good on her threat to run away if he left her at home. Raj becomes quite concerned and calls Ray, a policeman he is familiar with, to help him find her. He suggests they check places Dee is familiar with, but Dwayne refuses to go out, as he is afraid of the dark. Ray quickly determines that Dee is actually with Mabel, but does not inform the boys of this discovery. Instead he, at Mabel’s direction, decides to deceive them in order to send them into a panic as punishment for Raj shirking his responsibilities. They reconvene at Raj’s house, still unable to locate Dee. Mabel and Dee come home and Dee waits outside as Mabel pretends to enter alone and unaware of their distress. She plays along as they scramble to prevent her from finding out Dee is missing, but while Raj is upstairs, Mabel brings her inside as Raj pantomimes a conversation with Dee upstairs. Eventually he realizes what has happened and comes down to face punishment from his mother. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 30, 1999 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:22:16
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:57616
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Comedy; TV - Comedy
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1976-1979
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Saul Turtletaub … Producer
- Bernie Ornstein … Producer
- Normand C. Hopps … Associate Producer
- Dennis Steinmetz … Director
- Alan Eisenstock … Writer
- Larry Mintz … Writer
- Eric Monte … Based on the film "Cooley High" written by
- Henry Mancini … Music by
- Ernest Thomas … Cast, Roger "Raj" Thomas
- Haywood Nelson … Cast, Dwayne Nelson
- Fred Berry … Cast, Freddy "Rerun" Stubbs
- Danielle Spencer … Cast, Dee Thomas
- Mabel King … Cast, Mabel Thomas
- Shirley Hemphill … Cast, Shirley
- Helen Martin … Cast, Millie
- James A. Watson Jr. … Cast, Ray Cleamons
- Theodore Wilson … Cast, Mr. Wilson
- Tracee Lyles … Cast, Mrs. Wilson
- Alycia Gardner … Cast, Girl
- Lila Perry … Cast, Betty Wilson
- Debbi Morgan … Cast, Diane