What's Happening!!

1976 - 1979

Follows three high school friends as they chase girls and plan their futures while plotting plenty of cunning schemes and crazy capers.

Stars: Ernest Thomas, Haywood Neslon, Fred Berry, Danielle Spencer, Shirley Hemphill, Mabel King
Created by: Saul Turtletaub, Bernie Orenstein, Bud Yorkin
Tags: friend group, poc, teens

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Episode Tropes

Season 1

15 Minutes of Fame: Episode 5, "Saturday's Hero" (1976). When Rerun joins the school's football team and helps them finally win a game, he suddenly becomes popular, especially with the ladies, and he ditches Raj and Dwayne to take some cheerleaders to the Gladys Knight concert instead of them.
Surprise Prostitute: Episode 8, "Shirley's Date" (1976). Shirley doesn't want to go to Raj's party because she can't get a date, so the gang is on a mission to find her one. Raj hires an escort to ask Shirley to the party, but Shirley turns him down.
The Star Boarder: Episode 16, "The Boarder" (1977). Mabel has to pay a large tax bill, so she decides to rent out Dee's room to make some extra money. She ends up renting it to her ex-husband (Raj and Dee's dad), Bill.
Ticket Scalping: Episode 18, "The Tickets" (1977). Mabel gives Raj two tickets to the Stevie Wonder concert, and Raj has to pick one of his two friends to go with him. He flips a coin and picks Dwayne, which makes Rerun stop talking to both of them. Raj manages to get three cheaper tickets so they can all go, and he decides to scalp the two tickets from Mabel. Rerun takes over the scalping and ends up trying to sell them to an undercover police officer, who arrests all three of them.
Prison Break Pen Pal: Episode 20, "Nice Guys Finish Last" (1977). Dee announces that her pen pal, Judy, who is in prison, is getting out and coming to live with her, but when Judy shows up, Dee discovers she has escaped from jail along with her convict boyfriend, and they're both being pursued by the police.
Hostage Situation: Episode 20, "Nice Guys Finish Last" (1977). Dee's prison pen pal, Judy, has escaped from jail and is staying at the Thomas home. When her fellow escaped convict boyfriend, Lew, comes to pick her up, the cops aren't far behind. In an attempt to avoid going back to jail, Lew holds Dee hostage.

Season 2

Green Card: Episode 1, "Rerun Gets Married" (1977). A Mexican immigrant named Maria moves to town and falls for Rerun. After dating him for a week, Maria asks Rerun to marry her so she can stay in the country, and he says yes. The judge realizes something isn't right and refuses to do the ceremony, but he agrees to help Maria get a student visa so she can come back to America.
See You in Court: Episode 3, "Trial and Error" (1977). While making a bike delivery for his new job, Raj gets hit by a car, and in a bizarre twist, the driver ends up suing him for damages to his car. When it looks like he's about to lose his case, Shirley takes over and gets the driver to drop it.
Affirmative Action: Episode 5, "Nothing Personal" (1977). Shirley is thrilled to land a secretary job even though she has no experience, but when she's given nothing to do all day, she realizes they only hired her because she's Black.
Mounting the Hustings: Episode 6, "If I'm Elected" (1977). Dwayne's dad is running for city council, and Dwayne and his friends are helping out with his campaign.
Wanna Bet?: Episode 8, "Give Me Odds" (1977). Dwayne has won Rob's football pool five times thanks to his secret betting system, so Rerun's brother-in-law, Ike, bets his vacation money on Dwayne's pick for an upcoming football game. When Dwayne finally reveals that his system is based on which team has the fanciest helmets, it's too late for Ike to take back his bet, and he loses it all.
Weird Wedding Venue: Episode 9, "Bill Gets Married" (1977). Mabel's ex-husband (Raj and Dee's father), Bill, is getting re-married, and Raj insists they have their wedding in the Thomas home.
Back to School: Episode 10, "Mama, the School Girl" (1977). Mabel takes night classes to finish her high school diploma, and Rerun is in her history class to make up for failing history.
On Strike: Episode 11, "One Strike and You're Out" (1977). Raj and his co-workers are unhappy with the conditions at the grocery store, so Raj encourages everyone to go on strike, but when he finds out his mother has to take two weeks off from work due to hypertension, he changes his mind and tries to talk them out of it.
Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: Episode 18, "Rerun Sees the Light" (1978). A con artist convinces Rerun to join a fake cult that worships a head of lettuce called Ralph so she can extort money from him.

Season 3

The Education of a Jock: Episode 3, "Basketball Brain" (1978). A used car magnate asks Raj to tutor a high school basketball star so he can give him a college scholarship.
False Arrest: Episode 4, "The Creep Detective" (1978). When Rerun gets tricked into holding stolen merchandise in his and Roger's apartment, their new detective neighbor arrests them and Dwayne for burglary.
Art Class: Episode 9, "No Clothes Make the Man" (1978). Raj has been laid off from his job, and he's desperate for money, so he agrees to pose nude for an art class.
Accidental Accomplice: Episode 10, "Positive Identification" (1978). Raj and Rerun help a man who claims to be a mover carrying a large sack out of their apartment building, but they quickly discover the man had actually just robbed their apartment.
We Were Robbed: Episode 10, "Positive Identification" (1978). A man robs Raj and Reruns apartment just before Christmas, and when they refuse to identify him in a line-up because they're not 100% sure, he feels badly and returns all their stuff.
When I'm 64: Episode 14, "Dwayne's Dream" (1979). Dwayne gets a job selling peanuts at a college stadium, and he's considering dropping out of school to work full time. Raj and Big Earl both give him advice, and he has two dreams about the distant future where all his friends are rich and successful, but his life is screwed up because he never finished high school.
Get a Raise: Episode 15, "Shirley's Fired" (1979). Shirley demands a raise from Rob, but Rob says he's hiring another waitress to help her instead. The new waitress, Liz, is so completely inept that she just makes more work for Shirley, so Shirley quits.
Landlord from Hell: Episode 17, "The Eviction" (1979). Raj and Rerun's apartment building is falling into disrepair, and their new landlord's not lifting a finger to fix anything, so Raj rallies all the tenants in the building to demand that the landlord do his job. The landlord responds by evicting them, and the other tenants go on a rent strike until he lets them move back in.
Treasure Hunt: Episode 18, "The Thomas Treasure" (1979). Raj discovers that some stolen money might be hidden in his mom's house, so he, Rerun, Dwayne, Dee, and Shirley all tear up the house looking for it.
Coach from Hell: Episode 20, "First Class Coach" (1979). Big Earl asks Dwayne to coach Little Earl's basketball team temporarily, but the boys on the team think Big Earl is too hard on them, and they decide they want Dwayne to coach them full time.
Election: Episode 21, "Dwayne's Debate" (1979). Some fellow students ask Dwayne to run for student body president. He doesn't want to do it, but when Snake accidentally mentions Dwayne's possible campaign in front of Dwayne's dad, he gets excited, and Dwayne doesn't want to let him down.
Hey, Kids, Let's Put on a Show!: Episode 22, "The Benefit" (1979). When their neighborhood teen center closes down due to lack of funding, the gang decides to put on a benefit show to save it. Rerun claims he's buddies with Sammie Davis, Jr. (he's not) and promises to get him to perform (he won't). To no one's surprise, Sammie doesn't show up, so the gang puts on their own show displaying their musical and comedic talents.

Character Tropes

Brainiac: Roger "Raj" Thomas - Played by Ernest Thomas.
The Magnificent Bickersons: Shirley Wilson & Freddie "Rerun" Stubbs - Played by Shirley Hemphill and Fred Berry.