MovieChat Forums > What's Happening!! (1976) Discussion > Did the Cast of WHAT'S HAPPENING Indirec...

Did the Cast of WHAT'S HAPPENING Indirectly Set Back 'Black Sitcoms'?

posted 12 years ago by TMC-4
6 replies | jump to latest

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=281924

No doubt about it, there were a lot of problems on the WH set. Mable King quit, Fred Berry had drug issues and the cast held out for more money, all of which led to the show's premature cancellation. Do you think the predominantly white Hollywood decided to stop producing quality mostly black led sitcoms for years and years after that? We all know that it really wasn't until The Cosby Show in the mid '80s that the black sitcom made a huge comeback. Agree? Disagree?

[–] MaGuFu_Day 12 years ago

With What's Happening, it tried to be more realistic and mature from the black sitcoms of that day(eg. The Incomplete Shakespeare episode), shame the maturity factor went out the window by the 3rd season.

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[–] MrBlondNYC 12 years ago

Networks only care about money. There was turmoil on the sets of Sanford and Son and Good Times as well. But those shows stayed on the air because they were top 10 hit shows. The What's Happening guys overstated their importance to the network. It was a hit but never higher than 20-something on the Nielsen chart. In the beginning of its last season, it came on after Mork and Mindy so the ratings were high. But ABC moved it during the season so the ratings plummeted. If they were a top 10 show the network might have tried harder to keep it on. ABC figured they could replace it with a show that made more money.

But, yes, by 1979, all those shows were gone except The Jeffersons was still a hit. (Diff'rent Strokes can't really be called a "black sitcom".) Good Times's ratings plummeted and Redd Foxx quit Sanford and Son which was also dying in the ratings by that time. There were other black sitcoms but none of them were hits. Unfortunately, black people are considered a "trend" in television. The wave had died down and didn't pick up again until the early 90's after The Cosby Show cleaned up for years.

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[–] snoops 11 years ago

For the most part, "What's Happening" didn't focus on racial or social issues during its run. Sure, they lived in the ghetto, and Raj and Dee lived in a single parent home, but most of the episodes were about simply being teenagers. Raj getting expelled, Dee's mouthing off, Dwayne's shyness with girls. It was a pretty innocent show.

I agree with the previous comments about what led to its cancellation. The hold out for more money was what did it, and according to articles I've read previously, Fred Berry was the master mind of it all, getting Ernest Thomas and Haywood Nelson to go along with him.

[–] Rockhound6165 11 years ago

They did not live in the ghetto. Good times was set in the ghetto. What's Happening was set in a suburban neighborhood, albeit a black neighborhood. There are black suburbs believe it or not.

[–] Ltay328 10 years ago

Ummm it was Watts. That's considered the ghetto in the 70s.

[–] MrBlondNYC 10 years ago

In Los Angeles, the ghettos look like suburbs. Houses, palm trees, gangs, drugs.

George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya.