What's Happening Episode: The Hospital Stay

"What's Happening" was a comedy series which ran from 1976 until the spring of 1979 on the ABC network. Just a basic overview for those who weren't/aren't familiar with "What's Happening:" the sitcom was set in Los Angeles and involved three black teenage guys: Roger, called Raj by many, Freddie, who was better known to friends as "Rerun," from his need to "rerun" failed school classes, and Dwayne. In addition there was Raj's younger sister, Dee, and Raj's and Dee's mother, Mabel, who did not stay with the show for the final (third) season. There was also Shirley, the outspoken and tough waitress at the local soda shop where the guys liked to hang out.

 

This episode first aired in January 1977.

 

Cast for this episode:

 

Ernest Thomas as Roger "Raj" Thomas 

Danielle Spencer as Dee Thomas

Mabel King as Mabel Thomas (Roger and Dee's mother, aka, "Mama")

Fred Berry as "Rerun" (Freddie Stubbs)

Haywood Nelson as Dwayne Nelson

Shirley Hemphill as Shirley Wilson 

Mel Stewart* as Spike Gibbs

Hope Clarke as Elizabeth Duncan 

Judy Pace as the nurse

Raj has water on the knee and he has to go into the hosptial for treatment. He is put into a room with a grouchy older man, Mr. Johnny Gibbs, who has a broken hip and who spends most of his time listening to his radio by using an earphone. (Note: Unlike today, a single earphone was the most common way to listen to a radio privately back then.) Mr. Gibbs complains when Raj or Raj's visitors talk and he firmly tells the nurse he won't accept any flowers from his daughter. It doesn't take long to for us to tell that Mr. Gibbs is one angry man. Enter Raj's 10 year old sister, Dee. When Mr. Gibbs yells and treats her rudely, Dee gives a dose of similar right back to him. When Raj is released and prepares to leave the hospital, Dee is able to talk with Mr. Gibbs in a calm way. He says to her that he can tell she's not afraid of him with all of his bellowing and grumbling and that only she and his daughter have ever been able to stand up to him. Dee asks about his daughter only to find out that he hasn't spoken to her for over 12 years. When Dee asks why, Mr. Gibbs tells her, "Because she married a white man." Dee asks Mr. Gibbs why such a thing would anger him so much, a question he finds difficult to answer except to say, "Those kinds of marriages never work out." Mr. Gibbs also tells her he was a baseball player many years before, and that he was known for stealing bases with his spikes flying, and that thousands of kids knew him as "Spike." Just before leaving Dee leans down and kisses Mr. Gibbs on the head. This brings a smile to Spike's old bearded face, before he goes back to his scowl. Out in the hospital corridor, Raj, Dee and their mother learn from the nurse that Mr. Gibbs is not just being treated for a broken hip, and the nurse's sad look tells them Mr. Gibbs may well be in a battle for his life. 

 

The guys try to find Johnny Gibbs in a baseball book, but without success, but Mrs. Thomas has brought home a baseball book from the library which has information on "Spike" Gibbs, including a photo. She explains that Spike and other black baseball players couldn't play in the major leagues because they were not allowed until 1947, when Jackie Robinson played for the (then) Brooklyn Dodgers; thus, breaking the so called "color barrier." Black players had to play in Negro leagues and Spike played for the Homestead Grays. The little discussion brings Dee to remark that this might be why Spike doesn't like white people and she explains further how Spike doesn't speak to his daughter because she married a white man. Mrs. Thomas gives us all a quick lesson by telling Dee and the guys, "Spike may have his reasons for being bitter, but I always say, if you gotta be mad at somebody, it should for something they did to you, not for the color they're wrapped in." The guys, with the help of Dee's information about Spike's daughter, Elizabeth, decide to contact her and try to get her to go see her father in the hospital. When the guys meet Spike's daughter, at first she is more than a little reluctant to go to see her father, as she thinks he only has a broken hip. After the guys explain that her father is really very sick, she has a change of heart. 

 

Three weeks later Elizabeth comes to the house and tells the guys she went to see her father. She also tells them he has now passed away, but that he left Dee and Raj his radio. Dee comes down the steps from the upstairs just in time to hear about Spike's passing. She tells Elizabeth that her dad will be fine, "He can't get hurt sliding into a cloud."   

 

* Mel Stewart was not an uncommon face on television back many years ago. A few years before this episode was made, he appeared several times in the highly popular comedy series "All in the Family," playing Henry Jefferson, the brother of the Bunker's neighbor George Jefferson (played by the great Sherman Hemsley).   

     

Photo is of the first season DVD release by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures, 2004.

WORD HISTORY: 

Rail (Verb)-English has more than one word of this spelling; this is one of the verb forms, often coupled with 'against,' and meaning, "to complain loudly against something or someone." The origins of this word are very unclear, and there is an initial assumption that it is likely a word of imitative beginnings going back to Latin "ragere," which meant "to roar, to neigh," which then spawned "ragulare," meaning, "to bray." Latin also had "rugire," meaning "to bellow," seemingly linked to Greek words for "sound, noise," and further to Greek words pertaining to "roaring and howling." French got the word as "railler" ("to joke, to mock or make fun of"), but seemingly not directly from Latin, but rather either from Portuguese or Provençal "ralhar," meaning, "chide, scold, scoff, mock." English borrowed the word in the mid 1400s (it seems French had only had the word less than a hundred years at that point).