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).

"What's Happening," Raj, Rerun, Dwayne & Dee

This was first published in June of 2011, but I updated and edited it, with some additions, May 2016.

A Favorite Television Show of the Past, "What's Happening"

Some of you may remember the television comedy "What's Happening," which ran from the mid until the late 1970s on ABC. It was a favorite of mine. Just a refresher for those who remember the show, or a basic overview for those who aren't familiar with "What's Happening." The sitcom was set in Los Angeles and involved three black teenage guys: Raj, played by Ernest Thomas; Rerun,* played by Fred Berry; and Dwayne, played by Haywood Nelson; plus Raj's sister, Dee, played by Danielle Spencer; and Raj's and Dee's mother, Mabel, played by actress Mabel King, who did not stay with the show for the final season. There was also Shirley, played by Shirley Hemphill, the outspoken and tough waitress at the local soda shop, where the guys liked to hang out.

During the first season, the show had what I think was the funniest episode of all. It involved a misunderstanding, as Raj, who was a very good student, was tutoring a girl who was having difficulties passing her classes. In exchange, if the girl passed, she would give Raj a valuable breed of puppy, as her dog was near to giving birth. The boys decided they would raise the dog and then sell its offspring, perhaps even making it into a business. There were only two things: first, Raj's mother had never allowed him to have a dog, so he didn't know how to bring up the subject; second, Dee overheard the boys talking about "a baby," and "pregnant," and she thought Raj had been teaching the girl more than math and American history, if you get my drift. It all set off an absolutely hysterically funny segment. One of the highlights of the series was in the second season when the Doobie Brothers appeared in a two part episode for a rock concert.

In the final season for the show, Raj and Rerun shared an apartment, both having graduated from high school. In one episode, Rerun got a credit card, which then brought him several more cards from other card companies. At first, the cards provided a way to help get some added furnishings for the guys' apartment, but Rerun, not always the sharpest tack on the bulletin board, went on a buying binge, purchasing all sorts of things that were not only unnecessary, but which also made his monthly payments soar beyond his ability to pay. Rerun became a victim of the plastic plague.

If you've never seen this show, please check it out, is was a really good show. If you haven't seen it for a while, watch it again, it will bring back good memories, especially since Mabel King, Shirley Hemphill and Fred Rerun Berry have all passed away. Fred Berry legally changed his name to Rerun years after the show. There was a "second" edition to the show in the mid 1980s, "What's Happening Now," but it was not shown on network television, but rather it aired on some independent stations around the country.

* Rerun's real name was Fredrick, and he was played by Fred Berry. He got the nickname "Rerun," because he had to "rerun" so many of the same classes in high school.

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

WORD HISTORY:
Write-Some linguists trace this common word back to an Indo European root form of "wr" or "wer," with a notion of "cut/scratch," but I'm not sold on this, and most sources are uncertain about its ancient origins. It MAY be a Germanic creation, as Old Germanic had "writanan," with the idea of "scratch, tear apart," and the forms I found were all in Germanic languages and dialects, not in other languages. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "writan," with the same general meaning. Before what we consider to be modern writing, people "scratched" figures on wood, stone or metal. When modern writing developed in English, the word simply transferred to that new form. "Writan" later became "writen," before the modern form. The "tear," "tear apart," notion MAY come from the idea of scratching something until it tears. German has two forms of the word; "reissen," more commonly written "reißen," which generally means "to tear," and "ritzen," which means "to scratch, etch." Some Low German dialects have "riete," or a form of "rieten," both of which mean "to tear," as does Dutch "rijten." Norwegian and Icelandic both have "rita," with the meaning "write, sketch, inscribe," while Swedish "rita" means "draw." Old Frisian had a form of the word, but I did not find a modern descendant, although that does not mean there is not one. Further, I did not find a form in modern Danish, but again, there may be one.