What's Happening!! : This Was A HORRIBLE Show!!

I started watching this show on TV Land about a week or so ago. Dear God, this thing is terrible. I mean, the writing and especially the acting. How on earth did that get on the air anyway?? This thing is even worse than the slew of horrific UPN black comedies.

Seasons 1 and 2 were the best and the funniest to me.Season 3 was the worst,when Raj and Rerun moved into the apartment and they introduced those clowns Little Earl,Big Earl and Snake.The writing and acting was a mess and I'm glad they cancelled it after the third season.

I agree with this reply. If you just started watching WH on TV Land recently, they've been showing season 3, which is pretty bad. Seasons 1 and 2 are much better.

On this we can agree. I particularly liked the first season. Don't ask me why.

I first saw this show on TVLand as well. I don't think it was a bad show, what I think is the stories should have been different and well written. I tried to picture had I been able to work on the show at the time ("if I was born, and a adult") There are a couple of changes that I would have maid. To me I think they should have gone on adventures and vacations (something every show does once or so in awhile). Now I don't know anything about television, especially tv in that time since everything was so different, but below is some of my thoughts.

Here's a few fault's I saw with the series
1) Always staying "Rob's Place" too long and too much
2) Never took any vacations

Now, I know that there's usually on most shows a certain hang-out (Saved by the Bell (The Max), Three's Company (The Regal Beagle), and etc.), but one thing they did was not over use the hang-outs and like on Three's Company they added another hang-out in later seasons "Jack's Bistro" so that's one thing.

They say Mama Thomas left the show because she had no love interest, now to me they could have given her some love interests' (or she could of been a little bit like Blanche Devereax "The Golden Girls"). However, after she did leave now that's where I saw alot of trouble for the What's Happening Crew to fit Dee in since she lived at home with her mother, what they could have done was let Roger live at the house and Rerun could have been the only one to live at the dorm or something.

First of all, how could they take a vacation? Are you serious? You must be confused with the "Brady Bunch". Mike Brady was an architect and they had their own live-in housekeeper. The Thomas's were a single parent Black family living in Watts. Mabel was a maid. She had no vacation pay and could not afford to take a week off of work. A vacation to them would be a day trip to the zoo or beach by bus.

Also, how are 2 black teenagers straight out of high school able to afford their own apartment while they are in college? Now in the 2000's, almost all college kids live at home until they graduate or get married. Whichever comes first. It is just too damn expensive. ($$$$$$$).

Also, Big Earl and Little Earl. They just happened to be White. Big Earl the cop could have easily been Black with a Black kid. How many Black teenagers in Watts pal around with a White cop and his kid? Tell me that. The Earls wouldn't even be living in Watts or anyhwere else in South Central LA. The majority of LAPD officers commute from other cities in more economically desirable parts of LA.

rerun was not in college.he was a page for ABC and raj held various part-time jobs.

vacation? rofl!

fried ice cream is a reality

gwindows9 I am hoping you are kidding? They were poor kids whose mother was a maid, how were they going to afford a vacation? That would have went against the idea of a show, now I imagine had the show went on longer maybe they would have had an episode where they visit a relative in another state but poor people really do not do vacations.

And the idea of having momma be like Blanche? She was a single mother do you know how terrible and tacky that would have been to have her sleeping around with different men. People would have been upset for sure. The idea of a love interest is not bad if there was one stable man that maybe she later married, but her problem was that she did not like the idea of being a single mother, not that she was not dating enough.

I think today's humor and comedies has ruined the minds of those who see's this 70's show as horrible.

That's kind of how I think some of these teenagers perhaps have seen too much "Friends," "Seinfeld," and "Raymond," maybe too much "King of Queens" or "Two and a Half Men," that they don't really like the cleaner comedy of the past. I rented out the first season's worth of "WH!!," and I thought that it was pretty good. I purchased the second season's worth, and I'm two episodes into it, and those, I thought, were pretty funny.

I don't know, every season had episodes that didn't shineI like some of them from the third season, A Present for Dee and the one with the stolen money, and Dwayne dreams about becoming a crook cuz he didn't finish school, and the Snake was funnybut episodes like where Rerun's brother-in-law lost money on a bet Dwayne had, and where they tried to get the blouse for Mama, and Raj feigns hypertension to worry Dee, that in itself was kind of funny but the way Dee played them back was one of their lesser moments in being a good show.

Yeah, the stolen money one is one of my favorites, one of the best eps of season 3. When Rerun goes nuts looking for the money, oh man, hilarious. And when Rerun has his appendectomy, Shirley is helping to feed the guy in a full body cast in the bed next to Rerun's and she does one of those ad-libs only Shirley Hemphill could do, "If you spit on me I'll knock you all over this room" I sat through that whole episode the other day and it wasn't until that last moment that I BUSTED. A. GUT. Plus this was not Dee's funniest season, she was the best in season 1. That ep where Raj plants the fake diary is fun, especially when Dee looks to the heavens and says "Take ME!" and Mama tells Raj to run upstairs to get the fake diary and Raj's voice breaks as he says, "Yes Mama." I guess you had to be there!

I'd love to know where are all those who watched the show originally?


They're the ones that probably should be here and not the dumb young people who can't handle the what you call cleaner comedy.

(referring to bmmasters comment)

Right here! i watched the show as a little kid. It was my favorite show. Just hearing that theme song made me happy. Today I love it more than ever.



Fabio Testi is GOD

Well I love "What's Happening". I've always enjoyed it since I was a kid and still love it now. I think it's hillarious. Seasons 1 & 2 are the best though, I agree with other posters who said this. Season 3 is when it starts to go downhill, but Seasons 1 & 2 were quite good.






"And when the groove is dead and gone, love survives, so we can rock forever" RIP MJ

I thought the show was very funny. Guess it depends on your sense of humor.

& I bet you watched every epoisode twice. didn't you? yeah, I know.


I like your show,I admire your style, but your pays so cheap, I won't be back for a while.

It was a decent show about 3 teenagers. Just like Happy Days. Only diffrences are was instead of going to the greesed up "Cool Dude" for advise sometimes they went to "Big Sister figure" Shirley. And this main cast cast happens to be black. Oohh!! Now I know why people are b!tching about this show. Nevermind!!!!

LOL. Good one edj365

It was about as lousy as most sitcoms. And they had The Doobie Brothers appear as guests. That is the quintessential episode.

Mmm-mmm, no you ditunt!

The show was better than some of the acting. Danielle Spence, while funny, was very wooden as an actress. Fred Berry was also funny, but not a great actor. Everyone else was relatively talentedespecially Mabel King and Shirley Hemphill.

justinaames Danielle Spencer absolutely was a terrible actress. I cannot imagine how she was selected among other girls trying out for the role. Her monotone voice and how she would always look into the camera was terrible.

Eh it wasn't too bad. Though, watching it now I noticed or rather feel like a lot of lines were thrown in just to set up an oncoming joke.

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Little Mikey Myers that lived across the street.

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