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What's Happening Now!! is an American sitcom which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988. It was the sequel to the sitcom What's Happening!!, which ran from 1976 to 1979. Like the original series, What's Happening Now!! is loosely based on the motion picture Cooley High (written by Eric Monte and directed by Michael Schultz).

I kind of agree it did kind of suck from the start but I did like a couple of the Rerun episodes!

https://web.archive.org/web/20070225141752/http://jumptheshark.com/


Other Thoughts:

Hey hey hey, they shouldn't have let Rerun leave the show.
Martin Lawrence's character didn't add much to this show, if anything at all.
This show just wasn't the same without Rerun.
This show in my mind never jumped. i think it is one of the greatest shows ever. i just love that serious look on shirley's face, and of course Hey Hey Hey!
This show, although not as good as the original, was severely destroyed when it attempted to tackle the issue of gang banging in South Central LA by having a "very special episode" focused on a one-episode character named Doctor Blood (played by Lee Tari - the father of Dudley from Diff'rent Strokes). It seems some toughs were causing trouble in Shirley and Rog's place saying they worked for Doctor Blood. To make a long, horrible 22 minute story short - the real Doctor Blood had been helping Shirley (Hemphill) out with some plumbing at the restaurant when the hoods came into the shop. Well, he told them that he was the real Doctor Blood and threatened to wrap his walking cane "around their heads like a rubber band." They decided to stop gangbanging after that. What troubles me about this episode is: (1) in reality Doctor Blood would have been killed and ; (2) Lee Tari's acting actually got worse since his days of playing Dudley's father on Diff'rent Stokes - someone should have maybe wrapped an acting school diploma around his head like rubber band. Lee, learn your lines and use some emotion when you act - it helps a lot!
In What's Happening Now? all the buddies reunite and Rog has gone from geeky brain to successful brain while his buddies are all still pathetic losers only now MORE pathetic because they are now too old to still be such losers. Rog seems like he's just humouring them all the way. As an actor maybe he was just humouring his co-stars for one last fat paycheque. This is most likely!
This show jumped from Day 1. Who really cares about what happens to these characters later on. The only redeeming thing from this show was Rerun and his crazy antics. Everyone else was uptight and definitely not 'out of sight'
This show was guilty of using recycled plots. There was one episode where Rog or Dwayne is in charge of getting a national rap act to perform at some 'hood charity. Of course the famous rapper (famous only in the show's world) hasn't showed up when the event begins. And the crowd begins to get riled up and rambunctious. If someone doesn't start kickin' flavor in their ears, someone's bound blizast a cap up in there. So Rog, Shirley, and Dwayne dress up like street rappers and drop funky fresh lyrics over a beat made up of their stomping feet - think "We Will Rock You". Boom Boom Chhh. Notable line was Shirley going "Hey diddle diddle, burgers on the griddle." Now that was pretty tight freestlyin', but the plot has been done on countless shows. I wish I had a recording of the rap cause it was pretty sweet. Hey diddle diddle, burgers on the griddle. Classic.
Jumped the shark from day one. I wanted to like this show, because I liked the original; it was slight but enjoyable. But with What's Happening Now! the plots were inane-Roger has a look-alike cousin who's a criminal and escapes from jail? Gimme a break!
this show jumped the day they started filming. everything fell through floor from day one. first, shirley wasn't the smartass wise-cracker and she was also made to be part of the crew. shirley was supposed to be a bit-part player and putting her up front like that diminished her specialness.
I never saw this show before TV Land aired the marathon this weekend. A few things: 1) Dee was not that bad. If anything, I think her lifeless delivery made the character a lot funnier than if they'd found some professional child actress (ala Janet Jackson) who would try to cute it up. Dee came off as hilariously soulless and evil. 2)They really underused Shirley Hemphill until the last season, and then they messed up her character. 3) If Dwayne ever did anything memorable other than say "Hey HEY hey", I musta been out getting a burger. He's like the black Larry Fine. 4) It seriously looks like Rerun lives in the Munsters' house. It'd hard to pick a shark-jump point, 'cause the writing was always sort of mediocre...that wasn't really the point. I think the Gong Show episode was probably the killer. It combined two really bad things: an episode blatantly written to promote some "struggling star with lots of heart" (Couldn't they let those kids sing more than just that one song?), and the notion that lots of Rerun dancing could carry the rest of the episode.
They really couldn't have given Raj a more irritating wife. The show would have been pretty tolerable if it wasn't for her.
WHN!! JTS when Ernest Thomas wasn't in a good deal of the episodes for the last season (maybe a contract dispute, a la Redd Foxx). The writers had to work around the other characters that weren't Raj. It became frustratin' waitin' to see if Ernest was gonna be on from week to week. They had stories that dealt with Dwayne, Shirley, Nadine, Dee, and even Darryl and Maurice. The show just wasn't worth watchin' anymore.
Nadine and Raj. Bones on top of bones. The sparks that their bones must have made during lovemaking is what caused this show to jump.

It never boned.