The White Shadow

[hatwink]

Originally Posted by Jack1000

Yes,

The White Shadow was a great series! Anyone could get something from it! Wasn't it Curtis Jackson who was shot/killed during a liquer store robbery? I can't remember: But I have some great episodes to share:

1.) How about the one where the new strict English teacher comes to Carver High and word gets out that she is suffering from a nervous breakdown? She befriends Coach Revves after awhile but an enraged student threatens to kill her? (Can't remember if it was a student on the team, but someone comes running into Reeves office and screams, " _______'s got a gun! He's gonna kill (Ms.) Stanley!" Wow!!! talk about an episode ahead of its time!

2.) The one where Randy Judd (the kid who dies) because Reeves makes him run laps. Reeves is unaware that the kid had a serious medical condition. (frail arteries) He dies because an artery bursts in his brain and Reeves is deeply shaken. This episode is chilling! If I remember correctly, there is no forgiveness by the boy's parents at the end. (The series doesn't take the easy way out here.)

3.) The one where the history teacher Mr. Makie also suffers teacher bun out and kids run wild in his classroom. This episode really shows the stress that teachers can face and what happens when they stop caring about their kids.

4.) The one with the autistic kid is a great episode as well!

5.) The one where one of the players, (Ricky Gomez?) is being beaten by his father.

At times there was a little too much singing in the shower and I didn't care for the episodes too much where they go on location or vacation. The greatness of the series was when they were at Carver dealing with school issues and players' problems. Ken Howard reminded me of a no-nonsense phy-ed teacher that I had in middle school and high school. When Reeves got mad the emotion he showed was spellbounding! At times this series was like watching a documentary about life inside and around an inner-city school. Yes, it is THAT good! (You should make a board for The White Shadow when the DVD comes out!)

Jack

Was Gomez being beaten by fists or belt?

[Jack1000]

Originally Posted by hatwink

Was Gomez being beaten by fists or belt?

Can't recall, I think both. Do you remember if his Dad joins a recovery program? How did Coach Reeves deal with this problem? I haven't seen the series in such a LONG time, so my memories are hazy.

Jack

[jamesanthony]

Originally Posted by Jack1000

Yes,

1.) How about the one where the new strict English teacher comes to Carver High and word gets out that she is suffering from a nervous breakdown? She befriends Coach Revves after awhile but an enraged student threatens to kill her? (Can't remember if it was a student on the team, but someone comes running into Reeves office and screams, " _______'s got a gun! He's gonna kill (Ms.) Stanley!" Wow!!! talk about an episode ahead of its time!

2.) The one where Randy Judd (the kid who dies) because Reeves makes him run laps. Reeves is unaware that the kid had a serious medical condition. (frail arteries) He dies because an artery bursts in his brain and Reeves is deeply shaken. This episode is chilling! If I remember correctly, there is no forgiveness by the boy's parents at the end. (The series doesn't take the easy way out here.)

3.) The one where the history teacher Mr. Makie also suffers teacher bun out and kids run wild in his classroom. This episode really shows the stress that teachers can face and what happens when they stop caring about their kids.

.

At times there was a little too much singing in the shower and I didn't care for the episodes too much where they go on location or vacation. The greatness of the series was when they were at Carver dealing with school issues and players' problems. Ken Howard reminded me of a no-nonsense phy-ed teacher that I had in middle school and high school. When Reeves got mad the emotion he showed was spellbounding! At times this series was like watching a documentary about life inside and around an inner-city school. Yes, it is THAT good! (You should make a board for The White Shadow when the DVD comes out!)

Jack

Those are good examples of why this show was outstanding. The one with Mr. Mackie and the one with the English teacher played by Christina Pickles were 2 of the last 3 episodes which shows that the show was still good at the end of its run. The last season episodes were not consistently strong though, but it seems like they went back to being more hard hitting towards the end (maybe they knew they were going to get cancelled?). The show with Haywood Nelson was interesting because I have never seen him do any other dramatic part.

The shower singing is a bit hard to believe, but I remember the episode where they made a record. Some fans consider it to be the worst episode ever, but it isn't that bad. To me the weakest show is the one where they were selling the Christmas trees. Also the one where they faked the coach's death wasn't very good. Both were from the last season. Also, although James Whitmore was well cast as his father I didn't care for the episodes with him at the start of that season as they were too removed from the main milieu of the show. The last episode is rather dry to me too, although it was not a bad idea to show what had become of the graduates. I guess they could've gone another season, but it's all just as well.

A couple of the players that were added in the last year, Jesse Mitchell and Art Hollday, never had any episodes about them and seemed to have no real personalities.

[hatwink]

Originally Posted by Jack1000

Can't recall, I think both. Do you remember if his Dad joins a recovery program? How did Coach Reeves deal with this problem? I haven't seen the series in such a LONG time, so my memories are hazy.

Jack

It's been a very long time for me too.I really haven't seen much of the show since it went off.I know it's far fetched, but maybe they should do a reunion movie or something, but it seems that most of the guys have managed well since they left the show.