DVD Release Date: August 23, 2005 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Color
MSRP: $29.95
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 22
Running Time: 542 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English, Closed Captioned
Special Features: None, just Previews for Sony DVDs.
Introduction:
The coolest comedy of the ‘70s is back on DVD for one
final time! What’s Happening!! - The Complete 3rd
Season is full of laughs with 22 outrageous episodes!
As we last saw in the second season finale, Raj and
Rerun are now living on their own in their own
apartment. Shirley is now living in the Thomas house
with Dee, as Mama is away. And get ready for a brand
new look to the opening credits! Different shots of
Raj, Rerun, Dwayne and the rest of the cast are
featured with even a funkier theme song.
What’s Happening!! stars Ernest Lee Thomas as Roger
“Raj” Thomas, Haywood Nelson as Dwyane Nelson, Fred
Berry as Freddy “Rerun” Stubbs, Danielle Spencer as
Dee Thomas and Shirley Hemphill as Shirley Wilson.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
Some say season three is the weakest season of the
three seasons, but I think it is pretty good. It may
not be better than the first two seasons but it is
still very funny! Can Rerun win the disco contest in
“Disco Dollar Disaster,” can Shirley make big “dough”
with her cookies in “Shirley’s Cookies,” Raj is up to
his crazy ideas of moving out in “Raj Moves Out” and
taking a nude artist model job in “No Clothes Make the
Man,” is Dee good enough to be a cheerleader in “Dee
The Cheerleader,” will Rerun sue Rob’s Place for food
poisoning in (ironically) “Food Poisoning,” see Rerun
as The Fonz, Jack Tripper, and Mork from Ork as he
gets a job at ABC as a page in “The Last Page,” and in
the series finale the gang do something nice in “The
Benefit Show.”
Guest stars include John Ritter’s then wife Nancy
Morgan in “No Clothes Make the Man,” Kim Fields’
mother Chip Fields in “Food Poisoning,” the great Hal
Williams in “The Eviction,” Todd Bridges’ mother Betty
Bridges in “The Debate,” Leave it to Beaver’s Richard
Deacon in “A Present for Dee” and the durable Helen
Martin in “The Benefit Show.” Fritzi Burr returns in
“The Debate” as Miss Collins and Earl Billings returns
in various episodes as Rob. Joining the cast in
recurring roles this season are Leland Smith as Snake,
David Hollander as Little Earl and John Welsh as Big
Earl.
Packaging:
The packaging for this set is nice and consistent from
the previous two sets. The box cover has Dwayne, Rerun
and Raj from left to right. The background is in two
shades of a blue color with the title in red with a
white border. The back of the box is in two shades of
a red type color and has a long synopsis to what to
expect in season three. There are two snapshots from
show, too, both of the trio. There is also a nice
color photo of the cast (Shirley, Dwayne, Rerun, Raj,
and Dee).
The case cover is the same as the box cover. The back
of the case has another nice photo of the cast –
Shirley, Dwayne, Raj, Dee and Rerun. When you open the
case once, you get nice color photos – a huge photo of
Shirley along with a few snapshots are on the left,
and a huge photo of Raj along with a few snapshots are
on the right. When you open the case another time, you
get to the discs. There are four sides to it. The
first side holds the episode synopsis booklet and a
booklet of Sony’s TV DVD titles. The episode booklet
has the same cover as the box and case. It has a disc
by disc breakdown of episodes, with episode number,
titles and the synopsis for the episode.
All the discs this season have the same color scheme.
The color is blue. Disc one has Raj on it and holds
episodes 1-7 of season three. Disc two has Dwayne on
it and holds episodes 8-14. Disc three has Rerun on it
and holds episodes 15-22.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menu screen is fairly easy to navigate and I think
better looking than any of the other menus from
previous seasons. The main menu is in a blue color
scheme with a photo of the trio (2 are different from
the box and case cover). The menu screens are shown
above. This set has chapters that have about 4 or 5
place marks. There are only two options on discs two
and three. Play All Episodes and Episode Selection.
The episode selection screen has different photos for
each disc and is in a green type color. Disc one has
the same two options but also a Bonus Previews
section. There are a lot of previews, such as Urban
TV, Classic TV, Bewitched (TV), Partridge Family and
some movies, too.
Video and Audio Quality:
The video and audio are about the same as they were on
previous sets. There is a new opening credit video and
it looks great quality wise. The audio is on par with
the first seasons, too. No complaints from me at all
on the video and audio. As for the episode timings,
most of them are between 25:00 to 25:15 or so. There
are two episodes that are 24:40 or so, but that is
because the 40 second opening credits is used rather
than the full one minute opening credits. Episodes
that have that are: “Making Out” and “Dee, The
Cheerleader.” Now, there are about 4 episodes that
are in the 23:50 range and HAVE the full one minute
theme, too. 3 of those 4 episodes have no tag scene
and have an awkward clap at the end, but I think it
was like that originally and they had no tag scenes
for those episodes. The three episodes are:
“Dwyane’s Dream,” “Shirley’s Fired” and “Food
Poisoning.” The other episode under 24 minutes is
“The Eviction.” That episode has the 40 second
shortened theme but DOES have a tag scene. Basically
every episode after “Dwayne’s Dream” is in the 24
minute range (24:10-24:50 or so), so I guess they
shortened the episodes up a bit. Those episodes are:
“The Thomas Treasure,” “The Last Page,” “First Class
Coach,” “Dwayne’s Debate,” “Dwayne’s Debate,” and “The
Benefit Show.” Those are all on disc three. There is
one more episode, but on disc one, “Basketball Brains”
that falls in that category.
The episodes are not syndicated prints, or we would
see them in the 22:00 or 22:30 range. The 3 episodes
that have an awkward clap at the end and no tag scenes
are suspicious, but they could have been like that
originally. Do not let this stop you from buying this
set, because Sony has done an admirable job (yes, they
have, lol) with the episodes for each season of this
series. I’ve been heavily researching this and I
really think there were no tags on those three
episodes originally.
Special Features:
Staying consistent with the first two seasons, we get
no special features. All we get are previews for
other Sony DVD products. If the follow-up series
What’s Happening Now!! is released on DVD, that is a
good time to start some special features. But let’s
just first hope we get that series on DVD at all.
Sony’s urban comedies, such as Good Times, Sanford &
Son, That’s My Mama and The Jeffersons seem to not be
getting any special features. Yet 227 got special
features but has yet to go past season one, so maybe
not having special features is a good thing?
Final Comments:
So we are now finished with What’s Happening!! on DVD.
But I think we are just actually HALF finished. We
need to get What’s Happening Now!! on DVD, too, to
make it feel complete. I really hope Sony has the
plans in the works for that series on DVD. It also
had three seasons and was quiet popular in first run
syndication. Both shows are coming to TV Land in
November 2005, so if you have never seen the follow-up
series, please watch it. It is pretty good and worth
watching. So, obviously please buy this set if you
have the first two seasons, and if you have not bought
those yet, but them now and buy this one, too. So
what is happening ‘now’ Sony? We hope What’s
Happening Now!! is what is happening now!
