"What's Happening Now!"? (1 Viewer)

Since "What's Happening!" is complete, any chance of the revival series, "What's Happening Now!"? Watching the episodes TV Land has been running, and they appear to be right up there with the original series.

Sony won't released that for a DAMN long time. TV Land is doing a What's Happening / What's Happening Now marathon right now...

I did not have good memories of the 3rd season of WH but I'm finding it's pretty good now that I'm watching in on TV Land after not having seen it for years while the show was in TV Siberia.

I'd like to see WHN released but I do think that might be less likely now since it's being shown in reruns. I'm sure it's no coincidence that the 3 season run of WH finished on DVD before these reruns started. But perhaps if the WHN eps do well the studio will get the idea of put those out, too - uncut.

I'd say the time is also right for the surviving WH cast members to do a reunion special where they talk about the show and feature classic clips. It's terrible that Rerun, Shirley & Mama are gone. So I'd like to see them paid tribute to.

With WHN you wouldn't have to worry about cutting: it was already short to begin with. First-run syndicated series are shorter than network series because they never had any regulations on the amount of commercial time.

you never know, the third season had Martin Lawrence so Sony could use that to their benefit in terms of promoting the set

I was watching the end of the What's Happening Marathon because I have all three seasons of What's Happening on box set so no need to watch those and they was showing like 6 or 7 random espiodes of What's Happening Now. TV Land also have the rights to air What's Happening Now and I hope they will air them very soon. I was just a little kid when What's Happening Now was on but I do remember that not What's Happening because I wasn't born when they were airing that on ABC...

WHN!! is likely on DVD I think because Sony likes releasing urban TV shows. I think it has more of a shot than Facts of Life or Silver Spoons.

So, this was a direct-to-syndication series(meaning it wasn't carried by a particular network)?

Yes, that's right, Esten. WHN premiered several years after the original What's Happening had been cancelled. It's thought of as a sequel series, with most of the cast intact. I only want the first season on dvd, though, because Rerun quit after that, so they have 2 Rerun-less seasons. I can't seriously enjoy WH without Rerun. God bless you, Fred Berry!

I am hoping now that urban shows like Sanford, Good Times and What's Happening have either finished or are about to finish on DVD that Sony starts devoting attention to "non-urban" shows like the two you mentioned (they could always use Tootie as a selling point for Facts Of Life and Alfonso Ribero for Silver Spoons) along with One Day At A Time and other shows in the vaults they haven't bothered with that have a bigger following than That's My Mama does.

I was surprised to see That's My Mama...that's the ONE sitcom of the 70s that I NEVER heard of, until long after it was gone. Keep in mind, there are many, many popular African-American sitcoms we haven't seen yet, like "Amen" to name one. Also 227 and Cosbys haven't gotten too far, nor have A Different World or Fresh Prince for that matter. I don't know if Sony controls any of those, but they all have a ways to go. I think by regularly releasing all the shows we've discussed above, Sony was simply trying to reach its African-American market, and they were very successful, I think. These are all good quality dvds, (except for the lack of extras).

Interesting. NOW does look like it had a smaller budget than the original series, so that would explain it.

I'm definitely getting season 3, for Ken Sagoes. "What's happening, muddafugga? You siddown!"

I think there are a lot of "non-urban" shows that deserve a release as well. What about shows such as Gimme A Break or The Facts Of Life that had mixed casts? Both of those shows were long-running 80's classics and I think they would both outsell That's My Mama in spades and neither show is currently in syndication so the audiences for them on DVD are huge. There are so many 70's and 80's sitcoms I'm still waiting on DVD like those two, Alice (I'll buy the best-of, but it's not the same), Maude, One Day At A Time and Mama's Family that ran a long time, have a large following, yet the companies aren't listening to us when we tell them we want to buy them on DVD (Facts and Mama's Family are both in the TSOD unreleased top 15... what more do we as fans have to do?)

Gimme a Break! is Universal, but I agree that Facts of Life and Silver Spoons deserve a DVD release. Maude and One Day at a Time should arrive in 2006, I think.
What I was saying was that Sony has done very well with the urban sitcoms, especially Good Times, Sanford & Son and What's Happening!! (I run a What's Happening!! website and couldn't believe how many I've sold!)

Oddly enough, there are a few local channels airing Gimme a Break! right now. In Alabama and South Carolina, I believe. Chicago gets Facts of Life. Maude and One Day at a Time are not airing anywhere currently, though.

I would definitely buy the Facts of Life if it came out on DVD. I loved those girls!

Do they have differen strokes on DVD?

yes, season one has been out for awhile, season two is supposed to be out at the end of January. Maybe we'll (hopefully) see Facts Of Life released to correspond with a future Strokes season. If you're a fan, make sure to buy both seasons, I have read that season 1 just barely did well enough to make season 2, and the sales of season 2 will make or break future Strokes sets, Facts Of Life, Silver Spoons and a lot of other Embassy programs that were on during the late 70's through the 1980's.

Was What's Happening released unaltered on dvd, or are there cut episodes?

After watching syndicated WH eps for years, I think the DVD releases were uncut. I'm fairly certain that I saw scenes (usually at the end) that were not there in the syndie eps.

What's Happening Now!! is not part of TV Land's regular lineup. They are just airing the original What's Happening!!

The episodes of WHN that aired last weekend were rented to TV Land just for the marathon.