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What's Happening!! is a sitcom that aired in the 1970's. It centered on a young African-American High School student named Roger "Raj" Thomas. It's very loosely based on the movie Cooley High. The series is available on DVD.
Tropes used in What's Happening!! include:
- Altar the Speed: Rerun
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Raj's sister Dee.
- Back to School: Mrs. Thomas
- Black and Nerdy: Raj.
- Celebrity Star: The Doobie Brothers
- Crowning Moment of Awesome: see Karma Houdini below
- Crowning Moment of Funny: the episode where Rerun tries out for the dance group and makes it because the other dancers want him for comic relief because of his weight. Dwayne finds out and tells Rerun and Raj, who sabotages the show by pretending he's Rerun. MUCH Hilarity Ensues
- The Danza: Mabel King as Mabel Thomas
- Also Ernest Thomas as Roger Thomas, Haywood Nelson as Dwayne Nelson, Fred Berry as Fred "Rerun" Stubbs, and Shirley Hemphill as Shirley Wilson.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dee.
- Devil in Plain Sight: Raj's sister Dee, in fact she codefies this trope practically.
- Dom Com
- Excited Show Title!: With not one, but two exclamation points!!
- Freudian Trio: Raj(Ego) Rerun(Id) Dwayne(Superego)
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Haywood Nelson, also, appeared in Sanford and Son as the grandson of the minor character named Grady.
- High School: Raj, Rerun, and Dwayne attend Thomas Jefferson High School.
- In with the In Crowd: Rerun
- Karma Houdini: Dee regularly blackmails her brother AND his friends yet is NEVER caught and called to account.
- Even though this is true, she was caught and punished severely for taking an It's Not What You Think moment (in this case, her friend Robin wanted to run away from home, but asked Dee to talk to the guidance counselor, who thought that it was Dee who wanted to run away) and turning it to her advantage to get Raj and Mrs. Thomas to be nicer to her and buy her things.
- Local Hangout: Rob's Place. in the Spin-Off, it's changed to Rob's Diner and Shirley and Raj own it.
- Put on a Bus: Much like Esther Rolle on Good Times, Mabel King did not like the direction in which the show was going and left after the second season.
- Sassy Black Woman: Shirley and Dee (in a younger version of the trope) Mrs. Thomas when necessary.
- Spin-Off: What'sHappeningNow: Raj is a successful author and married, Rerun is a used car salesman, Dwayne is a computer programmer, and Dee is in college. Ran for 3 seasons in the late 1980's.
- Stern Teacher: Miss Collins, the history teacher.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Dee loves her peanut butter. Rerun loves everything.
- Very Special Episode: The two-parter where Sweet Daddy Williams forces the gang to illegally record a Doobie Brothers concert.