Alone In The Crowd

Montgomery is busy organising the 7th annual performing arts benefit and the show is creating a huge buzz as lots of agents and casting people will attend. Coco badgers Bruno to perform with her at the show but Bruno has a fear of performing in public and would rather spend his time alone creating his music and the two argue. 

 Leroy, who is failing in English is angry when he's not allowed to perform in the show. However when the power goes out it looks like there won't be any show after all. 

 Danny and Doris argue about a performance Crandall has them doing in drama class however during the power out they are stuck in the elevator and for the first time they begin to bond.  

Although on the face of it this seems to be a Bruno episode it's really more of an ensemble as Danny, Doris, Montgomery, Coco & Leroy all get quite a lot of air time and a much more in-depth look at their characters and their relationships.

It's actually Danny, Doris and Leroy who I find the most interesting here.

I remember not really questioning the Bruno story when I first watched but re-watching it I'm not sure it makes complete sense and isn't totally in line with what we have seen already and what we already know about Bruno.

He's already supposed to have done 1 year at the school so presumably has been in quite a few shows playing in front of audiences of various sizes. In the pilot episode we see him playing the piano as part of a class exercise and actually drew attention to himself by playing differently to the other students and gets into a fight with Shorofsky.

Then in "Passing Grade" he plays keyboards at Coco audition and he seems more confident than she does and gets her out of having to explain about her previous experience. He certainly doesn't seem nervous or worried about playing in front of people. Plus he's supposed have set up this band with Coco, what is the point of that if he doesn't like playing in front of people? He manages to get over this fear pretty quickly just from Shorofsky booing him, although that is quite a nice scene.

Also from the conversation with his Father it looks like Bruno is quite experienced with girls and isn't a virgin!

That a side I really like the humour in this episode and there are so many example of how witty the show was at this stage particularly with Doris.

This is the first time we see drama teacher Greg Crandall and see the student in the drama class. Doris is just hilarious as she works out different back stories for her character.

We also hear for the first time that students have to have a certain grade average to perform in the shows. The whole Leroy story is quite interesting. I love his reaction to Montgomery about being asked to be "A HELPER", then I also love how he tries to twist the situation with Sherwood to say what a prestigious position "a helper" is. Great stuff and great interaction between the characters.

The scenes between Leroy and Danny and Leroy and Montgomery are also interesting as we see the friendships developing. Particularly between Leroy and Danny where they will become firm friends for the whole of the 6 seasons.

The other relationship that develops here is the Danny and Doris one and the scenes set in the lift where they confide in each other are just wonderfully played. Although we never did get to find out what Doris is actually doing in the show.

Montgomery finally gets some plot although it's not totally clear why he is organizing the whole show pretty much by himself with the aid of a few fellow students but he seems to be in charge with no input from any of the teachers. It's seems like a lot to ask of one of the students who is only in his second year.

I tend to find myself cringing at Coco when she angrily  yells at Bruno and she calls him a ratfink. It doesn't really seem like an appropriate insult. She’s quite angry so I'm sure she would normally have used much stronger language but they've toned it down and it's just totally unconvincing to me. I'd rather she didn't call him a name at all and just state that he's letting people down.

I'd forgotten that Coco and Bruno are supposed to have a band. I don't remember us ever seeing this band in any of the future episodes. Obviously Bruno plays the keyboards for her quite a bit but I never realised it was supposed to be as part of a band.

I really like the music in the episode and we hear Lee sing for the first time on his self penned "Alone in the Crowd". Then there is the rousing "We Got The Power" which is great and is slightly different to the album version, in that Lee is also on some of the backing vocals here but not on the album.

The episode ends on a real high as Danny and Doris rush off, seemingly forgotten their connection as they become concerned that they will miss out on being part of the show that is just starting.

I remember the first time I watched this episode feeling frustrated that it ends as I wanted to see them do some of the show. 

Original  air date in U.S.A.  28th January 1982

Original  air date in U.K. 08th July 1982,  BBC repeat 31st July 1986,  The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992,   NOW 80s 14th & 18th November 2021

Original air date  in France  26th June 1982

Original Air date in Australia (Melbourne)  20th June 1982

Original air date in The Netherlands 21st January 1983       

Original air date in Italy 22nd January 1983

Original air date in Spain 13th March 1983

Original  air date in West Germany 23rd January 1985

Original air date in Belgium  6th  August 1987