Street Kid

As part of an acting assignment Doris dresses up as a hooker and hits the streets of New York. 

There she meets Tracy, a 16 year old runaway making a living on the streets. The two get arrested for soliciting and Doris takes Tracy under her wing showing her that life could be very different if she became a student at the school.

However is Tracy good enough to get into the school or will she go back to the streets?

Meanwhile Shorofsky buys a classic car. The only problem is he can't drive so asks a reluctant Sherwood to teach him . 

This episode deals with an issue and surrounds a guest star and normally that would mean I won’t enjoy it as much as some of the others however the main star of this episode is Valerie and I love that. It's a brilliant touching and hysterical episode.

Finally we get a Doris centered episode and it’s not just an episode where Doris has a problem, we get a fully rounded view of her character.

There are so many things here we get to see:

- Her determination to do a good job and her stubbornness,  maybe she is a little misguided in the way she goes out on the street to research a role but she is thorough and learns  so much.

- Her passion and how caring she is in her need to help other people. Once she meets Tracey she does everything she can to help and we see a great scene with her mother as she explains there is no point fighting with her as she will get what she wants in the end.

- We also see how manipulative she can to get what she wants (naturally this is all done with good intentions but she tells lies never the less). This is shown in her conversation with Lydia where she tells a sad story in attempt to get the teacher on side and we learn that she lied to all the teachers so that she could get Tracey into the lessons.

- Also how funny she can be. Despite it being a difficult issue Doris approaches the whole thing with so much humour.

- The line about Doris being the world’s twin sister is just so fitting for the character. It’s been awhile since I watched this episode and I didn’t remember the line but it works so well to describe her.

Of all the first season characters this is definitely the best portrayal so far. I wonder how much input that Valerie actually had in this episode. I know she has said that Doris was based on her real personality but I wonder if the writers just used what they saw in Valerie to write this episode or whether Val made suggestions. I remember reading an interview with Val back in the 80s where she expressed her frustrations with this episode and the censors, in that they weren’t allowed to use the word prostitute to describe the character! They could show it, imply it, build a whole story around it but not actually say it, which is just crazy!

Some of the other characters, Julie, Danny Coco and Bruno are a little neglected and Leroy doesn’t even appear but the focus on Doris is so interesting that we don’t notice the others not doing much.

However the subplot with Sherwood and Shorofsky is hilarious; real laugh out loud stuff as Sherwood tried to teach Shorofsky how to drive. One question though what or who is “Captain Queeg”? I had to switch the subtitles on to see what is actually said but it’s not something I’ve ever heard of before. I assume it’s a character from another TV show who isn’t very nice but don’t really know.

Life is a Celebration is a real stand out song from the show with a really fantastic routine choreographed by Debbie and Carlo gets a proper chance to show off his singing and his vocals work perfectly with Erica’s. Gene doesn't appear in this episode and Michael Delorenzo takes his place as the lead male dancer in the routine.

Tracey’s audition where she sings “Blue Moon” I always found really sad as she realises that she just isn’t good enough to compete with the other kids at the school. I’m glad they didn’t decide to take the easy route with the script and make her an excellent performer who gets into the school and lives happily ever after. However as it’s a vocal audition why isn’t Shorofsky there?

Yet again we see the 4 main teachers taking responsibility and making decisions about school rules in reality it wouldn’t be up to them but I guess it works for the story.

Original  air date in U.S.A.  25th February 1982

Original  air date in U.K. 12th August 1982,  The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992, Now 80s 28th November & 02th December 2021 

Original air date in France 24th April 1982

Original air date in The Netherlands 18th February 1983       

Original air date in Italy 19th February 1983

Original air date in Spain 10th April 1983

Original air date in Belgium 03rd September 1987