The Strike

The teachers have moral dilemmas when faced between choosing to help the students with a show and honouring their commitments to their union when a strike is called.

 Montgomery is left in charge to direct a show while the teachers are on strike but all is not well as the students struggle to make things work without the support and help of their teachers.

The star of the show Leroy also is a no show. 

I’ve always loved this episode and like how it takes an issue like strike action and shows both sides of the story without judgment and dictating which side is right and which side is wrong. This is done well with the conflict between Sherwood and Shorofsky and with the discussion between Bruno and Doris.

We don’t actually find out here how the strike ended but I guess the real issues are how the kids rise to the challenges of putting on their own show.

Although all the cast get in on the action this is a particularly strong episode for Montgomery and we finally get to see a little more of his character and how strong and determined he can be particularly standing up to Leroy.

I was a little confused as to why Lydia lectures Montgomery at the start of the episode because he has already organised a show without support from the teachers in “Alone in the Crowd”.

We also see great strength of character from Coco. Yet again she is placed into conflict with Julie but instead of holding a grudge she buckles down and helps organise the show. There’s lots of humour particularly with Doris and Danny. Although I don’t think they ever mention again that Doris wears contact lenses.

This episode marks the first appearance of Mrs Berg, who from the outset is portrayed as ditzy.

Two issues I do have with the episode is I don’t believe Julie and Montgomery would have been able to hear the teacher’s conversations in the cafeteria from another classroom. If they could then I don’t see how anyone ever got any work done because all they would hear is all the sounds from all the other classrooms. Plus how come we never see any of these other teachers in the teachers lounge?

Also why have the kids built a stage in the cafeteria? We have had scenes set in the auditorium before in the 1st series although I know they didn’t have a permanent auditorium set for them to film on so I assume that for budgetary reasons they have used a different room. Just in the show it makes no sense. Where are the kids having lunch? As the stage seems to take up most of the room, where are the audience going to sit?

I like that the teacher’s beliefs are tested as they all want to help with the show and both Shorofsky and Sherwood find a way to help. Although the scene where Lydia realises that Sherwood has been helping Leroy is a little over done, with all the over the top yawning, but I love Lydia’s response.

We also find out that Greg has 2 kids. I don’t remember anything else ever being said about him being married or having a family. I think I always thought he was single.

The music in this episode is very strong and Carlo finally gets to sing a little both in Desdemona and a line in Starmaker. I’d forgotten they used Starmaker more than once and here it’s an edited version of the album/single recording as it includes Erica. Also we hear Lori sing a solo line for the first time too.

Is Gene really singing the high part in the middle of Desdemona? It doesn’t sound like him, it sounds more like one of the waters.

Two final points of interest for me are that: Sherwood has a Mark Rothko painting on the wall in her apartment and he’s one of my favourite artists.

Also near the beginning of the episode the kids are all wearing clothes that they wore in one of the main season one photo sessions, so presumably those photos were taken during the filming of this episode. 

Original  air date in U.S.A.  18th February 1982

Original  air date in U.K. 29th July 1982,  BBC repeat 04th  August 1986,  The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992, Now 80s 21st & 25th November 2021 

Original air date  in France 17th April 1982

Original air date in The Netherlands 04th February 1983       

Original air date in Italy 12th February 1983

Original air date in Spain 3rd April 1983 

Original  air date in West Germany 13th February 1985

Original air date in Belgium 27th  August 1987