Class Act

Whilst our for a bike ride with Sherwood, Lydia spots the car of celebrity Ben Pettit. She discovers he has a soft spot for kids and to get his attention perfoms and impromptu dance on the Streets of New York. Ben agrees to visit the school and talk to the kids, where he sets them an assignment. Ben and Lydia start to get closer but he has issues and Lydia realises the relationship can't continue. 

 Meanwhile Shorofsky and Bruno are arguing about Bruno having to learn to be a conductor.

In the U.K. this episode was shown out of order as episode 3 instead of episode 4. 

 This episode has both Guest Star Syndrome and Doomed Love, two of my pet hates, which make this one of my least favourite episodes ever! For me it is just a really boring story that goes no where, while the majority of our cast have little to do. 

As a 15 year old in the U.K. watching for the first time I didn’t know who Glynn Turman was but assumed he was well known enough in America for them to build an episode around him but for me it really didn't work.

Ben seems to have a lot of flaws to his character but none of them get explored properly. He obviously likes alcohol and wine isn't strong enough for him! He seems to need constant attention and adulation from the public and finds it difficult if he doesn't get it. Everything he does he seems to do to get noticed and being famous from an early age has obviously had a detrimental effect on him. However,  there is no real attempt to remedy these issues.

Plus what is his problem with Leroy, Julie and Doris’ High Flying number? Okay if he doesn't like that kind of thing but he goes completely over the top. Whatever his problems none of them get examined or resolved in this episode so I can’t see the point in them being part of the story at all.

As for his romance with Lydia, again what is the point? Lydia herself says the position of being his new lady is a limited role so I don’t understand why anyone would start a relationship when they know from the outset it’s not going to last. If she had feelings for him and realized he’d got problems, wouldn't she want to try and help him? After all, he only criticized the kids and she breaks up with him.

Even their break up is bizarre, they dance and sing a love song to each other about dancing together endlessly, but endlessly only lasts until the end of the song! I have to say it confused me watching as a kid and I don’t really get it now. Maybe I fell asleep and missed something but it doesn't really make sense to me.

Also what is the story with Lisa who works with Ben? Initially I thought she was his date but then she seems more like an assistant but she doesn't seem to be very happy when Ben takes an interest in Lydia. Maybe she knows it won’t work or maybe she's jealous but as she never tries to warn Lydia about getting involved or anything like that I find her character quite ambiguous.

Also Why does someone get another person a belly dancer as a present? Were they the latest thing in 1982?

Sadly not much else is happening in this episode. There is Bruno clashing with Shorofsky over being made to do conducting when he doesn't want to but that really doesn't go anywhere either.

I particularly don’t like the question and answer session the kids have with Ben. They do this a few times in this season, bring someone in and have the kids ask questions but it always felt like filler as it doesn’t progress the story at all. The only part I found interesting was Coco’s question as to whether he has any regrets or resent not having a proper childhood. To me it shows the depth of Coco’s character and how she thinks deeply about situations and realizes Fame isn't ultimately going to bring happiness. Sadly she never gets a proper answer to her question. 

I also love how Coco is the only one busily taking notes when Ben gives out an assignment Again it just highlights how she is so dedicated to her art. Shame that Erica didn’t actually get a song to sing for her High Flying performance as that I’m sure would have lifted this episode.

Even more frustrating is the scene between Reardon and Danny, where Reardon has suddenly forgotten Danny’s name! This scene would have worked great in “And the Winner” showing that Reardon hadn't completely settled into the school but this is episode 4 and it feels totally out of place to me. Although we didn't see it on screen, in that 1st episode Danny was cast by Bruno and Reardon in Bruno’s show. Lydia has a major problem with it as that character has to dance and Danny supposedly hated dancing. She was going to discuss it with Reardon so I would have assumed he’d know who Danny was from casting him and having arguments with Lydia about it.

Then in episode 2 “Your Own Song” Danny is flirting with Diana during the acting exercise in Reardon’s class and Reardon uses Danny’s name then, so to suddenly forget it now to me is bad writing. I realise they probably wanted to set up a little friction between the 2 characters ready for when Crandall dies but that needed to be implemented better than this. As this episode was written by the show’s executive producer Bill Blinn to be honest I expect better. Since writing this I discovered that this was actually the first episode to be filmed in the second series, so from that point of view the story makes sense. It's just a shame that  having moved it to a later place in the season they didn't realize that it affected continuity or maybe they did and didn't care. 

The music in this episode is okay but it’s strange that Debbie sings Just Like You on the album but not in the episode, here it’s done by the Waters. It’s a good job that when she turned the radio up, a song she could dance to actually came on. For all Lydia knew the station could have been about to go to the news and I don’t think even Debbie could dance to that!

After Lydia has finished her routine she walks to the car and we see a long shot of the street she has danced down but there is no sign of Sherwood who was left by the road side holding the 2 bikes. We then see Sherwood standing next to the street vendor where Lydia turned the radio up. I'm really not sure how Sherwood got there considering she was holding the bikes and now the bikes are gone!

After filming the High Flying sequence Gene Anthony Ray was taken to hospital as he was feeling ill. This maybe why he was missing from the next episode.

Original  air date in U.S.A 21st October 1982

Original  air date  in U.K. 05th May 1983,  Repeated The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992,  Now 80s 30th January & 4th February 2022

Original air date in Australia 13th March 1983                                            

Original air date in The Netherlands  08th April 1983

Original air date in Italy 08th December 1983   

Original air date in Belgium  26th  November 1987   

Original  air date in France 31st December 1987