Homecoming

When Doris' estranged Brother turns up unexpectedly in New York, Doris tries to reconcile a family rift that has lasted for 10 years. 

Meanwhile Lydia has problems when Mrs Berg accidently invites her old Ballet teacher to a jazz showcase.

The second seasons continues with another issue lead episode although having said that the issue itself isn't really explored here it’s the emotional impact that they concentrate on and how that affects a family where 2 members refuse to compromise on their beliefs. 

As much as I like Doris and am interested in her family life I prefer the stories that are school orientated. Here so many of the cast are pretty much ignored, so this isn't one of my favourite episodes. Both Lydia and Bruno have been served so well by this season so far and they continue to have lots of focus on them in this episode where as Coco is missing and Julie, Danny, Sherwood and Reardon are barely in the episode and even when they are they have nothing to do. For me the focus on the guest stars spoils my enjoyment of the episode. I would rather they concentrate purely on Doris’ point of view and her friends helping her. Having seen the script some scenes particularly Reardon’s have been edited out to fit the main story line in, which is a great shame. 

I wonder if they were actually filmed and are on the cutting room floor or if they didn't bother filming them because they knew the episode was too long. Could there be some unseen footage in the archives that never made the light of day? 

Mrs Berg adds some much needed light relief with her making Lydia’s life difficult. Her misunderstanding of the underlined names in Lydia’s address book is really funny. 

I like the scene where Leroy realizes that Lydia wants to impress her old teacher and says “We have a teacher we love too”, it’s quite touching. Although it’s a good job the dancers were in the actual dance class when the guests arrive on the wrong date for the show. They could have been in their other lessons and Lydia would have had no show to put on. 

I also like when Lydia asks the class if they want to do a classical or modern routine and Michelle is so enthusiastic for the classical and the others all want to do something modern.

Finally Doris and Dwight find some common ground when she notices he’s lost a couple of pounds in weight. It’s a really nice moment for both of them.

"Face to Face" isn't one of my favourite songs in fact I find it quite weak compared to some of the great songs they did on Fame and as that is the only song in the episode that lets the episode down too. 

I find the fact that Marty is working at the School a little too much of a co-incidence. Does he not know that Doris was at that School? I know Doris says they haven’t seen each other for 4 years but surely they exchanged the odd letter or birthday card or something in that time. Otherwise she is way too forgiving if they have had no contact at all in that time, after all his disagreement wasn't with her. 

There is obviously a big age gap between Doris and Marty as she is around 16 here and she says it was 10 years ago that Marty first went away. I assume he must have been at least 18 at that time and she would have only been 6 but she says they used to be close.

A couple of Nit picks:

- When we see the Schwartz home we see the outside of a house but in Season 4’s “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” they are in an apartment building. Did they move home?

- When Shorofsky walks past the sound proof music room where Bruno is playing he says he can hear the music!

- Dwight is very proud of his Sousaphone but here he bashes it against the walls and door in the music room quite a bit. I know it’s done for comedic effect but I believe Dwight would take far more care of his instrument no matter how clumsy he is supposed to be.

- Lydia says to Mrs Berg “you didn't invite my Uncle Stephen did you”? However in the actual script it is written as “my Uncle Willy” and for some reason it got changed when they filmed it and there’s nothing wrong with that. However when she greats the arriving guests at the end she calls the man “Uncle Willy” so that part never actually got changed!

Original  air date in U.S.A 09th December 1982

Original  air date  in U.K. 07th July 1983,  Repeated The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992,  Now 80s 20th & 24th February 2022       

Original air date in Australia 29th April 1983                                       

Original air date in The Netherlands  08th August 1983

Original air date in Italy 02th February 1984   

Original  air date in West Germany 11th July 1985

Original air date in Belgium 14th January 1988   

Original  air date in France 16th January 1988