Solo Song

When a blind substitute teacher arrives at the school his attitude causes conflict for Lydia. She then has to try and teach the blind man to dance to impress the school board.

Danny has a problem performing something that is out of his comfort zone. While Doris develops a crush on the blind teacher. 

This episode was shown out of order in the U.K. as episode 9 instead of episode 7. This is not a favourite of mine as here we go again with Guest Star Syndrome going into overload. 

I really like the idea for this story and the end having a blind person dance is a great idea but some of the things that happen before that don't work very well for me. Personally, I think there is way too much of guest star Tom  Sullivan in this episode and the regular cast are pretty much relegated to supporting players again, with Leroy not in the episode at all. 

I would have preferred if it was just a story about Lydia teaching Jim to dance and not get into his other hang ups and issues of working at the school. 

Unfortunately, to me the character comes over as pretty nasty in the way he treats other people and I guess his behaviour could be as a result of the prejudice he has encountered in the past but I don't view that as an excuse. If someone  wants to educate the World then rudeness won't get them  very far. He also may want to be fiercely independent but as Lydia says we all need some help at some point. He seems to want to snap anyone’s head of if they so much as even imply that he’s blind regardless of any good intentions. To me his motives behind this aren't totally clear and the episode  never really get to the heart of the problems. 

Normally in Fame someone would have a problem, they learn something over the course of the episode and take that on board and either solve the problem or look at it in a different way by the end. Here the episode suddenly changes focus on him dancing  and then ends. 

It would have been nice for him to say he’d learnt that he shouldn't judge others in the same way that he doesn't want others to judge him but it doesn't happen. Yet again the writers leave me asking what is the point of the episode? If the other characters or  the audience were taught something about blind people by this story then that would be good but sadly I think it fails to do that.

The scene during the fire drill is difficult to watch as Jim literally pushes Doris out of the way to get back up to the classroom. He’s so concerned that someone could be left up there but doesn't seem concerned that Doris could have fell and hurt herself or cause other people to fall over her and hurt themselves so his actions leave me confused. Lydia says she thought it was brave of him, as he didn't know it was a drill but I disagree. Whether someone is blind or not it is stupid to put their own life in danger for no reason and then put other people’s lives in danger if they then end up getting stuck. Yes, if you thought someone was definitely trapped then maybe rush into a fire, but here there is no reason for anyone to be trapped and he was already told that everyone is out.

With all these issues I find it difficult to understand that Doris ends up with a crush on him. It is surely down to her just having sympathy for him because he is blind.

Sullivan writes the songs too and performs them where as our cast don’t really get a look in. I don't really like hate "AEIOU" it becomes just an irritating noise, however I do really like “I Can Sing To The World” but feel it would have been better  had it been a duet with say Lydia or the other kids are singing too  instead of the guest star writing themselves a solo song, if you’ll excuse the pun. Again Sullivan wasn't known to me in the U.K. so I didn't understand why the show was virtually given over to him.

To me the script is very heavy handed at times for instance when Danny shouts “What are you blind or something” when he and everyone else already seem to have worked that out. Also suddenly the drama class is doing something with a blind character in it, felt over the top.

I do like how the production crew have used the normal set and changed it slightly to make it look like another floor. It is obviously the main corridor looking down to the stairs to the exit but they have put in a false wall where the stairs are with 2 big windows. My only issue is on the outside of the building there are not 2 huge corresponding windows to match but full marks for effort. In later years they don’t bother modifying the set and no matter what the class the kids are having it’s always in the same 2 classrooms at the end of the corridor.

The scene at the beginning with Mrs Berg, Lydia and Sherwood is very funny as Sherwood says give “my regards to Mother Theresa” when commenting on Lydia’s so called unbiased good nature.

I also like the scene between Bruno and Danny when Danny is really proud of himself for mastering the Gilbert and Sullivan song but finds it hard to admit he’s done good.

However I find the fact that the different classes can suddenly hear lots of noise from the other rooms, frustrating and unrealistic. Lydia’s dance class always has music for the dancers to dance to so if the room above can hear just the piano then how does anyone ever do any work when there is a full band playing or a record or tape with lots of drums for instance? Also Lydia’s class might hear something when the whole class above are all jumping up and down but now they can also hear when one person is just singing normally. The episode makes it out that this is only because of the way Jim teaches but it is a singing class and when the normal teacher, Mr Harper, is there the students obviously sing so how come Lydia’s class don’t always have the problem? Besides if you look at the layout of the building Lydia’s class is on the side of the corridor. However when we do see that redressed second floor Jim’s class isn't on the side over Lydia’s room it’s at the far end of the corridor and no part of it over laps with Lydia’s room so it would be impossible for them to hear.

Jim's surname here is Landon but when the character returns in season 3 it's changed to Hamilton. Initially I thought it was bad continuity but I guess when he returned there could have been a conflict with the Surname  and a real person with that name so they changed it. 

Original  air date in U.S.A 11th November 1982

Original  air date  in U.K. 23rd July 1983,  Repeated The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992,  Now 80s 06th &  10th February 2022

Original air date in Australia 24th April 1983                                            

Original air date in Italy 29th December 1983   

Original air date in Belgium 17th  December 1987   

Original  air date in France 04th June 1988