Star Quality

Leroy comes up against Sherwood again, when he fails to hand in an assignment. However, Leroy is distracted helping a young boy who's father, who used to be a dancer, seems to have given up on life.

Meanwhile a guest actor at the school causes Coco to question her beliefs and Doris and Bruno write a song together.  

This is not a favourite episode of mine as I find the story lines pretty weak. 

There are some interesting ideas but none of them play out to their full potential. Yet again there is too much emphasis on guest stars and not enough character development for our main cast. Reardon and Shorofsky have very little to do here and Julie is missing completely (again)!

This could be a very strong story for Leroy and a slight change in his character where he comes to realise that the young boy needs to get an education and not just learn to dance. Sherwood could over hear Leroy giving an impassioned plea to the boy that he doesn't want him to grow up the same as him. Sherwood smiling could then say to Leroy that all he needs to do is put some of those words down on to paper and he’s passed his assignment. 

However, none of this happens and I'm not even sure why the little boy is there except to look cute and to be a link to his father who has given up on dancing. No one even seems to notice him at first. Where are all the hall monitors when he’s wandering around during lessons? What about the other kids and teachers? Sherwood spots him once and then he’s gone and it doesn't get mentioned again! Worst still is when Lydia and Sherwood finally do see him, do they give him a lecture about not being in school? No, we see him during Doris’s song sat watching Leroy rehearse with Lydia stood next to him smiling!

I also find the Sherwood and Leroy story confusing. She tells Leroy that he’s close to being thrown out of school, then we see her writing Fail on Leroy’s report card but nothing happens. Normally Leroy would have at least been out of the show but no he’s still playing the lead. Even on the day of the performance he still hasn't handed in the assignment and even if he now does hand it in, isn't it already too late? We never actually find out and no one seems to care, so it all makes me question what the point to the story is anyway?

I’d heard in advance that the show would have Gene performing Singing In The Rain. I‘d also heard that Gene loved old musicals and was thrilled to be doing this song. However, I wasn't particularly thrilled as the song does very little for me.

The best scene is Leroy lecturing Coco about being late after he’s had that lecture so many times before from Lydia. Personally I think it would have been much funnier had we seen Lydia arriving to the class late after been held up in the office discussing the benefit and Leroy gives the speech to her.

Arte Johnson as Cliff, whom I’d not heard of before does very little for me either and I found his silly little performances annoying. I'm not quite sure why so much of the episode is given over to him. Yes, Coco judges him harshly (it’s good to see Erica back after lots of episodes where she has been missing or had a limited role). However I totally see her point. If this man had come in saying the business isn't always what you hope it will be but he still makes a good living, then fair enough. However Coco’s dreams aren't to do commercials and that’s not what she’s trying to learn in school. If all they need to know is how to make a living then Mrs Berg could give lectures on how to be a secretary or Bruno’s Dad on driving a taxi.

For me the most interesting storyline is Bruno and Doris writing a song. I really feel they could have got a lot more humour out of this story and given Val and Lee a lot more to do and add a more conflict, perhaps they fall out over it for a while but by the end learn that no song is worth losing a friend over. Take That First Step is a pleasant enough song but nothing that great. 

Original  air date in U.S.A 13th January 1983

Original  air date  in U.K. 28th July 1983,  Repeated The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992, Now 80s 06th  & 10th March 2022                                                

Original air date in The Netherlands  15th September 1983

Original air date in Italy 01st March 1984   

Original  air date in West Germany  18th June 1985

Original air date in Belgium  04th February 1988   

Original  air date in France 09th April 1988