Equals

Holly falls in love with Billy her vocal coach who works at Carusoes. However, love doesn't run smoothly when she discovers he's disabled, in a wheelchair and has major hang ups about his condition. 

 Meanwhile Morloch tries to get a reluctant Lydia to help coach an ex athlete friend of his to help turn him into a performer. 

To me this episode feels very similar to the previous one with lots of cast members missing and 2 stories built around 2 guest stars.

Lydia’s story feels almost like a carbon copy of her story from the previous episode, where Morloch wants her to help a friend or with a situation and she’s not happy to do so and doesn’t have much respect for the person involved until they perform and then she changes her mind at the end of the episode.

Coco is mentioned by Doris but if you hadn’t seen “Breakdance” then you might think Coco was still at the school. Also, have Shorofsky and Leroy gone off with Coco and joined the road company of pirates too? Because we haven’t seen either of them since she went. Also there is no Chris in this episode and Sherwood has a very small role. So again the episode feels very empty to me. It’s the interaction between the cast that I enjoy not filling episodes up with guest stars.

At least they do mention Leroy and say he has the flu. Although, I seriously question why Danny is replacing him in the show. Lydia does try and rescue the situation by saying she put him there to stretch him but why does Danny need to be stretched in a dance role because he’s made it quite clear he doesn’t want to be a dancer. Wouldn’t Danny have needed to audition for the role in the first place and I can’t see him doing that if it’s a dance role.

Then when the important people are coming to the show Lydia seems to the think her only choice is to replace Danny with Lefty, but why? What about Chris (I know he’s not in the episode but as we don’t see the show it makes no difference), what about Michael or Billy Hall or any of the dancers in the school?

As with the previous episode it all feels like very lazy writing and using the weakest of story ideas to involve the cast members. Peabo Bryson is okay as is his song but as with a lot of the guest stars  it feels like they have  to come up with something for them to do, to justify having them in the show.

I find the references to sport and the enactment of baseball games a little tedious. Although Mrs Berg is funny.

It’s now Holly turn for the season of doomed love and they throw disability into the mix to make the relationship more complicated. Doris says that Billy is better looking than Tom Selleck but that just leaves me thinking she’s lost her contact lenses again!

I’m not quite sure what Holly sees in him because to me he comes over as obnoxious and nasty. The way he treats her on the date is horrible. Yes, Holly maybe nervous and makes mistakes but Billy needs to be patient and explain things to her to make her understand.

It’s good that Fame highlighted issues like disability but this is similar to the blind teacher story in season 2 where they make the character involved cruel and nasty. The audience isn’t going to warm to that kind of person and maybe then won’t get the point of doing the episode. For me it would have worked better if Holly starts a relationship then realizes he’s disabled, breaks up with him because she can’t handle the situation but by the end of the episode learns a lesson that people are all the same regardless of what makes them different.

I have to ask why Doris is on the date with Billy and Holly, I know she needs to be there to give Billy a piece of her mind and to then go after Holly but couldn’t she just be sat at the bar talking to Bruno because inviting a friend along doesn’t seem a great way to start a relationship.

"Childhood’s End" is a nice song and Cynthia gets her first solo which is good, although she seems to learn the words to the song very quickly. She looks at the music at first but then she knows the words and exactly where to sing them.

There are a few things that I do enjoy in this episode and most of them surround Morloch and particularly his banter with Lydia. The two throw insults and funny looks at each other and it’s really good stuff. Morloch’s face when Lydia has got him watching the dancers, is great. Both of them are strong characters and have strong opinions and then find themselves having to eat their own words or going back on what they have said. Morloch is also good when he thinks the waitress wants him to sign an autograph.

Doris also has a few good lines and her comment about the tooth fairy being a gay orthodontist is funny. I also like the Doris and Holly scene out on the fake street in the snow as the two start to bond more.

Original  air date in U.S.A  14th January 1984

Original  air date  in U.K. 20th April 1984,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992

Original air date in The Netherlands  31st May 1984

Original air date in Italy 06th August  1986

Original air date in Belgium  09th  June 1988      

Original  air date in France 05th November 1988