Heritage

Lydia gets more than she bargained for when she is called in to teach a famous basketball team to dance, in an attempt to help them improve their game.  

Meanwhile Shorofsky must decide between Doris and Holly, who are in competition for the same role. Doris reject her Jewish past when a Grandmother she has never known is on the verge of dying. 

We haven’t had enough of doomed love this season so for good measure here’s another story about it, oh goody! 

This time it’s Lydia’s turn to fall for someone only for an unexpected reason to come up to keep them apart! Personally I'm not that interested as the story goes nowhere. Obviously they wanted Debbie’s real life husband Norm Nixon on the show and had to come up with something for him to do but I really don’t buy the whole basketball team needs to learn to dance story to make them play better ball. I'm also not really that interested in why S.T. Gray doesn't attend Lydia’s class. Although norm seems like a nice guy, I'm not really convinced by either his acting or dancing abilities, although Debbie does have great chemistry with him.

However, the whole relationship really takes over the episode and most of the main cast are relegated to supporting parts. Everyone is here but they have very little to do.

I do like how Morloch suddenly changes his mind about Lydia’s extra dance classes when he realises it will be for a sports team. Are the writers of our show obsessed with sports because it feels like they are always trying to link the stories to some kind of sport, which personally I have very little interest in. However, I'm sure for insurance and health and safety reasons Lydia wouldn't be able to use the school for making extra money by teaching additional classes to non students. I'm not sure why she doesn't teach them at their normal rehearsal venue, oh yes they would have to spend money on building another set! 

There is some nice location filming in this episode which makes a nice change as things have felt a little claustrophobic this season with very little outside filming.

I'm not sure why Bruno is needed at the school to play piano during the auditions; does Shorofsky not have any other students who play piano? It’s interesting that we rarely see live musicians in the dance room now that Bruno is gone and they are usually dancing to taped music. Also Bruno is supposedly there to help Shorofsky decide on who to give the lead part too but Shorofsky has never asked peoples advice on casting before so I don’t really buy that he would here either. 

The most interesting story is concerning Doris and her suddenly having issues about being Jewish. This could have been quite a strong storyline however I really don’t feel that it gets developed properly here. Doris doesn't really seem to be showing any signs having any problems but suddenly there's this whole back story of events that come out of nowhere. 

Shorofsky rejects Doris for a part in a show and she feels it’s because she’s not pretty enough and then doesn't want anything to do with his survivors show. That actually seems quite normal behaviour to me but Shorofsky is so concerned he goes to see Doris’ Mother, that part doesn't seem that normal. We then learn this whole very complicated story which totally seems to contradict things we already knew about Doris and her family.

Mrs Schwartz is now Italian and not Jewish. I think someone needs to tell her Jewish Mother Mrs Koffman (Nancy Walker) that the family have suddenly become Italian. Doris has referred to being Jewish many times in the past but never that she is half Italian.

Anyway Mr Schwartz’ Mother has never seen Doris because she didn't agree with her son marrying a non Jew. We are told that this has been going on for nearly 18 years. Hmmm, now Doris is 17 so that makes it sound as though Doris’ parents got married before her Mother got pregnant or just after they found out about the pregnancy but what about Doris’ older brother Marty?

In “Homecoming” we discover that Marty is a good 10 to 12 years older than Doris, so are we to believe that Doris’ parents lived together for quite a few years while Marty was growing up and only got married when Doris came along! The grandmother didn't mind her son living with an Italian woman and having a child with her but drew the line at them getting married! Or now that they are Italian/part Italian have they also forgotten they have an older son too? 

It gets very confusing in the Schwartz household and it appears Mr Schwartz doesn't talk to his Mother or his son. 

Shorofsky adds to the confusion when he states that he’s known Doris for nearly 3 years. Well we are nearly at the end of season 3 so that makes sense but Doris was already at P.A. when Julie joined nearly 3 seasons ago and the students were returning after the summer break.

I would have liked to see the scene where Doris and her Mother make up with the dying grandmother instead of just hearing about it.

I like the Song “From Strength to Strength” but why is Bruno introduced as being from the School of the Arts when he’s been left all year and why is that microphone conveniently in the middle of the stage when as far as they are concerned there is no other singer than Bruno? 

Best line from the show it Mrs Berg calling Shorofsky a “scatterbrain”.

Although I didn't know it when I originally watched,  Lee Curreri doesn't appear in the season finale, so this is in fact Bruno's last episode. It's very sad that a major character Bruno gets such a lacklustre episode as a finale. Although of course they never acknowledge that it is Lee's final episode and Bruno is erased from fame until the very last episode of Season 6!   

Original  air date in U.S.A 20th May 1984

Original  air date  in U.K. 13th July 1984,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992

Original air date in Italy 18th August  1986

Original air date in Belgium 08th September 1988      

Original  air date in France 08th April 1989