Home Again

A substitute teacher replaces Sherwood who is attending a seminar. The substitute is a former student of the school but when asked about her past becomes very defensive. Dwight, who the substitute baby sat when he was a child tries to help her overcome her fears of singing in  public.  

Meanwhile Michael saves Morloch's life and uses it as a way of getting out of trouble. 

This episode is okay but just not one of my favourites. Too much time is spent on the guest star and supporting cast while half the main cast are missing, Leroy, Holly, Chris & Bruno don’t appear. When I originally watched I was surprised that Alisha was missing too as I thought she was supposed to be a new cast member and I didn't understand the point of making such a fuss of her in the previous episode only for her not to be in this one. With so many other cast members missing surely they could have fitted her into this story.

I love Melissa Manchester as a singer and think she has a fantastic voice but here as an actress I feel she comes across as a little wooden. She co wrote this story and I'm always a little dubious when a guest star comes on to the show and seems to be allowed to take over.

At first the character doesn't come across as that likeable to me. I mean why mention you used to be a student at the school if you don’t want people to ask about it? Surely Mrs Berg would have known her as an ex student; she knows Trevor Kane in Season 4 and Michael Taftner in the final episode and I would have said they were older than Miss Daniels. It would have made more sense to me that it be Mrs Berg that remembered her instead of Dwight as I always thought the fact that she’d been Dwight’s house keeper a little unbelievable and convenient. I can’t tell if she genuinely doesn't remember Dwight at first or whether she just doesn't want to be remembered. 

How come if she had been a student at the school she seemed surprised when a dance number broke out in the cafeteria and she had to ask Lydia what was happening.

Her story of stage fight comes across as a little unrealistic as they make it sound as though she’s not performed for years but now at the end of 10 days at the school she’s ready to perform in a school show and doesn't seem to have any real problems doing that. I understand that she blamed it on her partner dying and as he had done everything for her beforehand she didn't feel she could cope and got scared. However what I don’t understand is why this only manifested in her singing. I would have thought it would have been equally scary to set out to learn to be a teacher, which presumably was something completely new to her, and go into schools and stand up and teach in front of people she didn't know. I would have thought she’d be scared to do anything not just singing. 

I'm not really keen on the “I Can Sing a Rainbow” scene. David Greenlee clearly isn't that strong a singer and it comes across as a little corny to me.

Michael’s story also feels a little odd, as he seems to be acting totally out of character to what we have already seen of him and I don’t particularly like it. There is no explanation for him being so difficult and deliberately starting trouble and no answer given as to what makes him change his behaviour back in future episodes.

As much as I enjoy Lydia’s little speech over the phone to Sherwood’s answering machine and Sherwood coming back to sort out all the problems I don’t actually understand it. Shorofsky says to Lydia that as she hasn't won any battles with Morloch in the past how is she going to get him to change his behaviour towards Michael. That’s when she calls Sherwood but normally Sherwood doesn't seem to have any more success in her many battles with Morloch either so I don’t know how it all suddenly works here apart form the end of the episode is near and they have to end the story some how. Again it all feels a little convenient.

Also since when has Sherwood allowed the kids to act out scenes or do dance routines instead of actually writing their book reports? If this was the case then Leroy would never have had any problems he would just put a dance together and get an A every time. At first I thought it was maybe a scam the kids were playing because it was substitute teacher but Sherwood seems to tell Miss Daniels that it’s the only way to get through to the kids. I just feel this a complete contradiction of everything we've ever seen regarding how Sherwood teaches

One thing I do really like in this episode is the “City Nights” song at the end. This is the best song for quite a few episodes and it’s a shame that none of the cast are on it. At the time I wondered if it was on any of Melissa’s albums but never saw any in my local area and of course this was years before the internet. However, since then I have found out that the song comes from her “Emergency” album. Her album version is a little longer than the version in the episode but I was finally happy to add it to my collection.

Original  air date in U.S.A 06th May 1984

Original  air date  in U.K. 08th June 1984,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992

Original air date in Italy 14th August  1986

Original air date in Belgium 25th August 1988      

Original  air date in France 15th April 1989