Blizzard

The students and faculty get trapped in the school late one evening when a Blizzard hits New York. while Leroy is busy trying to make it to an audition, arguments are the order of the day for Nicole & Jesse and Doris & her Mother.

With the heating out and Chris and Danny trying to fix it Lydia and the Kids come up with a unique way to keep warm. Soon they discover they are not the only ones at the school when Jamie a pregnant teenager is found and goes into labour.

I love this episode and it's another great ensemble affair with everyone getting trapped in the school over night because of the snow. Although Christmas wasn’t actually mentioned I assume this would have been the last episode aired just before Christmas 1984 as the previous proper episode was aired around thanksgiving and then a concert was broadcast.

To me it always has a Christmassy feel what with the dancing snowman and the birth of the baby. Although I always get a little confused by Doris’ comment at the beginning of the episode that she can’t believe it is snowing this early in the year!

I do always find it a little unbelievable that all the kids and teachers managed to actually get to the school if the weather was so bad. In the U.K. the schools would have been closed. They do make a comment that they must be the only school open abd Morloch says they are made of stronger stuff at the school of the arts but surely the board of education would just have closed all the schools and not leave one open!

Then even more unbelievable is that everyone stays after school for rehearsals. Surely they would all want to get home as quickly and as safely as possible and not hang around. In real life people would have been looking to leave early if the weather was so bad.

It’s funny because the snow that is coming down when people are trying to leave doesn’t look any worse than what they had at the start of the day and if everyone managed to get to the school in the morning after the snow had had all night to come down I don’t see why they couldn’t get home again. Personally I can’t think of anything worse than being trapped at school or work because of the weather but everyone here doesn’t really seem to mind.

It was actually a little bit creepy when Morloch is backstage with his touch locking things up when he sees a shadow. When I first watched I was wondering if the ghost from “Lisa’s Song was back. Although, I don’t understand why it is so quiet backstage when Lydia has the rehearsal for the show going on in the auditorium. I’m also not sure why Morloch has to lock the door to the music cubicles when so many other doors are still open. I can’t imagine every door to every classroom gets locked at night and then opened again in the morning but then I guess we need a reason for Jesse and Nicole to get closer. As I enjoy the episode so much I forgive it for the things I find it a little hard to believe.

It's an excellent script full of really funny lines and strong emotional scenes.

By now Janet was struggling with issues in her personal life and wasn't available for filming so much so only has a background part in this episode and no real script. I believe she hated being on the show and only did it for her father. She was married and he husband was on drugs so she would spend her evenings driving round trying to find him or waiting for him to call so she could go out and collect him. That's why her appearances tail off and she doesn't get as much to do as other cast members.

I love the whole fight between Doris and her Mother as Doris wants to be allowed to grow up move into her own apartment and her mother doesn’t want to let go. There is some great banter between the 2. At one point Doris snaps “what are you protecting me from” and her Mother replies “Life”. I guess it's a natural action for a mother to want to protect her children from everything and also natural for the child to object to being smothered.

This storyline is really echoed in the scene with Lydia, Sherwood and Mrs Schwartz talking about children and Sherwood revealing that she has had a miscarriage. It's so well played and a wonderful character moment that always brings me to tears. I’ve always loved Carol but she is particularly wonderful here. The 3 discuss how hard it is to let go and Lydia says she realised that you have to let them go and the very next second she says “gee I wonder where Leroy is” it's a real laugh out loud moment and breaks the emotional tension.

I also love that Doris is the one to talk to Jaime and the confidence Lydia has in Doris' abilities in caring about other people. It seems to come as a surprise to Mrs Schwartz and it’s good that she hear that other people view Doris as an adult.

It’s nice that having been told she can’t stay for the birth Doris gets her own way and is there to help. She is hilarious when she asks if it’s time to panic yet.

The birth scene is another wonderful moment and again Debbie and Carol put in some wonderfully emotional performances. I barely notice the actress playing Jaime who is giving birth and get all the emotion from our cast members. Then Lydia kisses Morloch after the birth and he has a great expression on his face.

This episode has some great songs too which always add to my enjoyment. Finally after a year with not singing, Debbie gets another chance to sing and I was so pleased about that and really like "Come Join the Party".

From the first time I heard it I've always loved Nia singing "Never Outrun The Night" It's a really fantastic song that really showcases Nia's voice. It's one of my favourite Nia songs (although I pretty much love them all) and one of my favourite songs from the whole 6 years.

Somebody Must Be Grinning Down On Me is a bit of a silly song especially with Leroy dancing with the snowman but is still fun.

It’s a really good feel good episode and everything works out in the end. The teachers and Doris singing “Hush Little Baby” is also really sweet.

Original  air date in U.S.A 03rd November 1984

Original  air date  in U.K. 25th March 1985,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Broadcast Autumn 1992

Original air date in Italy 26th August 1986

Original  air date in France 25th January 1996