Danny De Bergerac

Chris writes street version of Cyrano De Bergerac, which stars Danny Nicole and Jesse. Real life starts to mirror the play when Danny starts to fall in love with Nicole. To make matters worse Nicole is having problems with getting her parents to like Jesse. So Danny is brought in as a fake boyfriend for Nicole, who  pretends to be obnoxious to make Jesse look good.

Meanwhile Morloch's first love is in town and he needs Sherwood to pretend to be his partner. 

I do really like this episode and it contains a lot of great humour but I was never totally convinced by Danny’s sudden infatuation with Nicole.  It all seems to come out of nowhere and is never mentioned again after this episode. I would have preferred some previous indication that Danny had feelings for Nicole and some kind of reference to it in the future. 

Carlo and Nia do have a great chemistry together so I guess the writers were using that as a basis of the story. I'm not sure if they were dating in real life at this point or whether that came later. There are a couple of scenes where the two seem a little too familiar with each other, than I feel is appropriate for their characters, with lots of touching, hugging and even kissing. The scene where Danny is comforting Nicole and they kiss look like it’s more than friendship to me. I can understand Danny talking his opportunity to get closer to Nicole but not why Nicole goes along with it? 

It does seem that Danny is working his way through the female characters as this season as he’s already been out with Doris and Cleo and now his attentions turn to Nicole. I guess it’s more realistic than having a guest star come in for one episode, for a doomed relationship.

I'm not quite sure what Nicole’s parent’s problem is with Jesse. I thought at first that it might be because he was illegally in the country and comes from a poor background and that maybe they thought he wasn't good enough for Nicole.  However certainly Mrs Chapman got to see how he cares for Nicole in the previous episode "Parent's Week" and no one never really says what the issues are. So I do find it a little convenient that this problem occurs at exactly the same time they are doing a play, where one character falls in love with another man’s woman that the same thing is happening to our characters. Meaning Danny then has to be brought in to try and help Nicole and Jesse with their problems. 

Also the happy ending seems to come way too quickly for me and no one refers to the incident again. I'm not convinced Jesse would be so forgiving.

Having said that the comparisons in the play to what’s happening to our characters is used effectively when a couple of times we don’t know if it’s Danny, Nicole or Jesse talking, or their characters in the play talking. 

The final scenes are very funny as the cast of the play start improvising their lines and Chris is horrified until he realises people like it when Mrs Berg says it's "compelling drama". 

I have to say I was never totally convinced that Chris would actually be able to sit down and write a play like this at all. They have always portrayed him as struggling in English so it does seem a little out of character for him,  but that said it is good fun.

Morloch and Sherwood’s story is also interesting, although also a little convenient as it too mirrors what happening in the play. I do love the continuity from a previous episode where it was mentioned that Dede was Morloch’s first love.

This episode does include one of my favourite all time "Fame" songs, "You Don't Know Who I Am" it works really well here and is wonderfully performed by Carlo, Nia and Jesse. I love the line "I want to taste you slowly like a vintage wine..." Perhaps that is a little racy for a family show. 

"For You" is also an excellent song that Danny sings with great passion and works really well at the start and end of the episode.

I'm not really very keen on Jesse's song "Shake" as it feels like filler to me. There is no reason for it to be at that place in the episode. I would have thought that Jesse might have learnt his lesson about performing in the street after he got a ticket and was nearly deported but no. At the start when he jumps against the wall, the wall moves and highlights just how fake it is. The little kid in red was also dancing in the 3rd season episode “heritage” with Norm Nixon in Central Park. 

I was interested to hear how American's pronounce vase. In the U.K. we also pronounce it the same as Nicole's family and not the same as most American's. 

Original  air date in U.S.A 11th March 1985

Original  air date  in U.K. 03rd June 1985,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Broadcast Autumn 1992

Original air date in Italy 05th September 1986

Original  air date in France 05th February 1996