Dreams

Jesse gets a fine while performing on the street, which leads to the authorities discovering that he is illegally living in the United States. A date is set for a hearing and the Kids and teachers desperately try to find ways to stop Jesse from being deported. Shorofsky wants to adopt him, Doris marries him but none of these plans work.

At the last minute Nicole discovers a law about exceptional talent, meaning Jesse faces the toughest audition of his life in order to hold on to his dreams and create a better life for his family.

I remember originally liking this episode but I was still getting used to Jesse's characters so didn't feel too bothered that he may have to leave the school.

I couldn't understand why people were getting so upset and going out of their way to make a fuss, sing songs, have a big send off, offering to marry and adopt him when more established characters like Bruno had disappeared without a mention! 

These days enjoying Jesse's character more I do actually think this is a really good episode. Unusually for this season there is only the one storyline in the episode.

Having no knowledge of immigration law I don' know how factual some of the things in this episode are but I like it.

It seems a little strange to me that all the times the kids had sung and danced and performed in the street that Jesse would get a ticket. The police could sit outside the school all day, every day and do nothing but issue tickets, so it seemed a little convenient in this episode.

Also it seemed even stranger that he's late for the show because he's paying his fine and as soon as he's done that the immigration people are straight on his tail knowing he'd be going back to the school to perform in a show and that's where they arrest him!

It also seems a little far fetched that it's Nicole that comes up with finding the law that keeps Jesse in the country when the legal advice doesn't seem to do very much.

Still it's nice to see how far our characters will go to support and help a friend. Nicole offering to marry Jesse is sweet and her scene with Doris, after her parents have said no is lovely and Doris is so caring and then she gets the idea to marry Jesse.

The scene with Doris' parents is nice too and for continuity they maintain that Mrs Schwartz is Italian and state that her maiden name is Pagliaro (apologies for the spelling) which is different to her Mothers name of Koffman so that adds more confusion to Doris' family background.

Yet again I'm amazed at how quickly the kids get letters. Jesse only has a few days before the hearing yet he manages to write to his Father to tell him of the idea of marrying Doris and receives a reply in time to read to Doris' parents. Also isn't Doris' Dad played by a different actor?

I like how determined Nicole is to be able to do something to keep Jesse in the country and her line about it being "a big book" is fun. Shorofsky's offer of adopting Jesse is also really sweet.

Morloch's speech in the cafeteria is really nice about the kids being the heart and soul of the school and he even seems to be getting all emotional himself. It does look like there aren't actually very many people in the cafeteria to say goodbye, just the main cast (that are in this episode) and a few extras. However it is a nice scene particularly with each of the female cast members dancing with Jesse to say goodbye and then Nicole being so upset afterwards always upsets me.

Sherwood, Leroy , Holly and Mrs Berg are all missing from this episode and to me that stands out more than ever as the episode takes place over a least a month and none of them are there during that whole period to offer support where as the available cast members and guest stars are at every hearing.

There's lots of music in this episode which is good. I'm not too keen on "Shine" but the other songs are very good. I really like Danny singing "Don't Throw Away Your Dreams". Interestingly in the flashback sequence they show a slightly different scene to the one that was in the original episode. It's where Jesse has his fist go up to his mouth and is from "Nothing Personal". In the original the scene cuts to the girl that Jesse and Danny are looking at but here it stays on the guys. It makes me wonder how many other alternative, extended or deleted scenes there are out there that we have never seen.

Jesse singing "What Am I To Be" is lovely and one of my favourite Jesse songs. We see a wonderful vulnerable side to him here.

The ending is good fun when they make it look as though Jesse's plea to stay was rejected but really Morloch and Shorofsky were talking about sports.

The only thing about this story is that we never hear anything about it again. Jesse has only been granted a temporary stay while he applies for his green card, which I guess he does eventually get as he stays at the school for the next 2 seasons. I would have thought that when his immigration status was totally sorted out they would have mentioned something about it. 

Original  air date in U.S.A 05th January 1985

Original  air date  in U.K. 13th May 1985,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Broadcast Autumn 1992

Original air date in Italy 01st September 1986

Original  air date in France 31st January 1996              

On the Wings Of a Nightingale

Performed by The Everly Brothers

Written by Paul McCartney