Parents Week

It's Parent's Week at the School of the Arts. Danny's is upset when his Parent's constant arguing leads to his father moving out. Are they on the verge of a Divorce?

Nicole  is under pressure to live up to her Mother's high standards and Morloch enlists Chris to try and make Cassidy more normal.

I like this episode a lot as we tackle a realistic storyline of the pressure parents put on to their kids and how difficult kids can find it when the parents relationship breaks down.

There is some great continuity for Danny as we have already seen his parents arguing earlier in the season in "I Never Danced For My Father". Personally I always thought that was just how their relationship was, with them constantly yelling at each other. Mrs Berg commenting that she didn’t recognise Danny’s parents as they weren’t arguing, is brilliantly funny. However, this was obviously the beginning of the end for them. This is the last time we see Danny’s Father as he moves out from the family home and gets a place of his own, although there will be an on going storyline for Danny’s Mother next season as they get divorced and she has to move on and start dating again. 

Even though the storyline seems like good continuity there are other things that are brought up that contradict what we’ve already seen this season. Sherwood mentions Danny’s grades are down this quarter and she’s worried. None of Danny’s friends seem to have noticed that he’s been struggling and although his grades have gone down Danny has still been performing in the school shows and will do in future episodes. Both the grades Sherwood mentions would have brought his average down less that a C, which means he shouldn’t be allowed to perform in the shows. We can only assume if his English grades have dropped then so would his other academic subjects too. Still this is a small point as Danny reaction to his parents seperating is an interesting story to watch, especially when Danny realises his Father already has another woman helping him at his flat.

 I love the scene where Morloch is trying to make Danny feel better and talks about his own parents spilting up and tries to put a positive spin on it all like two Christmases, Two birthdays etc... but by the end, when Danny had gone he has to admit that his own experience wasn’t that great after all.

 Although it’s a heavy storyline for Danny the episode on the whole has some great comedy moments; Mrs Berg's comment about Danny's parent arguing, Lydia's attempt at cooking etc.... 

 I particularly enjoy the Cassidy story line. Sadly this will be Cassidy’s final appearance before he disappears into thin air and is never mentioned again. Personally I liked Cassidy and I liked how he didn’t confirm to society the way everyone else does. It’s a shame this wasn’t exploited more by the show. He and Chris work well together  and it’s great how Morloch’s plan of getting Chris to make Cassidy more sporty backfires and Chris ends up being the one who changes. Personally I think Cassidy could have been a main cast member in later seasons. 

Nicole's storyline is fine too but I always feel Nicole should have mentioned something about being adopted, which would set up nice continuity for the "Who Am I Really" episode". It just makes logical sense to me that maybe she would feel even more pressure to live up to her parent's expectations because there weren't her natural parents. 

One thing I do find pretty odd is that the parent's involvement lasts over a whole week. The implication is that the parent's are there for a whole week and we certainly see the Amatullo's arrive on different days. In the U.K. we have parent's evening so to stretch that for a whole week seems unrealistic. Who's parents could take a week off work just to see how their children were doing at school. Nicole's mother is supposed to be a high powered medical lawyer so I struggle to believe she could spend so much time at the school.

 The music in th episode is great particularly Danny and Doris’ duet on “It didn’t work out that way”, which I love. I also like Cassidy’s one and only chance to sing. The song was actually co written by Sam Slovick.

Ending the episode with a slow Orchestral version of the "Fame" theme is also a nice touch and adds an emotional touch to the end of the episode. Personally I would have liked it if they had used this slow theme at other pivotal or emotional moments throughout the series.

Original  air date in U.S.A 09th February 1985

Original  air date  in U.K. 08th July 1985,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Broadcast Autumn 1992

Original air date in Italy 04th September 1986

Original  air date in France 04th February 1996