Wishes

Be careful what you wish for as it just might come true, is the theme of this episode .  Doris wishes for a wonderful good looking student to notice her and take her on a date. Leroy wishes to win a lot of money on a game show to help him cover his rent arrears and Sherwood wishes for the chance to act as vice principal and run the school for awhile. Each of these characters gets what they wish for but unfortunately nothing turns out how they would have wanted.

For me this is just a really pleasant and fun episode nothing major really happens and the story revolves around Doris, Leroy and Sherwood all making a wish which appears to come true but then they all seem to go horribly wrong. Doris and Leroy seemed a little neglected of late so it's nice to see them with some air time.

In my opinion the best story line is Sherwood standing in for Morloch as acting vice principal, although in season 3 when it looked like Morloch was leaving she said she didn’t want his job. Here she’s more than enthusiastic so I guess she changed her mind since last year. It’s good fun and she has lots of interaction with Shorofsky and Mrs Berg. I love the scene where Sherwood is horrified when Shorofsky suggests she should use her femininity to get what she wants and then as soon as he’s left the room that’s exactly what she does do, to try and get something out of the board of education.

I have to say the eraser and chalk that Shorofsky has ordered comes in a very big box presumably he could start a small shop selling the stuff!

Funniest line has to be when Morloch returns and asks why there is a catamaran in the lobby and Sherwood totally dead pan says “it wouldn’t fit in your office”!

Leroy’s story is okay but I’m not sure how realistic the tax man pursuing him for unpaid taxes is. I’m sure if he has unpaid taxes they would send a bill in the post rather than hang around waiting for the money. If this story is accurate why would anyone ever go on a game show to win lots of prizes just to then be in debt? Still it adds to the drama I guess and I don't think it was really meant to be taken seriously.

At one point Chris says to Leroy that if he wins the big prize he’ll never have to worry about money again. Now I know this was  40 years ago but the prize was only $10,000.00 which is hardly enough money to keep people from not having to worry about money for the rest of their lives. Although maybe it feels like that when you are young.

Suddenly the fake street has a TV shop, which is very convenient for this episode but what I don’t understand is when Leroy, Chris & Danny and then later Nicole, Holly & Mrs Berg are out in the street, how come they can hear the sound on the TVs too?

I don’t really get what the problems are in Doris’ relationship with David. It seemed the writers wanted yet another doomed love story and couldn’t really come up with anything that they haven’t done before. Doris has had so many good looking boyfriends that the no-one will ever be interested in me line she comes out with doesn’t really work with me any more.

Although it is funny when she is complaining that guys like David are only interested in girls with hazel eyes and hair that goes like this (here she shakes her hair about) Holly quickly appears and says “you called”.

Doris’ says he’s perfect but when she talks to him it’s like she’s talking to herself. I can only speak for myself but in relationships I want there to be common ground where my partner and I have similar views and feelings about things otherwise it could lead to arguments. Here Doris complains that David never argues but they’ve only been seeing each other a few days so who wants to be arguing that early in the relationship?

By the end of the episode, when it’s too late she realizes she’s made a mistake but David has gone. Although if that is how she feels it’s not clear why she doesn’t talk to him the next time she sees him at school and start the relationship again. He is supposed to be a student at the school after all.

The best song in this episode is “Long Shot” performed by Gene but it’s also nice to see that Nia, Cynthia, Billy and Carlo are on backing vocals.

In fact all the kids in this episode get to sing on at least one of the songs, which is nice and both “Geometry” and “Shopping A-Z” are pleasant songs. 

This is the only episode of the season that Jesse is actually missing from. He really did work hard that first year. Although it’s nice to see Nicole spending her time and interacting more with the other girls.

Original  air date in U.S.A 30th March 1985, repeated 10th August 1985

Original  air date  in U.K. 24th June 1985,  Repeated on The Children's Channel  Broadcast Autumn 1992

Original air date in Italy 08th September 1986

Original  air date in France 08th February 1996