W.S.O.A.

Jesse tries to help a girl who wants to commit Suicide when she phones into the school's radio station.

Meanwhile Dyrenforth tries to enforce a dress code at the school.

I really like this episode and think it is one of the best episodes in season 5. Unlike many episodes in this season it steers away from copying other films, books or plays and come up with an original and powerful storyline. Well as far as I know it's original and it is so much more refreshing for being original. Jesse (the character) is really strong with a wonderful performance from Mr Borrego. Although the episode duplicates the themes from the season 2 episode “..Help From My Friends” personally I feel this episode is more powerful and superior to the earlier episode.  It just seems a little more realistic. I like the fact that the kid in trouble is someone who was rejected from the school. It makes perfect sense that a kid who has their dreams dashed by not even getting into the school would have all these feelings that could lead to suicide.

 I think the way that the guest character of Roberta is handled, in that we never really see that much of her makes the episode more suspenseful. We don't know who she is and at first why she's acting the way she which adds to the drama. There's no guest star syndrome as the guest character never really takes over the episode. The focus stays clearly on Jesse’s reaction and him trying to help Roberta. To me this is the way a guest star should be played. Their role is purely to challenge our main cast and give them something interesting to play off.  

 I think that the rest of the episode is fairly light and fun, with most scenes being done for comedic effect and that gives a nice counterpoint to the heavy main storyline.

I love the comedy with Chris outraged that Jesse won’t let him perform on the radio station but lets Nicole and then is even more outraged when Jesse performs too, obviously not realising what is going on.

 Also there’s a lot of fun with the dress code rule, although this story comes out of nowhere and only seems to be half heartedly enforced. Still Lydia’s brief scene is very funny. It would have been nice to see some of the other characters involved in the rebellion against the dress code. Some of the rules like Chris was showing too much muscle seemed ridiculous. The dancers have frequently been bare chested in some for the school shows so it makes no sense that they can't even show their bare arms in the school corridors! 

 There does seem to be a lot of the cast missing with Danny, Leroy, Dusty and Kate totally absent and Sherwood, Shorofsky, Lydia and Mrs Berg with only brief appearances but there does seem to be enough going on to make the episode seem fully rounded.

 I think the idea of a school radio station is a pretty good one, particularly if any of the kids wanted to go into that kind of career. Although I don’t quite grasp how it’s supposed to work. We only see Jesse and Reggie involved with it and they seem to be there all the time.  Initially I assumed it was just something that they were doing in the evenings but then we see Dyrenforth having a question and answer session about the dress code which seems to be taking place during the school day, as we see kids in the corridors. So I’m not sure how Jesse and Reggie could do all their school work, have show rehearsals and be in shows and run the radio station.  In later episodes we see Nicole and Ian working at the radio station, so others are obviously involved, which makes me question why Chris is complaining about not being able to perform on the radio, surely all he has to do is sign up as a DJ and he could then perform on his own show.

 The music in this episode is pretty good with Nia and Billy covering pop hits of the day and doing pretty good versions of them. I really like the choreography of "Money For Nothing" and how the whole visual is performed virtually like an 80s music video. 

Original  air date in U.S.A 26th April 1986

Original  air date  in U.K. on The Children's Channel  Broadcast early 1993.

Original air date in Italy 29th September 1987

Original  air date in France 04th March 1996