New Faces

Lydia helps Paul Seeger, an old actor friend, get a job teaching at the school. Paul is a perfectionist and has high demands both of himself and the kids, which causes conflict especially between Paul and Jesse.

Meanwhile Danny is assigned to chaperone a young new student, who tries to shy away from the limelight and hides her talent.

For the 3rd episode in a row we have slightly different opening titles as another new cast member is added.  I have to say that one of the issues I have with season 6 is that there are so many cast members and like in this episode, guest stars too, that I don't think we always get to know the characters that well.  For instance Ian joins in episode one but then isn't in episode 2. Jillian joins in episode 2 and has the subplot for that episode but has very little to do here. Now Paul joins here but only gets one brief scene in episode 4. Personally I would have made this the first episode of the season, forget the guest star story (use that later in the series if need be) and concentrate on our 3 new cast members all joining the school. Then give them all sub plots in the next couple of episodes.

 Anyway back to this episode, I do quite like the main story and think this is one of the better episodes of the 6th season. Overall,  I think Paul is a good addition, although he does seem a little similar to David Reardon to me.  Eric Pierpoint has jokingly admitted that the producers found out pretty quickly that he wasn't a singer or a dancer but I think he carried those scenes well here.  I have to ask, does anyone in this school have to have a proper teaching qualification? Oh yes he's an artist in residence, which would be fine if we actually had a proper drama teacher at the school this year but we don't.  

 The sublot with Danny and the young protégé does seem very similar to a storyline from season 2 where Bruno had to take care of another youngster who joined the school. From the name of the episode I assumed that Hannah might be a recurring character in the rest of the season and seeing the school from a younger point fo view could have been something quite interesting but no she's here for this episode and sadly never heard of or referred to again!

 At this point in 1986 Debbie was starring on Broadway in a rivial of  "Sweet Charity",  Which is why she doesn't have a huge role in these early episodes of the season and we mainly see her in outside scenes that she squeezed in while  in New York performing her  Broadway show. It's great that Debbie worked so hard to still maintain a presence on "Fame" but I do think it harms the the show.  Paul is an old friend on Lydia's whom she hasn't seen in years. They happened by chance to meet and within minites Lydia is offering him a job at the School!! It all seems a little too quick for me, which makes it unrealistic.  Since when has Lydia had any kind of say in which teachers the school hires. As it's the beginning of the school year I would have expected all the faculty to already be in place.  Had we seen her in some scenes at the school where Dyrenforth was complaining about a lack of teachers or a lack of a drama teacher I would have bought it more.

 Again I love the outside location shooting but I'm not keen on either of the songs in this episode and don't really think they are up to the standard of songs from previous seasons. "Look and Learn" is pleasant enough and it gives Nia, Carlo, Jesse and Carrie something more to do in the episode but I'm not a fan of "Rock n Roll Will Stand".

Original  air date in U.S.A.  20th  October 1986

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

Original air date  in France 11th March 1996