Wednesday, September 15, 2021

What’s Happening!! (1976-1979)







Hey, hey, hey!  Raj, Dwayne and Rerun are three African-American teens living in South Los Angeles.  They frequently gather at Frank's Place, where they're served up a healthy serving of sass by waitress Shirley Wilson.  Raj gets more sass at home from his precocious sister Dee while receiving healthy dosages of wisdom from his divorced mother Mabel.  

What's Happening is loosely based on the 1975 film Cooley High.  Squabbles behind the scenes, including higher salary demands from Fred Berry and disagreements of the show's direction from Mabel King, led to major changes and eventually an abrupt cancellation.  The series saw great success in...reruns and would return to syndicated television from 1985-1988 in the revival series What's Happening Now!



Location: The Thomas House
Address: formerly 1147 Tamarind Avenue, Los Angeles, CA

The house was torn down some time ago...








Location: Dwayne's House
Address: formerly 1343 Tamarind Avenue, Los Angeles, CA

Based on Google Maps, it appeared Dwayne's House was currently obscured by trees, but when I showed up, the house wasn't there at all.  Looks like I missed it by a few weeks.  At least the apartment complex next door is still recognizable...











Location: Rerun's House
Address: 1201 Tamarind Avenue, Los Angeles, CA

Rerun's house has been remodeled but it still recognizable.  Unfortunately a few small trees prevented me getting a good comparison shot...















Location: Hopping On The Truck
Address: Lexington Avenue & Tamarind Avenue, Los Angeles, CA










Locations Visited: June 2021



4 comments:

  1. Thank you for creating this!

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  2. Btw, how did you ever find the "Hopping On The Truck" scene? I can imagine a scenario where the home locations might be mentioned by those involved w/ production or whose homes were used, but how did you ever identify that random intersection?

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    Replies
    1. I can't take credit for that. Chas at Itsfilmedthere.com found that one.

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