The White Shadow: The Complete First Season

 

 

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Like many others I have fond memories of "The White Shadow." I was in graduate school when the show first aired in 1978, but back then when there were only three major television networks (and BBC imports on PBS), there were not a whole lot of television shows that had characters in school. "Welcome Back, Kotter" was entering its final season, but my ability to identify with the Sweat Hogs never got to the point where I was a regular viewer. But this was a show that was about basketball, and that made a difference. However, it turned out that basketball was just a hook to get you to check out "The White Shadow," and that the show ended up actually being about kids in high school, which explains both the critical acclaim the series received from educational organizations and the low ratings it had during its three-year run.

The premise was interesting. Ken Reeves (Ken Howard), a forward with the Chicago Bulls, wrecks his knee and is forced to retire. A high school teammate who is now the principal of Carver High Sch ol offers him a job coaching the basketball team. He has no experience, the job pays pretty much nothing, and his team will be a racially mixed team in a tough inner-city, lower-middle-class neighborhood, so of course Reeves takes the gig. It soon becomes clear that the show is really about teenagers and their problems a lot more than it is about winning basketball games. They jump into the deep end of the pool real quick on this series. In the pilot Hayward wants to drop out of school to take care of his single mom and little brother, then Reeves has to deal with Jackson being an alcoholic ("Here's Mud in Your Eye"), an agent trying to get Coolidge to jump to the pros ("Bonus Baby"), Reese's girl friend tell him she is pregnant ("Pregnant Pause"), Gomez being in a street gang ("That Old Gang of Mine"), and a new player who might be gay ("Just One of the Boys").

I do not think that "The White Shadow" has aged particularly well, primarily because this time around it strikes me as being very much a formula show. Instead of thinking about "Hill Street Blues," "St. Elsewhere," and other MTM series, "The White Shadow" was reminding me of "Quincy, M.E.", where Jack Klugman butted heads each week with a system trying to solve a problem. It seemed like every week Reeves would be trying to solve a problem and butting heads with Sybil Buchanan (Joan Pringle), with the coach representing an idealistic notion and the vice principle trying to point out the grim realities of the situation. Of course, television was very much about formula that point from situation comedies to westerns and everything in between, but when you watch a bunch of these episodes in a row you become aware how often these stories play out in the same way time and time again. The other complaint is that there is sure a lot of illegal activity going on with these kids, especially when the entire team goes gambling in Las Vegas ("We're in the Money"), but the roster is always back to full strength by the next episode.

Still, Season 1 of "The White Shadow" is well worth watching again for those of us who caught it the first time around. Spotting familiar faces is part of the fun watching these again, especially when Michael Warren and Bruce Weitz show up in the same episode ("Wanna Bet?") and Jonathan Frakes outs Peter Horton ("Just One of the Boys"). Plus, when Jason McElwain, the autistic manager of his high school basketball team, got into his first game and scored 20 points I have to think that every body who ever watched "The White Shadow" was thinking of the first season episode "Mainstream," which has probably the most unforgettable final freeze frame in the entire series.

Knowing what happens down the road in the show's other two seasons ("The White Shadow" ran on CBS from 1978-81), I know that none of the kids are seniors and that it will be another year until some of them graduate. Yes, that means the idea of Coolidge jumping to the NBA as a high school sophomore makes no sense, but there is no way to be a slave to continuity with this series. However, the most dated episode has to be "Airball," where it took me a while to figure out why removing your shoes (and jewelry) would be a good thing to do when preparing for a crash landing. The DVD extras are pretty sparse, with a short featurette on the series and commentary by Howard and Van Patten on "The Great White Dope." The latter was particularly enjoyable, which only makes you wish that more of the cast had shown up to talk about the old days.

Wow Is all I am going to type because I never saw or do not remember year one of The White Shadow.I use to see it at 8ish pm where I was growing up and loved it.I loved the characters,stories and Carver High's team.I was not too much a fan of the sport but I liked the story based on a H.S. sports team in the L.A. area.The series was and at the time Fastbreak was a movie soon to be released in 1979 on a college team and The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh too but minor league in 1980.Getting back to the White Shadow the theme was kind of cool like many 1970's series.One episode in if memory is on track Carver High played a Soviet Union team and a Soviet player wanted to defect from the Soviet Union.Race,economy,friendship,relationships,education and politics within episodes and go Carver High.

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