Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing Hang Time, which ran on NBC from 1995 to 2000.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

Season 4 continues!  Will Coach K ever figure out how to step into Coach Fuller’s shoes?  Will the team ever come together?  Will Julie and Mary Beth ever graduate?  Let’s find out!

Episode 4.3 “Let Them Play”

(Dir by Patrick Maloney, originally aired on September 19th, 1998)

Another big game is coming up but the majority of the team doesn’t want to play it!  It turns out that one of their rival teammates is HIV+ and, as a result, high schools across Indiana have been refusing to play them.  When Coach K puts it to a team vote, only Michael argues that they shouldn’t cancel their upcoming game.  Even St. Julie votes to cancel the game.

However, Michael then brings the HIV+ positive player down to The Stadium, the oddly sterile restaurant where everyone hangs out.  The team discovers that their rival is just like them and almost all of them change their minds about playing.  The only one who doesn’t now want to play is …. JULIE!  Julie tells Michael that she doesn’t feel safe playing against a player with HIV, especially since she’ll be the one guarding him in the game.  “C’mon, Julie,”  Michael says, “we need you in this game!”  And Michael’s correct because, if there’s anything we’ve learned from Hang Time, it’s that Julie is the only good basketball player in Indiana.  Maybe that’s why she’s been allowed to stay at the high school for an extra year….

Despite the players changing their minds, the school board says that the game still cannot be played.  As a way to protest, the teams decide to play an “unofficial” game.  When a member of the school board comes by the gym to complain, Julie sees that it’s the same member of the board who always says that a girl shouldn’t be allowed to play basketball!  Julie decides that she will play, once again proving that the best way to get Julie to do anything is to make it all about Julie.

This is one of those episodes that probably would have worked much better with the “old” cast.  I imagine if this episode had aired during the previous season, Danny would have been the one arguing that the team should play and that would have been totally in character for him.  Turning Michael into a social crusader with a conscience goes against everything that we’ve learned about Michael up until this point.  As well, we still don’t know any of the new players so it’s a bit hard to know how to react to their feelings about playing against someone who is HIV positive.  Are they prejudiced or are they just worried?  Are they homophobic or are they just uneducated about how HIV is transmitted?  And, finally, it’s hard not to notice that Dick Butkus has a bit less gravitas than Reggie Theus when it comes to discussing whether or not HIV can be transmitted through playing basketball.  This episode came across as being well-intentioned but heavy-handed.

The B-plot features Mary Beth encouraging Kristy to write an angry letter to the art teacher who gave her a C on an assignment. As played by Amber Baretto, Kristy put so much joy into writing her letter that it was fun to watch.  I laughed

Episode 4.4 “Lend A Helping Hammer”

(Dir by Patrick Maloney, originally aired on September 19th, 1998)

Nick Hammer gets his first storyline as a member of the Tornadoes!  When he falls for Taylor, the new waitress at the Stadium, he’s shocked to discover that she and her family live at a homeless shelter.  On Saved By The Bell, when Zack liked a girl who was without a home, he arranged for her and her father to live at his house.  (And, much like the tenants of H.H. Holmes, they were never seen, heard from, or mentioned again….)  Nick, however, convinces the Coach that, instead of using the money raised at the school dance to buy new uniforms, the money should be donated to Taylor and her family.  Of course,  Nick also accidentally announces that Taylor is homeless to the entire school.

This was another episode that probably would have worked better with the old cast.  It’s easy to imagine it as being another Danny storyline.  Nick goes out of his way to help someone in need, which is nice, but we don’t really know Nick so we don’t know if his behavior is unusual or if he just does this for everyone that he meets.  It was a well-intentioned episode but it did seem to suggest that the best way to deal with homelessness is to have a bunch of wealthy friends.  Everyone goes out of their way to help Taylor but everyone else at the shelter just kind of gets ignored.

In the B-plot, Kristy is using a lot of slang.  Julie says that it’s because Kristy recently read a book by Queen Latifah.  In the C-plot, the Coach makes the team take a ballet lesson to make them more flexible.  “Ballet!” I excitedly exclaimed, when the idea was first brought up.  Unfortunately, the ballet scene is really short and the entire team has terrible form.

So far, Hang Time Season 4 has yet to escape the shadow of the past.  Hopefully, next week will be better for the Tornadoes and their new coach.