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!

The Tornadoes are going to the championship tournament …. again!

Episode 5.11 “Finals Fury”

(Dir by Miguel Higuera, originally aired on November 27th, 1999)

The Tornadoes are once again in the championship tournament, which means that it is once again time for Hang Time to make use of its University of Indiana set.  As Coach K. explains, the team cannot afford to lose one game if they want to be the state champions.  Unfortunately, Michael is currently playing like crap, missing easy shots, getting distracted, and even getting so angry over a call that he gets thrown out of a game.

What’s the problem?  Michael’s lifelong but never previously mentioned rival is also at the championship and he is continually taunting Michael, whether from the stands or on the court.  Michael gets so upset that he can’t concentrate.  Coach K. decides that the best way to solve this problem would be to get kicked out of the game.  So, Coach K yells at a ref until he’s sent to the locker room.  At half-time, Coach K. tells Michael that now he knows what it’s like to be abandoned in the middle of a big game.  I’m not really sure that I follow Coach K’s logic here but the important thing is that it somehow causes Michael to play better and Deering once again wins by one basket.  They won despite not having a coach on the floor so maybe the real point of this episode was that Coach K really wasn’t that important.

Meanwhile, Antonio runs into an old friend from Texas and attends a frat party.  Even though Kristy trusts Antonio, she still gets jealous when one too many sorority girls say hi to her man.  At the next fraternity party, Kristy and Mary Beth sneak in, wearing fake beards and pretending to be frat pledges.  Yes, it’s another wacky disguise plot!  I usually hate wacky disguise plots but I’ll make an exception here because Jay Hernandez is just so unbelievably likable an Antonio.  In a Hang Time first, Antonio doesn’t overreact to Kristy and Mary Beth spying on him but instead gives them a fraternity paddle as a gift.  It was kind of sweet.

Still, you have to wonder how Coach K would have felt about Antonio going to a party on the night before a big game.  Remember when Coach K made the team sign that stupid contract, promising not to party, skateboard, or do anything that could possibly make them less effective on the court?  If you do, congrats.  The show appears to have forgotten about it.

Episode 5.12 “The Upset”

(Dir by Miguel Higuera, originally aired on December 4th, 1999)

As the Tornadoes prepare for their next game in the championship tournament, Kristy and Mary Beth notice a familiar face setting up a video camera to record the action.  Why, it’s Ronald!  Who is Ronald?  As Kristy and Mary Beth explain it, Ronald was a kid who they tormented when they were younger, forcing him to wear makeup and totally embarrassing him when he wanted to try out for Little League.  Not realizing that Ronald (played by Micgael Cornacchia) has been permanently traumatized by their actions, Kristy and Mary Beth decide to go say hi.  They’re shocked when Ronald says that he wants nothing to do with them.  They decide to make it their mission to convince Ronald that they’re not as bad as he thinks they are.

I had mixed feelings about this plotline.  On the one hand, I could relate to both Kristy and Mary Beth because it’s always been hard for me to understand how anyone could actually be angry about anything that I’ve ever done.  When Kristy and Mary Beth learned that what they remembered as childhood fun was actually Ronald’s nightmare, I could relate to how confused and guilty they felt and also their desire to fix things with Ronald.  At the same time, Ronald was himself such a jerk that I couldn’t help but feel that he deserved to be miserable.  Ronald gets his revenge by casting Kristy and Mary Beth in a commercial that he’s making for the student union.  (Seeing as how he was a childhood friend of Mary Beth and Kristy’s, I’m assuming he’s a freshman at the University of Indiana.  Are freshmen film students often hired to direct commercials?)  He films Kristy and Mary Beth eating ice cream and then, in the commercial, he transposes their faces on two pigs.  Not cool, Ronald!  Seriously, what a jerk.

While Mary Beth and Kristy are potentially putting their lives in danger by spending time with the obviously sociopathic Ronald, the Tornadoes are looking forward to playing their next game.  Their opponent is from Muncie, Indiana and no one expects the Tornadoes to lose.  Despite Coach K’s warning about getting cocky, the Tornadoes do just that.  Coach K even invites a pro basketball player to come to practice and tell the Tornadoes to never take victory for granted.  Judging by how awkward and stiff the guy was while delivering his lines, I’m assuming he was a real-life player.

Of course, Coach K has a point.  The Tornadoes have gotten extremely cocky, especially when you consider that they rarely seem to win a game by more than one point.  When a local paper refers to them as being “the team of the decade,” the Tornadoes let it go to their head.  (Really, shouldn’t the team of the decade occasionally win by more than a handful of points?)  The game against Muncie is close but — well, you already know that this episode is entitled The Upset.  Do I need to tell you that, this time, it’s Muncie that wins by one basket?

Humbled, The Tornadoes return home and are shocked to discover all of their fans waiting and cheering for them.  Coach K says that he’s proud of the team.  Michael gives a speech in which he promises to bring home the championship next season.  Next season!?  Are any of these people ever planning on graduating!?

I had mixed feelings about this episode.  I liked the fact that the Tornadoes lost the big game because even a good team is going to lose a game or two.  I thought that part of the episode was really well-directed, acted, and written.  But all of the stuff with Ronald was just icky and it made me never want to apologize to anyone.  Still, on the whole, this was a good episode with which to end the season.

Except, of course, there’s two more episodes to go in this season.  We’ll look at them next week!