Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 3.7 “Mutiny on the Bull Team”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

Things aren’t looking too good for the Bulls!

Episode 3.7 “A Mutiny on the Bull Team”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on October 7th, 1987)

After a terrible start to the season (back-to-back losses!), TD tells Coach Grier that he needs to do something to get the team back into championship shape.  Coach Grier launches an intensive training regimen and he posts a list of rules in the locker room — no beer in the locker room, players must shave for game day, and a bunch of other things.  The players rebel and, during the next game, they stop running the plays that Grier wants.  TD confronts Grier and demands to know what’s going on.  Grier says that he just did what TD told him to do.  TD says that he didn’t tell Grier to become a dictator even though that is kind of what TD told him to do.

Really, “reign of terror?”  Coach Grier is like in his 60s and he’s fat and out of shape.  The football players are …. well, football players.  What exactly is TD Parker saying?  It’s hard to say.  OJ Simpson delivers all of his lines in the same amiable and bland manner that he used when he said he would devote his life to searching for the real killers.  It’s hard to know what TD is thinking.

Anyway, Grier realizes the errors of his ways and the Bulls win the game!  So, TD doesn’t have to cut anyone from the team.  He can put away his knife for now.  Everyone in the locker room should be breathing a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, Yinessa and new owner Jill Schrader struggle with their feelings for each other.  In the end, Yinessa kisses Jill in the stadium parking lot so I guess they decided to forget about the whole “We have to maintain a professional separation” thing.

One final note: Last week’s episode featured Delta Burke swearing that she was going to reclaim ownership of the Bulls.  But, with this episode, Burke is no longer listed in the opening credits so I guess that storyline is over with.  Jill is now the owner.  Good!  Maybe the Bulls will finally win a championship.

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 3.6 “The Bulls Change Hands”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

This episode was confusing.  Is syndication to blame?

Episode 3.6 “The Bulls Change Hands”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on September 9th, 1987)

Diana no longer owns the Bulls!

That was the main plot development to be found in this cluttered episode of 1st & Ten.  As I’ve mentioned before, the episodes of 1st & Ten that are available on Tubi are the heavily edited versions that were sold into syndication as opposed to the original, R-rated versions that appeared on HBO.  With quite a few of these episodes, it’s obvious that entire plotlines have been pretty much chopped out.  That certainly feels like the case here because, despite having watched the episode, I’m still not totally sure how Diane lost the Bulls in the first place.

What I do know is that she threatened to expose Teddy’s insider trading.  Teddy responded by leaving the country but, before he left, he gave his ownership shares to his daughter, Jill (Leah Ayres).  Teddy explains that this makes Jill the owner of the Bulls.  But my understanding was that Teddy only owned half the team so it seems like that would mean Jill and Diane would now be co-owners.  Perhaps I missed something in an earlier episode or maybe some line of dialogue was cut out for syndication, I’m not sure.  What I do know is that Jill now owns the Bulls.  The first thing she does is break up with Yinessa because she can’t be both his boss and his girlfriend.

In her final locker room speech, Diane orders the Bulls to win because Diane is taking Jill to court and she wants the team to be in the playoffs once she returns as the owner.  It’s not a bad speech but again, I thought Diane still owned at least half of the team.

Meanwhile, Yinessa is back as quarterback.  And he leads the Bulls to their first victory of the season.  His new wide receiver, Billy Cooper (Michael Toland) catches the game-winning pass.  At the same time that Billy is scoring, some guy who we’ve never seen before is shooting at him from the roof of the stadium.  The police arrest the guy and Billy later discovers a bullet lodged in his helmet.

Bubba’s sex therapist (Penny Johnson) is now obsessed with him, despite Bubba’s attempts to set her up with with Jethro.  I have a feeling that the Jethro/Bubba storylines were the ones that really got left on the cutting room floor when it came to editing these episodes for syndication.  Jethro and Bubba have been with the show since the beginning and they’ve got prominent billing in the opening credits but, when it comes to their roles in the episodes themselves, it seems like the only thing that happens is Bubba says that he needs to get laid and then the two of them disappear for several weeks.  When they do finally reappear, Bubba is always in some sort of new trouble with his wife.

Speaking of marriage, in this episode, TD Parker finally confesses to his wife that he’s been having an affair.

TD apologizes.  His wife tells him to get out.  Agck!  I can see where this storyline is heading but OJ Simpson fighting with his wife still lands differently in 2026 than it probably did in 1987.

This episode was a mess but I guess Jill is the owner of the Bulls now and Teddy’s fled to South America.  Can’t the Bull just concentrate on playing football and earning their paycheck?

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 3.5 “Illegal Use Of Love”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

With their best player now dead, the Bull begin their new season.

Episode 3.5 “Illegal Use Of Love”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on September 2nd, 1987)

Uh-oh, TD Parker is cheating on his wife with assistant, Kay (Alexa Hamilton).  TD explains that his wife is upset about the amount of time that he’s putting in with the team.  She feels that he’s neglecting his family.  She doesn’t even like football anymore!

Yep, TD has a lot of excuses for cheating on his wife but don’t think that he’s a bad guy or anything.  As he tells his mistress, everything is fine except for….

As I’ve said before, probably the most interesting thing about 1st & Ten is the way that everything that OJ Simpson says now has a double meaning.  At the time this was filmed, OJ was just a former football player who had become a likable if not particularly versatile actor.  Watching it today in 2026 …. well, words land differently.

As the Bulls, the team is in trouble.  Their season opener against Baltimore is a disaster.  Yinessa is still out and demanding a new contract before he’ll play so, instead, he sits in the stands and watch as the backup quarterback throws interception after interception.  Later, he tells Teddy’s daughter, Jill Schrader (Leah Ayres), that all he wants to do is play football.  If that’s the case, why not sign your stupid contract and play football?  Seriously, when did Yinessa get so whiny?

There’s a brief sign of hope during the Baltimore game.  Dr. Death intercept a pass.  But then Dr. Death runs the wrong way and gets tackled behind the other team’s goal line.  A local sports commentator says that Dr. Death and Mad Dog (who blocked while Death was running the wrong way) are idiots.  He’s correct but he retracts his statement after Death and Dog threaten to destroy his car.

The Bulls need a quarterback.  Teddy goes behind Diane’s back and arranges a trade for arrogant Johnny Valentine, the coke-addled quarterback who Diane kicked off the team the previous season.  Diane gets angry but what can she do?  Teddy owns half of the team….

For now!

TD’s mistress shows TD some financial reports that show that Teddy has been making his money through insider trading.  TD is shocked.

If anyone knows about illegal….

It looks like Teddy might be in some trouble.  It also looks like Diane might be in some trouble as well because the other owners think that she’s failed to control the drug use on her team.  (They’re not incorrect.)  We’ll see what happens next week but I have a feeling that a change is coming.

And really, that change can’t come a minute too soon.  Even with the steroid storyline, this season has been a snoozefest so far.  Here’s hoping things perk up next week!

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 3.4 “The Comeback Trail”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

Some will never play the game….

Episode 3.4 “The Comeback Trail”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on August 26th, 1987)

The Bulls are in disarray!  Yinessa is in the hospital and might never play again.  Diane wants to trade John Manzak for a new quarterback but TD Parker explains that Manzak is actually one of the best players that they have.

Then, OJ — I mean TD — heads to the locker room and catches Manzak shooting up steroids in the bathroom.  TD tries to take the steroids away from him and Manzak …. well, Manzak doesn’t appreciate that.

Manzak apologizes and explains that, after ten years of injuries, he needs the steroids to play.  TD orders him to stop using them.  Manzak doesn’t listen and during the next practice, he collapses on the field.  TD runs out to him and checks his pulse.

OJ would know!

So ends the saga of John Manzak.  He just wanted to play football but he took too many steroids and collapsed dead on the practice field.

How will the Bulls survive without him?  We’ll find out next week!

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 3.3 “A Loaded Gun”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

This week, OJ Simpson argues with his wife.

Episode 3.3 “A Loaded Gun”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on August 19th, 1987)

With Yinessa continuing to hold out for more money, Teddy thinks that he’s come up with a solution.  He tells Yinessa that he will personally take out an insurance policy on him so that Yinessa can work out with the team, despite not having a contract.  Yinessa agrees.  TD Parker tells all of the defenders not to touch Yinessa because they cannot risk him getting hurt.

“Anyone who touches Yinessa is going to wind up in Buffalo!” Parker tells them.

Unfortunately, John Manzak has been taken too many steroids.  As a result, the first thing he does is sack Yinessa.  Yinessa is injured.  As he’s rushed to the hospital, Diane tells Teddy, “Thank God you got that insurance policy.”  Teddy looks worried — uh oh, it looks like someone didn’t get that insurance policy!

At the hospital, a doctor tells Diane that Yinessa has a detached retina and he’ll probably never play football again.

Meanwhile, TD is having trouble in his marriage.  He forgets his wife’s birthday but TD’s secretary (Leah Ayres) sends flowers and buys a gift.  Unfortunately, TD’s wife sees through the entire ruse.  She and TD argue.  And because TD Parker is played by OJ Simpson, it’s hard not to worry whenever anyone argues with him.

Hey, that’s a good point, OJ!  Let’s move on!

Also, in this episode, Bubba goes to therapy because he hasn’t been able to make love to his wife since she gave birth.  Jethro goes with him and pretends to have a shoe fetish.  This led to another patient hiding his shoes.  1st and Ten is a comedy that rarely makes me laugh but I have to admit that I did chuckle when Jethro started talking about how much he loved shoes.

Other than the therapy scene, this was a pretty serious episode.  Yinessa might never play again.  John Manzak is going crazy due to the steroid abuse.  (Is he going to be sent to Buffalo?  I don’t know how he’s going to handle that!)  The kicker is still looking for a wife so he won’t get deported.  And Diane has no idea what’s going on with her team.

How will the Bulls ever make it to the championship game!?

I guess I’ll have to keep watching to find out.

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & 10 3.2 “A Second Chance Once Removed”)


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

This week, OJ Simpson makes things awkward.

Episode 3.2 “A Second Chance Once Removed”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on August 12th, 1987)

With Coach Denardo no longer around, Diana has kept her promise and promoted Fred Grier to head coach.  However, Diana’s boyfriend and the new co-owner of the Bulls, Teddy, wants to hire T.D.’s old college coach, Red Macklin (John Robinson).  Though T.D. isn’t comfortable with the idea of betraying Fred or doing anything behind Diana’s back, he does agree that Macklin would be a better coach.  After an argument with his wife, T.D. flies out to his old college.

T.D. doesn’t do a very good job of selling the team to Macklin.  Macklin finally says, “You don’t want to be the head coach of the Bulls, do you?”  T.D. says that he does but the position has already been given to Fred and T.D. doesn’t believe in doing things without being upfront with everyone because …. well, I’ll let T.D. explain it….

This episode is a good example of what happens when one of a show’s main characters is played by someone who is now best-known for somehow getting acquitted of stabbing his ex-wife and a waiter to death.  Even the most innocuous of lines seem to take on an entirely different meaning.  I have to admit that I cringed every time T.D.’s wife called and said that he was working too hard and spending too much time with the team.  No, I wanted to yell, don’t make him mad….

As for the rest of the episode, it largely dealt with training camp.  Veteran defensive player John Manzak (John Matuszak) fears that he won’t make the team.  There’s a young rookie who seems to have more energy and strength than him.  However, Manzak has a secret weapon …. steroids!  I cannot imagine that this is going to end well.

Meanwhile, the government wants to deport the Bulgarian kicker, Zagreb (John Kassir).  Zagreb applies for political asylum but it turns out that his father is some sort of official in the Bulgarian government and, as such, Zagreb would not be in any danger if he was sent back home.  (I don’t really follow that logic, to be honest.  Communist dictators, like Zagreb’s father, are notoriously unsentimental when it comes to their children.  Fidel Castro had children all over the world and he didn’t leave Cuba to a single one of them.  Instead, Justin had to settle for Canada.)  Diana has a solution, though.  They have to find Zagreb a wife.  Again, I cannot imagine that this is going to end well.

Meanwhile, Yinessa is still holding out for money, Bubba is still arguing with his wife, and I’m still not sure what Jethro does on the team.

This episode of 1st & Ten …. actually, it wasn’t that bad.  I could actually follow the story for once and it didn’t feel like it had been cut to ribbons for syndication.  John Matuszak actually gave a very touching performance as a player who might be past his prime.  Hopefully, things will work out for him.  We’ll find out next week!

Retro Television Review: The American Short Story #15: The Sky Is Gray


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Saturdays, Lisa will be reviewing The American Short Story, which ran semi-regularly on PBS in 1974 to 1981.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube and Tubi.

This week, we have an adaptation of a 1963 short story.

Episode #15: The Sky Is Gray

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired in 1980)

This adaptation of an Ernest Gaines short story takes place in Louisiana during the 1940s.  James (James Bond III) is a young black child who lives on a farm.  His father is overseas, serving in the Army during World War II.  His mother (Olivia Cole) is a stern but loving woman who is trying to raise the sensitive James in a world where one often has to depend on their inner strength to survive.  When James comes down with a toothache, he and his mother travel to a nearby town so he can see the dentist.  From having to stand in the back of the bus to listening to a debate between a priest and a militant in the dentist’s office, it’s an eye-opening journey for James.  When the white receptionist at the dentist’s office arbitrarily cancels James’s appointment and tells him and his mother to come back tomorrow, the two of them seek shelter.  James discovers how strong his mother is when they’re harassed by a pimp (Reuben Collins).  He also learns that there is unexpected kindness in the world when a white store owner invites him and his mother inside to give them shelter from the cold and windy day.  During one trip to the dentist, James learns that the world is far more complicated than he originally knew.

This was an okay adaptation of Gaines’s acclaimed short story.  Young James Bond III gave a good performance as James and the episode was full of scenes that visually captured the feel of being an outsider.  That said, as was often the case with this series, the adaptation was so straight-forward that it didn’t really capture the nuance of Gaines’s writing.  In the short story, Gaines put the reader right into James’s head.  The adaptation doesn’t really do that.  A heavy-handed musical score doesn’t help matters but, with all that in mind, this was still an effective coming-of-age tale.

Retro Television Review: The American Short Story #4 “Almos’ A Man”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Saturdays, I will be reviewing The American Short Story, which ran semi-regularly on PBS in 1974 to 1981.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube and Tubi.

This week, we have an adaptation of a Richard Wright short story.

Episode #4 “Almos’ A Man”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired in 1976)

David (LeVar Burton) is a black fifteen year-old living in the Deep South in the 1930s.  He works on his family’s farm and takes care of a mule named Jenny.  He considers himself to be almost a man.  His mother (Madge Sinclair) and his father (Robert DoQui) disagree.

David knows the one thing that he need to make himself a man.  He needs a gun and, this being the 1930s, he finds one that he can order from a Sears & Roebuck catalogue.  His mother says that there’s no way she’s letting him get a gun.  His father is a bit more open to it.  David secretly sends away for the gun and, as you can probably guess, tragedy ensues.

This was a downbeat adaptation of a similarly downbeat Richard Wright short story.  David obsession with being a man makes sense when you consider that he lives in a world where everyone — from his parents to the menacing white people who show up towards end — calls him a “boy.”  The white people even call his father “boy” and it’s a reminder of how that term was used to dehumanize and degrade black men, even someone like David’s father who has raised a family, takes care of his farm, and who is, in every way imaginable, a man.

Nicely done, this one, with good performance from Burton, Sinclair, and Doqui.  As for Richard Wright, he had been dead for 16 years by the time this premiered.  He died in Paris, having left the United States in 1946.  He’s remembered for his novel Native Son and his memoir, Black Boy.  Personally, I would add that he should also be remembered for his essay that appeared in the anti-Communist collection, The God That Failed.  This adaptation of AlmosA Man does a good job paying tribute to Wright’s voice and legacy.

Retro Television Reviews: Miami Vice 1.10 “Glades”


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 Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

This week, Crockett and Tubbs leave Miami!

Episode 1.10 “Glades”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on November 30th, 1984)

Episode ten opens with the Animals’s “We’ve Got To Get Out Of This Place” playing on the soundtrack and the camera tracking down some of the less glamorous sections of Miami.  This is a far different part of the city than the viewer is used to seeing on Miami Vice.  The sleek art deco architecture has been replaced by vacant lots, run-down apartments, and torn-up streets.  It serves as a reminder that, while some people in Miami are getting very rich, others are still trapped in the cycle of poverty.

Joey Bramlette (Keith Szarabajka) is staying in a  cheap motel room, courtesy of the Vice Squad.  Joey is due to testify in court against his former boss, a Colombian drug lord named Ruiz.  Joey’s testimony is the key to the entire case but, when he receives a mysterious letter, he escapes the safehouse and flees back to his home in the Everglades.  Though it was Zito and Switek who allowed him to escape, Crockett and Tubbs are the ones who head down to the Everglades to find him.

That’s right …. Crockett and Tubbs aren’t in Miami anymore!

As Crockett and Tubbs soon discover, the Everglades is full of rednecks, smugglers, and enforcers.  Safely hidden away from civilization, it’s a place where there is no law.  After a group of rednecks (led by John Pankow) trick Sonny and Tubbs into getting lost in the wilderness (“Moss grows on the north side of a tree!” Crockett announces as he tries to figure out how to return to civilization), the two cops are found by Joey and his wife, Cassie (Margaret Whitton).  Joey reveals that he still wants to testify but that Ruiz’s men have kidnapped his daughter.  Working together with Joey and his family, Crockett and Tubbs have to figure out how to storm Ruiz’s heavily guarded compound and rescue Joey’s daughter.

This episode was a bit of a change of pace but I enjoyed it.  Some of that is because, when I was growing up, I spent a lot of time in the country and I’ve still got a lot of family out there, working on their farms and living in communities much like the one that Crockett and Tubbs visited in this episode.  I may now be a city girl but I’ve still got my country side.  I can still remember what it was like, walking around the tall grass while wearing short shorts and a tank top.  Though I cringed a bit when it first appeared that this episode was going to portray rural Florida as being the equivalent of Deliverance, I was happy to see that it was ultimately a celebration of the resilience of country people.

There was an interesting subtext to this episode as everyone that Sonny and Tubbs met was a smuggler, either working for Ruiz or independently running marijuana into Florida.  Later, one of the older smugglers mentioned that he used to run moonshine, therefore suggesting that there wasn’t much difference between the War on Drugs of the 1980s and the doomed effort at prohibition of the 1920s.  Miami Vice is a cop show that often suggests that it’s sometimes best not to get too hung up on rigidly enforcing the law.  That’s quite a contrast to most other cop shows that I’ve seen.  Even modern cop shows tend to take the attitude that anyone who violates the law has to be punished in some way, whether by incarceration or death.  Miami Vice may have been about law enforcement but its heart belonged to the libertarians.

Next week’s episode of Miami Vice guest stars Burt Young, Michael Madsen, Lenny Von Dohlen, and Terry O’Quinn!

Retro Television Reviews: South Central 1.9 “Dog” and 1.10 “Date”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing South Central, which aired, for 10 episodes, on Fox in 1994.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week, South Central comes to an end.

Episode 1.9 “Dog”

(Directed by Stan Lathan, originally aired on May 31st, 1994)

Deion finally gets to be the focus of an episode and it’s seriously, the most depressing 30 minutes ever.

After eight episode of never speaking and never smiling, Deion is briefly happy when a stray dog follows him and Andre home.  Deion loves playing with the dog and he even starts to bark just like the dog.  Joan, however, is not happy about the idea of having the dog in the house.  As she sensibly points out, they don’t know if the dog is sick and dog’s are expensive to keep.  Still, when she sees how Deion loves the dog, she says that the dog can stay as long as he doesn’t make a mess in the house.  Andre agrees to watch over the dog.

Joan leaves for the Co-op, where Bobby has declared the day to be “Black Dollar Day.”  Of course, as soon as Joan does leaves the house, the dog makes a mess on the floor.  Neither Andre nor his friend Rashad are willing to clean it up, with Andre is more concerned with calling Nicole and begging her to take him back.  Finally, Tasha’s friend Shanelle (Shar Jackson) cleans up the mess because she wants to get together with Andre.  However, Andre rejects Shanelle, telling her that she needs to have more respect for herself.  (Andre wasn’t too concerned about Shanelle’s self-esteem when she was cleaning up after the dog for him.)  Later, Andre and Tasha catch Shanelle and Rashad fooling around in Joan’s bedroom.  This leads to multiple fights and the dog getting so agitated that it bites Shanelle.

The end result is Shanelle goes to the hospital, animal control takes away the dog, and Deion is left without his only friend.  The next morning, Deion steps out of the house and stands on the sidewalk, barking like a dog.

My God, what a depressing show!  But I should also add that it was a remarkable well-acted episode, especially the scene in which Joan explained to Deion that the dog wouldn’t be coming back but that the dog was okay and still cared about him.  Seriously, I’m tearing up just writing that and I’m not even dog person.

Let’s move on to the series finale.

Episode 1.10 “Date”

(Directed by W.E. Baker, originally aired on June 7th, 1994)

Joan orders Andre and Rashad to take Tasha to the Ujamaa Hi-Life and pushes Deion onto Sweets so that she can have the house to herself for a night.  However, almost as soon as the kids leave, Ray (Ken Page) shows up.  (Yay!  Ray’s back!)  Ray sweetly asks Joan if she would like to have dinner with him.  They head out to the local catfish place but they discover that there is a 45-minute waiting time for a table.  Except …. OH MY GOD, IT’S ISAIAH!  Isaiah (Michael Beach) explains that he is friends with the owner of the restaurant and he always has a table.  Isaiah invites Joan (and, by extension, Ray) to have dinner with him.

Needless to say, dinner is a bit awkward, with Ray and Isaiah each mentioning that they own multiple homes and tying to impress Joan.  Isaiah is as much of a charming jerk as he was the last time he went out with Joan.  Ray, once again, promises to always be there for Joan and Andre despite the fact that Joan is obviously not interested in him.  As bad as I do feel for Ray, he should realize by this point that Joan doesn’t share his feelings.  You can’t create chemistry where there isn’t any.

Meanwhile, at the Co-Op, Rashad and Andre look for dates (which I guess means that Andre is over Nicole) and Tasha eventually cheers up when she gets to perform on stage.

To be honest, it’s a bit of an underwhelming ending for a show that featured so many powerful episodes.  The finale feels far more conventional in its humor than the previous episodes and that probably has something to do with the fact that this was the only episode of South Central to not be directed by Stan Lathan.  The finale feels more than a bit off when compared to what came before but, at the same time, it’s nice that the show ended with Tasha finally getting a moment to be the center of attention.

South Central only ran for ten episodes and it’s easy to see why it struggled in the ratings.  For a comedy, South Central could be a very dark show.  There weren’t a lot of standard happy endings to be found in South Central and even the upbeat finale left viewers feeling that things were only going to get more difficult for the Mosely family.  Joan is still going to be working herself to death at Ujamaa.  Andre is still going to often be his own worse enemy.  And, even after performing in front of the entire community, Tasha is still going to be the one who is always expected to sacrifice to help out around the house.  This show was all about the small moments of happiness that can be found even in the most difficult of circumstances.  Ultimately, though, those moments can only take you so far.

Next week, just in time for October, we start a new Thursday show and it features a ghost!  Are you ready for …. Jennifer Slept Here!?