Trivia / What's Happening!!

• The Cast Showoff: In Real Life, Fred Berry was an accomplished disco dancer and was previously a member of a dance group known as The Lockers. Naturally, Rerun had a few opportunities to show off his dance moves — most notably in the first-season episode “My Three Tons,” when Rerun auditions to be a part of a dance group called The Rockets (played by the Lockers).
• The Danza: Almost the whole cast.
  • Ernest Thomas as Roger Thomas
  • Haywood Nelson as Dwayne Nelson
  • Fred Berry as Fred "Rerun" Stubbs. Berry would later have his middle name legally changed to "Rerun."
  • Shirley Hemphill as Shirley Wilson
  • and Mabel King as Mabel Thomas.
• Dawson Casting: Ernest Thomas was 27 and Fred Berry was 25 when the show began production.
• Follow the Leader: The immediate success of What's Happening Now! inspired a wave of syndicated series revivals (The New Leave It to Beaver, The Munsters Today and continuations (Mama's Family, Charles in Charge).
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Out of universe. Raj's glasses clearly don't have any lenses in them.
• Star-Making Role: Martin Lawrence played Maurice Warfield in the third season of What's Happening Now!!, his first major acting role.
• Wag the Director: Multiple times, eventually leading to the show's cancellation.
  • Mabel King regularly fought with the writers and producers over what she saw as a lack of positive black representation in the show, disliking how her character was a maid and a divorced single mother. She would regularly change the script during filming and pushed for her character to be remarried. These creative conflicts resulted in King's role in the show being reduced in Season 2, leading to her quitting and her character being written out at the start of Season 3.
  • During the second season, Fred Berry demanded a higher salary and better studio accommodations for the actors, a dispute that eventually led to a full-fledged walkout by Berry and Thomas during season two's "If I'm Elected" (leaving Haywood Nelson to carry the episode alone). Their demands were met soon afterward.
  • In the third season, Berry and Thomas again threatened to strike in demand for another raise. This time, the executive producers opted to cancel the series rather than to give in.
  • Fred Berry was said to be difficult to work with during the filming of What's Happening Now!!, believing that he deserved higher pay than his co-stars since his character was more popular. This resulted in him being written out of the show after the first season.
• Written-In Infirmity: During season two, Danielle Spencer (Dee) was involved in a serious car accident that led to spinal problems. To accommodate her, she remained seated in many subsequent scenes to minimize physical exertion, and her hair was styled to cover up damage to her forehead.