Episode Data

The White Shadow

update

Season 0

• _{not specified}

  1: Interview with Ken Howard, All About the Show

• _{not specified}

  2: More Than Basketball Featurette

• _{not specified}

  3: The Shadow of Bruce Paltrow Featurette

• _{not specified}

  4: Director's Debut Featurette

• _{not specified}

  5: A Series of Memories Preview

Season 1

• _{Monday, November 27th, 1978}

  1: (pilot)

  Ken Reeves, a forward with the Chicago Bulls, is forced to retire after suffering a serious knee injury. His old friend and high school teammate, Jim Willis, who is principal of Carver High near L.A., drops by to offer him a job as basketball coach. Reeves is reluctant, but agrees. Among the challenges he faces with the school and the team include a female vice principal who doesn't like him and a player, James Hayward, who has a lot of potential, but also is fatherless and may have to drop out of school to go to work and take care of his mom and little brother.

• _{Monday, December 4th, 1978}

  2: Here's Mud in Your Eye

  Coach Reeves and the team discover liquor in Jackson's locker, and fear he may have a drinking problem.

• _{Monday, December 11th, 1978}

  3: The Offer

  Reeves is tempted after a beautiful newswoman takes an interest in him and then her boss offers him a high-paying sports commentator job.

• _{Monday, December 25th, 1978}

  4: Bonus Baby

  After winning the Most Valuable Player trophy, Coolidge is easily seduced by a young woman who says a sports agent is interested in promoting his career.

• _{Monday, January 1st, 1979}

  5: Pregnant Pause

  College scouts are impressed with Reese and believe he has a good shot at a scholarship. However, Reese's plans are put on hold when his girlfriend, a Carver cheerleader, tells him she's pregnant. Coach Reeves and the team discover her attending cheerleader practices and believe she may be lying about the pregnancy to trap Reese into marrying her.

• _{Monday, January 8th, 1979}

  6: Wanna Bet?

  Coach Reeves finds himself involved in burglary, bookies and murder after he helps an amazing young basketball player enroll at Carver High and join the team.

• _{Monday, January 15th, 1979}

  7: That Old Gang of Mine

  after gomez gets knocked off the carver high basketball team he joins a street gang he onced belonged to

• _{Saturday, January 27th, 1979}

  8: Just One of the Boys

  Reeves deals with a new player, Raymond Collins, who was forced to transfer from his old school because of rumors about his being gay.

• _{Saturday, February 3rd, 1979}

  9: Airball

  Reeves tries to fly the team to an out-of-town tournament, and the results aren't what he bargained for.

• _{Saturday, February 10th, 1979}

  10: We're in the Money

  Reeves takes the team to Las Vegas for a tournament, with disastrous results.

• _{Saturday, February 17th, 1979}

  11: Spare the Rod

  Coach Reeves substitute-teaches a P.E. class, loses his temper, and hits a student, Lucius Robinson, who refuses to participate. Reeves feels guilty about the incident, learns of Lucius' troubles, and offers to help him in any way. Reeves then quickly learns that some students can't be helped when Lucius tries to rape Mrs. Buchanan.

• _{Saturday, February 24th, 1979}

  12: The Great White Dope

  Salami has dreams of becoming a professional boxer, like his father was. However, his dad is dead-set against it. Coach Reeves offers to help Salami train, but gets more than he bargained for when he learns his father is against it and that he and Salami don't talk to each other

• _{Monday, March 5th, 1979}

  13: Mainstream

  A mainstreaming program is put in place at Carver, and as a result, Coach Reeves is forced to take in an autistic kid on the basketball team.

• _{Monday, March 26th, 1979}

  14: Little Orphan Abner

  Goldstein's grandmother is hospitalized and his grandfather stays at the hospital with her, so Coach Reeves asks the team to check in on him at home every so often. The other guys aren't too keen on this because Goldstein really doesn't fit in with them, but they agree to check on him and, in the process, take advantage of him and his hospitality. Goldstein threatens to quit the team, and Coach Reeves gives him a lecture on standing up for himself.

• _{Monday, April 9th, 1979}

  15: LeGrand Finale

  The team wants to form a singing group, but elect not to include Thorpe, who begins a dating interest with Karen LeGrand, a white girl with an unsavory reputation around school.

Season 2

• _{Monday, September 17th, 1979}

  1: On the Line

  The second season begins with Jackson, wanting to make some extra money, gets unknowingly involved with sports bookies. Things get especially difficult when they start offering him big money to shave points at Carver's games.

• _{Monday, September 24th, 1979}

  2: Albert Hodges

  Coach Reeves begins teaching a class on sex education, but comes under fire when he makes joking comments that Albert Hodges, a new black student who is very racially sensitive, interprets as insulting to blacks. Hodges then tries to rally the black players on the team against Reeves.

• _{Monday, October 1st, 1979}

  3: Cross-Town Hustle

  A rival coach from a predominantly white high school in the area tries to convince Reese to transfer.

• _{Monday, October 8th, 1979}

  4: Sudden Death

  after a rookie basketball player dies of an anerism coach reeves goes blaming himself for his death

• _{Monday, October 15th, 1979}

  5: A Silent Cheer

  Reeves gives a talented player who is deaf a shot on the Carver team.

• _{Monday, October 29th, 1979}

  6: No Place Like Home

  after coolidges apartment house burns down coolidge and coach reeves become roommates

• _{Monday, November 5th, 1979}

  7: Globetrotters

  The basketball team is on a winning streak and proceeds to showboat and run up the score on their latest opponent, prompting a tongue-lashing from Reeves. With their newfound success gone to their head, the team gets cocky with the workers at a local car wash and challenges them to a pickup game at the Carver gym. The boys are unaware that the car wash workers are really members of the Harlem Globetrotters doing a benefit and Reeves has arranged for them to show the team they're really not as good as they think.

• _{Monday, November 12th, 1979}

  8: Me?

  Thorpe contracts a sexually transmitted disease and has passed it onto Coolidge's girlfriend. The two of them must now tell Warren that he too must get tested.

• _{Monday, November 26th, 1979}

  9: Needle

  Hayward's young cousin runs afoul with a drug dealer and dies from an overdose. Reeves must prevent Hayward from seeking revenge.

• _{Monday, December 3rd, 1979}

  10: Sliding By

  A "can't miss" college basketball prospect transfers to Carver to finish high school, but Reeves finds out he may not be what he seems.

• _{Tuesday, December 18th, 1979}

  11: Delores, Of Course

  a former girlfreind a jacksons comes to los angeles saying that shes fashion model but is really a hooker

• _{Tuesday, December 25th, 1979}

  12: A Christmas Present

  Sybil is pregnant and at odds with her husband, while Reeves is left without any place to go for Christmas.

• _{Tuesday, January 1st, 1980}

  13: Feeling No Pain

  Salami sprains a knee during a pickup basketball game, and his doctor prescribes amphetamines, which he unwittingly shares with the team.

• _{Tuesday, January 8th, 1980}

  14: Artist

  a nagging art teacher thinks that thorpe should go to art school but thorpe has no interest in it what so ever

• _{Tuesday, January 15th, 1980}

  15: Salami's Affair

  Carver holds a school 'turnabout' dance for Sadie Hawkins Day, and a young female teacher has her thoughts on asking Salami and going further.

• _{Tuesday, January 22nd, 1980}

  16: Links

  Deciding that some of the players could use a dose of class, Coach Reeves takes Coolidge, Thorpe, and Salami to an exclusive country club for a day of golfing.

• _{Tuesday, January 29th, 1980}

  17: The Stripper

  a teacher who moonlights as a exotic dancer teaching career is on the line

• _{Tuesday, February 5th, 1980}

  18: Gonna Fly Now

  A drug dealer infiltrates Carver's campus.

• _{Tuesday, February 19th, 1980}

  19: Out at Home

  Reeves is named Carver's new athletic director, but the longtime baseball coach isn't happy about it.

• _{Tuesday, February 26th, 1980}

  20: The Russians Are Coming

  A touring high school team from the then-Soviet Union comes to Carver. The players have trouble relating to the Russian players, with the exception of one Russian, whom Hayward befriends, and later wants to defect to the U.S.

• _{Tuesday, March 4th, 1980}

  21: The Hitter

  Coach Reeves suspects that Gomez is being physically abused at home by his father, but has trouble getting him to admit it.

• _{Tuesday, March 11th, 1980}

  22: The Death of Me Yet

  Carver celebrates advancing to the city championship, but the party turns tragic.

• _{Tuesday, March 18th, 1980}

  23: Coolidge Goes Hollywood

  Coolidge is offered a television acting role.

• _{Tuesday, April 1st, 1980}

  24: A Few Good Men

  Graduation means the end of the Carver playing careers of Goldstein, Gomez, Hayward, and Reese, and it also means anxiety for all of them as they wonder what's ahead. Meanwhile, Reeves' girlfriend wants him to spend the summer with her in Greece.

Season 3

• _{Thursday, October 16th, 1980}

  1: Reunion (1)

  The third season begins with Coach Reeves visiting the town where he grew up and reuniting with old friends, including an old high school teammate, an old girlfriend, and his father, whose health is failing.

• _{Thursday, October 23rd, 1980}

  2: Reunion (2)

  Coach Reeves heals his strained relationship with his dying father, breaks things off once and for all with Paula, and returns to Carver for the new school year, where some new players have joined the team: Wardell Stone, Mitchell, Rutherford, Paddy Falahey, and Eddie Franklin

• _{Thursday, October 30th, 1980}

  3: Georgia on My Mind

  getting fed up with high school coolidge tries out for the harlem globetrotters

• _{Tuesday, December 16th, 1980}

  4: If Your Number's Up, Get It Down

  Coolidge, Salami, Vitaglia, and Thorpe wreck the new driver's ed car and have to raise money for a mobile health-care unit as punishment.

• _{Tuesday, December 23rd, 1980}

  5: Christmas Story

  Thorpe befriends a young orphan while helping coach basketball at a Catholic school. Reeves tries to get romantic with the school's female coach, unaware she's a nun. The team tries to make some Christmas cash by selling undersized Christmas trees.

• _{Tuesday, December 30th, 1980}

  6: No Blood, No Foul

  Salami faces possible jail time after breaking an opposing team's player's jaw during an on court brawl.

• _{Tuesday, January 6th, 1981}

  7: Vanity Fare

  The team attempts to enter a singing contest.

• _{Tuesday, January 13th, 1981}

  8: Mister Hero

  Stone saves an elderly woman's life by rescuing her from a burning car, and the experience goes to his head after he appears on the TV news and sensationalizes the story.

• _{Monday, February 2nd, 1981}

  9: B.M.O.C

  Coolidge starts having problems stemming from his abnormal height and size, such as normal clothes not fitting. He gets self-conscious and defensive until Coach Reeves, who has dealt with the same problems, takes him under his wing and tries to let him know he's not alone. NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Russell guest stars.

• _{Monday, February 9th, 1981}

  10: Trial and Error

  Falahey's girlfriend thinks she's pregnant, while Reeves is called for jury duty.

• _{Monday, February 16th, 1981}

  11: Car Repo

  Salami and Vitaglia take on a part-time job reposessing cars, but the ungodly work hours and the harassments from the car owners affect both their performances in school and on the basketball court.

• _{Monday, February 23rd, 1981}

  12: Psyched Out

  A female teacher with a past history of mental illness and nervous breakdowns is tormented by a psychotic student.

• _{Monday, March 2nd, 1981}

  13: Cops

  An elderly woman is mugged on the street at night by two big, tall black men, and the description she gives the police matches both Coolidge and Franklin, who happen to be out on the town that night. The police apprehend the two with Thorpe looking on. Thorpe observes what appears to be police brutality, reaches into his pocket to get a pen to write the cops' car number, and is shot by one of them.

• _{Monday, March 9th, 1981}

  14: Burnout

  Carver's baseball coach, who also teaches English, begins to experience teacher burnout. He begins handing out free grades, which hurts Rutherford, who works hard in his class. Vitaglia, too, is disappointed in his attitude because he wants to try out for the baseball team.

• _{Monday, March 16th, 1981}

  15: A Day in the Life

  Goldstein, Gomez, Hayward, and Reese all return for an ""alumni"" exhibition game, amid all the troubles the four have encountered in ""real life"" since graduating. Hayward is in college and wants to go to law school, but doesn't believe he'll be given the chance because of his skin color. Goldstein, after a year in the Marines, now believes he has the confidence to ask out a girl he admired while at Carver. Gomez is struggling to make ends meet as a car mechanic with a pregnant wife. And, finally, Reese is bouncing from job to job until he finally finds his niche as a phone counselor at a suicide prevention center.