Hey, hey, hey — we’ve reached the 50th anniversary of the ABC sitcom What’s Happening!! Debuting on August 5, 1976, the ABC sitcom followed a trio of Black teens in Los Angeles and had universal appeal, as stars Ernest Lee Thomas and Haywood Nelson said on Today in April 2025.
“No matter what race [you are], you got those buddies and friends,” Thomas observed. “You hang out together, you get into mischief. You had the mothers who were very stern. … I had a Jewish lady that said, ‘Boy, you remind me so much of my nephew.’”
Nelson, meanwhile, said viewers connected with the love on screen. “We, among ourselves, in general, we are family. We love each other,” he explained. “The cast loved each other, and that comes through, and I think families could identify with that. Because often, when we’re in the street, people come up to us, and they say, ‘It’s like I know you. We’re family.’ They feel like they are family and friends.”
And those viewers followed What’s Happening!! — which screenwriter Eric Monte created and based loosely on his 1975 film Cooley High — across its three seasons on ABC and returned when the syndicated follow-up What’s Happening Now!! started its three-season run in 1985. Now that the original show is turning 50, continue reading for updates on its cast.