White Shadow season one, episode 13 - Mainstream

Plot - Coach Reeves attends a faculty meeting and implores the teachers to show more school spirit by attending the basketball games. This however was not the key moment of the meeting. Just before Reeves' impassioned plea, Prinicipal Willis told the teachers about the Mainstream program, where disabled/handicapped/special needs students would be assimilated into the Carver student body. Only later does Reeves take an interest after one of the teachers committed an autistic boy named Tom Hendricks to the team despite his repeated refusals. The experiment did not go well as the team was less than supportive and Reeves thin on patience.
Finally Reeves, made a "breakthrough", getting Tom to dribble after badgering him with passes and talk. By the time he realized what he'd done, Tom was tranferred back to the school and then Reeves worked to get him back, culminating in Tom getting into a game at the end of the episode.

Observations - I don't think the episode realized its potential. There could have been more exploring of the Mainstream program at the school and less about Tom and the team. However, this was a basketball-themed show so we did get to see how it might have played out in that arena.
The best part was the end, which was classy. Carver had a dominant performance, and at the end of the final timeout, Coolidge carried Tom onto the court. Then Coolidge passed the ball to Tom and screened off what seemed like the entire other team. Tom finally took a shot but the camera froze just as the ball left his hands, with some type of crowd cheering noise in the background.

White Shadow season one, episode 12 - The Great White Dope

***the author watched this episode a couple of weeks ago, but was not moved to blog about it. After moving on to the next episode, he found inspiration again and is now belatedly writing this.

Plot - This episode centers around Mario "Salami" Petrino. He is one of two "white" players on the team, and plays to the stereotypical archetype of an Italian-American kid. He is extremely stressed out in this episode, and it is because he ardently wants to become a boxer. He takes his lumps in the backrooms of bars for $15 a fight. About midway through the episode we learn that his father was once a little-known boxer from New York, and that they have communication problems.
Coach Reeves of course does his usual job of putting the pieces together, working through the issues with the other characters, and eventually bringing us to a satisfying conclusion. In this case Mario and father are reunited in the corner of the ring, and father is reminding son of all the boxing techniques they reviewed years ago.
Observations - At this point in season one it is painfully clear that Timothy Van Patten, son of Dick, is the least talented actor in the series. His lack of range, facial expressions, and vocal intonations make him the direct forebearer of Keanu Reeves. Coach Reeves is the only one that made this episode bearable, and he was even uncharacteristically morose about inserting himself into Salami's woes. We were due for a Salami-centered episode at one point, and this was it.
One mildly interesting aspect to this was the club-fighting scene that was around these times in Los Angeles. The club he fought at was on Western Avenue, a long, well-known street in the city.
Some special cameos - Former welterweight boxing champ Carlos Palomino had a small role with some dialogue. Coach Reeves listened to a faux radio interview between Chick Hearn and Artis Gilmore where Gilmoer 'disses' Kennie Reeves.