The White Shadow: Bonus Baby

Air Date

Monday December 25, 1978

Production Code

8110

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  7.1 Good

  An old story of quick money with a warning that nothing ever really ends up being as easy as it seems. hide show

  Coolidge becomes the one to watch when he is identified as a potential NBA talent, with predictable results.
  
  A viewer kind of knew this episode had to happen sometime, the star kid who gets an offer from a sleazeball agent to turn pro. Still, at this time, jumping directly to the NBA was more of a rarity, Daryl Dawkins being one of the more famous at the time.
  
  As far as an episode, not bad, Reeves warns Coolidge and the agent, the money and offer goes to the kid's head as he starts buying flashy clothes, looking at cars, and copping an attitude - and there is a lesson from an older former player about how the offers of fame and money are rarely what they seem to be. All OK. Of course, I was always interested in the basketball, and the action was variable in this series - but the big kid who can dunk seems like the natural choice to go "pro". Haywood probably had more talent, and Thorpe often seemed to be a good ball handler, the problem with the action in this episode (and most of them) is that a fine-looking play could be followed by a scene of a jump shot that hits the backboard a foot to the right of the rim, taking away from the realism considerably.
  
  Still, this is the kind of show I would expect to show up in the course of a season.

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  Mac-Ale Added Apr 7, 2007 All my reviews

• Guest Cast

  • Fred Slyter Jewelry Salesman
  • Duane Ladage Student
  • Joe Petrullo Delivery Man
  • Tony Monaco Man
  • Art Metrano Walter Preston
  • George N. Neise Maitre'D
  • Annazette Chase Preston's girl
  • Chris Wallace Car salesman
  • Robert Halen Doug Batty
  • Hilda Haynes Mrs. Coolidge
  • Charles Robinson Jackie Solomon

• Stars

  • Ed Bernard Jim Willis (1978-1980)
  • Ken Michelman Abner Goldstein (1978-1980)
  • Ira Angustain Ricky Gomez (1978-1980)
  • Timothy Van Patten Mario Pettrino (Salami)
More Episode Cast and Crew »

• In the opening, during a tournament game, the opposing player goes to the free throw line and makes the first. Coach Reeves calls time out, and as the team goes to the bench, you can see from a distance that the scoreboard reads 78-72. However, during the time out, a closeup shot of the scoreboard shows the score as 77-72. After the second free throw is missed, Coolidge scores two baskets and the opposing team calls time. The score should be 77-76. During this time out, Reeves says "We've got six seconds," but when the team breaks the huddle, the clock reads 4 seconds. Carver High steals the ball, shoots and misses, and the final buzzer goes off. The final score is 78-76. [edit]

• La Cañada High School (the school Carver loses to in the episode) is a real high school. It is located in La Cañada Flintridge, California. However the school colors were not featured by the team. [edit]

• Thorpe: Hey, Cool, I hear the trade fell through!
  Coolidge: What trade?
  Thorpe: You for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar! [edit]
• Thorpe: Hey, why don't you come down off your Mercedes and mix with the street folk, huh?
  Coolidge: Why should I?
  Hayward: Because you gotta play with 'em! [edit]
• Reeves: Jackie Solomon, Warren Coolidge.
  Jackie: Understand you're thinking about turning pro under the guidance of Mr. Walter Preston. You musta got the ol' Preston 1-2 punch, huh?
  Coolidge: What, did he handle you, too?
  Jackie: Yeah, he handled me...like a hot potato!
  Coolidge: What do you mean?
  Jackie: Preston had me convinced I was a young Al Attles. Not that I needed a lot of convincing, I was good and I knew it. I was All-Scholastic and I was gonna be a pro one way or the other. Just that Preston's way looked like the easy way. In fact, it looked so good, I couldn't think straight. You see, he was working with this chick, see, and we had what you might call a 'whirlwind romance.' She took me on a weekend to Las Vegas, and by the time I came up for air, I was ready to sign anything. I signed, all right, but it was the chick who turned out to be the bonus baby. Turns out, she got five percent of everything she got her hands on. And, let me tell you something, sonny, those hands get around!
  (Coolidge, disgusted, turns to leave.)
  Jackie: Where you goin', sonny? I ain't finished my story!
  Coolidge: I don't want to hear anymore!
  Jackie: Well, then, I'll make the rest short and simple! The pros wanted me to have a season in the Eastern League for the experience, the experience I didn't get in college. I might as well have been playin' for the Steelers! Those guys play strictly bump-and-run! My knee got wrecked in the third game, I got 6,000 bucks! And, that was all she wrote for the young Al Attles! [edit]

• Jackie: And that was all she wrote for the young Al Attles!
  
  Al Attles was a 6'0", 175-lb. guard who played 11 seasons in the NBA for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors from 1961 to 1971. He was mostly a backup guard who averaged 8.9 points a game in his career and was a teammate of Wilt Chamberlain. From 1970 to 1971, he both played for and coached the Warriors, then coached full time for 12 more seasons. His crowning achievement was coaching the Warriors to the NBA title in the 1974-75 season. [edit]