The third and final season of What's Happening!! finds former high schoolers Raj (Ernest Thomas) and Rerun (Fred Berry) sharing an apartment, with chubby Rerun hilariously pursuing a variety of odd jobs and get-rich-quick schemes while Raj and his longtime buddy Dwayne both attend college. Also still on hand are Raj's wisecracking little sister Dee (Danielle Spencer) and sassy waitress Shirley Wilson (Shirley Hemphill). Conspicuous by her absence this season is Raj's "Mama," Mabel Thomas. It seems that actress Mabel King had wanted Raj to have both a mother and a father, and had lobbied for the writers to bring her character of Mrs. Thomas back together with her ex-husband Bill. However, the powers-that-be elected to write Bill out of the series early in season two. Thus, in protest, Mabel King also ankled the project at the end of the same season. Newcomers to What's Happening!! during its terminal network season include Leland Smith as Raj's college chum "The Snake," a basketball champ; John Welsh as Raj and Rerun's neighbor, a police detective named Big Earl (whose last name changes from episode to episode, from Babcock to Barnett to Barrett); and Big Earl's son Little Earl (David Hollander), who develops a crush on Dee. All Movie Guide