The White Shadow
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
The White Shadow uses a ‘fish out of water’ theme with a white NBA journeyman player in an inner-city Los Angeles high school.
Ken Reeves is playing for the Chicago Bulls when he lands hard on the court and suffers a career-ending injury. A career change is in order and he takes a job as George Washington Carver High School’s basketball coach. Reeves unwillingly, sometimes unknowingly, becomes involved in his players’ lives on and off the court.
The White Shadow premiered on CBS on November 27, 1978, coinciding with the high school basketball season’s traditional start after Thanksgiving Weekend. Bruce Paltrow (St. Elsewhere) wrote the pilot episode focusing on the story of Ken Reeves, basketball pro turned high school coach. The show’s theme explains the transition via a montage against a jazzy instrumental song. Ken Howard played Ken Reeves.
Joel Foreman summarized Reeves’ essence in a March 1981 article for The Washington Post entitled The White Shadow: Fade To Black.
He’ll bull his way into a situation rather than use finesse and he’s likely to insult the very person he wishes to please. He makes mistakes all the time because he’s a male chauvinist and a little bit of a racist. As a result, the weekly episode becomes a sensitivity session for the coach. Though raised in a tough, lower-class neighborhood, he’s out of touch with the needs and drives of his adolescent -- mostly black -- players. Predictably, he bumbles into situations that he doesn’t understand. What redeems him is his ability to be embarrassed. In this, he is heroically open, vulnerable, even wise.
These traits made Ken Reeves a three-dimensional character, fitting nicely in the Carver High spectrum with the player characters, each of whom had an individual personality, none of whom was stereotypical.
Ken Howard had been a ‘white shadow’ in his own right at Manhasset High School in Long Island where he played on a championship team with a majority of black teammates. Where Howard’s life provided the inspiration, Paltrow provided the behind-the-scenes follow through.
Paltrow’s previous connection to Howard aided the synergy. Howard co-starred with Paltrow’s wife, Blythe Danner, in the short-lived mid-1970’s sitcom Adam’s Rib, based on the Tracy-Hepburn movie.
In the pilot episode, we see Reeves’ severe knee injury during a game. It sidelines the Bulls’ #14. Again, jazzy music in the same style as the theme song accompanies shots of Chicago and a montage of Reeves’ rehabilitation efforts. As he leaves the locker room for the last time, Reeves starts towards the court, take a thoughtful look around, and spots a basketball. Reeves picks up the ball, sinks a shot, and hears a voice. You stink!
The voice belongs to none other than Reeves’ college teammate, Jim Willis (played by Jason Bernard in the pilot and Ed Bernard in the series). Reeves responds, Where are you, Willis? You know I can’t see you in the dark. Reeves’ statement refers to Willis’ color. It exemplifies Reeves’ sarcasm, one of his hallmark characteristics.
Willis claims that he’s sightseeing in Chicago. He admits facetiously that he’s not too bright as the time of year is winter. Reeves agrees, exclaiming, I carried you through Boston College.
A well written yet brief exchange follows. It marks the deep friendship, respect, and connection between Reeves and Willis. It also showcases Reeves’ humor.
Reeves: You still like being a high school principal?
Willis: It beats digging gold. You still like being a pro ball player?
Reeves: It beats being a high school principal.
Willis’ motive for being in Chicago is ulterior in nature as he needs a basketball coach for Carver High. Willis baits his former All-American college teammate into using his teaching certificate for something other than a wall hanging.
John J. O’Connor heralded the show’s promise in a review for the November 27, 1978 edition of The New York Times. O’Connor begins his review by posing a somewhat rhetorical question and ends by answering it.
While CBS speaks confidently about its ratings future, the network’s programming belies a pronounced nervousness about tactics. How simple-minded can techniques get without the overall schedule losing its much-vaunted claim to being the Tiffany of broadcasting? If CBS decides to get a touch more confident about itself and its public, television could discover it has a nice new series.
Upon arrival at Carver High, Coach Ken Reeves’ drive to win and basketball knowledge clash with his inability to communicate with Carver High’s basketball players. Reeves and the players dance around each other like a couple of boxers, each tentatively looking for the other’s vulnerability, acceptance, and respect.
Following Carver’s first loss under the Reeves regime, a scene between Willis and Vice Principal Buchanon (played by Joan Pringle) highlights the doubt accompanying the new coach. True to form, Willis defends his friend while Buchanon sets the tone for future conflict with Reeves by protesting his lack of experience with education and cocky, sarcastic personality. A coach who knows the game of basketball but not the psychology of coaching combined with a team possessing potential but not fundamental skills makes for a formidable obstacle to functioning as a cohesive unit, let alone winning games.
Reeves goes to what he knows best -- playing basketball. He challenges fast-talking Morris Thorpe and cocky Warren Coolidge to a game of 2-on-1, prompting the following dialogue:
Thorpe: Old man, you must be kidding.
Reeves: You know, if you could play basketball as well as you can flap your gums, someday, just someday, you might be a ball player.
Thorpe: Someday? You know what your problem is, coach? You can’t recognize talent when it stares you in the face.
Reeves: I guess that’s because I have to look so far down to see it.
Thorpe: You know what you’re looking at? Five feet seven and ready for a growth spurt?
Reeves laughs, causing Thorpe to respond, I don’t think that’s so funny.
Finishing the exchange, Reeves tells Thorpe, Take it out.
Result? Reeves wins the game and the first step to gaining the team’s respect.
Kevin Hooks played Thorpe. Byron Stewart played Coolidge. Steweart previously played a basketball prodigy in the 1977 film Fire Sale, a cult comedy starring Alan Arkin.
Carver’s basketball team soon shows signs of working. Reeves develops a unique yet basic strategy of shouting out mothers’ names rather than players’ names to set up plays during the team’s second game against Newton. The strategy leads to a win at the buzzer, 78-76
In the locker room, the celebration solidifies the relationship between Reeves and his players. Hayward holds his hands behind his back, signaling a ‘give me five’ to Reeves. Reeves gladly accepts. Thomas Carter played Hayward.
Reeves’ congratulatory caution to his squad completes the circle of new-kid-on-the-block to acceptance. He declares his loyalty to the Carver players.
Yeah, but vacation’s over. Now we really go to work. And I’m gonna be leanin’ on you guys. And I’ll be behind you. Every step of the way.
Thorpe agrees, stating for the team, Yeah. Like a white shadow.
However, the capping scene hints that not all will be tied up in a nice little package. As Reeves said, vacation is over, reinforced by two policemen who want to speak with Coolidge. Apparently, Carver High’s center borrowed a ’62 Chevy without the owner’s permission.
With a high school setting as a backdrop, The White Shadow enjoyed an abundance of topics to explore. Always honest, forthright, and effective, the show dealt with various real-life issues confronting teenagers. It also depicted the additional difficulties of living in the inner-city while hoping, striving, and working for a better future.
In Sudden Death, the episode title is descriptive. Heywood Nelson (What’s Happening?) plays Randy Judd, a freshman with high potential and bright promise as a future Carver basketball player. Reeves desperately wants to shape Judd’s raw talent. He interferes with the parents to let Randy play on the team. Reeves’ action sets up a confrontation with Buchanon who knows Reeves went directly to the parents.
During a practice, Judd remarks on his fatigue, a normal routine with his squad. Reeves is a disbeliever. What do you mean to tell me? It’s gonna kill you to run ten laps after twenty minutes on the court? That’s exactly what happens. Judd falls victim to an aneurysm while running and dies.
True to his character, Reeves goes to his home base to sort things out -- the basketball court. Willis tries to comfort his old friend as he shoots hoops to clear his mind. In short, Judd’s aneurysm was probably undetectable. Reeves’ guilt over the death is somewhat misplaced.
Randy’s mother, Louella, wishes only the worst upon Reeves at the funeral. However, Reeves gains some closure from Henry Judd, Randy’s father. I never knew Randy to be happier than when he made your team. I’m glad he had a chance to experience joy. It was a gift. Thank you. Madge Sinclair (Trapper John, M.D.) played Louella Judd. Hal Williams (Private Benjamin, 227) played Henry Judd.
John Mengatti has a small role as an unnamed student in Sudden Death. Mengatti would begin a regular role in the 1979-80 season as Nick Vitaglia, Mario ‘Salami’ Pettrino’s cousin from New York. Timothy Van Patten played Salami.
In A Few Good Men, Reeves’ players make some tough decisions about their futures and lives after graduation from Carver. After a singing gig falls through, Reese reluctantly, but eventually, sees the value of helping others.
What began as a substitute for detention ends as a first step to adulthood. Reese’s volunteer work at a clinic puts him in an extraordinary situation where he helps a suicide caller. Buchanon recommends Reese work at the Volunteers In Service To America after graduation. It’s people within the community working for the community.
Nathan Cook (Hotel) played Reese.
Goldstein’s sights prove much broader. Turning down a full scholarship and stipend to Whittier College, Goldstein turns to the Marines, hoping for some direction and a chance to fit in somewhere. He never really felt accepted by his fellow team members.
Goldstein’s first choice of sea duty -- Greece -- provides a capper to the episode.
Reeves plans on chaperoning a school group to Greece with girlfriend Kathy Plunkett, a fellow Carver High teacher. A pickup game pitting Reeves against Coolidge in the pivot provides the episode’s final scene. When Goldstein reveals his Greece plans just prior to the jump ball, Reeves does a double take, exclaiming Greece?! The episode ends with a freeze frame focusing on Reeves’ confused face.
Other White Shadow episodes dealing with serious issues include:
Me? veneral disease
Links prejudice
Mainstream autism
On the Line gambling addiction
Feeling No Pain drug use
The Hitter child abuse
Here’s Mud in Your Eye alchoholism
Carver wins the Los Angeles City Championship in the second season episode The Death of Me Yet, a bittersweet episode. Curtis Jackson, a star player for Carver High, gets killed when he is an innocent bystander in store robbery gone awry.
Jackson was the ne’er do well character on the Carver squad. He battled alchoholism in Here’s Mud in Your Eye and gambling addiction in On the Line. His death as a witness to a crime rather than a participant in one has a certain irony.
Eric Kilpatrick played Jackson.
Duplicating the team’s success proves the least of Reeves’ problems as the third and final season of The White Shadow kicked off with a two-part episode. Reunion detailed Reeves’ background, introduced new players, and provided tough challenges for the coach.
Reeves’ Bayside High School Class of 1960’s Twenty-Year Reunion furnishes the impetus for Reeves return to old friends, lost loves, and family in New York City. Buchanon’s promotion to Principal upon Willis’ move to Superintendent of Schools in Oakland adds to Reeves’ stress before his trip even starts.
James Whitmore plays Jake Reeves, Ken Reeves’ father. Jake is a former hard-drinking bar owner. Classic father-son tension abounds and reveals the coach’s stubbornness to be an inherited trait.
In Shadow: Black and White TV, an article by Thomas Boswell in the January 27, 1979 edition of The Washington Post, Howard hints at his alter ego’s background, reflected in Reunion.
Who is this guy Kenny Reeves? Howard soliloquizes. I imagine him from Bayside in Queens...Irish-Catholic kid...father maybe owned a bar and grill...subways, street life, cops...a tough environment, but not too tough.
During his time home, Reeves reconnects with old friend Luther Tucker. Kevin Hooks’ father Robert played Tucker, now a surgeon in Boston. Reeves also reunites with lost love Paula Harris, played by JoBeth Williams.
The central theme remains the shaky relationship between Reeves and his father as depicted in a conversation Reeves overhears where Jake explains his own unfeeling, unemotional, detached relationship with his father, Ken’s grandfather.
Unbeknownst to Reeves, his father has an inoperable brain tumor and refuses hospital care. In an explosive scene at the end of Part 1, the elder Reeves reveals his secret.
The father-son relationship shows signs of thawing in Part 2 when Reeves finds clippings of his NBA days from Chicago newspapers. Jake claims they were for his mother, an unlikely scenario as Mrs. Reeves was already deceased according to the dates of the clippings. In a late-night conversation, the Reeves men break the emotional barrier separating them and turn a corner towards a more honest, productive, and effective relationship.
Father and son proceed to paint New York City red the following night. Along the way, they meet Mickey Mantle, clear the air, and allow for Reeves to depart for Los Angeles and the new basketball season with a clear conscience.
At the airport, close-up shots of the elder Reeves clutching his hat and the younger Reeves clutching his boarding pass during a goodbye hug strengthen the repaired relationship.
Meanwhile, back at Carver, the squad’s veterans and hopeful newcomers anxiously await tryouts. During one session, Thorpe expounds on the situation with a skillful verbal dissertation imitating Howard Cosell.
Never have I seen such a blatant disregard for teamwork or the finer subtleties of basketball than what we are witnessing here today At Carver High. Their hands are slow, their minds are slower. It is clear to this observer that the veterans of the Carver High team are in no danger of losing their vaunted positions on the championship squad.
New players included tough talking Patrick Falahey, fast talking Wardell Stone, and quiet talking Teddy Rutherford, played respectively by John Laughlin, Larry Flash Jenkins, and Wolfe Perry.
Warren Coolidge remained a character for the third season of The White Shadow. He constantly looked for what he thought would be the way to easy street with basketball as the ticket to get him there. In Bonus Baby, he seeks a pro basketball career with a shady manager type. Reeves rescues him by having a former protege of the manager explain the harsh realities of playing for him. In Georgia On My Mind, Coolidge thinks he has what it takes to make the Harlem Globetrotters.
Eventually, Coolidge appeared on another Bruce Paltrow show, St. Elsewhere (NBC, 1982-88). Coolidge worked as an orderly at St. Eligius, an inner-city hospital in Boston. Paltrow was Executive Producer. He cast Byron Stewart to reprise the Coolidge role on a recurring basis. In one episode, Coolidge explained that he got a scholarship to Boston College (Reeves’ alma mater) but an injury ended his hopes of playing professional basketball.
In the 1990’s, ESPN used The White Shadow for two commercials in its This Is ESPN advertising campaign. In Don’t Walk, Reeves and Coolidge participate with ESPN personnel as Fans Against Traveling in a parody of the We Are the World music video. Fans Against Traveling admonishes NBA players not to commit traveling violations on the court. Reeves points out that NBA players are pros and Coolidge sings, It started with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Coolidge also provides the poignant line at the spot’s end -- What would Naismith say today?
In Small World, Reeves and Coolidge promote themselves and the wonder of Carver High basketball to ESPN anchor Gary Miller. Reeves claims that Coolidge would have been All-World if there was a three-point shot in the 1970’s. He also claims that Carver High could have beaten the Globetrotters.