As this episode opens, we learn that it’s report card pick-up day for high school. In a subplot, we also discover that James is being considered for a foreman position at his job. Michael has already received his report card and earned all A’s. Thelma expects mostly top marks and makes a bet with J.J. that he won’t earn the grades necessary for promotion into the 12th grade. To everyone’s surprise, when J.J. comes home with his report card, it shows that he did, indeed, pass all of his courses. But when J.J. is unable to answer History and Algebra questions that Florida asks him, Florida and James seek clarification from J.J.’s principal (“I’m readin’ Cs, but I’m hearin’ Fs,” James says.). In a nutshell, they are told that the school gives passing grades in order to continue receiving funding – whether the students deserve the grades or not. Florida and James want J.J. to voluntarily repeat the 11th grade, so that he can obtain the instruction that he obviously missed, but J.J. refuses to stay behind. Later, we follow up on the subplot and find out that James did not receive the foreman position because his own limited schooling impacted his ability to fill out the application. This provides a real-world lesson to J.J. about the value of a good education, and he vows to put forth more effort during his senior year.

The “Junior the Senior” episode offers some very real truths regarding the public education system in this country, particularly in inner city schools, where administrators were sometimes more interested in posting high graduation rates than ensuring that their students were obtaining a quality education. By spotlighting James’s scholastic limitations, the episode offers a poignant reminder of the long-term effects that education can have.

Pop Culture References:

Cesar Romero

Near the end of the episode, J.J. tells his mother that he may be selected to give his graduation speech, which he would end with “these two Latin words: Cesar Romero.” Cesar Romero was a film and television actor whose big-screen career began in the 1930s with films like The Thin Man (1934) and in a series of features as The Cisco Kid. In the 1960s, he gained a new audience as The Joker on the Batman TV series and in several Disney comedies.

Guest Stars

Frank Campanella (Mr. Kirkman)

Born in New York City on March 12, 1919, Frank Campanella was the son of Sicilian immigrants (and the older brother of actor Joseph Campanella) and spoke mostly Italian when he was growing up. He put his bilingual skills to use during World War II as a civilian translator for the U.S. government, deciphering Italian and Sicilian dialects. The six-foot-five Campanella studied drama at Manhattan College and made his television debut in the 1949 science fiction series Captain Video and His Video Rangers (which, incidentally, was the favorite TV show of the character Ed Norton on The Honeymooners).

Campanella’s first big-screen role was in the 1956 Paul Newman starrer, Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). He would go on to appear in such films as The Producers (1967), The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight (1971), Heaven Can Wait (1978), Pretty Woman (1990), and Dick Tracy (1990), and television series from Car 54, Where Are You? to Hunter. In addition, he was noted for helping Robert De Niro learn Sicilian for his role in The Godfather, Part II (1974). Campanella also appeared in several Broadway productions, including Guys and Dolls in 1965.

Campenella died on December 30, 2006 (my 44th birthday!), of complications from Crohn’s Disease. He was 87 years old.

Other stuff:

Michael has a callback to the catchphrase he introduced in the first episode, informing his mother that “’boy’ is a white racist word” when Florida tries to awaken her sons by calling out, “Rise and shine, boys!”

There’s yet another reference in this episode to J.J.’s penchant for thievery. When Willona enters the Evans apartment, she remarks that she smells meat. “What happened?” she asks. “Junior mug a cow?”

After J.J. and Thelma make their bet, they link their pinky fingers and then push their thumbs together. Years later, whenever I’d see this action between characters on various television shows, they called it a “pinky swear” or “pinky promise,” and they were using it to indicate that a promise had been made. In my personal experience, though, this gesture was used just as J.J. and Thelma did – for a bet. Maybe it’s a Chicago thing.

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The next episode: The Visitor . . .