“Shall We Dance?” is an episode in season six of The Cosby Show.
Summary[]
Peer pressure causes a boy whom Rudy likes to pick on her, causing the two to get into a fight and be made to be partners for a dance by their teacher as a result.
Plot[]
Rudy had a crush on a boy in her class named Clarence, who had a crush on her. Vanessa teased her about her crush on Clarence, and Rudy denied it by telling her sister that she was studying someone by the name of Clarence in history, causing the older sister to tease her more.
At school, Rudy’s teacher, Mrs. McGee, was teaching her class manners. The first lesson in manners was using manners at the dinner table, which was set up by Mrs. McGee for the lesson. When the teacher asked for volunteers, the girls raised their hands, but the boys didn’t, so she chose Kenny to take part in the lesson, and she also chose Rudy and Amy for the lesson, as well. It wasn’t until after Rudy was chosen when Clarence offered to volunteer and sat next to her at the dinner table. What the four children must learn at the dinner table was how to pass bread there. Kenny didn’t do a good job at it, as he took the bread first after Amy asked for some. When it was Rudy and Clarence’s turn, they did it correctly, showing how much they liked each other as they did so. After the lesson, Mrs. McGee dismissed the class and told them that the next lesson in manners would be on the telephone, choosing Kenny to take part in it, much to his chagrin.
After class, Clarence was being teased by his friends that he liked Rudy, and he denied it. He was peer pressured into not liking Rudy, and he ended up denying her access through him to leave the classroom, leading the two to call each other names, at which point his friends stopped teasing him and started having respect for him again.
Rudy came home from school with her friends, whom Cliff jokingly referred to as the Chiffons. The girls then explained to Cliff their disgust and problems with boys, especially Clarence. Despite this, they decided to go to the mall where the boys were. They explained to Cliff that the boys hung out at Circus Burger at the mall, and that the girls planned to sit at the table next to the boys and ignore them. Cliff didn’t understand this, and when he asked the girls what if the boys didn’t look at them, they replied in unison “They will!” and left the house.
At school the next day, Kenny was called over by Mrs. McGee to volunteer for the lesson in speaking on the telephone with manners. In the lessons, Kenny and Mrs. McGee used telephones to talk to each other, with the teacher calling the student, and the student having to take messages using a pad and pencil. When the lesson began, Kenny doodled on the pad instead of picking up the phone when Mrs. McGee said “Ring, ring!” Kenny then came around after being instructed by the teacher of what to do in the lesson, and he picked up the phone. During the “call”, Mrs. McGee asked Kenny if his father was home, and when Kenny said that his father wasn’t home at the moment, Mrs. McGee asked him to ask his father to call her at school, letting him know what times she would be in between and what her phone number was. Kenny didn’t write down the message, saying that he would be in big trouble if his father found out that Mrs. McGee called.
After the lesson, Mrs. McGee dismissed the class, asking Clarence to stay and clean the chalkboard and telling the class that there would be one more lesson in manners the next day, and that involved having a dance. The students groaned at this, even moreso when the teacher told the girls to wear dresses and the boys to wear jackets and ties. The girls ignored the boys as they left the classroom, just like they did at the mall the day before. Clarence was then left alone to clean the chalkboard, while his friends left to play basketball. Rudy then returned to the classroom to get her history book, and she and Clarence ended up in a fight with each other, with Clarence knocking her books on the floor, and Rudy putting him in a headlock. Mrs. McGee returned to the classroom and broke up the fight, making them partners at the dance the next day.
Rudy came home upset, and she talked to Cliff about what happened between her and Clarence. In response to this, Cliff tried to explain life to his daughter, comparing boys to capsules and girls to geraniums. This explanation went nowhere, as Rudy chose instead to find something in the encyclopedia and talk later with Denise, who was also given the “capsules and geraniums” talk by Cliff years ago and went to see Clair after being confused by that talk. Denise revealed to Cliff the scars she received from a couple of boys when she got pushed into a tree and hit with a baseball bat by them. Cliff was upset that Denise didn’t tell him about this.
On the day of the dance in Mrs. McGee’s class, the desks were moved for the students to have a floor to dance on, a punch bowl was set up, and music was about to be played. The teacher tried to have the students to mingle with each other, specifically the boys mingling with the girls, but they were reluctant to do so, so Mrs. McGee chose for the class to skip mingling and get to the dance, having Rudy and Clarence start it off as she started the music. Rudy and Clarence were backed up by their classmates of their respective genders, but with some encouragement from Mrs. McGee, the pair started the dance off well. The rest of the students then chose their partners for the dance, but Kenny was left with no girl to dance with, and he ended up having to dance with the teacher.
Trivia[]
- This episode marks the first appearance of Elaine Stritch as Mrs. McGee.