Strollerderby

Rich or Rehab: What's Happening With Dee From 'What's Happening!!'?

Posted by Jen Chaney

She may not have been able to bust a move like Fred "Rerun" Stubbs, but Dee Thomas -- little sister to Roger (aka "Raj") on TV's "What's Happening!!" -- turned sassy sarcasm into an artform. Here's an example of the pure genius that is Dee, as played by a young Danielle Spencer:

 

So what happened to Spencer after "What's Happening!!" stopped happening? She reprised her role as Dee in the less successful TV follow-up, "What's Happening Now!" But she eventually shifted her focus to a completely different field, becoming a veterinarian. While she's picked up a film or TV credit here and there -- she appeared in "As Good As It Gets," for example -- Spencer, who is married and now goes by the name Danielle Spencer Fields, continues to practice veterinary medicine in California.

You know something? I think Mama would be proud.

 

Rich or Rehab appears every Tuesday morning on Strollerderby. 


+ DIGG + STUMBLE
Posted Jul 01 2008, 10:32 AM

Comments

 

BBBGMOM said:

That is great.  I find it refreshing when a former child star turns up doing something productive, useful and interesting.  I wonder what the differences are in the upbringing of Danielle Spencer and, say, Lindsay Lohan.  I wonder if Danielle's mom said, "Sure you can try out for that sit-com..." and when it was over maybe Danielle said, "I love animals and I'm sick of acting," and mom said, "cool, let's set you up at a decent school and some good daycamps and maybe an internship at the zoo or a vet."  As opposed to freaky stage parents who force their children to keep going after roles (in a poorly veiled pursuit of $$$$.)  Hopefully life is long for most of us - we should try different things.   By the way, Danielle looks like she grew up to be a beautiful woman - bonus!

July 1, 2008 11:12 AM
 

Brett Singer said:

I was way into this show. Dee looks like she grew up to be quite attractive.

As for career paths, one big difference between then and now is that actors didn't make as much money back then. Dee - Danielle Spencer, sorry - probably had to work somewhere. No matter what, it's good when a child star manages to do something other than be a warning sign against being a child star.

July 1, 2008 12:43 PM
 

chyna823 said:

It's probably a combination of both. True, Danielle probably didn't make the big bucks that today's TV stars did, but when the show ended, her parents could have continued pushing her into acting to pay the (their) bills. Or they could have turned her loose and expected her to be her own boss in Hollywood at 18. I'm thinking that a child actor who went to college and post-grad had some good parenting behind her.

July 1, 2008 1:41 PM

About Jen Chaney

Jen Chaney is the movies editor and a DVD columnist for washingtonpost.com. Her byline has appeared in The Washington Post, People magazine, USA Today and the Utne Reader as well as various other newspapers around the country. She is the mother of a one-year-old boy, who has not yet learned the word Xanadu. But he will. Trust us, he will.

in

GROUP BLOGS

  • Strollerderby

    The smartest, funniest, most exhaustive parenting blog in the blogosphere.

  • Droolicious

    Modern design for modern parents.

  • FameCrawler

    Your daily baby celebrity fix.
back to blog homepage