Original subtitles

Good times, any time you need a payment. Good times, any time you feel free.

Good times, any time you're up and under.

Not getting hassled, not getting hustled. Keeping your head above water.

Making a way when you can.

and you turn a 17th -floor apartment into a pig pen with a view.

Well, Thelma, to tell you the truth, I like it. It's got that lived -in look.

Look, if you don't clean up this mess, you're gonna have that stomped -on look.

Thelma, don't get overheated. Your face will melt.

Michael, look, now, we all agreed to share the work where Maya's at on

right? Now, I did my part.

Oh, yeah?

What have you done?

Who do you think cooked dinner around here?

I don't know, but I'm sure the health department would give plenty to know

Michael, don't get smart with me. Now get up and clean this place like you

promised. Hold on now. I cleaned this room up yesterday.

All right, well, look at it. The news is going to be a party tonight. All the

chicks can come boogie down with Kid Dynamite.

Well, you better put that stuff away because if Alona finds out about the

we're not going to have one. Yeah, you're right. And I got a big surprise.

What one thing could guarantee making this party a huge and utter success?

You're not.

But so will Robin Simpson!

Hey, Superstar Simpson, out of sight, man. He was my hero. The best basketball

player our high school ever had. All city, all state. All the chicks that he

could handle.

You know, he took me out once.

Nobody's perfect.

Yeah, but then he got a scholarship to college.

What's he doing back?

I don't know. You know how these big superstars are. You know, they come in

out of town.

Anyway, I saw him out there in the street, and I asked him to come, and he

he will. Boy, I tell you, everybody's going to be knocked out when they see

You know, JJ, you're saying this thing really good.

You hated him in high school because he was your main competition, and he always

won. Yeah, he got all the fine foxes, and you got all the leftovers.

Hey, Michael, ain't nothing wrong with leftovers if you know how to reheat

ran for senior prom chairman.

He won that one, too.

Yeah, but it was a close election.

Real close.

120 to 1.

Hey, Thelma, that was my fault. I forgot. When you go to a ghetto school,

gotta win the black vote.

Okay, but if you two do not clean up this place, there's not gonna be a

Remember, Ma put me in charge around here. Oh, no, she didn't. Ma said

specifically before she left, JJ, you are in charge because you are the

the smartest, and the... pretties.

Ma never said that. How do you know?

Because she doesn't drink.

She must be doing something weird. She had you.

As I was saying, Walona is

still the most beautiful woman in the project.

Save it, J .J. If I need any of that, I'll buy a bag full of it and spread it

over top of the lawn.

And listen, your mother told me to keep my eye on you this weekend. You promised

me individually and collectively there would be no arguing, no fighting.

We're sorry, Wilona. All right.

Yeah, Wilona, from now on, we're going to be so good, we're going to look like

the Brady Bunch with tans.

Well, don't strain yourself.

I hope we get through this weekend without having to call the SWAT team out

here.

You know, I was going to go to the Blue Frog tonight, but I better stay and keep

my eye on you three.

Oh, no, Wilona, you can't do that.

Why not?

Well, because, um, well, um, Thelma's going to tell you what. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Well, you know, we're not going to be here, Wilona. We're going to the movies.

Oh, that's good. It'll keep you out of trouble. What are you going to go see?

Uh, we're going to see the gay version of King Kong.

Called Queen Kong.

Oh, he's just driving, Wilona. You know, we're going to that double feature at

the Colony. Oh, yeah, you know, Wilona Deep Down. in your heart that you can

trust us.

Now have a nice time at the movie. I'll see y 'all later. All right, Ronald.

Bye.

Well. We pulled that one off. The part.

and Robert Superstar Simpson gets here. Hey, you know, this is the first time

the three of us came to party together. Hey, dummy, you know, that's great. I

don't mind partying with your friends, but when Michael's friends come here,

they'll probably turn from Soul Train to Sesame Street.

Oh, yeah?

I'm going to have to start checking out Sesame Street somewhere.

I am JJ, ready to spend the whole evening together.

Well, well, well.

And so we will.

And so we will.

My little African violet.

First, I want you to meet my sister. Thelma, this is Marcia. Marcia, this is

Thelma. How you doing?

Hand on this, gal.

I want you to meet my brother over here, Michael.

As you can tell, we are brothers.

Same lip technique.

Ain't nobody here from the Guinness Book of Records. Y 'all can break this up.

Hey, JJ, man, don't be stepping in on my action. I can't help it if you ain't

getting any. Come on.

I have created a monster.

Wow. Look here, my little buttercup. I will talk to you later on during the

evening. I'm just going to pick up the door. Me and you are going to be

Superstar. All right, man.

Oh, wow, man. I didn't know that many people was going to be here. Look, I

wanted to talk to you. Come on in.

all that.

The truth.

All these people are Thelma's friends and they held me here hostage.

Truth.

The truth is, well, Winona, we were afraid to tell you because we thought

say no.

Oh, honey, I don't care if you have a party, but if you do, you got to have a

chaperone. Well, Winona, we don't hardly need no chaperone.

Oh, no?

Well,

not only the chaperone, he needs a scorecard.

A superstar's supposed to be meanin'. J .J., knock off the superstar job, okay?

Hey, what's wrong, man?

I mean, uh, talk on it. I know you, man. It ain't that same old vroom, vroom.

Is there something wrong?

Yeah, man, everything is wrong.

Hey, what could be wrong for the old basketball hero?

J .J., I am not a basketball hero anymore.

Last week, man, I got cut from the team, right?

Cut from the team? You? But you're the greatest, man. Yeah, in high school.

And so is everyone else who plays college ball.

But someone's got to wash out, right?

And I was spending so much time trying to stay on the team until I was flunking

out anyway.

Hey, man, I'm sorry to hear that. That's awful.

But look here, man.

Basketball ain't everything.

Hey, man, for me, it is.

Superstar, remember?

JJ, it's all I've ever dreamed of being. I mean, haven't you ever wanted

anything that bad?

Yeah, but she moved to Cleveland.

Basketball is my whole life, man.

Without it, I am nothing.

Yeah, Yvonne, this is him, Superstar Sexton. Hi, I'm Michael, JJ's brother.

I'm your number one fan. I've seen every game you've played.

Michael, not now. Not now, Michael. I'm finished, JJ. Remember that game you

played against Hyde Park and you scored 42 points?

Michael, why don't you and Yvonne go over here and wait for Ma to come home?

We won't be home for another two days.

I know that. Go ahead.

I'm sorry about that, Robert. It's all right. I want to buy a cup of Kool -Aid.

Look, Jay, I don't want to put a damper on the party, so let's keep this between

us, okay?

Solid, bro.

Hey, Robert, have a good game. We're all rooting for you.

Yeah.

Time for a little air.

Oh, my dear.

Hey, oh, I'm sorry, ma 'am. That's all right, honey. You better be careful.

A person your age could get hurt on the dance floor.

You gotta be careful, honey. A person your age could get hurt on the dance

floor.

Have you told Ellen yet?

No. Have you told your folks?

I can't. Her father's a great school coach, you know.

He always wanted me to be a big star.

Hey, Ellen! Levi! What are you doing here with Levi?

Robert's here.

I've been going with Levi for a month.

No, no, Robert is here now.

Well, look, he was going to have to find out sometime, so I guess it's just

going to have to be tonight.

Robert, there's Ellen over there. I know you said you couldn't face her, man,

but now's a good time to tell you got cut from the basketball team, man.

I'm sure she'll understand, man, and you'll feel a whole lot better.

Yeah, maybe you're right.

Go ahead, I know I am.

Ellen, baby, how are you?

Hey, look, I got to talk to you. Hi, Robert.

Listen, you remember Levi Walker, don't you?

Oh.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, how you doing?

Robert, I'm sorry.

time, J .J.

Ah, you just love squeezing these bones, don't you, Mama?

Who wouldn't? I mean, it's like dancing with a double order of ribs.

Cool dude.

Yourself.

Oh, girl, am I tired.

What's going on in this closet?

Uh, nothing, Wilona.

See for yourself.

Uh, Wilona, they can't be getting too romantic. Both smelling like moth balls.

Well, isn't it time for the little moth to fly away from the flame?

Well, I guess it is time for me to be leaving.

Good night, Yvonne.

Good night, Michael.

I just want to kiss a good night.

What do you think you was doing for the past three hours, honey?

Practicing. The practice is over.

Good night, darling. Good night. Good night. Good night.

Woo, child.

Wasn't that a great party? Yes.

Oh, yeah, it was great.

I got enough strength left to go over to the Blue Frog and have my own partini.

All right.

Hey, Wilona, if you're lucky, you can chaperone our next party. Call me. If

crazy, I'll do it.

And let's clean this house up later.

All right, Wilona.

this place.

Yeah, Thumb, you got a lot of work ahead of you.

Hey, JJ, man, this door's locked. I can't get it open.

What are you talking about?

That must be crazy. Let me check this thing out here. What's going on here?

just took a whole bottle of pills.

Robert!

Waiting to die?

Now, the only kind of pills we have in there are vitamin C. The worst thing

can happen is that he comes out looking like an orange.

Wait a minute, Charles. I think he may have brought his own pills.

TJ, what are you talking about?

Well, Robert was really down tonight.

He just flunked out of school and got cut from the basketball team.

Oh, no, and on top of all that, his girlfriend. quit him?

He's trying to kill himself.

Mom!

No, no, no.

Don't do this. There's a million reasons to live. Come on. Name one.

Lola Valetta!

Throw her away!

Oh, no. What are we going to do now?

I got an idea.

Well, I guess I'm just going to have to knock the door down.

And how are you going to do that?

Bruce Stretch, young lady. Brute strip.

Robert, come on out now.

Back off, young lady. You never know which way these splinters are going to

Just leave me alone.

I wasn't hurting you.

Hey, well, we're not going to sit around here and let you hurt yourself.

Hey, it says here in case of an overdose of pills, you have to try to make the

patient throw up.

How are we going to do that?

No problem. Tell them to cook something.

JJ, you're wasting your time. This man took a whole bottle of sleeping pills.

the patient awake at all times. Get up, Robert. And call the rescue ambulance at

the fire department. Oh, yeah, we should win in the first place.

Well, Michael, what do you think of your big hero now?

Hey, Robert, man, don't worry about it. He's still number one on my list.

Don't jive me, Michael.

I don't have it anymore, baby.

And nobody likes a loser.

Hey, Robert, man, that's not true.

JJ has millions of friends.

I'm just trying to cheer him up.

They said to do the same as the books and keep him up.

Okay, I got to wait outside so they won't miss the play. All right, Michael,

go with them. All right, J .J., don't let her fall asleep, man.

Shouldn't have come here.

Should have just driven off a bridge.

Don't say that, Robbie.

Wouldn't have worked anyway, though.

With my luck, I'd have gotten mugged on the way to the car.

For a guy that's dying, you really got a negative attitude.

J .J., I got to lay down. I feel so groggy.

No, bro, I think you better keep on moving here and we better go for a

walk, man.

I mean, how could anybody want to kill himself?

You know, when I wake up in the morning, I don't know whether it's going to be a

good day or a bad day till I look in the mirror.

Then I know one thing for sure.

There is a God.

J .J., you don't know how bad.

Things can really get... Hey, man. How bad can things be?

So you're not a basketball hero anymore.

You know, when I was in high school, I wanted to be a football star.

But the coach told me, unless you're going out for the goal post, we don't

you.

Damn, man. Get some of this coffee down in you. Come on. I got to sit down. Come

on, man.

teachers. I call it blood, sweat, and tears.

You know, I owe this whole thing to Michael.

That's right, Michael, man. When he was four years old, it was him the one who

gave me the idea to move on to watercolors because he ate up all my

fingerprints.

Come on, man. Wake up, man. Don't fall asleep, man. Come on. We got to keep

moving, man.

Come on now.

Let's go here, man.

You know, Robin, when you get right down to it, painting is really the only

thing that I can do well that you get paid for.

You better sit down, brother. You're getting heavy here.

Come on, man.

Hey, come on there, Robin.

Wake up, man. Wake up. Let's do it together.

Come on, man. Come on.

Hey, Robin. You know, you know, when you talk about painting, man.

Come on, Robin. Wake up, man. When you talk about painting, man.

Like, that's really the only thing that I can do well, man.

But if I don't make it in the art world, man, I am not going to give up, man.

I'm not going to give up, man. I'm going to keep on going.

And I'm going to pick myself up and just dust myself off and try something else,

man. That's all it is.

I'm scared.

Man, hey, Robert, don't talk, man. Don't talk. Just try to stay loose, man. Let

me do all the talking here. You know, maybe you ought to give a shot to go

to school again, man. That's what you ought to do. You know, a lot of people

flunk out of school, man. If you can remember, I wasn't the most brilliant

student in the world myself, brother.

Matter of fact, one semester, my mother promised to pay me $5 if I could raise

my grades up to an F.

to school, too, man. Like, one semester, I got two Ms and a K -minus.

Try to explain that to your folks, man. Come on now, Robert, man. Let's get it

together here.

You know how I spent my senior year? As a junior.

I guess I joke around a lot, don't I?

Well, Robert, I had to, because that made me the class clown instead of the

class fool, man.

That's changed, man. Now I'm in art school, man, getting straight A's, man.

just finding your niche in life, Robert. That's all it is, man, just finding

your niche, brother.

No doubt about it. You know what you got to do, man? You got to find yourself a

good woman.

That's it, Robert. You got to find yourself a good woman, man.

You know, Robert,

matter of fact, a good woman, that's what I need.

I remember my first date, man. Laura Lee Henderson.

You remember her, don't you, brother?

She wasn't the brightest girl in the world, man.

But, man, if she didn't have a nose on her face, man, she would have had

between her ears.

Come on, Robert, man. That's funny, man. Laugh it up, man.

That's your problem, man. You don't laugh anymore, brother. You got to

Why'd you take those pills here anyway, man? It's almost like you wanted us to

catch you, man.

Gee whiz.

Come on, Robin, don't die, man. Get on up here.

Wow. Now, where was I at?

Chicks. Yeah.

Well, I'm always there. You know, Robin, I can remember my first day.

That's right, man. My first day. I feel like Edgar Bergen here. Come on, man.

I can remember my first day. My first kiss.

My first hug, brother.

Matter of fact, I can remember the first time, well, let me put it to you this

way. I can remember the night the legend was born.

Hey, man, I got to admit something to you. I lied, brother.

That's right. I lied, man.

Laura Lee Henderson, get up here, man. Come on, brother.

Get up.

Laura Lee Henderson wasn't my first date, man. She was the first chick I

to go out.

I asked her to go out. She said, no, man.

Five times.

Which goes to prove to you, brother, the best of us get turned down, man. The

best of us, man.

That's right.

All it takes, man, is a little confidence.

You know, I learned that from my father, man.

That's right. My father. You know, I really miss him, man.

That's right. I do, man. I really miss him.

Yeah. You know, you can't talk to your father about your problems now, man. But

I just wish, man, that for five minutes I could talk to my father.

Hey, Robert, come on, man. Wake up.

Look here, man.

There's a whole damn world out there to live for, man.

And not a damn thing to die for, man.

Robert, don't die, man. A lot of people care, man.

easy, but the rest is up to him.

Hey.

Hey, thanks, man.

All of you.

Hey, man.

We'll be around.

You're gonna be all right.

You're gonna be all right. You're gonna be all right.

Hey, JJ.

Man, did you see that?

He smiled.

Yeah, I taught him that.

Just looking out of the window, watching the asphalt road,

thinking how it all looks when we die.

Good times, good times, keeping your head up for water,

making a wave when you can.

Good times is videotape in front of a studio audience.