The White Shadow

TV Series
1978–1981
TV-PG
1h

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A white former NBA professional retires from the pro game and gets a job as a basketball coach in a predominantly Black inner-city high school.A white former NBA professional retires from the pro game and gets a job as a basketball coach in a predominantly Black inner-city high school.A white former NBA professional retires from the pro game and gets a job as a basketball coach in a predominantly Black inner-city high school.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

1.6K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 Primetime Emmy
- 2 wins & 7 nominations total

Episodes54

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Trivia
Ken Howard was nicknamed "The White Shadow" while he played for Manhasset High School 's basketball team. He was the only white starter on his team. Howard based his performance on his high school basketball coach, Fritz Mueller. Carver's team colors, orange and blue, were based on the the colors of Howard's school, .

Goofs
Ken Reeves' NBA career is referred to several times in the series, but the number of years and the teams he played on seem to change each time. For instance, he tells reporter Sally Adams in "The Offer" that he was in the Chicago Bulls' starting lineup for 10 seasons. In "Wanna Bet", street hustler Bobby Magum remembers Reeves playing for Chicago, Denver, and Milwaukee. Finally, in "Little Orphan Abner", he tells Abner Goldstein's grandparents he spent the last six years of his career with the Bulls.

Quotes
Jim Willis: You had it easy sonny boy. You'll never know what it's like have to sit in the back of the bus and then give up your seat to a white man or pee in your pants because you can't find a bathroom that'll take you... Now I know a racist when I see one. And I'm looking at one right now.

Connections
Edited into The White Shadow: A Series of Memories Preview (2006)

User reviews25

Review

Featured review

Telling it Like it Is

This had to be one of the most accurate portrayals of inner city life ever made. This show dealt with it all, drugs, gangs, sex and even death. The second season was to me its peak. You got to see the losers become winners, but not without paying a price. Thorpe infecting Coolige's girlfriend with syphilis (predating the AIDS crisis), a player dying of a brain hemorrhage during practice and the most heartbreaking moment, Jackson getting murdered on the eve of the team winning the city championship. But, the most amazing thing is that this would be the breeding ground for two of the finest directors around, Thomas Carter and Kevin Hooks. Bruce Paltrow not only was a genius director, but he was also a professor and his charges learned well and became great on their own.