Danielle Spencer, the actress who played the lovably bratty and witty teenager on the 1970s hit sitcom “What’s Happening!!” and its spinoff, “What’s Happening Now!!,” before spending much of her adult life as a veterinarian, died Monday at Chippenham Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. She was 60.

Her publicist, who confirmed the death, said the cause was gastric cancer and cardiac arrest.

“What’s Happening!!,” which ran on ABC from 1976-79, was one of the first American television shows to center on the experiences of Black teenagers. It was inspired by Eric Monte’s 1975 film “Cooley High,” which was set in Chicago, and it came at a time when Black sitcoms like “Sanford and Son” and “Good Times,” which was cocreated by Monte, had become more prominent in American culture.

The show focused

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