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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Andy and Samantha, and welcome to stuff.

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Speaker 1: I've never told your production of iHeart Radio. I think

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Speaker 1: I know the answer to this, Samantha, but I shall

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Speaker 1: ask this question anyway. Did you ever watch any after

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Speaker 1: school specials or were there things on PBS that you

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Speaker 1: were into growing up? Oh? Yeah, I'm definitely one of

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Speaker 1: those that watched Captain Kangaroo a little while Zoo Belie Doe.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember that? No? No, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: that's a fun name. Oh no, that's not how you

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Speaker 1: say it is, Zoo Belie Zoo. There's Ben Vereen who

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Speaker 1: dresses like a cat and they're all dressed up in

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Speaker 1: some kind of like costume. I'll send you a picture.

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Speaker 1: And I used to love it. It It came out in

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Speaker 1: six but I watched that as well. Ben Vereen loved him,

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Speaker 1: such a great guy. To me, He's right up there

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Speaker 1: with LeVar Burton, who which I also watched Rainbow all

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Speaker 1: of that. I did watch a few after school specials.

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Speaker 1: But you also have to remember I didn't have anything

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Speaker 1: but more than like four channels, and that included like CBS, ABC, PBS,

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Speaker 1: that's it. We couldn't even get NBC like it was

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Speaker 1: two out of range for us. So those are the

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Speaker 1: three channels that I had, and so I would also

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Speaker 1: watch any of the PBS specials like that's when I

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Speaker 1: watched and Green Gables of course. Yeah, yeah, I was

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Speaker 1: in a very similar situation. We got those channels, and

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Speaker 1: then occasionally we would get NBC, R TBS and every

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Speaker 1: now and then Channel thirty four, which was the Box,

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Speaker 1: which is a music video station, but you have to

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Speaker 1: put your hand on the TV and then hold your

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Speaker 1: other arm up there for those moments. But I loved

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Speaker 1: I loved PBS. I didn't watch much in the way

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Speaker 1: of after school specials necessarily, but I loved Zoom and

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Speaker 1: Wishbone and Reading Rainbow and Arthur, which is why one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons why this has been on my mind

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Speaker 1: because Arthur has been canceled after very like twenty plus

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Speaker 1: years a long time. Yeah. Also, me and my friends

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Speaker 1: spent a long time trying to remember without the Internet,

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Speaker 1: who was gay on that show, and it was Mr Rathburn.

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Speaker 1: Mr Rathburn got married to a man. And I even

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Speaker 1: had the Arthur video game. I absolutely loved it. I

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Speaker 1: remember coming home and like right getting home from school

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Speaker 1: and watching watching that um, but it's something else that's

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Speaker 1: been on my mind too, because here in the US,

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Speaker 1: at least, there's a lot of conversation around going back

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Speaker 1: to school and what that's going to look like when

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Speaker 1: you've got a pandemic and a new variant that's really

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Speaker 1: really contagious and children. So I've just been thinking about

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Speaker 1: thinking about this and kind of feeling to static for

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Speaker 1: my days of watching these shows on PPS and being

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Speaker 1: so excited, so excited for them. So yeah, yeah, please

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Speaker 1: enjoy this classic episode. Welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told

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Speaker 1: You from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome

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Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline, and we

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Speaker 1: are talking about after school specials today because you know what,

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Speaker 1: it's school time and for some of you it might

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Speaker 1: be after school. And I really, personally, I just wanted

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Speaker 1: to know about after school specials because in my brain

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Speaker 1: they are these KITCHI feel good lesson teaching imparting little

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Speaker 1: videos that we watched now from time to time and say, oh,

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Speaker 1: look at Scott Bao, he's too drunk. I don't know

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Speaker 1: that all of them were feel good videos though, well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean like Scott Bayo in The Boy Who drank

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Speaker 1: too much, was you know, it was pretty it was

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Speaker 1: pretty tough to watch because he did get too drunk.

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Speaker 1: Or there was the one what was the name of

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Speaker 1: the one where he like got all whacked out on

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Speaker 1: drugs and fell in the water or something. I think

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Speaker 1: you are referring to stoned when Scott Bayo smokes pot

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Speaker 1: at school and gets really stoned. Not to be confused though,

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Speaker 1: with high school narc which is not Scott star of

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Speaker 1: Scott Bayo, but it does deal with marijuana in school. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Scott Bayo. A lot of people got their start from

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Speaker 1: these things. Christie McNichol, Rob Lowe and his jaw, Helen Hunt.

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Speaker 1: There's one very famous after school special. I don't know

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Speaker 1: the title of it, but it involves Helen Hunt trying

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Speaker 1: Angel Dust a k A PCP and then jumping through

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Speaker 1: a window cautionary tail the So before this turns into

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Speaker 1: me just pretending to to be YouTube, just recounting clips

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Speaker 1: of after school specials. Uh, we are talking specifically about

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Speaker 1: ABC after school specials, although CBS also had their form

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Speaker 1: of after school specials. HBO even did similar kinds of

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Speaker 1: after school specials, but they ran on ABC from nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy two to nine. It was the first network to

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Speaker 1: do this, and the very first after school special was

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Speaker 1: actually a Hannah Barbera animated feature about fictional birds. It

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Speaker 1: was called Last of the Curlews and it was about conservation.

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Speaker 1: It kind of reminded me of Dr Seus' Is the Lorax?

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Speaker 1: Uh yeah, it was. It was all about these birds

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Speaker 1: called the Curlews, and it won an Emmy in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy three for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming. My father

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Speaker 1: would just say it was a liberal agenda movie. It

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Speaker 1: was a liberal leg because it taught kids empathy and

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Speaker 1: they learned about college and environmental problems. I mean, he's

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Speaker 1: a man who can't sit through Wally Hippies. Yeah uh yeah.

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Speaker 1: After school specials, even though we might snicker at them

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Speaker 1: now a little bit because they might seem a little

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Speaker 1: bit cheesy, perhaps through our are now nine o two

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Speaker 1: and oh jaded lens, they would go on over their

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Speaker 1: lifespan to Garner eighteen Daytime, any Emmy's, three Blue Ribbons

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Speaker 1: at the American Film Festival, and a Peabody Award. So

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Speaker 1: you would think that, you know, having won all these awards,

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Speaker 1: that they would have been. They must have been really

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Speaker 1: popular from the get go. But according to producer Martin Tay's,

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Speaker 1: who did a lot of these episodes, most of the episodes,

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Speaker 1: advertisers were not excited about these these shows. They did

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Speaker 1: kind of touch on a lot of racy topics, and

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Speaker 1: they were very They were a radical departure from a

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Speaker 1: lot of the TV shows that were on at the time.

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Speaker 1: But critics loved them. They loved this series, and they

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Speaker 1: actually pressured ABC affiliates to take it more seriously. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: because this was the first time that a network devoted

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Speaker 1: that kind of prime time specifically to teenagers. Because if

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Speaker 1: we look at TV when this is going on, remember

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Speaker 1: they were launched in nineteen seventy two. We have Happy

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Speaker 1: Days comes on air in seventy four, ninety eight, Mr

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Speaker 1: Rogers sixty nine, Sesame Street comes around seventy three, We've

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Speaker 1: got Schoolhouse Rock, and then because it's awesome, we must

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Speaker 1: mention it Reading Rainbows, Hello, I should do an episode

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Speaker 1: just on reading. Should But but those were all targeted

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Speaker 1: toward younger audiences. So the after school specials were really

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Speaker 1: an attempt to to educate how this it's adedutainment, uh,

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Speaker 1: toward teens, and so they did tackle those tough topics

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Speaker 1: like teen and adult alcoholism, homosexuality, teen pregnancy, drug abuse,

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Speaker 1: domestic violence, STDs, teen suicide, child molestation. Um, also divorce,

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Speaker 1: such as one of my favorite after school specials, My

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Speaker 1: dad lives in a downtown hotel, which happens when bou

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Speaker 1: Bridges and his wife get divorced and Billy, their child,

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Speaker 1: has to go visit bou Bridges in a downtown hotel. Huh. Yes, well. Um.

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Speaker 1: In an episode of NPRS on the Media which aired

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Speaker 1: in June two thou five, they took a look at

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Speaker 1: these these wonderful episodes of learning, and they quoted Chicago

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Speaker 1: Tribune media writer Maureen Ryan, who said that it just

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Speaker 1: seemed like there was much more of an air of

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Speaker 1: exploration in terms of topics that might now today be

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Speaker 1: considered inappropriate for kids or young adults. Yeah. I feel

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Speaker 1: like parents are very sensitive about what their kids watch.

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Speaker 1: But these were these were these were learning tools. And uh.

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Speaker 1: They point out that while these after school specials may

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Speaker 1: have been melodramatic, they acknowledged that there was more to

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Speaker 1: adolescents than sock hops of happy days. Yeah, these were

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Speaker 1: happening in an interesting time because there's sort of sandwiched

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Speaker 1: between on the one side, this moral panic about television

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Speaker 1: becoming more sexualized and violent. There were all of these

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Speaker 1: UM stories in like Time magazine and Newsweek talking about

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Speaker 1: connections between violence on television and rising rates of teenage

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Speaker 1: violence UM, and also concerns fueled by the Cold War

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Speaker 1: about whether or not kids were being adequately educated this

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Speaker 1: new and younger generation. But then on the other side,

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Speaker 1: you do have the opening up of uh. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's the swing in seventies, So you have the publication

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy of uh, everything you always wanted to

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Speaker 1: know about sex, but We're too afraid to ask. Two

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Speaker 1: years later, the Joy of Sex comes out nineteen seventy three,

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Speaker 1: Our Bodies Ourselves. You have drug culture going on UM.

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Speaker 1: So you have sandwiched in the middle of this these

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Speaker 1: after school specials that we're trying to appease the moral panic,

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Speaker 1: the need for a desire for education on the boob

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Speaker 1: tube that's coming down from from parents, and also addressing

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Speaker 1: these very real issues that teams are confronting. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: this is referred to as the turn to relevance for

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Speaker 1: TV because you have commercial TV that people are all

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Speaker 1: up in arms about. It's all sexy times and violence,

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Speaker 1: but it's becoming more socially conscious to sort of become

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Speaker 1: an educational tool for young people. And this is all

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Speaker 1: talked about in a study from Julie Allman talking about

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Speaker 1: how adolescence was sort of redefined during this time as

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Speaker 1: just a period in your life to all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: now it's something to overcome. It's a disability you have

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Speaker 1: to get over well. And you also have to take

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Speaker 1: into account the changing family dynamics that we're going on

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Speaker 1: as well, with more mothers working outside the home. So

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Speaker 1: you have all these latchkey kids all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: you've got divorce on the rise. And again because of

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Speaker 1: the lack of supervision, perhaps from both parents working. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you have youth TV intake becoming less supervised. So you

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Speaker 1: mentioned producer Martin Toss. Uh. He decided with these after

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Speaker 1: school specials that he would draw from popular adolescent literature

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Speaker 1: and keep tabs on publishers weekly to essentially see what

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Speaker 1: the kids were reading and the format the shows similarly

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Speaker 1: or even directly from these young adult novels. For instance, Uh,

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Speaker 1: Francine Pascal, who wrote the Sweet Valley High series. Um,

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Speaker 1: she had a novel, The hand Me Down Kid, turned

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Speaker 1: into an after school special in nineteen eighty three, and

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Speaker 1: it's all about how a younger sibling is sick of

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Speaker 1: getting hand me down, so she steals her sister's bike.

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Speaker 1: But then of course that bike gets stolen lesson learned

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Speaker 1: about stealing. Well, then what happened? Uh, well, and then

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Speaker 1: I guess she's fine with taking hand me downs. I

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Speaker 1: have a feeling at the end, she gets a new

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Speaker 1: outfit because generally there is some kind of need that's satisfied,

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Speaker 1: you know, and the good feels okay and well a

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Speaker 1: lot of one of the points that they bring up

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Speaker 1: about this whole series is that there aren't miracles in

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Speaker 1: these shows. That oftentimes when these horrible things happen, whether

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Speaker 1: it's oh my god, I don't get a new outfit

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Speaker 1: or whoops, I got my girlfriend pregnant, often these are

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Speaker 1: things that the kids themselves have to deal with and resolve,

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Speaker 1: and and they don't just like magically, you know, like

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Speaker 1: an episode in Full House just magically get resolved in

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Speaker 1: thirty minutes, right. They have to undergo some tough circumstances

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Speaker 1: in order to reach the other side, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of it is about, yeah, the kind of the pluckiness

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Speaker 1: of youth and having to overcome peer pressure or just

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Speaker 1: general loneliness and angst. Although Elman, whose thesis we've cited,

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Speaker 1: did take issue with how gender shakes out a lot

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Speaker 1: of times in the after school specials um she points

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Speaker 1: out that topics are often focused around male protagonists to

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Speaker 1: begin with, because of the notion that girls are gonna

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Speaker 1: watch something about boys but not vice versa, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of times, if a female protagonist does have a problem,

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Speaker 1: it usually required a male love interest to come along

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Speaker 1: who probably had already dealt with a similar kind of issue,

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Speaker 1: to guide her to the solution. Whereas when the tables

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Speaker 1: were turned and you have a boy who's trying to

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Speaker 1: overcome something the women or the women, it's the girls

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Speaker 1: who are still kind of relegated to the side just

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Speaker 1: to be caretakers but not necessarily catalysts for change. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: A lot of her study does touch on divisions of

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Speaker 1: gender and able bodied nous and what that means as

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Speaker 1: far as heteronormativity and traditional masculinity and femininity. Yeah. She

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Speaker 1: essentially uh makes the point that able bodied nous is

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Speaker 1: used as a kind of UH symbol for heteronormativity because

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Speaker 1: you have this arc of uh. You know, you start

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Speaker 1: out with some kind of handicap and a lack of

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Speaker 1: love interest, and as someone will overcome some kind of

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Speaker 1: uh disability, then the love interests will come along, so

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Speaker 1: you have them able bodied and hooked up by the end,

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Speaker 1: sort of linking those two things together. Yeah, she calls

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Speaker 1: this a rehabilitative approach in representing teen problems and addressing

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Speaker 1: teen viewers, and really, like I mentioned earlier, talks about

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Speaker 1: overcoming disability and defines um adolescence as what you're you're

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Speaker 1: not being able bodied, you might even kind of have

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Speaker 1: a disability, and so this whole thing becomes a developmental

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Speaker 1: stage defined by exposure to and weathering of the dysfunction.

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Speaker 1: And speaking of heteronormativity, UH. Sexuality was something that did

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Speaker 1: come up in a number of after school specials, and

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Speaker 1: there were some that that dealt specifically with teens um

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Speaker 1: coming out. But A Reese over at auto straddle dot

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Speaker 1: com talks about the HBO slash Canadian Cable Company special

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Speaker 1: The Truth About Alex, which is it's not an ABC

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Speaker 1: after school special, but it's in the same vein of

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Speaker 1: these after school specials and again starring Scott Bayo. I

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Speaker 1: love that this episode could just be co titled Scott

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Speaker 1: byes Uh, and she writes, for many young homosexuals, the

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Speaker 1: truth about Alex was the first time they saw themselves

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Speaker 1: on screen, and that was profound enough and positive. But

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Speaker 1: the real lesson of the film hides behind the ostensibly

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Speaker 1: decent portrayal because outside of those things, the survival of

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Speaker 1: coming out of the closet and an eventual acceptance from

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Speaker 1: a handful of family and friends, the life of a

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Speaker 1: gay person was seen as a relentless and destructive battle

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Speaker 1: against the world. If you come out, be prepared for

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Speaker 1: everything to unravel around you. So it is sort of, um,

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Speaker 1: it's a positive, but still with these negative attractors of saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: be brave, young person and be who you are, but

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Speaker 1: still be ready for a lifetime of hill exactly. She

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Speaker 1: goes on to site some episodes that focused particularly on

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Speaker 1: young gay people in high school. There's seven CBS school

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Speaker 1: Break special What If I'm Gay, where friends this guy's

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Speaker 1: friends find his gay porn collection. It ended up being

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Speaker 1: nominated for three Daytime Emmys and actually one one um

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Speaker 1: in there was another CBS episode called Other Mothers and

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Speaker 1: Meredith Baxter was one of the mothers and she ended

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Speaker 1: up coming out years later. That was recently, right, It

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Speaker 1: was just like two years ago or something. Other Mothers

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Speaker 1: was in when she came out. Uh that yeah, I

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Speaker 1: want to say it was two thousand three. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: then there was an HBO episode called More Than Friends,

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Speaker 1: the coming out of Heidi Lighter. I think that's how

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Speaker 1: it's pronounced. But yeah, So there was a focus on

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Speaker 1: gay and lesbian students, but like Kristen said, there was

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Speaker 1: still the downside of you have a lot of junk

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Speaker 1: to deal with. Well, it was similar to to how

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Speaker 1: sex was dealt with, especially when it comes to STDs

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Speaker 1: and unintended pregnancies. Because this is going back to Elman's

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Speaker 1: paper and television in new Media. She talks about how

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Speaker 1: while yeah, sexteen sex was depicted a lot, but STDs

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Speaker 1: were always um depicted as some kind of punishment, a

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Speaker 1: moral punishment for promiscuity, as was accidental pregnancy. A lot

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Speaker 1: of time saying like hey, well you know you can

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Speaker 1: do this, but if you aren't, you know, monogamous, you're

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Speaker 1: gonna get a horrible STD and terrible things will rain

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Speaker 1: down upon you. Yeah. This is part of what she

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Speaker 1: called medicalized entertainment, which was a style of literary slash

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Speaker 1: televisual narratives that emerged around this time to basically transmit

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Speaker 1: images of medical knowledge and often disability for public consumption.

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Speaker 1: So here you've got this this health issue. Um, let's

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Speaker 1: let's teach you about it in kind of an entertaining

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Speaker 1: way so that you'll know more about it and hopefully

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Speaker 1: avoid it. Yeah. I mean, I will say, like, um,

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Speaker 1: considering the time that these were on the air, and

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Speaker 1: considering how how new it was and how revolutionary was

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Speaker 1: that this was the first time that the teen experience

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Speaker 1: was really being valued and portrayed on television, I think

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Speaker 1: that you have to to take after school specials as

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I I think that they were a

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Speaker 1: good thing because they did portray all of these different issues,

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Speaker 1: even though they might seem kind of kitchen now, um,

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Speaker 1: not the issues themselves, but how they um came across.

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Speaker 1: And it would be interesting to see like if obviously

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Speaker 1: after school specials don't really exist today in the same format,

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Speaker 1: but how we might deal with them differently. But I

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Speaker 1: guess maybe we don't, uh, we don't need after school

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Speaker 1: specials anymore because a lot of these issues have been

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Speaker 1: mainstreamed into prime time dramas or drama tase comedies like Glee.

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Speaker 1: You have things like nine O two and No Going

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Speaker 1: Back in Time a Little Bit, which came out first

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Speaker 1: in October of nineteen ninety. You have The O C

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Speaker 1: Dawson's Creek, all this other stuff where they interweave these

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Speaker 1: kinds of UH issues into incredibly dramatic plotlines. Dawson's Creek,

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Speaker 1: you learned that the brunette is always the one that

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Speaker 1: you trust. You don't ever trust the new blonde who

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Speaker 1: comes to town. And I also think a really good

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Speaker 1: thing about these episodes, like Christen said, even though they're

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Speaker 1: a little cheesy, um, they do feature a lot of

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Speaker 1: different kinds of people, a lot of different young people

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Speaker 1: of different ethnic backgrounds, ages, family situations. And Elman says

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Speaker 1: that this whole imagined coming of age as a process

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Speaker 1: of developing liberal individualism by offering lessons in tolerance, so

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Speaker 1: showing different types of people on one what they go

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Speaker 1: through instead of just maybe your run of the mill

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Speaker 1: happy days cast. Yeah. And I think one of the

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Speaker 1: great things too about after school specials um as opposed

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Speaker 1: to are in comparison to the kinds of teen dramas

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Speaker 1: that we see on TV today, is that, especially when

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Speaker 1: it comes to their economic backgrounds, it was a lot

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Speaker 1: of lower middle class, you know, everyday kids just going

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Speaker 1: through life, whereas a lot of times now what we

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Speaker 1: see you turn on Gossip Girl and it's all, you know,

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Speaker 1: fabulously wealthy kids. Even the poorest among them is clearly

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Speaker 1: obviously incredibly wealthy. Um. And so a lot of it's

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Speaker 1: more like stylized, and even the middle class is portrayed

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Speaker 1: to be like far above the actual living standards of

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Speaker 1: the current middle class. Yeah. Well, one thing that definitely

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Speaker 1: was not stylized at all is a show that I

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Speaker 1: watched in my eighth grade. I guess it was maybe

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Speaker 1: our break period or something, and that's to gret see

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Speaker 1: junior high. Yeah, if there were, I mean, I gotta

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Speaker 1: say that I in home school, I did not watch

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Speaker 1: The Grassy. I've heard about Degrassi for a while last year.

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Speaker 1: In fact, a friend of mine who really has a

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Speaker 1: love for uh eighties and nineties culture asked me about

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Speaker 1: it and I was like, yeah, I mean, I've just

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Speaker 1: never seen it and she was like, you gotta watch

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Speaker 1: the Grassy Did you which version did you watch? Because

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Speaker 1: there's like fifty I started from the beginning of the

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Speaker 1: Grassy Junior High and Caroline, I didn't leave my room

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Speaker 1: for a few days because I got I got hooked.

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Speaker 1: I was twenty six years old on a Degrassy Junior

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Speaker 1: High marathon. Yeah, well they are. I just remember thinking

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Speaker 1: when I was watching them in classic, this is is stupid, right, guys,

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Speaker 1: this is so wow. I can't believe they're actually talking

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Speaker 1: about this. Yeah, they hit all of the kinds of

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Speaker 1: issues that after school specials did, but it was somehow better,

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Speaker 1: I feel like because they just pulled in actual kids

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Speaker 1: from the neighborhood, like the clothes that they wear were

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Speaker 1: closed from their closet and de Grassy Junior High and

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Speaker 1: the Grassy High ran on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC

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Speaker 1: from seven to and then there's Degrassive, the next generation,

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Speaker 1: not to be confused with Star Trek correct that started

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Speaker 1: in two thousand one. But you found some, uh, some

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Speaker 1: differences as to specifically because it was broadcast in Canada,

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Speaker 1: about why they could tackle some of the issues that

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Speaker 1: they did more freely yeah, well, I guess I never

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Speaker 1: thought about the differences between Canada and the US as

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Speaker 1: far as like cultural taboos and things like that, because

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Speaker 1: I just don't think of our countries as that different.

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Speaker 1: Maybe social input, maybe they are, um, but yeah. Linda Schuler,

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Speaker 1: who's the producer, said that Degrassi needed to be more

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Speaker 1: entertaining than an after school special because it was all

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Speaker 1: about finding the authenticity of these characters voices and emotions,

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Speaker 1: about really tackling issues that kids were taught king about,

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Speaker 1: and that came into play when they had an episode

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Speaker 1: about abortion, because there wasn't really an issue in Canada

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Speaker 1: about airing this episode. It was like, Okay, well, this

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Speaker 1: is something that kids are worried about, this is something

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Speaker 1: that happens in society, let's talk about it. But it

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Speaker 1: was actually pulled in the US because the the network,

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Speaker 1: the N I don't recall this network or anything, but

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Speaker 1: the n actually refused to air the abortion episode, and

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Speaker 1: so The New York Times ended up writing a piece

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Speaker 1: on it like, oh, Degrassis tackling society's last taboo, and

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Speaker 1: Schuler's response to that was basically like, well, it's not

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Speaker 1: really our last taboo. Um, it's just a different national context.

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Speaker 1: And so there's this book called Programming Reality Perspectives on

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Speaker 1: English and Canadian Television that said the Degrassi went places

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Speaker 1: that American TV was afraid to go, and that that

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Speaker 1: national context really does affect what type of stories can

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Speaker 1: be told on TV. Yeah. I mean, I gonna say it.

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Speaker 1: If it's a contest between ABC School Specials versus Degrassi,

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Speaker 1: I mean, hands down, it's Degrassi. Anyone who out there

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Speaker 1: is not watching this might get me on another Degrassi kick.

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying, you've got to go home right now

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Speaker 1: and watch it. Yeah. Um, Well, there's also the issues

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Speaker 1: we haven't really talked about girls and feminism and how

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Speaker 1: that's presented on these shows. Kristen Pike for an essay

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Speaker 1: in Girlhood Studies, which is a journal, she did an

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Speaker 1: analysis of episodes featuring tomboys and explored how these after

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Speaker 1: school special circulated ideas of feminism and femininity two young viewers,

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Speaker 1: and her study demonstrates how these after school specials targeted

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Speaker 1: girls through images of female progress and independence while simultaneously

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Speaker 1: cautioning them about the dangers of women's lib So it's

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Speaker 1: the same kind of thing that we talked about when

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Speaker 1: they featured gay students on these episodes, It's like, okay, yeah,

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Speaker 1: go be yourself. Go be it could be a strong woman,

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Speaker 1: a strong young woman, but but you're you're kind of

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Speaker 1: a tomboy and you're different, and yeah, there could be consequences.

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Speaker 1: Be prepared. Yea. And they said she said that, uh

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Speaker 1: the series trend of taming tomboys, so like, oh, you're

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Speaker 1: a tomboy, but now you found a love interest, so

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Speaker 1: everything is better. Um, it's actually connected to the backlash

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Speaker 1: against women and gay rights movements. So did this help

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Speaker 1: TV hurt TV element in her studies so that it

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Speaker 1: rehabilitated TV's image that now kids have something productive to watch,

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Speaker 1: more constructive? Um, you know, maybe portraying sexual issues as productive. Sure.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, though, I feel like there

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Speaker 1: was somewhat of a drop off because you transition from

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Speaker 1: after school specials really into not to I know, is

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Speaker 1: the is the biggest thing to pick up from that? Um?

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Speaker 1: So I don't know. I'm curious to hear what other

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Speaker 1: people who might have watched more after school specials at

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Speaker 1: the time when they were airing. In parents today who

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Speaker 1: are concerned about TV programming what they think about it,

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Speaker 1: And I don't know, maybe or maybe if it's if

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Speaker 1: it's a moot point that we shouldn't be so concerned about,

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Speaker 1: like what kind of education kids are receiving from television

427
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:24,600
Speaker 1: rather than you know, education that they are receiving from

428
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:30,960
Speaker 1: school and books and other outlets like podcasts. Um, but

429
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 1: I think that. But I'm glad that we took this

430
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:36,960
Speaker 1: look inside of after school specials, inside of Scott Bo's career. Yes,

431
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,640
Speaker 1: because I really I didn't know where they came from.

432
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 1: So so that's where. And they're not from a stork.

433
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: They are from the brains of ABC and producer Martin Toss.

434
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: So there we go. And I think you know, folks

435
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:55,040
Speaker 1: out there, if you would like an episode completely devoted

436
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: to Degrassi, I wouldn't be remiss, but I would have

437
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:00,440
Speaker 1: to go back and do a lot of homework. Yeah,

438
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 1: but let's maybe just go watch on let us know

439
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,720
Speaker 1: if you want that, though we could do it. I

440
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,520
Speaker 1: really just want an excuse to watch more Degrassi because

441
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 1: I still haven't seen the next generation. I digress, So

442
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: any after school special letters you have to send our

443
00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:18,439
Speaker 1: way mom. Stuff at Discovery dot Com is where you

444
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: can send them. Now, before we get into listener letters,

445
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:27,880
Speaker 1: I do have a quick message for you from Netflix,

446
00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:31,119
Speaker 1: which is partially responsible for bringing you this episode of

447
00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:33,879
Speaker 1: Stuff Mom Never Told You, And it is the perfect

448
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 1: time to talk about Netflix. Because we are talking about

449
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 1: after school specials. We've ticked off a number of our

450
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:46,640
Speaker 1: favorites and if you would, for instance, like to take

451
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:49,919
Speaker 1: a trip back in TV time and watch some of

452
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 1: the ABC after school specials you can watch on Netflix,

453
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 1: for instance the one to nine eight two after School

454
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,600
Speaker 1: Specials Edition, which features a young Raw Blow in the

455
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 1: after school special A matter of time. Now, if you

456
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 1: want to find out a matter of time for what

457
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:11,640
Speaker 1: and what young Rob Blow is doing in that after

458
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:14,959
Speaker 1: school special, all you need to do is go to

459
00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:19,159
Speaker 1: Netflix dot com because as a new Netflix member and

460
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,120
Speaker 1: a stuff Mom Never Told You listener, you can get

461
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:27,000
Speaker 1: a free thirty day trial membership. Just go to Netflix

462
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,879
Speaker 1: dot com slash mom and sign up and be sure

463
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 1: to use that U r L so they know that

464
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 1: Caroline and I sent you. Now, this free thirty day

465
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:41,000
Speaker 1: trial is not going to be around forever, so do

466
00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 1: not delay. Head on over to Netflix dot com flash

467
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:51,320
Speaker 1: Mom for that free thirty day Trial membership. Now back

468
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 1: to our listener letters. We've got a let her here

469
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:59,160
Speaker 1: from Bree talking about our episode on self harm, and

470
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 1: she says she's been in self harming off and on

471
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: for about ten years um and talks about the addiction factor. Um.

472
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: And I just wanted to read a couple of things

473
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 1: in her her letter because we don't have time to

474
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 1: read the entire thing. Um. She says. I do agree

475
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 1: that the subject is not often talked about because people

476
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:22,960
Speaker 1: just think it is an adolescent slash teen white girl

477
00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:25,320
Speaker 1: problem and then eventually they will grow out of it.

478
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:28,280
Speaker 1: Being an African American woman, I was often told that

479
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 1: this was a white problem and that that I should

480
00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:34,160
Speaker 1: just stop because black people don't cut themselves. Yes, people

481
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 1: actually say these things. Also, a lot of people did

482
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 1: not believe men harm themselves, but that's also true. I

483
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 1: kept quiet about my cutting for almost a year until

484
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:44,120
Speaker 1: I can find it in a friend, and it all

485
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:46,280
Speaker 1: went down from there. Soon, It's seemed that all of

486
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 1: my friends were harming themselves in some ways, and we

487
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:52,239
Speaker 1: were all on a path toward death. Thankfully, most of

488
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:53,920
Speaker 1: them grew out of it and have found other ways

489
00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 1: to cope. When they're feeling down. So she also offers

490
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:02,000
Speaker 1: some pointers to help treat people who are cutting. If

491
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 1: someone is concerned, she says, don't ever take or throw

492
00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 1: away or hide a person's personal cutting tools, boxes, etcetera.

493
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 1: Doing this seems helpful, but it can break the trust

494
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 1: you have with this person, and it could make the

495
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 1: person who was cutting find something quick and really sharp

496
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:17,680
Speaker 1: to use at the moment, and in their frantic state,

497
00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:19,920
Speaker 1: they could not be as careful and it could end

498
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 1: up badly. Also, don't shame them or make them feel

499
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 1: like they're worthless. It will be really hard at first,

500
00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 1: and sometimes you might say something you regret, but just

501
00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: take some deep breast and try to focus on the

502
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:32,600
Speaker 1: main point. Remember that everyone is different. Don't treat the

503
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 1: person as if they were someone you see on TV

504
00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:37,120
Speaker 1: or reading a book. Remember that you can't force anyone

505
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:39,920
Speaker 1: to stop harming themselves. They have to want to stop

506
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 1: in order to progress. All that a person can really

507
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:45,920
Speaker 1: do is be supportive and know that you're thinking about

508
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 1: them and you want them to get better. So thanks

509
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 1: to Brief for that insight. And I have a letter

510
00:30:52,520 --> 00:31:00,080
Speaker 1: from Kristen about our soda pop Cathy. She says, I

511
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: grew up in Palmer, Alaska, a smaller city north of Anchorage.

512
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 1: In Alaska, we have many villages, which we call the Bush,

513
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,520
Speaker 1: that are not connected to the rest of Alaska by

514
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:12,320
Speaker 1: roads and are therefore only acceptable by airplane or floatplane, boat,

515
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:16,400
Speaker 1: snow machine, and or dog sled. In these villages, everything

516
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 1: is much much more expensive. In two thousand and eight,

517
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:21,480
Speaker 1: I remember a gallon of gas hitting twelve dollars. I

518
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 1: remember learning that in many bush villages, babies, children, and

519
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: young adults are beginning to experience very serious dental problems

520
00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:30,480
Speaker 1: because healthy drinks such as water and milk are very expensive,

521
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 1: but unhealthy drinks, mostly soda, are affordable For women with children,

522
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: These mothers put soda in bottles for their babies, and

523
00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:39,480
Speaker 1: their children grew up drinking soda as the main or

524
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,720
Speaker 1: even only, daily drink. That contributes not only to problems

525
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:45,720
Speaker 1: you mentioned in the podcast, including weight gain and diabetes,

526
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:49,400
Speaker 1: but also major dental problems. Imagine the cavities a baby

527
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:52,960
Speaker 1: would develop if it drinks solely sugared soda while teething.

528
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:55,320
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how big of a problem this continues

529
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:57,040
Speaker 1: to be in the Bush, but it's an image that

530
00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 1: has always stuck with me and I wanted to share.

531
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 1: So thank you for that information, Kristen, and thanks to

532
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 1: everyone who's written in Mom's Stuff at discovery dot com

533
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 1: is where you can send all of your after school

534
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 1: special letters and any other letters on your mind, and

535
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:14,240
Speaker 1: also head over to Facebook let us know post the

536
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:17,800
Speaker 1: YouTube video of your favorite after school special. There are

537
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 1: a lot of them up on YouTube, and you can

538
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 1: also find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcasts, and

539
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 1: on tumbler Stuff Mom Never Told You dot tumbler dot com.

540
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:30,880
Speaker 1: And of course you can get smarter during the week

541
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 1: by heading to our website, It's how Stuff Works dot

542
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:39,800
Speaker 1: com for more on this and thousands of other topics.

543
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com. Brought to you

544
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 1: by the two thou twelve Toyota Camera. It's ready, are

545
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: you