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Speaker 1: You know, I've spent many hours with children who've gotten

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Speaker 1: involved with drugs. They start your age even younger.

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Speaker 2: In March of nineteen eighty three, at the behest of

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Speaker 2: a sixth grader named Arnold Jackson, First Lady Nancy Reagan

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Speaker 2: visited a classroom at New York City's PS four h

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Speaker 2: six to talk about drugs.

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Speaker 1: And they're all tragic stories of kids with great potential

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Speaker 1: whose lives were ruined.

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Speaker 2: But this New York City classroom was actually on a

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Speaker 2: Los Angeles soundstage, and Arnold Jackson was a character played

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Speaker 2: by actor Gary Coleman.

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Speaker 3: Who children about Missus Rady's.

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Speaker 1: Well, I happened to be here in New York and

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Speaker 1: I saw that story about you in the paper, Arnold.

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Speaker 1: You know I'm very concerned about drug abuse, especially among

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Speaker 1: the young.

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Speaker 2: Missus Reagan was taping an episode of the popular NBC

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Speaker 2: sitcom Different Strokes to promote her Just Say No anti

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Speaker 2: drug campaign.

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Speaker 4: In the plot the series, regular Arnold actor Gary Coleman

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Speaker 4: gets some help from Missus Reagan in his own effort

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Speaker 4: to curb drug abuse among students.

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Speaker 2: Do you remember when the Nancy Reagan Different Strokes episode aired?

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Speaker 5: Yes, absolutely, because it was a big deal.

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Speaker 6: I mean, it was definitely like, this is something that

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Speaker 6: we have to talk about.

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Speaker 2: This is Jessica Shawl. She hosts the pop Culture Spotlight

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Speaker 2: on Serious Exam Radio, and it's written about television for decades.

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Speaker 5: I mean, I'm gen X.

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Speaker 6: The fact that my parents even knew I existed was

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Speaker 6: like a minor miracle, you know. So the fact that

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Speaker 6: adults were going on our shows, they weren't going on

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Speaker 6: the news, they were going on our shows to reach

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Speaker 6: us felt different and kind of.

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Speaker 2: Special, very special. Over thirty two million people watched The

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Speaker 2: First Lady that night. Do you remember what your reaction

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Speaker 2: to it was.

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Speaker 6: I'm sure that I took it kind of earnestly as

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Speaker 6: a child, because we weren't cynical like children are now.

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Speaker 6: Let's say, in like the twenty twenties. I think in

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Speaker 6: the eighties there was a little bit more of like, oh,

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Speaker 6: I need to listen to the First Lady and what

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Speaker 6: she has to say.

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Speaker 2: This is Reagan.

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Speaker 3: I guess there's something I should say. I've tried drugs

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Speaker 3: a few times.

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Speaker 5: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: That took as much courage as it did for Arnold

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Speaker 1: to write a story.

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Speaker 2: This feels like the prototypical very special episode.

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Speaker 5: Yes, I mean absolutely.

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Speaker 2: The very special episode a mainstay of nineteen eighties and

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Speaker 2: early nineteen nineties television. It often came with a warning

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Speaker 2: to parents that the ordinarily hermetically sealed off world of

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Speaker 2: your favorite family friendly series was about to get injected

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Speaker 2: with a dose of the real world. Tuesday, Very Special.

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Speaker 7: Fullhouse, We're starting a special two part show on a

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Speaker 7: very sensitive and important subject.

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Speaker 2: You figured we'd talk to.

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Speaker 8: You kids and your parents two about smits kind of

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Speaker 8: hard to talk about.

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Speaker 2: The laughs would still be there, just more muted. It

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Speaker 2: could get awkward.

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Speaker 5: Well, I get eight present that I'm doing pretty good.

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Speaker 2: This was the sitcom itself in an in between state,

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Speaker 2: experiencing its own well growing pains.

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Speaker 5: What happened to his second chance?

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Speaker 2: But never fear. The main characters would remain safe and unchanged,

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Speaker 2: and in the end, all would be back to normal.

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Speaker 2: It just might take more than one episode.

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Speaker 6: The resolution is a big part of it, and it

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Speaker 6: might not be resolved in twenty two minutes because it's

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Speaker 6: a big issue. It's a big issue, so it might

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Speaker 6: take two whole episodes, which is really enough to unpack.

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Speaker 6: Let's see AIDS molestation drug use, drug use.

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Speaker 2: They made headlines and big ratings until they were no

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Speaker 2: longer special, just cliched. And then the very special episode

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Speaker 2: was dropped from the schedule. I mean, who needs lessons

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Speaker 2: when you have Seinfeld.

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Speaker 6: And just saying basically, there are going to be no

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Speaker 6: very special episodes. That is the very thing that we

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Speaker 6: will never do. I mean, what was the quote, no

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Speaker 6: hugging nor.

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Speaker 2: Learning, No hugging nor learning from CBS Sunday Morning and

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Speaker 2: iHeart I'm Morocca and this is a very special episode

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Speaker 2: of mobituaries. This moment, the death of the very special episode.

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Speaker 2: Can you speculate on what was the very first very

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Speaker 2: special episode? I would speculate that it is a Norman

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Speaker 2: Lear show. That's Jessica Shaw again. I also would have

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Speaker 2: guessed that the very special episode began with the late

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Speaker 2: Norman Lear. But we found something even earlier than the

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Speaker 2: Norman Lear era. It is the February thirteenth, nineteen sixty

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Speaker 2: season three episode of Leave It to Beaver, Yes, Leave

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Speaker 2: It to Beaver, and the episode was described as follows. Andy,

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Speaker 2: a neighborhood drunk, is hired to paint the house and

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Speaker 2: Beaver unwittingly gives him some brandy, which you know I

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Speaker 2: had to say at the time must have been like,

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Speaker 2: WHOA what is this?

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Speaker 9: Let me ask you something. Beaver is your father? Would

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Speaker 9: he have a little bit of whiskey?

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Speaker 2: Hero? I'd never seen this before.

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Speaker 5: First of all, A plus research.

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Speaker 2: And it's it's so kind of surprising to see Jerry

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Speaker 2: Mathers as the Beaver or kind of interacting with this

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Speaker 2: alcoholic house painter.

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Speaker 10: Once Michael Billy set my father bottle, it was all

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Speaker 10: that buttonhead brandiant.

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Speaker 9: Well, that's about what I'm talking about Beaver.

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Speaker 2: Of course, Beaver's parents find out and reprimand him, But

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Speaker 2: big brother Wally makes the point that Beaver didn't know

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Speaker 2: Andy had a problem. After all, Ward and June Cleaver

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Speaker 2: hadn't told the boys.

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Speaker 7: You and Mom shouldn't be scared to tell us things.

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Speaker 7: Somebody's got to tell a guy about all the bad.

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Speaker 2: Junk in the world. He's somehow like the writer's kind

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Speaker 2: of saying, please, please, let us tell stories that have

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Speaker 2: a little bit more grit, that are a little bit

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Speaker 2: more complex.

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Speaker 6: It also feels like the entire premise of a very

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Speaker 6: special episode is built on that one line.

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Speaker 2: Yes, as Wally Cleaver put it. Somebody's got to tell

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Speaker 2: a guy about all the bad junk in the world.

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Speaker 2: Ten years later, another family sitcom dared to do just that.

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Speaker 10: Bhy This is Elizabeth Montgomery Welcome to be Witch Next

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Speaker 10: on ABC. Tonight's show was created in the true spirit

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Speaker 10: of Christmas.

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Speaker 2: On Christmas Eve nineteen seventy, with silent night playing underneath.

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Speaker 2: Elizabeth Montgomery, who played good Witch Samantha Stevens on Bewitched,

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Speaker 2: spoke directly to viewers ahead of an episode entitled Sisters

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Speaker 2: at Heart.

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Speaker 10: My friends at Oscar Meyern Company, and I feel it

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Speaker 10: is a very special Bewitched, conceived in the image of

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Speaker 10: innocence and filled with truth.

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Speaker 2: That's right. She even called the episode very special. That's

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Speaker 2: because the usual bad things that happened on Bewitched involved

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Speaker 2: spells gone awry, but in this instance, magic was used

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Speaker 2: to shine a light on racism.

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Speaker 3: You've grown the part he said that we shall be colors,

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Speaker 3: so we couldn't be sisters.

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Speaker 2: She's a big jump. That's daughter Tabitha, who is white

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Speaker 2: and also a witch. Her new friend, Lisa is black.

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Speaker 2: Tabitha ends up using witchcraft so she and Lisa can

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Speaker 2: look more alike. She first turns Lisa white, then turns

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Speaker 2: herself black, then turns the both of them polka dot. Additionally,

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Speaker 2: Samantha puts a spell on her husband's racist client. He

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Speaker 2: starts to see everyone, including himself, as black, and by

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Speaker 2: the end of the episode, he's learned his lesson. I

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Speaker 2: discovered something about myself. I found out I'm a racist.

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Speaker 2: A racist.

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Speaker 11: Oh not the obvious, out in the open type of racist.

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Speaker 4: Not me.

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Speaker 11: No, I was a sneaky racist. I was so sneaky

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Speaker 11: I didn't even know it myself.

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Speaker 2: Quick side note this episode was co written by a

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Speaker 2: classroom of black students at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles,

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Speaker 2: making it even more special. But the Beaver and Bewitched

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Speaker 2: episodes were very much exceptions to the rule. The sitcoms

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Speaker 2: of the nineteen sixties were happily stuck in their own

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Speaker 2: fantasy world, completely divorced from the reality of the times.

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Speaker 2: Did divorce even come up? In our season two episode

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Speaker 2: on Television's Rural Purge, we talked about the country themed

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Speaker 2: shows that dominated the airwaves that decade, especially at CBS

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Speaker 2: on the Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres. There were no

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Speaker 2: anti war protests, no racism, since there were rarely black

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Speaker 2: characters or political assassinations. And how's this for a metaphor.

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Speaker 2: Petticoat Junction was a show centered around the spur of

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Speaker 2: a railroad that basically went nowhere.

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Speaker 9: Come ride the little train that is rolling down the

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Speaker 9: tracks to the junk show.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, where's Norman? Lare was like, Oh, we're going somewhere right.

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Speaker 2: Right, This train is actually going to a real place.

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Speaker 2: My name is Norman Lear.

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Speaker 4: Norman Lear has changed the face of television. Until nineteen

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Speaker 4: seventy one, he was a very successful, if largely unheralded

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Speaker 4: producer writer in Hollywood, but then he burst upon the

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Speaker 4: public consciousness when he took on bigotry with his All

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Speaker 4: in the Family.

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Speaker 2: All in the Family starred Carol O'Connor as Archie Bunker,

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Speaker 2: a man who longed for yesteryear, pigheaded and yes, bigoted,

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Speaker 2: but also surprisingly likable. Every episode was special. The series

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Speaker 2: regularly addressed racism, sexism, anti semitism. It featured one of

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Speaker 2: the very first gay characters on television, and don't matter

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Speaker 2: the topic, Archie Bunker didn't hold back.

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Speaker 7: His proud Roger is as queer as a four dollar

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Speaker 7: bill and he knows.

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Speaker 3: It's not only cruel, Daddy.

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Speaker 5: That's an outright line.

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Speaker 4: Hello, something, Archie.

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Speaker 12: Just because a guy is sensitive and he's an intellectual

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Speaker 12: and he wears glasses, you make him out of I.

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Speaker 13: Never said a guy who wears glasses as a quia.

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Speaker 7: A guy who wears glasses is a four eyes.

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Speaker 9: A guy who was a fag is a quia.

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Speaker 2: So I have to say, and it might be a

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Speaker 2: super unpopular opinion. I'm glad they use that word that

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Speaker 2: they use that slur, because that's part of what made

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Speaker 2: the show so real.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, they didn't shy away from anything.

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Speaker 6: Isn't it so interesting that that scene could not air

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Speaker 6: in twenty twenty three?

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Speaker 2: Right right? The big reveal near the end of that

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Speaker 2: episode is that the person Archie thought was gay is

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Speaker 2: in fact straight, while a pal he had assumed to

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Speaker 2: be straight is actually gay. Huge numbers of people were

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Speaker 2: being introduced to things they were not familiar with. Maybe

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Speaker 2: they didn't even think they knew a gay person.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, I imagine that was eye opening to them.

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Speaker 2: Another Milestone episode from nineteen seventy seven was about Archie's

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Speaker 2: wife Edith, fending off a rapist. It was a two

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Speaker 2: parter called Edith's fiftieth birthday, and I remember being talked

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Speaker 2: about in hushed tones. I didn't have to be told

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Speaker 2: that it wasn't for kids. What are you going to do?

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Speaker 2: You ain't taken off?

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Speaker 5: You're close, are you? Yeah?

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Speaker 9: Then I'm going to take yours off.

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Speaker 5: Wouldn't you like a cup of coffeees?

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Speaker 2: Norman Lear became the biggest TV producer of the decade,

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Speaker 2: helping to create an entire universe of sitcoms and.

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Speaker 7: Then there's mod.

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Speaker 2: On the most famous episode of Maud, the title character,

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Speaker 2: a feminist plate by b Arthur, became unexpectedly pregnant and

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Speaker 2: had to decide whether she'd carried the child's term.

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Speaker 11: Mother.

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Speaker 14: Listen to me, it's a simple operation now, But when

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Speaker 14: you were growing up, it was illegal and it was

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Speaker 14: dangerous and it was sinister, and you've never gotten over that.

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Speaker 5: Now you tell me that's not true.

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Speaker 11: It's not true, and you're right, I've never gotten note.

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Speaker 2: Maud had the abortion. Lear was also the force behind

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Speaker 2: some of the first sitcoms centered around black characters, including

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Speaker 2: Good Times.

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Speaker 3: You Couldn't help but notice all those bruises on Penny's.

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Speaker 2: Back, a nineteen seventy seven episode featured a young Janet

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Speaker 2: Jackson playing the victim of child's abuse.

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Speaker 5: Oh those pennies at the awkward age. She's always falling down?

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Speaker 9: Isn't that true?

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Speaker 14: Dear?

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Speaker 5: Didn't you fall down?

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Speaker 3: Ah? One time I fell out of the tree and

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Speaker 3: I landed on my pussy cat and a squished them.

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Speaker 11: And Pussycat sure leads a tough life.

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Speaker 13: What TV shows are certainly a good way to talk

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Speaker 13: about these issues and call people's attention to them in

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Speaker 13: a way that they may not be considering it.

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Speaker 2: That's Norman lear from a conversation I had with him

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Speaker 2: back in twenty fifteen for CBS Sunday Morning.

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Speaker 13: Most people in their own emotionally crowded lives hear about

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Speaker 13: these things, visit it in a short conversation, but their

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Speaker 13: minds are not really there. So I think speaking about

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Speaker 13: it in a comedy where they were even getting laughs

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Speaker 13: about it can only be a good thing.

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Speaker 2: If you control them in with a story. At least

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Speaker 2: you can maybe get them to then talk about it at.

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Speaker 13: Home in the next conversation they're familiar with it and

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Speaker 13: perhaps a little bit more ready to embrace.

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Speaker 2: Norman told me that even decades later, he heard from

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Speaker 2: viewers about the impact of his shows.

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Speaker 13: It's so touching. And we watched it as a family.

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Speaker 13: We don't watch anything as a family now, and we

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Speaker 13: talked about Archie and we talked about the subject matter.

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Speaker 13: And the one thing that I think the show accomplished

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Speaker 13: that I can count on because I've heard it through

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Speaker 13: all the years, was that there are big words to me.

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Speaker 13: We talked to the show and we.

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Speaker 6: Talked think about the things that Norman Lear was able

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Speaker 6: to get away with, quote unquote, get away with talking about.

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Speaker 6: And he was so powerful at that point that I

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Speaker 6: have to imagine that there were I mean, there was

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Speaker 6: that whole standards and practices department at every network that

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Speaker 6: there must have been people who pushed back against certain things,

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Speaker 6: lines that he wanted to do, or maybe maybe topics.

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Speaker 2: There was indeed pushback to many viewers shows like Norman

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Speaker 2: Lear's were too candid. Additionally, there was outrage over the

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventy four Linda Blair made for TV movie Born Innocent,

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Speaker 2: which included graphic sexual violence and aired at eight PM

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Speaker 2: when many children were watching TV. The networks went on defense.

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Speaker 15: The period from seven to nine PM is known in

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Speaker 15: television as the family viewing period.

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Speaker 4: A period during which parents and children are supposed to

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Speaker 4: be able to sit together and watch television without being

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Speaker 4: made to feel uncomfortable or so the networks to find

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Speaker 4: the family owner.

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Speaker 2: Which meant that in nineteen seventy five, shows like All

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Speaker 2: in the Family, which had been airing at eight pm Eastern,

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Speaker 2: had to move to later in the evening. Let's All Sing,

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Speaker 2: the nineteen seventy five version of those were the day

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Speaker 2: the cast recorded a parody of their opening number, mocking

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Speaker 2: the Family Hour concept and celebrating what their later time

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Speaker 2: slot would allow them to talk about.

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Speaker 9: Seeing Congers.

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Speaker 15: Robert Can Propose to Build.

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Speaker 2: In court, Lear and other writers and producers challenged the

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Speaker 2: Family Hour. The court ruled that the Family Hour concept

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Speaker 2: was a violation of the First Amendment, but it also

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Speaker 2: said it had no authority to dictate how the network's

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Speaker 2: programmed We Can Show.

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Speaker 15: My Pregnancy and John Boy Can Have b D.

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Speaker 7: Plus a quick ves sent.

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Speaker 2: After nine o'clock. The Family Hour wasn't going away anytime soon.

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Speaker 2: On the other side of the break the nineteen eighties

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Speaker 2: and the heyday of the Very Special Episode.

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Speaker 6: It was one of those things like can we just

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Speaker 6: farm out parenting to this show. Yes, cool, We're super

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Speaker 6: happy with that.

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Speaker 7: Hello, I'm Conrad Vain Tonight on Different Strokes, we're starting

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Speaker 7: a special two part show on a very sensitive and

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Speaker 7: important subject.

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Speaker 2: Different Strokes was one of the biggest hit sitcoms of

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Speaker 2: the early nineteen eighties, airing at eight pm Eastern on Saturdays,

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Speaker 2: prying family time. So in February nineteen eighty three, when

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Speaker 2: Conrad Bain, who played the wealthy adoptive father of Arnold

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Speaker 2: and Willis Jackson, spoke directly to viewers before the episode,

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Speaker 2: you knew it was serious.

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Speaker 7: Now we urge families, children and parents alike to watch

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Speaker 7: both of these informative episodes and then to discuss the

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Speaker 7: problem presented, which is of deep concern to all of us.

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Speaker 5: He's saying, this is what we're going to show you. Parents, children,

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Speaker 5: sit down and discuss.

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Speaker 2: This is how America we do very special episodes. Okay,

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Speaker 2: So this episode was about stranger danger and pedophiles. It's

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Speaker 2: Arnold and his friend Dudley, and they become friends with

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Speaker 2: the owner of a local bicycle shop, mister Wharton.

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Speaker 11: You know, guys, you can just have an awful lot

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Speaker 11: of fun with your close office.

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Speaker 10: Les's of course you live at the North Pole, going

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Speaker 10: to freeze your tush off?

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Speaker 6: What kind of fun?

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Speaker 2: Well, for instance, as Skinny Dippit, mister Hohrton gives the

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Speaker 2: kids wine, which is later discovered by Conrad Bain's character.

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Speaker 2: Here Arnold explains what happened.

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Speaker 3: Well, while I was there with Dudley, he gave us

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Speaker 3: some pizza and wine.

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Speaker 7: What else went on there?

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Speaker 5: He showed us some pictures.

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Speaker 3: Everybody was naked naked, and he showed us some kinky cartoons.

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Speaker 2: What do you mean by kinky?

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Speaker 5: Well, you told.

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Speaker 3: Me about the birds and bees, but that's nothing compared

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Speaker 3: to what those mice were doing.

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Speaker 5: Who was laughing? Who is laughing?

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Speaker 7: Here?

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Speaker 2: I know? I think part of the awkwardness is that

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Speaker 2: Carrie Coleman was such a star and they couldn't resist

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Speaker 2: having him show his comedic chops, and here it is jarring.

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Speaker 5: I wonder if.

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Speaker 6: Maybe it's more jarring, and if they fell more compelled

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Speaker 6: to make sure the laughs were there. Because the audience

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Speaker 6: of Different Strokes was a younger audience as opposed to

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Speaker 6: the leer shows. Those were smart, smart shows, and those

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Speaker 6: were smart enough that adults were watching they weren't sort

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Speaker 6: of here I'm going to spoonfeed us had come to

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Speaker 6: a child.

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Speaker 2: That's Jessica Shaw again, and she's right. This was a

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Speaker 2: younger audience, and this episode did have an impact. Newspapers

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Speaker 2: reported the arrest of at least one suspected child molester

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Speaker 2: in Indiana after a young boy recognized and reported predatory

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Speaker 2: behavior in an adult. Now it's important to note that

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Speaker 2: the term very special episode was never actually used by programmers.

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Speaker 2: It just sort of became a joke later, so there's

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Speaker 2: no strict definition. I think of it as any episode

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Speaker 2: of a family show where quote unquote sensitive subject matter

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Speaker 2: was discussed, whether or not there was an actual warning

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Speaker 2: from Conrad Bain and probably no show had more very

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Speaker 2: special episodes than different strokes. They covered kidnapping, bulimia, drinking,

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Speaker 2: and just one month after that Stranger Danger episode came

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Speaker 2: the Nancy Reagan Just Say No episode. The Reagan era

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Speaker 2: became the golden age of very special episodes, and sometimes

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Speaker 2: at the direction of Washington itself. In the case of drugs,

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Speaker 2: the White House wanted to get the just say no

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Speaker 2: message out to as many kids as possible. Congress was

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Speaker 2: also applying pressure Chuck Schumer, than a New York House

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Speaker 2: Rep co wrote a letter asking networks to devise an

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Speaker 2: intensified campaign of public service announcements and instructive programs. Author

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Speaker 2: Philip Sepanski makes the case that the networks were eager

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Speaker 2: to comply. This was a period of deregulation when the

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Speaker 2: networks stood to get even richer. They wanted to show

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Speaker 2: that they could be responsible programmers without the old rules

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Speaker 2: that forced them to be. So it was a win

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Speaker 2: win for the government and the networks. Plus, kids learned

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Speaker 2: something while their parents theoretically received guidance on how to explain,

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Speaker 2: as Wally Cleefer put it, all the bad junk in

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Speaker 2: the world. Here's an elegant transition AIDS. It's the eighties,

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Speaker 2: so this is right when AIDS emerges, obviously as a

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Speaker 2: major crisis, and there were very special episodes about it.

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Speaker 5: Now but Nancy Reagan, I can tell you that much.

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Speaker 2: Let's go into Mister Belvidere, a show that I must

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Speaker 2: confess I never saw until now.

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Speaker 11: That's Belvidere, Lynn Belvidere, Queen.

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Speaker 2: That's a girl's name. Mister Belvidere is a British butler

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Speaker 2: who works for the Owens family in suburban Pittsburgh. Here

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Speaker 2: he is greeting a friend of youngest child, Wesley.

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Speaker 6: Everyone you remember, where's his friend? Danny?

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Speaker 14: Oh?

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Speaker 6: Oh, Danny?

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Speaker 9: Hi a champ? How's it going well?

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Speaker 5: I get eight.

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Speaker 2: President that I'm doing pretty good? Okay. So it's very direct.

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Speaker 6: And I also think at that point, look at what

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Speaker 6: was going on in the White House. No one was

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Speaker 6: talking about AIDS, so you can bet that families weren't

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Speaker 6: talking about it either.

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Speaker 2: It's true President Reagan didn't even mention AIDS in public

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Speaker 2: until nineteen eighty five, four years into the epidemic.

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Speaker 6: Just having a conversation about this is usually when you

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Speaker 6: think about what was going on in real life with

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Speaker 6: Ryan White.

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Speaker 2: Ryan White was a hemophiliac teenager from Kocomo, Indiana, who

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Speaker 2: contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion and was banned from

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Speaker 2: attending school.

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Speaker 15: It's a story we're hearing more and more often, a

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Speaker 15: story marked by school boycotts and lawsuits and students like

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Speaker 15: Ryan White manned from school because they have AIDS. Now,

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Speaker 15: I think that such a serious issue is not the

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Speaker 15: stuff of which situation comedies are made. Were but don't

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Speaker 15: tell them, folks, who work on Mister Belvidere.

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Speaker 2: This episode aired in January of nineteen eighty six, and

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Speaker 2: for a network television family show, it was pretty radical.

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Speaker 2: For the writers, it was personal. They were inspired not

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Speaker 2: only by the case of Ryan White, but also by

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Speaker 2: their very own talent manager's loss. Her three year old

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Speaker 2: son had died from AIDS after a blood transfusion. In

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Speaker 2: the episode's final scene, Wesley stands up for Danny, who

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Speaker 2: was not allowed to participate in a school pageant.

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Speaker 3: Is Daniel and Neion. He was supposed to play linkon

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Speaker 3: but he couldn't because he's got AIDS.

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Speaker 2: Hey, oh, what are you doing out here?

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Speaker 4: Dennis?

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Speaker 2: Get away from him?

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Speaker 10: Hey, what's now with you people?

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Speaker 2: He's not going to hurt you.

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Speaker 3: I'm sorry. He feels bad enough forgot everybody trying to

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Speaker 3: make him feel worse.

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Speaker 6: I have to say, like I was getting a little emotional.

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Speaker 6: I felt a little burd in my nose watching that

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Speaker 6: scene because adults were horrible, and you hear them in

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Speaker 6: the audience saying get away from him, and then you

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Speaker 6: hear this next generation saying no, you're being a nightmare

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Speaker 6: and you're being a bigot.

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Speaker 5: And there's something powerful about that.

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Speaker 2: And I should point out that the actor who played

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Speaker 2: the boy with aids is today a trans woman journalist

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Speaker 2: at Axios and is very very proud of that episode

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Speaker 2: and great that episode did.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it is powerful and also not to

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Speaker 6: be underestimated how much parenting was farmed out to network television.

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00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 2: The drama of very special episodes went done right required

447
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:43,879
Speaker 2: more nuanced performances. The best example maybe the nineteen eighty

448
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:48,479
Speaker 2: four Uncle Ned episode of Family Ties. In this scene,

449
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:52,679
Speaker 2: the lead character of Alex P. Keaton played by Michael J. Fox,

450
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:56,760
Speaker 2: encounters his alcoholic uncle Ned in the kitchen in the

451
00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:00,119
Speaker 2: middle of the night. You'll probably recognize the voice, so

452
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:01,760
Speaker 2: the actor playing Uncle Ned.

453
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:04,560
Speaker 9: Oh oh, oh oh, here we go.

454
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,959
Speaker 2: Now it may not be million time, but it is

455
00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:19,320
Speaker 2: vanilla time. Looking at you, kid. Now, remember, don't drive

456
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:19,800
Speaker 2: and bake.

457
00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 5: I don't believe this. You'd just strike a whole bottle

458
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:27,000
Speaker 5: of vanilla extract.

459
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,240
Speaker 2: And so who is it? Very famous actor.

460
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 6: Tom Hanks as Uncle Ned in like, by the way,

461
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:35,680
Speaker 6: the tightest jeans ever.

462
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 2: Wow, those are tight. Well, first of all, maybe I

463
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,440
Speaker 2: should know this does vanilla extract have alcohol?

464
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 5: I think it does?

465
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:45,160
Speaker 2: Oh it does? Okay, you know, when I first saw

466
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 2: this a couple of years ago, many years after it aired,

467
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:52,160
Speaker 2: I thought, oh, I'm going to watch something really, really laughable.

468
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:54,879
Speaker 2: But of course Tom Hanks is so good that he

469
00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:55,840
Speaker 2: pulls it off.

470
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 6: Yes, absolutely, I mean that line, don't drive in bake.

471
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:00,720
Speaker 5: It's a good come line.

472
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,719
Speaker 6: But yeah, he's so good, and he's so funny, and

473
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 6: he's so charming.

474
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:08,879
Speaker 5: This storyline feels organic.

475
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,560
Speaker 2: Towards the end of the episode, a drunk uncle Ned

476
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:16,400
Speaker 2: blows a job interview and Alex tries to remind him

477
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 2: of his successful past. Then, in a pretty shocking scene,

478
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:25,680
Speaker 2: Ned backhands his nephew across the face. Hey give me,

479
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 2: leave me alone.

480
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:30,520
Speaker 5: Give me lave me alone. What the hell are you, Joyce?

481
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know.

482
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 9: I'm sorry.

483
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 11: Sorry.

484
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:42,119
Speaker 2: The Keaton family gives Ned an ultimatum, call AA or

485
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:46,680
Speaker 2: get out. Ned calls AA, and we never see him again.

486
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 2: Like all Very Special episodes, everything is resolved five years later.

487
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:56,639
Speaker 2: A nineteen eighty nine episode of Growing Pains addressed drinking

488
00:27:56,680 --> 00:28:01,160
Speaker 2: and driving, younger sister Carol finds out her boyfriend Sandy

489
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 2: was in a car accident. Sandy is played by another

490
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 2: soon to be famous actor.

491
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:09,040
Speaker 5: What happened last night?

492
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:11,919
Speaker 8: Well, this big tree ran right out in front of me,

493
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 8: and I'm gonna be charged with drunk driving.

494
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 14: I don't understand.

495
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 5: I mean, it's not like we had that much to drink.

496
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 9: I know.

497
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:23,920
Speaker 8: I mean there's been plenty of times I put away

498
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 8: a lot more than that.

499
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:25,920
Speaker 5: Nothing happened.

500
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:30,120
Speaker 9: I guess I just ran out of luck last.

501
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:31,919
Speaker 5: Night, Are you kidding?

502
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,600
Speaker 10: I mean, when you think of what could have happened,

503
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 10: you were really lucky.

504
00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 2: And so that is Chacy Gold who plays the daughter Carol,

505
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 2: who's an honor student, so she's usually you know, goody

506
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 2: two shoes, I guess. And that's her boyfriend, played by

507
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 2: Matthew Perry. Right, so it takes on a whole other

508
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 2: layer of sadness. Let's see how it resolves.

509
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 9: Carol Sandy just died. Oh my god, he said just

510
00:28:59,440 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 9: a few minutes.

511
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:03,840
Speaker 6: Michael Seer, that is the second joke that I have

512
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:04,600
Speaker 6: ever heard.

513
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:06,480
Speaker 5: I'm never gonna forgive you.

514
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 2: Now. I went earlier and I looked this is obviously

515
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 2: on scientific but I looked at comments on YouTube. There's

516
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 2: no snark. There are all these comments about how powerful

517
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,120
Speaker 2: this episode was and what a difference.

518
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:25,760
Speaker 9: It made what happened to his second chance, what I

519
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 9: happened to his second chance?

520
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 6: Yeah, and this is one of the episodes that people

521
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 6: look to and they say, oh, this stopped me, or

522
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 6: this allowed me to talk to my kid about drunk driving,

523
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:38,520
Speaker 6: or this stopped me from having a drink before getting

524
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 6: behind a wheel.

525
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 5: And I have to say, just the very idea of.

526
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 6: What happened to his second chance is so profound, and

527
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 6: it's so simple.

528
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 5: It's nothing.

529
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 6: It's one line, you know, and it says everything you

530
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:54,640
Speaker 6: want to say, as opposed to some of these other

531
00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 6: very special episodes that are like, well, you know, there's

532
00:29:57,120 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 6: so much verbiage there.

533
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:01,000
Speaker 2: Jeez. That's such a great point because this seems to

534
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 2: me like the kind of thing a parent tries to

535
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 2: impress on a child, and it's really hard to get

536
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:10,960
Speaker 2: a child to accept that there's not always a second chance.

537
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:15,200
Speaker 6: Yes, because kids think they're invincible. And so when you

538
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 6: hear another kid almost being like I don't understand, it

539
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:22,800
Speaker 6: goes right there and it's so understandable and relatable.

540
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:26,160
Speaker 2: You were saying a lot of these very special episodes

541
00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:31,360
Speaker 2: were doing parenting for parents, but here something that a

542
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 2: parent would say to a child is actually dramatized pretty effectively.

543
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,040
Speaker 6: And better in some ways. I think there were conversations

544
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 6: that parents should have had with children. I have two kids,

545
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 6: two teenagers now, and there are things that they will

546
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:49,160
Speaker 6: learn in a way that they will listen to more.

547
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,640
Speaker 6: Their ears will open more if they hear it from

548
00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:53,840
Speaker 6: someone their age, if they hear it, you know, coming

549
00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 6: from culture rather than from their mother.

550
00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 5: And this is one of those examples.

551
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:01,720
Speaker 2: By the way, you interviewed Matthew Perry, right.

552
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,920
Speaker 6: I did for his memoir, and then watching this watching

553
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:10,880
Speaker 6: him play someone who's using alcohol and then who dies,

554
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 6: I don't know, it kind.

555
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:14,000
Speaker 2: Of takes your breath away a little, and you know,

556
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:17,920
Speaker 2: people keep saying it. But in that earlier scene he

557
00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 2: is really good.

558
00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:20,120
Speaker 5: I mean, he was a good actor.

559
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,080
Speaker 6: He could deliver a line, he had great timing, and

560
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 6: in that moment you can see that he had the

561
00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:28,640
Speaker 6: potential to play a little bit of drama too.

562
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,040
Speaker 2: Now, a lot of the shows we've been talking about

563
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:34,960
Speaker 2: featured suburban white families, but in the eighties and nineties,

564
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:38,760
Speaker 2: many millions of viewers were watching black families on the

565
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:43,280
Speaker 2: Cosby show, Family Matters and The Fresh Prince of bel Air.

566
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:47,320
Speaker 12: Now this is the story all about him. Well, I'd

567
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:49,920
Speaker 12: got twins ferns upside down and I'd like to take

568
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:52,000
Speaker 12: a manager said, right then, I'll tell you how it

569
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 12: became the prince of a town called bell Air.

570
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is a very special episode from The

571
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:03,360
Speaker 2: Fresh Prince of bel Air. It aired in nineteen ninety. Okay,

572
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,440
Speaker 2: so over thirty years ago. Will Smith's character and his

573
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:11,959
Speaker 2: cousin Carlton the wonderful Alfonso Rovero driving in a fancy

574
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,720
Speaker 2: car to Palm Springs and getting stopped by a cop

575
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 2: vehicle registration. Please just a second, But the thing is, officer,

576
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 2: this isn't my car.

577
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 8: Get out of the car, Carlon what he's gonna tell

578
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:26,960
Speaker 8: us to get out of the car?

579
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 5: You watch too much TV?

580
00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:33,200
Speaker 2: Will get out of the car, officer.

581
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 3: Honestly, I don't see the need to get.

582
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:39,240
Speaker 2: Out of the car now. Okay. So then they're basically

583
00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:44,680
Speaker 2: booked into a precinct and then they're released, and then

584
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 2: there's this discussion which is really interesting between the Will

585
00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 2: and Carlton characters. Were attained for a few hours.

586
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:53,840
Speaker 8: Dad planned things up, and we were released.

587
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 9: The system works.

588
00:32:57,320 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 8: I hope you like that system because you want to

589
00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:01,760
Speaker 8: be seeing a whole lot of during your lifetime, not if.

590
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 2: I bring a map.

591
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 8: You just don't get it, do you. No map is

592
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 8: going to save you. Neither's your glee club or your

593
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 8: fancy bel air address or who your daddy is, because

594
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:18,959
Speaker 8: when you're driving in a nice car in a strange neighborhood,

595
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:19,959
Speaker 8: none of that matters.

596
00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:21,880
Speaker 9: They only see one thing.

597
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 6: Just the fact that this is still happening. And you know,

598
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 6: could have beared last week and people would have said, oh,

599
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 6: this is so timely, is its own tragedy. But it's

600
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 6: so fascinating that scene and how the writers go right there.

601
00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 5: It really is.

602
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:40,960
Speaker 2: And part of what's also interesting, And look, there's a

603
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 2: kind of subtlety of sophistication happening between those two characters.

604
00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 2: Right they don't introduce a white bagot character who has

605
00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:52,479
Speaker 2: the conversation with Will. Will and his cousin who's also black,

606
00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:55,360
Speaker 2: are having this disagreement over it, and somehow it seems

607
00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 2: to have more impact that way.

608
00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:00,800
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I agree. I think it's a really interesting scene.

609
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 2: A conversation between two black characters about racism. The Very

610
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,959
Speaker 2: Special episode had come a long way since the groundbreaking

611
00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:13,640
Speaker 2: Bewitched episode of twenty years before. But by the end

612
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:17,360
Speaker 2: of the nineteen nineties, the very special episode was dead.

613
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:18,799
Speaker 2: What killed it?

614
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:23,000
Speaker 6: I think audiences became kind of too hip to what

615
00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:23,879
Speaker 6: was going on.

616
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 2: That's next, Jesse.

617
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:32,280
Speaker 9: Those pills are dangerous.

618
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:33,560
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was, sois geometry.

619
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:35,480
Speaker 2: You told me you were going to stop taking them.

620
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 9: I need them to stay awake and study.

621
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 2: Okay, this is saved by the Bell. This is an

622
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:45,439
Speaker 2: episode about caffeine pills. It's sort of like when people

623
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:48,960
Speaker 2: don't want to say Kleenex, they say facial tissue. They

624
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,480
Speaker 2: didn't want to use the brand name Nodos here, right,

625
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:53,440
Speaker 2: so instead they're talking about caffeine pills.

626
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:57,840
Speaker 5: Anything would be okay. I just need one of these pills.

627
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:01,919
Speaker 2: And so this is Elizabeth Berkeley's carearacter Jesse, and she's

628
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:04,560
Speaker 2: turned to caffeine pills to keep up with her studies

629
00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:07,400
Speaker 2: and her new singing group, which is called Hot Sunday.

630
00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:09,040
Speaker 2: I mean, you really are taking drugs.

631
00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:14,319
Speaker 3: You need them, say, Jessee, you can't sing the night

632
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:15,319
Speaker 3: you cat.

633
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:17,640
Speaker 5: I'm so excited.

634
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:25,560
Speaker 2: I'm so excited scared. Well, first of all, do you

635
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:27,319
Speaker 2: think they had to pay for the rights? Did she

636
00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:30,160
Speaker 2: sing enough of the Pointer Sister song that they had

637
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 2: to pay for it.

638
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 6: I hope, so they should be paying for something. It's

639
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:35,879
Speaker 6: super subtle. I love when she's like digging around.

640
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:37,480
Speaker 5: She's like pails pills.

641
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:41,919
Speaker 6: It's no one ever acted that way about nosing their

642
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:43,360
Speaker 6: lives exactly.

643
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:45,319
Speaker 2: I was a Jolt Cola person if I needed to

644
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 2: finish a paper, but I don't remember getting that excited.

645
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:52,719
Speaker 2: To be fair, producers had originally wanted the substance Jesse

646
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,560
Speaker 2: was taking to be speed, but the network wouldn't allow it.

647
00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,640
Speaker 2: The nineteen ninety caffeine pills episode of Saved by the

648
00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:05,120
Speaker 2: Bell was so memorable it was parodied twenty five years

649
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 2: later on Family Guy.

650
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:11,720
Speaker 12: You actually are taking drugs, Stuet, give me those the contact.

651
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 5: I need them to sing.

652
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:21,440
Speaker 6: I'm so excited, I'm so excited, so scared.

653
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 5: Screech is going to stab someone on Christmas.

654
00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:31,400
Speaker 2: But even by nineteen ninety four, when the movie Reality

655
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 2: Bites came out, the very notion that a sitcom bore

656
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 2: any meaningful resemblance to real life was sadly by gone.

657
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:41,080
Speaker 9: I just don't.

658
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 2: Understand why things just can't go back to normal.

659
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 9: At the end of the half hour, like on The

660
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:51,880
Speaker 9: Brady Bunch or something.

661
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:58,000
Speaker 2: Well, because mister Brady died of aides and for most

662
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,799
Speaker 2: kids growing up in the late nineties and early two

663
00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:04,640
Speaker 2: thousand's family, our TV seemed alien.

664
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:08,840
Speaker 6: First of all, the idea that your parents would sanction

665
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 6: your TV watching was donzo, forget about it. I'm watching

666
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,759
Speaker 6: the show I want to watch for me. You don't

667
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 6: need to know what I'm watching. And so that stamp

668
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:21,120
Speaker 6: of parental approval of like, we're going to have a

669
00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 6: conversation that adults are going to spoon feed to you

670
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:28,279
Speaker 6: kind of in your language, but kind of not, there

671
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 6: was a generation of kids who are like, no, we

672
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:32,640
Speaker 6: don't do that anymore.

673
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 2: Right, I don't need to be introduced to this topic

674
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:37,600
Speaker 2: on my favorite sitcom?

675
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:42,840
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and just the entire tone of sitcoms changed.

676
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:46,359
Speaker 2: If there was any one sitcom that marked the death

677
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:52,720
Speaker 2: knell for the very special episode.

678
00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:55,799
Speaker 6: Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld would come along saying basically,

679
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:58,000
Speaker 6: there are going to be no very special episodes.

680
00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:00,360
Speaker 5: That is the very thing that we will never do.

681
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:02,600
Speaker 2: I mean, what was the quote, no hugging, no learning,

682
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 2: No hugging no learning, right, So Seinfeld is a series

683
00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:07,880
Speaker 2: was a stand against everything that the very Special episode

684
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:08,520
Speaker 2: stood for.

685
00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:12,520
Speaker 6: Yeah, there will be zero issues, and even in the

686
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:16,720
Speaker 6: show within the show, that show was also about nothing.

687
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:18,120
Speaker 5: Well, what's the show about?

688
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:19,920
Speaker 9: It's about nothing?

689
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:23,200
Speaker 2: No story?

690
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:24,960
Speaker 9: Forget the story.

691
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:26,240
Speaker 2: You gotta have a story?

692
00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:28,799
Speaker 9: Who says you gotta have a story. Remember when we

693
00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:31,520
Speaker 9: were waiting for that table in that Chinese restaurant that time?

694
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:33,400
Speaker 9: That could be a TV show?

695
00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:36,600
Speaker 2: How many levels of smart?

696
00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:41,319
Speaker 6: I mean, it's just it's so so great and thank god,

697
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:43,600
Speaker 6: I mean truly, can you imagine if they tried to

698
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:44,560
Speaker 6: tackle an issue.

699
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:49,040
Speaker 2: Of course, plenty of new series did take on topics

700
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 2: that were new to sitcoms, but instead of these being

701
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:56,640
Speaker 2: handled by ancillary characters in one off episodes, they became

702
00:38:56,719 --> 00:38:59,839
Speaker 2: part of the fabric of the series itself. Take Will

703
00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 2: and Grace, what decades earlier might have been a very

704
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:07,160
Speaker 2: special episode about an out gay man living with his

705
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:12,120
Speaker 2: straight female best friend, became an entire series. On the show,

706
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:16,919
Speaker 2: Blackish creator Kennya Barris wove into the comedy issues as

707
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:20,480
Speaker 2: serious as police brutality and the use of the N word.

708
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:25,440
Speaker 2: Not surprisingly, he cited Norman Lear as a major influence.

709
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:28,760
Speaker 6: Yeah or even a show like My Crazy Ex Girlfriend,

710
00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:30,760
Speaker 6: I mean talking about mental health.

711
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:31,319
Speaker 5: Forget it.

712
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 6: I mean, can you imagine it's sitcom in the eighties

713
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:35,200
Speaker 6: talking about mental health.

714
00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:39,360
Speaker 2: No, that wouldn't happen today. The term very special episode

715
00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:44,600
Speaker 2: is so by gone. It's quaint, used almost endearingly here

716
00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:47,359
Speaker 2: on the ABC sitcom Abbot Elementary.

717
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:53,400
Speaker 14: Okay, if you guys are finished with this very special episode.

718
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:56,239
Speaker 2: The very special episode could be pretty corny. And let's

719
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:59,239
Speaker 2: face it, there's only so much any kind of sitcom

720
00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:02,719
Speaker 2: can do to a us some real world problems. When

721
00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 2: Quinta Brunson, the creator and star of Abbott Elementary, was

722
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:10,480
Speaker 2: asked by fans to consider a school shooting storyline, she

723
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:14,520
Speaker 2: suggested they use that energy to demand more from lawmakers.

724
00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:18,040
Speaker 2: And yet there's also something to be said about a

725
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 2: time when families were more likely to watch together and

726
00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:26,120
Speaker 2: maybe even learned together. As Norman Lear told me about

727
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:29,960
Speaker 2: that time, we talked. We looked at the show and

728
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:33,960
Speaker 2: we talked. He's right. We may have laughed, we may

729
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:38,760
Speaker 2: have disagreed, we may have cringed, but at least we talked.

730
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:42,279
Speaker 2: With the exception of the Jesse Saved by the Bell,

731
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:45,719
Speaker 2: Caffeine pil freak out. I found myself looking at a

732
00:40:45,719 --> 00:40:48,719
Speaker 2: lot of these scenes and I don't know, being kind

733
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:51,439
Speaker 2: of moved by them, Like the good times that mister

734
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:53,440
Speaker 2: Belvidere grows hands.

735
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:57,680
Speaker 6: I mean, yeah, and Tracy Gold is really good in

736
00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:00,959
Speaker 6: that scene. I agree with you there intense and they're

737
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:05,000
Speaker 6: dealing with complex and profound feeling.

738
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 2: In the best way that they can in the format.

739
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:11,960
Speaker 5: Yes, and in a way that somehow works.

740
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:14,920
Speaker 2: And of course not almost it comes had very special episodes.

741
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:18,120
Speaker 2: There was never a very special episode of Three's Company, right, yeah,

742
00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:19,640
Speaker 2: I mean what would that have been about? Like about

743
00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:20,320
Speaker 2: rent Control?

744
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:22,040
Speaker 6: I feel like something could have happened with the roper.

745
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:24,400
Speaker 6: That was a very special episode waiting to happen.

746
00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:27,799
Speaker 2: A Mumoo accident, for sure.

747
00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:30,520
Speaker 6: It was flammable and the house burned down. Right, let's

748
00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:31,360
Speaker 6: explore homelesses.

749
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:39,399
Speaker 2: I certainly hope you enjoyed this Mobituary. May I ask

750
00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 2: you to please rate and review our podcast. You can

751
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:46,520
Speaker 2: also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can

752
00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:49,879
Speaker 2: follow me on the social media platform formerly known as

753
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 2: Twitter at Morocca. Here are all new episodes of Mobituaries

754
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:58,600
Speaker 2: every Wednesday. Wherever you get your podcasts and check out

755
00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:03,240
Speaker 2: Mobituaries Eight Lives Worth Reliving, the New York Times best

756
00:42:03,239 --> 00:42:07,760
Speaker 2: selling book, now available in paperback and audiobook. It includes

757
00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:12,160
Speaker 2: plenty of stories not in the podcast. This episode of

758
00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:17,080
Speaker 2: Mobituaries was produced by Liz Sanchez. Our team of producers

759
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:22,319
Speaker 2: also includes Zoe Culkin and me Moroka, with engineering by

760
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 2: Josh Han. Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart.

761
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:31,400
Speaker 2: Our archival producer is Jamie Benson. Mobituary's production company is

762
00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:37,120
Speaker 2: neon Hammedia. Indispensable support from Alan Pang and everyone at

763
00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 2: CBS News Radio Special thanks to Steve Razis, Rand Morrison,

764
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:46,120
Speaker 2: and Alberto Romina, as well as the authors of the book,

765
00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:52,680
Speaker 2: Very special episodes televising industrial and social change. Executive producers

766
00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:58,120
Speaker 2: for Mobituaries include Megan Marcus, Jonathan Hirsch, and Morocca. The

767
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:00,800
Speaker 2: series is created by Yours Truly