The Educational Archives: Driver's Ed

[Andrew]

I hated watching them when I was in school, but these short films are entertainment goldmines.  Children are put on trial by talking cars, teenagers fly through windshields, and inebriated test subjects cause orange cone carnage.

Click here to go to the Review

[Gerry]

Funniest review I've read in a while.  Great job, Andrew!

[Trevor]

Thanks for the reviews, Andrew. 

   "An Andrew sized hole in the windshield........." 

While I was reading this, I was wondering what people would make of some of the government instructional films that are housed in our archives? I think some people would be amused and others would be downright offended.

[The DarkSider]

I absolutely love videos like this.  The best part is the narration saying stuff (as quoted) ""Was it a pretty face that made this gaping, jagged hole in the windshield?"   Yes Mr. Narator, it sure was a pretty face.   With the endless supply of these video out there Andrew, I hope to see more reviews. 

[onionhead]

Reminds me of the fact thet Herk Harvey made educational and instructional films for Centron Studios, then tried his hand at feature filmmaking after seeing the abandoned Saltair amusement park at Salt Lake.  Carnival of Souls was produced in five weeks and remains a cult classic.  Harvey admitted that his fame through this film was bittersweet, in that "When you work someplace for thirty-five years making educational and industrial films, and the one feature that you make is really what you're known for---a film on which you spent a total of maybe five weeks---that to me doesn't seem right."

[Greenhornet]

Take another look at the last picture, the one with the"Do Not enter" sign: WHY is there a "Detour" sign faceing the wrong way on a one way street?

[Katie]

I know I don't chime in often, but I have to tell you that these films are hysterical.  At least I learned how to properly install our 4 month old's car bed!  And to think all along Andrew and I thought putting the kids in car seats with side impact supports and a van with side curtain airbags was the way to go.  I guess our parenting skills need work.  Maybe by the time they go to prom we will have learned to trade in the van we have for one that is bigger and more plush in the back and be sure to stock it with beer.  Good beer, not the crap they were drinking in Prom Night.  It's a true tragedy to have Milwaukee's Best in your blood stream when you die. 
P.S.  I wish we had taken a picture of David's Dad's car.

[Flangepart]

Oh, brother. Did this take me back.
Anyone else remember 'Signal 30', and the other 'real dead people' films? Oy, its a wonder I now  hdrive for a liveing.

[Trevor]

 

I never saw Signal 30 but I have heard of it.

The one that I remember which was shown on South African TV once and then never again was the film Dead Is Dead about a youthful drug addict who dies as a result of an OD.

The scary part of the film is the ending: at his funeral, he is screaming from inside his coffin, begging for a second chance and telling his family that he is not dead and please not to leave him here. 

[HarlotBug3]

I wonder how many other eager young monsters like myself were cheated out of these classics, all the instructional videos we saw (the 'class' had to be taken after school hours or in summer school at a campus across town...anyone else have a school that wanted to distance themselves from any insurance liabilities?) were from 80s made-for-tv movies, the most horrifying aspect being the music.

Thanks for bringing this collection to my attention, try some of the anti-narcotic/fornication videos on next time 

[Andrew]

Thanks all.  The Educational Archives has a limited edition lunchbox set, along with their limited edition school locker set.  I picked up the former, which contains Sex & Drugs, Social Engineering 101, Driver's Ed, and On the Job.  Almost wrote a review for the Sex & Drugs DVD, instead of this one, because it is also hilarious.  It has the freaky "LSD:  Case History" short that came up on the forum a while back, along with all the rest of the goodness.

One of Katie and my favorites was from the Sex & Drugs, with a woman and her daughter talking about a woman's period.  The older woman tells her daughter something along the lines of, "It's your body making a warm, dark place for the egg to grow."  Almost fell off the couch when she said that.

[Happenstance]

Sadly, 55Bells closed up just recently, so you may have missed out on Apaches, a British (yes, a British film called Apaches) school-film about farm safety. I'll have to put it up somewhere myself. In the meantime, you can look up info on it on Wikipedia.

Screw car-crash footage. Apaches.
It.
Is.
TRAUMATIC.

[Happenstance]

Ah, turns out Apaches is on YouTube.

FAIRLY WARNED BE YE, SAYS I.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Never saw any of the driver ed. films, that Andrew reviewed, Seen alot of other driver ed. films, though.

They divided into two types: those that just tried to scare you with alot of gore, films liked "Red Asphalt" and "Death on the Highway."

Then there were those that tried to scare you, but entertained  you as well. I don't remember the titles of any of them, but one featured little toy cars and trucks having little accidents on little freeways. Then there was one that I seemed to remember being narrated by Bob Hope. You ought to see what happens to an open car door, when hit by a speeding car, in that one. Not funny, but ROTFL! anyway.

Jimmy Stewart seems to have narrated more then one. The one I remember him doing, and the driver ed. film I remember the best, takes place in L.A. The film opens with all these different people going to work. And then about the mid-point of the film, there is a report of a traffic accident between a tanker truck and one of the people you saw at the beginning of the film. And you know one of the people you saw at the beginning of the film is not coming home that evening. So, for the rest of the film, you watch and wait for the people to come back at the end of the day, except for the one you know didn't make it.

Walt Disney Pictures also make a number of films, which could be used in driver's ed. Most of them were animated and starred Goofy, but they also made a live action one narrated by Kurt Russell called "Dad, Can I Borrow the Car?" I first saw this at the drive-in and I still remember it, almost 37 years later. Especially, when the kid in the film is in driver's ed., and watching a driver's ed. film, and the film starts showing the kid all these inane scenes and asking inane questions. ROTFL. on that one, too.

[Karmyn]

Sex and Drugs and More Sex and Drugs are probably the best ones in the series. I remember watching the Sonny Bono one about marijuana when I was in high school. That was in 1990. I don't think we had any recent videos in that class. The one about LSD is a classic. She murdered a hot dog!
But the absolute best one has to be The ABCs of Sex Ed for Trainables. It's hillariously creepy. Learn more slang for penis then you thought possible. Watch retards masturbate in public. It's not cool to get touchy feely in the men's room.
I got my collection from www.cheepnis.com, but it only has six of the discs, not the whole set.