The Worst Of "Special" TV Shows

[Mr. DS]

Remember back in the 80s when every sitcom had that one "special" show where a serious topic was at hand? Then at the end of the show the whole cast would do a "now you know" routine...for example;

The Saved By The Bell where Jessie becomes a caffeine pill addict.
The Silver Spoons episode where Ricky goes hunting and cries when he shoots a deer.
I think there was a Webster episode when he accidentally walked in on his teacher molesting a classmate.

 I wanted to see what everyone's least favorite was seeing that they all were kind of lame in their own "special" way. 

[RCMerchant]

It p**sed me off when they killed off Henry Blake on M*A*S*H.All for ratings. "A very Special episode of MASH>" f**k that. Aratings prop. I hate commercial,TV with a few exeptions. GUNSMOKE didn't need "a very special episode to make it great.Or TWILIGHT ZONE. Or the original STAR TREK.The writing was excellent in every episode. Lame b.S. TV needs "special " tagged on to it to boost ratings of crappy,monotonos swill,(like CHEERS or FREINDS). APPLES WAY (Barf!) or TOMA could have benifitted from a Very Special episode.Or not.

[peter johnson]

I'll never forget the episode of "Fresh Prince of Bel Aire", wherein Carlton accidentally took some speed --
He went on a dancing spree, and it was pretty funny when people were chanting "Go Carlton!  Go Carlton!".
However, when he found out what had happened, and his mom & dad & the rest of his family -- Will Smith -- found out too -- Well, my word, you'd have thought they'd discovered his secret life as the commandant of Auschwitz.
Such moaning and screaming, and Carlton bowing down -- literally -- to James Avery, screaming and sobbing and weeping how sorry he was.
For sheer over-the-top blithering anti-drug stupidity, I've never seen anything else that comes remotely close.
A Very Special Episode indeed . . .
peter johnson/denny crane

[Menard]

If anyone recalls the short lived Dinosaurs TV series, they once did a hilarious take (to me anyway) on the antidrug PSA. At the end of one episode, I believe it was the teenage son dinosaur who came on and did a quick 'just say no to drugs', but the ringer was that they gave an even better reason to just say no to drugs along the lines of (very paraphrased) 'do your part to put an end to public service announcements like this'.

[Bill C.]

Yeah, Saved by the Bell nailed this.  "I'm so excited...I'm so excited...I'm so...SCAAAARED!"

I'm sitting here trying to remember the episode of Diff'rent Strokes with Nancy Reagan now, though...

[sideorderofninjas]

The Family Matters Steve Urkel where he shows that dancing is better than drugs.  Call it the precusrsor to You Got Served...

[Shadow]

The only one that springs to mind is when Tootie considered giving it up for her boyfriend on The Facts of Life.

Oh, there was the one where Arnold and Dudley encountered the child porn purveyor on Different Strokes.

And let's not forget the lesson about drinking and driving when Carol's boyfriend - played by Matthew Perry - dies on Growing Pains.

[akiratubo]

The one that comes to mind is an episode of Silver Spoons in which Ricky (or whatever his character's name was) finds out that his best friend -- whom I don't think had appeared before -- was being beaten by his father.

Ricky's dad talked to the abuser and convinced the Dad to go take anger management lessons or something.  And, yeah, that was it.  The dad just promised to get help and they took it on good faith that he would do so.  No contacting child services, or talking to the kid's mom (she may have been dead or otherwise out of the picture, I don't remember).

[LilCerberus]

The first episode of Family Ties I ever saw, was the one in which Tom Hanks plays a relative with a drinking problem.
The lush, in this case, is depicted as a jolly soul who takes everything as a joke, & then thirty minutes later admits he has a problem & accepts help.

Most of the lushes I had known before then, were generally unpleasant & uncooperative, with gross misconceptions about themselves (the one in the mirror being no exception).

[Yaddo 42]

The festival seating episode of WKRP. "It's that damn festival seating!" Love the series, glad it's coming out on DVD finally, but hate that episode.

The busing episode of "Diff'rent Strokes".

Kind of funny about the "Silver Spoons" hunting episode since Rick Shroeder has become quite the avid sportman/hunter in real life.

On the other hand, every episode of "Good Times" made you feel like it was a special episode. That show could have used a light hearted episode every once in a while. But I'll throw in JJ's fiance' the heroin addict ODing.

[Jack]

At least on Saved by the Bell, The College Years, they had an episode where the girls where chatting about how they used to have teenage crushes on the actors in those sitcoms, and they started talking about how they loved those shows, "Except for the 'very special' episodes, they sucked".  So they sort of atoned for their sins a little bit. :)

[Neon Noodle]

Dif'rent Strokes went on a RASH of special episodes. Kimberly being bulimic was probably the most disturbing thing I ever saw, with her shoving a handful of chocolate cake into her mouth and puking it up 10 minutes later.

I also recall one where Kimberly and Arnold were kidnapped by some kind of pornographer pervert or something, Arnold escaped and couldn't remember where Kimberly was being held and the cops hypnotized him into remembering the license plate of the van.

Family Ties had that one with Alex taking diet pills or something to keep awake for his tests.

7th Heaven had one of those every week, my fave was the kid who threatened to shoot Simon in school and was expelled for his threat. He stalked the Reverend and shot him in the shoulder. The kid was sentenced to a juvenile facility until he was 25 and showed no remorse for what he did...probably the most realistic of those "special" episodes.

[rebel_1812]

most mainstream tv shows dealing with drugs suck because they have to have the same canned message.  I thought the GIJOE episode dealing with drugs was bad in particular.  The ended up teaming up with cobra to fight drug dealers.  So in essence it is saying that drugs are worse then world domination.

[RCMerchant]

GI JOE and COBRA vs.DRUG DEALERS!?! WOW! I love to see that one!

[Kroogur]

There was: An episode of the Jeffersons that dealt with gang violence
                   An episode of WKRP in Cinncinatti that dealt with guns
                   An episode of Facts of Life where Natalie was sexualy assaulted
                   AN episode of One Day at a Time where the Grandmother was revealed to be a Kleptomaniac

                   An episode of Happy Days that dealt with adultery
                   All in the Family tackled a few like rape,racism,domestic violence