The Greatest "Very Special Episodes" In TV History
ABC Photo Archives. Getty Images.In the 1980's and 90's, sitcoms would often have "Very Special Episodes" where they would tackle a very serious subject often by putting your favorite lovable characters in horrible situations. If the situations were really, really bad, they would have a friend of your favorite character in that spot instead. These fell out of favor once sitcoms became less kid-centric with shows like Seinfeld and Friends dominating the ratings.
Here are the most bizarre Very Special Episode clips I can remember:
Family Ties (Tom Hanks is Michael J. Fox's Drunk Uncle)
There is so much to love about this clip. Massive star power with Hanks and Fox. I loved how much Hanks missed the slap by and how much Fox sold the fall. You even got the Dad (Mr. Keaton to 80's kids) getting as angry as you'll ever see him.
I'm not sure what the true lesson was in this one. I guess get help if you have a drinking problem before you end up attacking your younger relatives? This was in this weird zone for Tom Hanks after Bosum Buddies but before Splash. His Uncle Ned character showed up a couple times on Family Ties.
Mr. Belvedere (Wesley's Friend Has AIDS)
Mr. Belvedere (Child Molester Camp Counselor)
Mr. Belvedere was normally a nice show about a fancy English butler that moves in with a regular Pittsburgh family with Bob Uecker as the dad. Check out the credits. It was normally a harmless show that was typically really enjoyable.
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This is not the show you'd expect to tackle pediatric AIDS and sexual predators. These were some weird episodes even back then. I remember kids at school talking about how fucking weird that camp counselor episode was and I was 8 years old. I understand wanting to teach kids a lesson about not trusting strangers but who thought it would be entertaining seeing the wisecracking Wesley get sexually assaulted?
Saved By The Bell - Jessie Becomes Addicted To Caffeine Pills
This gets made fun of more for the wild overreaction to caffeine pills. Just have her take speed or some actual drug if you want to teach a lesson. Ends up they weren't allowed to:
SOURCE - What fans don’t know is that, when I originally wrote the episode with Tom Tenowich, Jessie was hooked on speed, not caffeine pills. But Standards and Practices, the censorial department of NBC, vetoed it, saying speed was too serious for Saturday mornings. I insisted that we needed to start dealing with more important issues than we had in the past, and that speed was a vehicle not only for exploring drug use but also the pressure that kids put on themselves to achieve. But Standards and Practices wasn’t budging.
“What if she gets hooked on caffeine pills?” someone—I don’t remember who—suggested.
The S & P folks talked it over, and told us caffeine pills would get a green light. So we compromised. We kept the episode virtually the same, but swapped out the speed
Growing Pains - Carol's boyfriend Matthew Perry dies
Anytime the guest star who dies becomes famous later on, the episodes just hit different. It's got to be bad enough to find out your significant other dies but it must be even worse having Kirk Cameron be the one who breaks the news.
1980's sitcoms have a wildly intense morality tied to them. If you fucked up, there is was a good chance you would end up dead. Tom Hanks' Uncle Ned was lucky to escape with his life. It also shows the massive ego these shows had. Did any kid in the 80's not drink and drive because of this episode of Growing Pains?
Looking back, it's a fun time capsule of the intense moral standpoints people hung on to in the 1980's. While most of these episodes serve only as a laughing matter, there is one that still sticks with me. The Punky Brewster episode where Cherie gets stuck inside an old refrigerator still has me scared of old appliances if see any ever outside of a house.
Ignore the lame over production this guy put on the video but the ending cries of her screaming "help me" will haunt me for the rest of my days.