does anyone remember those after school specials? if u do which was your fav's. mine would have to be the with a young rob lowe. i forgot the name of it though i know it was about him and the girl from different strokes having a baby . i wish those after school specials would air again i miss those. does anyone else?
Posted by Bionic Bigfoot (Member # 2490) on :
Hey bluesky, many of those specials are on DVD now. Wal-Mart carries them. They have been releasing new ones on a regualr basis since last year.
Posted by mamamiasweetpeaches (Member # 1715) on :
SCHOOLBOY FATHER is the Rob Lowe one. Hell, yes,dude! We miss em! Good news though: www.amazon.com sells After School Special box sets. Check it out...the one you mention is coming out soon!
Posted by GoldTransAM (Member # 2973) on :
What a coincidence. I was watching a show on VH-1 last night about he 80's (think it was called 80's retrosexual). They were talking about the afterschool specials and we mentioned that one in particular.
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
Yeah....I freaked when they put them out on DVD.
So far my favorite ones have been:
Stoned-with Scott Baio
Beat the Turtle Drum- Melissa Sue Anderson
The Pinballs-Kristy McNichol
I remember being so excited when they put them on tv after school, I'd run home to tune in when ever they were on.
I need to get the latest one that came out. I still have a few to watch yet on the 2 I already got.
They are all great though...
we just watched:
The summer of the swans, and it was cute, it had Christopher Knight and Eve Plumb from the Brady Bunch in it.
I liked how there use to be a ton of teen actors that were my age, that I could relate to on tv. Now there aren't any.
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
Isis wrote about the 'ABC Afterschool Specials':
quote:...I liked how there use to be a ton of teen actors that were my age, that I could relate to on tv. Now there aren't any.
That's because you're not a teen!
They would never make an afterschool special nowadays. If they made them now, it would be laughed at and ignored.
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
Why laughed at??? Those topics are the same topics every kid deals with....especially now. Teen pregnancy, divorce, abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse, responsibility...all those things kids need help with....the reason kids would laugh...is because they think life is a joke, they think they don't have to listen to anybody, and they don't wanna hear it, they can't relate because they don't have people showing them in real life the things they are talking about on tv, so they might not get it.
I can relate to a teen, even if I am not one any more, I use to be. I have a kid who will be one in 1 year, and he loves the stuff I did, because he is not desensitized to the things they are about, because of how I am raising him, he still relates to them just like I did.
I think they are timeless, and I think they should be used in schools today. If I was a teacher, I would take them in and let pre teens/teens watch them, and then have a discussion on them afterwards.
Posted by JimBrayFan (Member # 3831) on :
I think the idea of an "afternoon special" has come and gone. Do teens need videos that help them with their issues, sure! But slap a label like that on it and it's a joke.
Posted by mamamiasweetpeaches (Member # 1715) on :
ISIS, Sadly the ideas such as parents getting a dicorce arent as odd as when we were kids. When I was a kid I think maybe one persons family I knew got divorced. Now its like odd if the kids in my daughters class DO have both their original parents! And I guess the same can be said of teen pregnancy. It's so common place now where as when we were kids someone missed a pereiod and it was a huge scandal. Bt I do think they should a. Show the old ones and B. make new modern ones
Look at DEGRASSI THE NEXT GENERATION. Thats like an AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL. Someone gets pregnant, someone gets date raped, someones parent dies etc. So like you said: these themes are pretty much timeless.
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
Well, that's why I think kids need good role models on TV. Because it is true...about the divorce issue for sure...it is the same way every where around here too, if a kid has both their original parents, that is almost viewed as being odd. But, how are those kids ever going to grow up and know what it takes to maintain a long term happy marriage-if they don't know what that is or have never seen one??
Teen pregnancy was a big issue for me as a teenager, half of my senior class of girls was pregnant, and I didn't have a very big class either. My 2 best friends that I hung out with in 7th and 8th grade..one had a baby at 16, and the other one was 17, and I think about that now when I have a kid who is almost 12 years old, and he still seems like a baby to me.
Last night I was thinking about this year is the 20th anniversary for me of when I went to the Prom when I was 16, my mother was the age I am now-36. I can't even imagine being my age now with a 16 year old kid, but in 4 years I'll have one. My husband took my son to a ski lodge last weekend, and they went snow tubing all day, and my husband said it freaked him out to see all these teenagers hanging out, and to know that my son was getting closer to their age.
But...it scares me because there is so much more that kids are exposed to today than ever before, and there isn't anywhere for them to go anymore when they are confused. Cause our society is completely a confused mess.
When I just was watching the Lace mini series with Phoebe Cates, she lost her foster parents when she was 6 years old, and it was sad, because her life turned out terrible, and by the time she was 16 she was in the world of pornography because she was starving and didn't have anywhere else to go, and she was horrified by that world, and it made her bitter and angry and she had no self esteem...today it is the total reverse...girls are proud to say they are in the porno industry...that to me right there is one of the worst things about today's society, is that people aren't even viewing something as degrading and disgusting as that...at something they should be embarrassed about, they are actually proud of it, and I can not understand any of that, and how people have no self respect any more for themselves and their bodies.
If you go to TV to try and feel like someone on there will lead you in the right direction- you can forget that one for sure.
To me TV could be used for such good purposes and help so many people's lives.
I watched another episode of the Greatest American Hero last night. As a teacher in it, Mr Hinkley (Ralph)..he really cared about the students in his class, when they didn't think they had any reason to be in school, when they talked about their family lives, and how even their own parents didn't think they would amount to anything, he told them that every individual person counts in the world, and they are just as important as anybody else, and he made them help him in one of his "missions", and they actually felt like they did something worthwhile. And that is the kind of thing, if you are watching it, and see someone making an impact on somebody's life in a positive way, it makes you feel like maybe you could do the same thing, even though it is a TV show, it is still real situations, in a way. And I think that is what we have lost...he was a dedicated teacher, and was a nice person, and he cared about the kids outside of school, and wanted to be their friend, and you never see that very often anywhere now.
I just watched the Dukes of Hazzard reunion again on TV, and James Best was talking about how he is trying to come up with some new tv programs for kids that don't have curse words and major violence in them. My son thinks the Dukes were cool, cause they didn't use guns they had their bow and arrows, and kids do notice that kind of stuff.
When my son has friends here, I have made them watch shows I think were cool, but had a "lesson" in them...and they love them. I remember one kid was in total shock when he saw the Six Million Dollar man, and saw him jump on top of a truck, that stuff is still exciting and cool, kids just don't have it now, or they would still love it as much as we did as kids.
[ 03. March 2005, 07:06: Message edited by: isis9968 ]
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
I did just see on TV a few days ago....where a college student was beat to death, in a hazing by his fellow fraternity brothers. They said that since 1995 the hazing incidents in our country have just multiplied like crazy, and it isn't even just in college it is high school too.
They were talking about how it isn't even just being beat some kids are sexually asaulted in ways I couldn't even imagine. I never heard of kids doing that kind of stuff when I was in school.
Also, kids are huffing and dying from stuff like that, and I hear it on the radio, and some of the anti-drug commercials are terrifying to me.
I can't imagine what would possess a person to attempt any of that stuff, because of how deadly it could be, and if they try it...there is something really wrong going on with them.
Kids need shows that show the outcome of their actions, and today...it is a more extreme world...like kids who have set themselves on fire after watching a show like Jackass. Or they have jumped off a roof on to a chair from trying to reinact something from WWF.
I see that stuff on TV now, and think why aren't we doing something about any of it, when we could.
Posted by Devolution (Member # 1731) on :
Devolution here,
FYI, Isis, and not to start world war 9 on here, but: A) I agree with you about certain shows, there is a total need for the afterschool special that kids will watch BUT KIDS TODAY HAVE 100 CHANNELS not 7. Am I going to watch an afterschool special if I am 10 or 11 if I have a channel that plays nothing but Cartoons, or Gameshows, or Movies? NO WAY! Not that you are wrong for wanting this to happen, but Cable and what the world is watching in 2005 is going to win just about every time. Not a lot of people like that, but it's the truth.
B) I grew up watching Wrestling. I saw heads cracked open. I saw blood. I saw a bell rammed into a guys throat. I happen to have this thing called intelligence. There are things you know that are going to hurt you. Kids that try to imitate this are bound to get hurt. This has been going on for years. I call it NATURAL SELECTION. My father told me that Wrestling was fake. And yes, everyone has that moment where they almost kill themselves. It makes you realize "Hey I almost did something really dumb". It's like that first time when you are driving and you think you feel comfortable and then you hit the brakes hard, sweat, thank god you are alive and turn down the radio. Everyone does this. It just didn't start happening now. People just make a bigger deal of it now and have decided to blame society for things that they can control. They tell the media that a toy is bad, or offensive. Or a show is offensive.
I have an idea. Don't buy the toy, don't watch the show, and tell your kids that these are things that you can't have until you are old enough. Which is what I would imagine many of you do in the first place.
C) As for Hazing. This is something that has gone on forever in one form or another. One persons chug this beer is another persons 50 push ups if you don't say my name. You saw Revenge of the Nerds. That was hazing. Probably not violent and I in no way condone violence. My friends in football camp were hazed in 1990, and it was going on before that. That isn't that long after you graduated. "Thank you sir, may I have another"? This was going on for a long time, they just didn't make it up for Animal House. But as the saying goes, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
We are DEVO
Posted by Devolution (Member # 1731) on :
Devolution here,
Just another thing, Isis, I also tell my students that the lack of horrible things that happen in TV shows is the reason that these kids don't think. If you saw a kid get pregnant, or get cancer, or Sam get Kidnapped, or Webster burn down the house, Or Punky's friend get locked in the refrigerator, Or Dudley get touched by the Bike Shop owner, you would be paranoid that something would happen to you. I try to teach them because TV doesn't.
WE are DEVO
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
Devo,
I am not actually sure what you were saying, especially on the hazing, that it is all fun and games and it is ok to do until someone actually gets hurt?? I have seen hazing incidences that happened years ago, but it is so main stream now, and people aren't even realizing what is happening.
Fraternities do strange things, and making someone run around in their underwear, or swallow a goldfish seems like nothing now. It is like everything is "EXTREME", and it is in your face constantly on TV, you can't change the channel as a kid and get a better choice of something else to watch, even with 100 channels, there is still junk on, and the violence is addictive...if you are flipping through the channels, and you see people doing crazy stupid stuff, you'll stop and watch it, because your like...man what an idiot...and people laugh at that stuff, and think it's funny...because someone is doing something really stupid, but see kids think it is all fun and games, and absolutely 100% reinact things they see on tv.
I was pretending I was the bionic woman and running through the yard when I was a kid, and pretending I was one of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and solving mysteries around the neighborhood...kids absolutely look at tv, and take what they see and apply it to their life.
Maybe not ever kid that watches WWF will jump off a roof, cause they know better, but what about the 1 kid who doesn't? Don't they matter, don't people think about that they as an adult could set good examples for kids just as easy as setting a bad one...or do they think people won't think they are "cool", and they would rather be thought of as "cool" instead of being always the person who is worried about everything.
Those shows that you mentioned...are you saying that TV now doesn't show situations that are realistic, and you tell kids what to watch out for because TV isn't doing a better job of making them scared enough??
It is the NEWS that is scary...all a kid has to do is watch the local news, and that's enough to make you so paranoid, you'd never wanna leave the house. I knew someone who's daughter was so addicted to the news, she made herself a basketcase watching one car wreck after another, after another bad story, that she was afraid to go anywhere. And they tried to keep her from watching it, but that upset her even more, because she wanted to know what was going on, and I have an adult friend like that too.
She can't stand to miss the news, she's gotta know what is going on, and someone could be found shot from suicide, she'll call me up and tell me, and what can I do...and I tell her to quit watching it, it makes her paranoid, and she won't stop.
I remember when I first had my son, and I was home by myself alot, and I watched the OJ Simpson trail, and court tv...I really thought...how am I ever going to let my kid go out there in this world, when this is the kind of stuff happening every day...I had to stop watching it.
I think kids are so over loaded with negative stuff, they don't need any more.
They need to see shows like: Little House on the Prairie Grizzly Adams The Bionic Woman Wonder Woman The Afterschool Specials The Greatest American Hero The Dukes of Hazzard...there were just so many... all the cool Kroft shows...those things make you escape to a different time, and the people were always doing something worthwhile, and I feel that is the biggest difference from then and now.
Posted by Brode (Member # 3732) on :
I've seen Stoned with Baio. Very few of us paid attention, because we were all whispering "Joanie Loves Chachi" at the correct volume to get reprimanded but not ejected.
Posted by Devolution (Member # 1731) on :
Devolution here,
Isis, the saying means that everyone thinks it's ok until someone gets hurt. Then everyone gets nervous really quick.
WE are DEVO
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
I knew that part of what you were saying Devo...which does it make it right to do, even if nobody actually got hurt?
My son came home from school...all disappointed that I "goofed" on the whole SpongeBob Incident..that I wrote about on the other thread...and he goes...Mom, can we watch an episode of the Greatest American Hero, cause there is nothing on TV."
This is my thing...as a parent of a 11 year old boy..when he wants to watch TV...what is on for him, on 100 channels out there, someone please name me 10 shows on after school that are his age appropriate. I can get out my Vintage TV Guides, and name 30 shows that were on between 9-5, that were awesome stuff for kids, when I was a kid. And I loved coming home from school, and watching tv...me and my brother were tv junkies, and both my parents were there. But TV was cool then..now it is boring.
