ABC After School Specials - Awkward 80's TV At Its Best!

Welcome back, Afterschool Gang! Get ready to travel back in time to an era when homework was still a distant threat and the TV was our most trusted tutor. This week, we're dusting off our Trapper Keepers and taking a joyous, lighthearted stroll down memory lane to revisit a true cultural phenomenon: the ABC Afterschool Specials!

From 1972 to 1997, these iconic television movies were more than just entertainment; they were our sometimes-cheesy, always-earnest guides through the perplexing maze of growing up. Remember gathering around the TV, a bowl of cereal (or maybe something a little more adventurous, like a Pop-Tart!) in hand, bracing ourselves for an hour of emotional rollercoasters and life lessons? We certainly do!

Join your hosts, Alex and Kelly, as we hilariously dissect some of the most memorable (and sometimes utterly bizarre) episodes. We'll be chatting about the surprisingly heavy topics tackled by these seemingly innocent shows – everything from bullying and drug abuse to… well, that one about the kid who really wanted to be a gymnast. We’ll reminisce about the fashion choices that make us wince today, the dramatic musical cues, and the always-predictable but deeply satisfying moral at the end.

Expect plenty of laughs as we share our personal favorite (and least favorite!) Afterschool Specials, discuss the famous faces who got their start in these mini-dramas (hello, future Hollywood A-listers!), and ponder how these shows might have shaped our young, impressionable minds. Did they truly teach us valuable life lessons, or did they just make us acutely aware of how awkward puberty could be? We’ll debate!

So, grab your milk and cookies, pull up a beanbag chair, and get ready for an episode packed with nostalgia, chuckles, and a healthy dose of "can you believe that actually aired?" Whether you were a dedicated viewer or you're just curious about this unique slice of television history, this is one afterschool special you won't want to miss. Tune in, and let's relive the glory days of the ABC Afterschool Specials!

Transcript

Kelly: 0:07

Hey, Kelly, how's it going? Man, good. Alex, how are you doing? I'm

Alex: 0:11

doing all right. Hey, when you were a little kid and like, you know, first, second, third grade, fourth grade, elementary, you know, growing up, how, when you came home from school be like, what, three o'clock or so? Yeah, three 330 what'd you do? I know you've already established that you used to play with your off brand video

Kelly: 0:35

game television, yes, well,

Alex: 0:39

take me, take me through, like, what you do? You

Kelly: 0:41

know, okay, okay. You know, latchkey kid. Come in. My mom and dad were both at work. Maybe my sister was with me. Maybe she wasn't depended on because I was a little older. So, you know, if we were in a different school, she might not have been there. First thing I do is go to the kitchen. See if we have any ice cream. See if we have any snacks. You know, get get that. And then a lot of times I would watch good times I liked watching good like that came on, like, pretty much perfect timing for watching that. And then after that, I'd eat my little snack. I'd usually go outside and play for a while, you know, go, go see what my friends were up to and then my parents would come home and they'd call me in and have dinner, do homework, go to bed. Yeah,

Alex: 1:29

I'd kind of the same. I'd come home and I'd latch key kid, or my key around my neck like a little necklace. I'd come in and I'd get one piece of sliced the American, you know, craft American size, yeah, and a banana. That was my go to your snack. And then, and then I do kind of the same thing. I'd maybe watch the monkeys, okay, or the Brady Bunch, or whatever, yeah, yeah. And do kind of the same thing. Maybe go outside. I was telling my wife the other day when I remember my childhood. For some reason I remember a lot of is spent in the woods. For some reason, that's, I don't know if you had that same I'm like, why are we in the woods? And she had the same thing. But I don't want to talk about that once a month, about once a month. Uh, I'd flip on the TV and I'd be captivated by the ABC after school special.

Kelly: 2:31

Oh, wow. Okay, okay, you didn't really plan for it. It was just, it just happened.

Alex: 2:36

Actually, I was the type that planned for it, like stuff was coming out, it was came about a month, once a month, about once a month during the school year, so about six to eight times a year. Yeah. And for those of you who are younger than me and Kelly, ABC after school special was this odd thing where once a month on the ABC show station work at around three o'clock or four o'clock, not prime time, but definitely after you get home from school. They would show before the news. Oh yeah, they would show like a drama with usually had stars from other shows that were big at the time, or movie stars, or just up and coming, but big names for us at the time, like, yeah, that kids knew, and they would show these very melodramatic episodes about controversial, sometimes topics, things that maybe some teenagers were going through. And it would be completely geared towards us. We would be the top. We wouldn't watch it with our parents, yeah, and somehow they, they got us to watch these things, super cheesy, like, by today's standards. And I think even at the time, we knew they were cheesy, but, but everyone watched them.

Kelly: 3:57

So I didn't, I didn't really, I was, I don't think I would ever like basically, I would if the Brady Bunch was on, or good times, or the Jeffersons, or Laverne and Shirley, or happy days, some, some syndicated sitcom, I would watch that, but I never really watched the after school specials. Maybe that's what's wrong with me. Yeah, you

Alex: 4:20

never got the lessons. I was into it, and they always felt like a big, a big deal. So let me tell you a little bit about the ABC after school specials, and it was specific to ABC the network. Yeah, it was called the ABC. Oh, okay, now I know you didn't watch them, but you definitely heard of them, right? Sure, sure. Yeah, I saw the application and the tropes, yeah, yeah, yeah. The very first one came out 1972 Okay, so this is before I would have been watching it, and the very last one was 1997 Wow. After long run, would have watched it, yeah, long run. And every single year, uh. Know, continuously. So the first episode was called The Last of the curlews. And that was about, it was animated. Actually. That was about a father and son who go hunting and debate whether or not to kill a curlew, which is like a bird that was about to be extinct. It's now is extinct. Okay, wow. So, I guess they made the wrong choice there and then, like the next one was about, you know, the Underground Railroad, and it was just, and as we got further or further down the line, they became kind of more, they hit their stride, and they would deal with themes that you know, kids would have to kind of come up with. So I've got the list here. I could read you some titles, and you could tell me maybe, what the, yeah, what the, what the theme was, was about, yeah, sure, sure. Go ahead, um, 1973 I want to tell you about one that was called Rookie of the Year, and that was starring Jodie Foster as a matter of fact, Oh, wow. She was a child actor. Yeah, she was an 11 year old girl who joined her brother's Little League team now seven, the year before 1972 was when girls were allowed to be on Little League teams. Okay, so that was kind of a big deal. So these were all ripped from the headlines, you know, like Title Nine stuff. Sure, there's one in 1973 called my dad lives in a downtown hotel. So I think that one's about, I

Kelly: 6:35

think that's basically different strokes, right? About two, two boys that get adopted by a rich man who lives in a penthouse. No, no.

Alex: 6:44

This was about like separation and divorce. My dad doesn't live in our house anymore, okay? 1976 blind Sunday,

Kelly: 6:56

oh, this is about a family that makes ice cream sundaes, and one of the people can't see, so he always makes them wrong

Alex: 7:06

No, in order to better understand his blind girlfriend, teenager Jeff, spends an entire day blindfolded. Okay, that's really kind of things. 45 minutes, I'd be riveted. How about 1977 my Mom's having a baby.

Kelly: 7:24

Okay? I have no idea what that's about.

Alex: 7:27

It's about the birds and the bees. Man, Mom's having the baby. Oh, and he wants to know what it's how it happened. There was a sequel in 1980 called Where do teenagers come from? That was all about puberty. Okay? There was one in 1978 called it's a mile from here to glory. It was about a teenager that was in a car accident and became disabled. That one starred a young Anthony Kiedis, wow.

Kelly: 7:56

Okay, wow. He's singing for the Red Hot Chili choppers. Yeah, Hollywood all the way.

Alex: 8:01

So 1979 did I remember this one well, called Make Believe marriage, and it was about some kids, and I think they actually did this in a lot of high schools. I don't know if it was before or because of this episode where they took a class on marriage, and they would pair up the kids, and they would have to do, like everyday things that married, married life couples, just to teach you about, like, domestic partnership, what that was all about, huh?

Kelly: 8:34

You saw that one? Huh? You actually watched that one? That one? Well, yeah,

Alex: 8:37

yeah, there was one. I watched them all, man, 1980 there was one called stoned.

Kelly: 8:45

Oh, this was about, this was about somebody in Jesus's time who had cast the first stone.

Alex: 8:56

You're not very good at this. This one starred Scott Baio, okay, as a motivated high schooler until, until he gets with marijuana and falls when with a fast crowd or

Kelly: 9:10

the slow crowd, dude. Then

Alex: 9:12

1987 this was one of the, the most notorious, kind of worst episodes. And this is kind of where I, I was off the I mean, I was in college by then, so I wasn't really into this. But this is known as kind of

Kelly: 9:26

one of the what they when they jumped the shark, so to speak. Sure

Alex: 9:30

this was called, this was called the day my kid went punk. It was about a teenage musician, Terry hopes to distinguish himself from the crowd by becoming a punk rocker starring Bernie copell from The Love Boat and and the thing is, they were never able to, they weren't able to use real like punk rock music. So they had to use like, you know, a. Copyright, yeah, yeah, funk rock, or what grandmas thought punk rock would would have been like, wow. And the guy who had a pink Mohawk and an earring, like a safety pin, you know, earring, kind of like you did back in the day,

Kelly: 10:17

was Bernie Bernie CAPELL, was he doc? He was doc, yeah, okay. And was he? Was he the kid or the father? He wasn't the

Alex: 10:25

kid. Think it was the one of the one of the parents. Wow. But yeah, they got more and more kind of ridiculous. Or Daddy can't read.

Kelly: 10:37

I mean, that's pretty obvious.

Alex: 10:38

Michael Jackson was in that one as himself. This was 1988 there's one called tattle, when to tell on a friend. Okay, it was about four inseparable friends on their high school swim team until two of them experiment with cocaine and get hooked. Whoa. There's one called just tipsy honey, okay? About a mother who had a drinking problem, all right? And it was always like, from the teenagers, you know, point of view, my dad can't be crazy, can he? It's about schizophrenia, okay, but then you'd have one called, like all that glitters. Several high school students learn about ethics versus seductive power when they start a cookie company as their class project starring William H Macy, huh? So a lot of these people like right on the way up, yeah, Adam Sandler was in one in 1990 called Testing, testing dirty as a competitive swimmer that was taking amphetamines or tested positive for amphetamines, they they tackled scenes like things like teen pregnancy, but I was from a very safe point. There was one called I want to keep my baby in 1976 where was a teenage girl that got pregnant and decided to keep the baby, but they never once mentioned abortion in the show, okay, um, even though they, like they did, but they didn't right, pretty, pretty conservative themes. But at the time, they were talking about things that nobody was talking about. So right, from that perspective, that wasn't conservative, but the way they handled it was, yeah, there was one called a very delicate matter. What do you think that was about?

Kelly: 12:29

Very maybe about telling somebody something that you like, telling a secret. What was the secret?

Alex: 12:40

I don't know it was gonorrhea. Kelly, teenage girl, contracts a sexually transmitted disease from her boyfriend, a very that was a big deal. I mean, that was 1982 that was a delicate matter, man, yeah. Um,

Kelly: 12:57

and itchy, too, sure, sure, sure.

Alex: 13:02

So yeah. I mean, from bitchy to itchy, that's what they should have called it. That's what, yeah. There was, yeah. I mean, they touched on all kinds of different things, but there was some things they never touched on, like they never once had. You know, there was 20 years of episodes, they never once touched on any gay or queer themes ever. That was something that I think was was they were afraid of bridge too far. Right again, they never really touched on abortion, even though they touched on teen pregnancy, there was never any episodes, though that got boycotted. Or I thought for sure that when I started researching this, I would find that, you know, the Memphis station or the, you know, the right, they wouldn't play it. Wouldn't play it that never happened, because I think they were always walking that line. And typically they were probably done with psychologists and all kinds of adults, you know, overseeing these scripts. Scott Baio was in a ton of these, yeah, that was Yeah, his sweet spot, sure. In fact, all the happy day stars did their little parts. Marion Ross was in a bunch of these,

Kelly: 14:21

oh yes, always the mom, yeah,

Alex: 14:24

yeah. I mean, a lot of the the girls from facts of life, oh yeah, would be on these shows Blair and tutti. There were people that would be recognizable to you at the time and like, wow, that's a that's a good get. Nancy McKeon, Nancy McKeon was definitely in, in some of these. She was, she was in one particular one called, please don't hit me mom in 1983 Oh, that was actually nominated for Outstanding Children's Program in the Emmy Awards. It was about child abuse. Yeah. Wow. I. Yeah, heavy. So it was always these kind of very special episode. And like, I say, I was into it. I was just into the fact that they were usually talking about something that we weren't allowed to talk about, or something that was a little out there, little taboo, yeah. And the cool part was, I was watching it by myself, like it wasn't part of the family lineup, and being an only child, I was all into it. Didn't have to be embarrassed. It didn't feel tab you taboo, um, but I was never really satisfied at the end of these things. I always thought, Oh, I could have done that better, yeah. Or that was a stretch for Scott Baio or, but then the month later, I'd forget about my criticism and I go watch right back and watching them. And the funny part is, I never remember comparing, like I said, Everyone watched them. I think they got pretty good ratings, but I think this is the first time I've ever talked about it with anybody. I've

Kelly: 15:54

never, I've never seen any of those. I'm familiar with them, I'm familiar with them, but I've never, actually, I never actually watched any of those that would have just, I don't know, I feel like that would have just been way too preachy for me well,

Alex: 16:05

and because you would have had to watch it with your sister. And so imagine me being home by myself, yeah, thinking I was on a real gold mine here,

Kelly: 16:14

I'm gonna be so smart and well rounded. Thanks. ABC, yeah.

Alex: 16:18

I mean, I knew about gonorrhea before you did. Kelly,

Kelly: 16:21

well, that's because you got it right,

Alex: 16:25

all right, man, well, that's ABC after school special.

Kelly: 16:29

It's something that used to be here, and now it's gone, gone forever. Gonorrhea.

Unknown: 16:42

We gathered round the old TV globe, lessons learned in a scripted show, awkward moments packed with heart, where every tale played its moral part, O, B, A, B, C, after school. A, B, C, after school, rhymes, cheesy lines and plots combined teenage love with tears of hope, lessons wrapped in a moral bow, feeling stars with their big debut, trying hard, but we all knew dialog, step like a wooden chair, but the heart was always there. Oh the ABC after school, rhymes, cheesy lines and rocks come by. Cheesy lines and pots combined, glances, life's big problems and polyester dances, a lot of pride. Is a laugh. Every cringe was a page clunky scripts, but we all stayed for the wisdom awkwardly conveyed. Life's a mess, but the message clear even in the cheese, there's love, sincere. You. After school, grind cheesy lines and plots. Combine teenage love with tears that flow lessons wrapped in a moral bowl, O, B, A, B, C, after school, grind cheesy lines and plots combine teenage love with tears that flow lessons left in a mobile.