Fantastic TV Book Project Needs YOU!

It is somewhat sad to realize that shows like CBS Schoolbreak and the ABC Afterschool Special - programs that seemed so mainstream with regards to their availability to a mass audience - have become items of cult interest, or simply dusty memories from our childhood. The kid-centric programming of yesteryear embraced the awkwardness, sadness, and sometimes triumph of growing up in a world that was constantly changing. Kier-la Janisse, author of the critically acclaimed House of Psychotic Women is hoping to bring back some of those memories in her new book Kid Power.

The book, the first in Janisse's new micro-press venture Spectacular Optical, will be filled with color images, essays and interviews, as she, and several other authors look back at how these programs shaped our lives. She will be launching the book in July at the prestigious Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Canada. Janisse put together a crowdfunding campaign to help her get the book out (btw, her intro video contains some truly amazing clips). Essentially, a $15 (CAD) donation gets you a copy of the book, so it's simply a pre-order. But there are other perks based on your donation amounts, and you should go and check it all out. And please visit Spectacular Optical's website and like their facebook page, and spread the word!

TV Spot Tuesday: NBC Friday Night March 14th, 1980

Ad courtesy of the Here's Boomer website

I'm not saying that March 14th, 1980 was the best night for television in the history of the world, but you know, I'm not saying it wasn't either.

Check it: You start out your night with an adorable episode of Here's Boomer. He's America's new Benji... sorta. Anyway, he's adorable and looking to win your heart. Done. This was actually an airing of the first episode of the series, which lasted from 1980 - 1982. It was a spinoff of the popular TV movie, A Christmas for Boomer, and I remember watching the show, although I recall so little about it now. I have a feeling at that time in my young life I was trying to be Miz Cool and pretended that Boomer wasn't completely adorable. What a fool I was. In this episode, titled Molly, Boomer helps a little girl with some sort of mental disability. He does that cuz he's adorable. Did I mention he was adorable?

Ad courtesy of Vintage Toledo TV

Then, Blair gets into all kinds of hijinks on an episode of The Facts of Life titled Emily Dickinson. In the episode that aired on this night she steals a - you guessed it - Emily Dickinson poem, and of course, gets caught. I guess Mrs. Garrett needs to give our favorite Breck shampoo girl a good talking too. I really love the very early episodes of Facts of Life where all the girls were hanging out. I loved Molly's spunk and Tootie's skates.

Image courtesy of Vinnie Rattolle's Cult Oddities

The evening wraps up with Pink Lady and Jeff, which is the infamous short lived television series featuring stand up comedian Jeff Altman and the Japanese disco duo Pink Lady. It's disco galore and a lot of weirdness in between. I just guested on The Movies About Girls podcast this past weekend and Pink Lady and Jeff was the topic of the day! This episode featured Larry Hagman, which makes it totally amazing (even though I haven't seen it...yet).

What can I say, NBC you really had your stuff together in 1980! Here is the promo spot:

Biddi, Biddi, Biddi: Oh, Buck!

When I think of Buck Rogers I think of those warm summer days and nights of my childhood, where Twiki was a hot topic and Princess Ardala was one scary Draconian Princess! Although it only ran two seasons, Buck and his merry day-glo band left a deep impact in my heart. As an adult I see why, although I'm sure I didn't catch a lot of the suggestive humor or camera trickery. Nor did I truly appreciate the awesomely awesome costumes which adorned such lucky actresses as Erin Gray and Pamela Hensley (btw, did they sew Erin Gray into that super tight blue thing she always wore? Holy cow). But now that I'm revisiting the series via Netflix I am reassessing all things late 70s spacey.

The episode Escape From Wedded Bliss isn't necessarily better than any of the other episodes, but it left me gobsmacked by the colorful cornucopia of glittery royal bikini wear (really Princess Ardala, that's just a bathing suit with a sparkly hat and cape) and the bright, bright lights of New Chicago. If you remember Buck and think you might not find the show as much fun in your adult years, I think you should go to Netflix now and get your Dr. Theo-on because it's even better now. Or maybe I'm just remembering it better now... who knows? At any rate, I encourage one and all to re-fall in love with all things Buck!

  Never, I repeat never bother Princess Ardala when she's getting a rubdown by slavegirls! 

  Did you know that in the future they will get rid of roller blades and go back to roller skates! Oh yes, they will! 

  This is seriously the most suggestive space ship landing I have ever seen! 

  Princess Ardala whips out the royal bikini wear for an auspicious occasion 

  Col. Wilma Deering decides to go undercover as a creamsicle 

  Tiger Man: Fashion Forward 

  Space age roofie! 

  Space age girdle? 

  Princess Ardala's faboo bikini wedding wear! 

  Shotgun wedding! Ha! I'm here all weeks guys! 

The highlight of the episode was that they actually featured a scene with Twiki acting! I'm not kidding. He's all upset that Buck won't take him on an adventure so he starts to mope (in the dark no less). Buck finally feels the guilt and invites Twiki along for the ride. Here are two of the more moving moments from the episode:

Twiki Sad 

  Twiki Happy 

  And one last thing: Dr. Theo = Adorable 

Come Get Your Rankin-and-Bass-On!

Hey guys, with Christmas right around the corner (I know, I can't believe it either), I thought I'd re-post a link to a review I contributed to the beyond awesome Christmas TV History blog. I wrote about my all time favorite Rankin and Bass special, Nestor, the Long Eared Christmas Donkey. I actually gave the film its annual spin the other night, and it's still one of the sweetest and most moving films I have ever seen.

And now it's your turn. What is your favorite Rankin and Bass special? I know almost everyone will say Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer, but please leave a comment and share a little Rankin and Bass love!

Happy Holidays!

Back to School... Again!

Time, she is a cruel mistress. Summer has come and gone and boy what a summer it was! After moving clear across the country to parts unknown this past spring, I lived in a hotel for two months and then relocated into a fairly fab wood panelled house and jumped into the summer semester. Six weeks after that when classes ended, I felt that kind of giddy freedom we don't get to feel all that often. Then the basement flooded during the strangest storm ever. Two weeks of cleaning up and I had approximately three days to enjoy the break. And here I am, ready to dive back in!

As much as I love the whole getting-an-education process, I know it's really all about what goes on after school, which is what our theme is here today. Check out some great promos below for the ABC Afterschool Special and CBS Schoolbreak (and one cool TVM)! Also you can read my reviews of some of the Afterschool DVDs here, here and here.

Afterschool Special Bonanza!

A Matter of Time
Original Air Date: February 11th, 1981

First Step (aka She Drinks a Little)
Original Air Date: December 23rd, 1981

Tough Girl
Original Air Date: October 28th, 1981

Since my first semester back in college has finally finished, I thought it was appropriate to watch a few Afterschool Specials, because I party just that hard!

Brentwood was kind enough to release several Afterschool Specials on DVD and I popped on the Class of ’81 – ’82 just for kicks, yo – and wow, what a bummer! The first disc featured a mother dying of lung cancer and another mother killing herself because she hits the bottle too hard. Great-googily-moogily! Well, who said the early 80s wasn’t all about the drama. Or is that the glamour? Shoot.


A Matter of Time stars one of my all-time-favorite-actresses-who-doesn’t-work-anymore-but-should-because-she-rocks-so-hard, Karlene Crockett (Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker, Two Loves for Jenny) as a teen coming to terms with her mother’s sudden and terminal illness. This is serious stuff, kids, and it’s handled sensitively. Not a lot of laughs here. It also features a rather young Rob Lowe (who rocked Schoolboy Father) basically staring at Karlene for long periods of time. Oh Karlene, where are you?

Not cool
The subject matter is definitely bleak and is played out in a fairly realistic way, which is not how I wanted to spend my first week of the Christmas Break, you dig? This episode is less about mom’s death and more about how her daughter learns to accept her new identity in life, and not live under her mother’s fading shadow. Poignant, gripping stuff maybe best served as fodder for one of those rained out depressed days.


The second episode on the disc is called First Step and features another underrated actress, Amanda Wyss, who is probably most famous for her appearances in A Nightmare on Elm Street and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Me, I know her best from the awesome killer baboon flick Shakma and for her short stint at the beginning of This House Possessed (aka The Best Movie Ever!). Here she plays Cindy Scott, a wannabe actress hoping to land a part in the school play. She is also tending to her mother’s (Bonnie Bartlett) awful drinking binges. Mom even shows up at school drunk as a skunk during Parent’s Day throwing Cindy into an embarrassed tizzy. And I don’t blame her! Bartlett is top-notch as a lush, where she is sometimes funny and sometimes utterly frustrating.

For a good time call Cindy's mom!
Like A Matter of Time, First Step goes for the gut, albeit landing softly, but the episode doesn’t end happily. Instead, it’s about Cindy coming to terms with her mom and realizing that helping her only enables her more. She finds it’s better to let go than it is to try to help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. I love when Mom gets up on stage after Cindy’s debut screaming, “That’s my daughter!” Awesome.


Tough Girl is the third episode on the disc and it’s my favorite. It stars Karin Argoud who looks like Jill Schoelen after a tough weekend. She is best known to me as Vint’s Valley Girl-esque daughter on the original Mama’s Family when it aired on NBC. She didn’t do much past that, which is too bad. She’s adorable and quite talented…

She's a knife-carrying-kulot-wearer. That must be a crime!
Here she’s Renie Lake, a knife-wielding, hard as nails high school kid dealing with her tumultuous broken home situation. After getting busted with a friend for grand theft auto and drugs, she’s sent to live with her suburban dad and his new family. Renie has an extremely hard time fitting in until she meets Jan Redner (Greg Koppel) an adorable wannabe high school vet who happens to also be deaf. But even though he can’t hear, he listens to Renie better than just about anyone and she finally forms a legitimately healthy relationship. That is until she finds out Jan is leaving their little suburban paradise for Penn State in the fall. This sets Renie on a little expedition which she later realizes is her finding herself. Awww Renie, we always loved ya!

Tough Girl works because of Karin’s awesome performance. I mean, she looks really rough, although I don’t agree with everything she does. In a continuing sub-plot Renie basically taunts Wally (played by Laurence Lau who never seems to age!) to a point that is just uncalled for. I mean, yeah Wally is, like, kind of a jocked out dork, but he’s cute and his name is Wally and he meant no harm, Renie. Seriously.

The last episode in the set is called the Night Swimmers and I’ll be damned if I just couldn’t get through it. Sorry Jason Lively, maybe next time!

I will totally go out with you Wally!

Made for TV Mayhem: The Afterschool Special Edition Part Two

What Are Friends For?
Original Air Date: March 19th, 1980

Schoolboy Father
Original Air Date: October 5th, 1980


I think I am addicted.

The ABC Afterschool Special has some kind of crack appeal. Truly. I could watch them for hours on end, but due to the scarceness of such wonderful visual treats, I have to ration off my episodes. I was doing pretty good with the last two I reviewed, Two Loves for Jenny & Did You Hear What Happened to Andrea (better titled, Did You See How Cute Moosie Drier turned Out), you know, riding on the high of those lone two episodes. Then one Miss Jenny Day, she of the fantastic Modern Girls website and all around pop cultured gal recommended I try one called What Are Friends For and before you knew it, Schoolboy Father was filtering across the airwaves. These are the types of things that make for a great lazy afternoon!


What Are Friends For is one of those true oddities. It’s a poignant drama that relates the end of a child’s friendship to the woes of what kids deal with when their parents divorce. But it’s also got Dana Hill, who plays the neighborhood pathological liar ruling the five finger discount and dipping dolls in red water in a bizarre voodoo ritual! Never intending to be a horror film, What Are Friends For is one of the most disturbed episodes in the pantheon of the world of Afterschool Specials. There has to be some kind of award for that – if not, I’m creating one! I’ll call it The Dana Hill is One Crazy Awesome MoFo Memorial Award. Dana was such a huge part of the 80s canvas and remains a treat to watch. Her diabetes kept her looking like a child, but her overtly adult attitude usually insured she’d be the most memorable character in whatever she was appearing in. She’s creepy in this special and an odd contrast to the young Melora Hardin who plays the buddy. Melora went on to a great career (I mean, she’s in Lifetime movies for crissakes!) and I had no idea she was a child actress - Probably because you never hear about the ones who didn’t screw up.

Seriously guys, I'm sick! And not just in the head!
Anyway, I digress. What Are Friends For revolves around Amy Warren (Hardin) who has relocated to California after her parents divorce. She gets chummy with her neighbor, Michelle Mudd (Hill) - You just know with a name like that, you’re talking Coo Coo for Coco Puffs time! - or rather Michelle kind of abrasively forces Amy to hang out with her, threatening her own death when Amy doesn’t. Michelle’s parents are divorced too and based on that, they seem to have enough common ground to maintain some kind of friendship, but whenever Amy gets a hankering to hang with some more “normal” girls, Michelle gets all schitzo. Somebody needs attention, no?

Yikes!
I have to admit, the filmmakers had to practically hit me over the head to get me to understand the subtleties of their friendship, but What Are Friends For is an affecting tale of how we move in and out of each other’s lives, and how we learn to accept it. I swear, I never thought a little girl in KISS makeup would have such a profound effect on me, but there you go.


The second episode on the disc is called Schoolboy Father and stars Rob Lowe before he was Rob Lowe. He’s pretty good as Charles Elderberry in this tale about a semi-responsible teen who makes the mistake of being totally irresponsible with Daisy Dallenger (Dana Plato) one night at camp and getting her pregnant. Whoops! Daisy never told Charles and so hears about it via a birth announcement in the local paper. Whoops #2. He visits Daisy who throws a big hissy (this girl is all about the hissy!) and tells her he wants to marry her. She obviously thinks that is the worst idea she’s ever heard… well, until he tells her he’s going to take care of the baby when he finds out she’s putting him up for adoption. Thusly, Charles life as a teenage is severely altered. I mean, he can’t go to a party! Gasp!

No comment.
Despite my churlish synopsis, Schoolboy Father is delicately handled and rather moving. They don’t give Charles any shortcuts and you really get as irritated as he does with his plight. And it’s all kind of sad. I mean, he meant well and all… It’s an interesting point of view. When we’re so inundated with terms like Deadbeat Dad, here’s a movie that shows the man isn’t a deadbeat, he’s just simply not capable of taking care of a kid. It was a total Kleenex moment.

From having a baby to having a hissy!
So for now, my Afterschool obsession is satiated, but for how long? Don't you love the drama?

Made for TV Mayhem: The ABC Afterschool Special Edition

Two Loves for Jenny
Original Air Date: October 27th, 1982

Did You Hear What Happened to Andrea?
Original Air Date: December 7th, 1983


The ABC Afterschool Special was a staple of my childhood. I remember many of them (with the “V.D” episode instilling the necessary amount of fear it most likely intended!), but there were so many episodes, a lot of what I remember is a medley of images from several installments. Luckily, a few of these episodes were released on DVD for mass consumption from a nostalgically inclined audience. I.E. ME! So Yays all around!



Two Loves of Jenny (aka Between Two Loves) features the gawky, but pretty and extremely likable Karlene Crockett (Dallas, Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker) as Jenny, a new student in a new school in a new town. Jenny’s father has just died and her mom moves them from the farm to a bigger city so Jenny can play in an elite high school orchestra, run by stodgy Mr. Forbes (Robert Reed!). Turns out, Jenny is one mean violinist and is able to join immediately. She takes the last chair while uber gorgeous Doug (Lance Guest who was simply heaven sent in The Last Starfighter!) takes chair #1. They strike up a friendship that eventually leads to a blossoming romance. But Jenny’s abilities as a musician quickly move her up in the orchestra and eventually pit her against Doug for a much coveted scholarship. Doug really needs the funding for school and Jenny is only now just realizing how badly she wants to play the violin professionally. The relationship is tested when Jenny has to decide if music means more than Doug.

Karlene rules!

Honestly, I was expecting this episode to be a bit of a bore. I like classical music, but am not enthralled with watching a movie about it. But Two Loves for Jenny is engaging, sweet and never boring. It reminded me why I loved Afterschool Specials so much – it introduced young adults to interesting topics they might not have access to (i.e. classical music) while captivating it’s audience with universal themes (i.e. first loves). The balance here is fantastic and I was sad to see this special end.

So. Hot.

For some time I have been in love with Karlene, but she’s a bit of a chameleon and I often just didn’t know I was watching the same actress in various shows. Her filmmography isn’t huge, and ended in 2005 but she is a very impressive and lovely actress. Come back Karlene!

Now on the other hand, I have been quite aware of Lance Guest. I have loved him since I was 13 years old and his lanky build, curly locks and sweet presence made him the perfect first love for Jenny. And he was in Jaws 4 and Halloween 2, which is all kinds of awesome!



The second episode on the DVD is the infamous Did You Hear What Happened to Andrea? (aka Andrea’s Story: A Hitchhiking Tragedy) It’s infamous because it’s one of the episodes, besides the V.D. one, that I remember explicitly. Andrea is played by pretty Michele Greene (who has become a regular in the world of Lifetime movies) who along with her boyfriend David (Moosie Drier – oh my god, I love him!) make the big mistake of hitchhiking. Well, it’s more like Andrea makes the even bigger mistake to continue on the ride after they drop off David. She is taken to a desolate area and raped. Andrea tries to hide this horrible secret, but it soon comes pouring out as her friend tries to hitch a ride. The police are called, her parents are informed about the crime and her boyfriend is called in as a witness. But this film is mostly about learning not to blame yourself and to know you can find strength in facing your assailant.

Love the Mossie Drier headshot in the corner! Moosie!!!

Now see, the above sentence makes this episode sound really great, but unfortunately Andrea is a bit dry and a little forced. Granted, they had less than an hour to get a lot of layered themes across to the viewer, but a lot of the intensity gets lost in the shuffle. And the shopping montage… well, it’s silly.

From rape victim to fashion victim!

Greene is good and her parents are played by Carrie Snodgress and Matt Clark. Both are fantastic as they take on opposite sides of what they think is right for Andrea. A very young pre-holy roller Kirk Cameron plays the precocious little brother who serves absolutely no purpose (kind of like now) and the late Robert DoQui is pretty great as the cop handling the case. I won’t even go into Moosie Drier, let’s just say he’s adorable. Not a bad way to spend an hour, but after Two Loves for Jenny, well… maybe if Lance Guest had showed up in this one too… just maybe…

An Afterschool lineup!