>"'After School Specials': Still Learning from that '70s series"
Boston Globe, Sunday January 9
The Trapper Keeper DVD box design
Back in the days of Sears Toughskins, Ford Pintos and halter tops, ABC
released a ground-breaking TV series called "After School Specials."
These 45-minute programs offered latch-key kids emotional and ethical
dilemmas slightly more challenging than those shown on "Gilligan's Island"
and "Batman" re-runs. The problems ranged from the tame (stuttering or
feeling like an ugly ducking) to the daring (teen pregnancy and alcoholic
mothers).
Instrumental behind the series' success was producer Martin Tahse, whose
26 episodes won 18 Emmys and helped launch the careers of kid actors like
"Little House on the Prairie"'s Melissa Sue Anderson (shown here in the
surprisingly well-acted foster home drama "Which Mother is Mine?"). Some,
like Rob Lowe (starring with Dana Plato in 1980's "School Boy Father"),
graduated from adolescence to Hollywood; others, like tomboy Kristy McNichol
("The Pinballs"), never evolved past their pre-teen smart-aleck angst.
Each two-DVD package contains four episodes, cleverly designed with study
hall in mind. The "1974-1976" and "1976-1977" collections, debuting last
October, resemble Mead "Trapper Keeper" notebooks, right down to the Velcro
clasp; the newest, the "1978-79" and "1979-80" seasons, are less-impressively
designed like lockers.
Bummers? As the "special feature," the slap-dash Polaroid photo gallery
disappoints. One can only imagine the fascinating dirt that an interview
with, say, a Chris Knight ("The Brady Bunch") could have unearthed. The
muddy sound and picture quality is also not so groovy.
If you watch these After School Specials for the sheer nostalgia kick,
look out: you may find yourself occasionally moved by the performances.
If you don't giggle yourself silly over the hair styles. (BCI Eclipse,
$12.98)
Rob Lowe as a teenage dad in "School Boy Father"