Return of the
After School Specials:
"Oh, Grow Up!"
To once again see the great TV-movie series for kids, begun in 1972 by the ABC television network, and dubbed "the After School Specials", is a rare treat. By far the most prolific creator of these telefilms was producer Martin Tahse. Newly released on DVD, these exemplary and beloved films designed expressly for youngsters hold up real well, and come across as contemporary, frank and original, as daring as much current TV fare.
A babyboomer legend, the After School Specials films ran for an amazing 20 years (!), and showcased young actors of the day, most of whom were our age, and thus, instantly identifiable. Topics ranged from fitting in to alcoholism to overcoming disability to losing a sibling, with a special emphasis on cultivating belief in one's self, and empathy towards others. The critics loved this show; the advertisers, less so, according to notes by producer Martin Tahse. In fact, it was the critics who pressured ABC affiliates to take the series seriously, and as soon as the audience was found, the series was off and running. The series ended up with a veritable busload of awards, Emmys and others.
For kids of our vintage, watching these gripping, oftimes intense dramas acted out in the immediately recognizable settings of suburbia, urban sprawl or the neighborhood schoolyard made us realize this was not just another fantasy land or setting of our parent's experience; this was OUR childhood.
For the pure, unvarnished girl-lover or boy-lover in us, the After School Specials were sheer heaven; watching your favorite TV heartthrob like Dana Plato, Chris Knight, Eve Plumb, Rob Lowe or Kristy McNichol doing "high drama" was as thrilling as all get out, tantamount to your parents seeing their favorite movie star down at the local dinner theatre doing a revival of "Camelot"!
The films, seen today, are still highly entertaining. This is a reason in itself to celebrate the new DVD release of these films. But included in the series are some absolute gems, stone-cold masterpieces of the TV-movie genre such as SARA'S SUMMER OF THE SWANS, an hour of drama so riveting and immaculate it is uncanny.
One of the things which made the After School Specials so special was we the audience realized that here were real, "grown-up" movies made especially for us. Not that we didn't love the fantasies, adventure capers and comedies which proliferated at the time, but here were movies with hard-hitting social issues which we could relate to (for better or worse!).
To some, the scenarios seemed simple, even naive; to others, they were as real as, well, life itself. Intense, powerful close-ups, often visceral, and even sensual at times... Indeed, you could almost call the After School Specials the first incarnation of "Reality TV", if you allow that term to mean "familiar actors doing serious drama with real issues", as opposed to today's mutation of the term to "real people doing dumb things for cash".
The teleplays were derived from popular young adult novels, including many award winners. Dramatizing a novel in 45 minutes is no mean feat, but scenarists such as Bob Rodgers condense time and event so succinctly, the drama remains fluid, intact, and often breathtaking. (And we can always count on that that hallmark of the TV viewing experience, the traumatic second-act curtain, complete with fanfare and fade out!)
There is indeed a nostalgic element to the After School Specials which is quite endearing; the music cues, the soft color palette, the fashions and even the automobiles all collide in a rush of remembrance which is both exhilarating, and sobering. We have aged considerably, watching these great little masterpieces; have we also grown?
This is the pivotal question, for the real secret of the After School Specials is that the dramas were all, at root, stories about young protagonists trying to "grow up". It seems obvious now, but were we, the adoring audience, aware that the films were, in part, an attempt by the filmmakers to help us grow as well?
In many ways, the After School Specials were the missing link between entertainment and educational film. Highly entertaining, yet containing very specific and well-drawn "life lessons", the films are compelling dramas, and at the same time, powerful instructional tools. Imagine mounting a film series whose goal was not only to entertain, to help its audience grow! Talk about your "high concept"!
Even more curiously, the After School Specials might be seen as something even greater; during a time of great crisis and upheaval, the After School Specials was a daring attempt to jolt collective growth amongst the adolescents of an endangered nation, a media-sponsored experiment in mass human evolution, if you will, a sincere and loving attempt to coax its audience to "grow up". A failed experiment, surely, but a noble one nonetheless, one most certainly not repeated since.
To restate, the heroes were all children of our (babyboomer) age. Thus, mass love objects became mass teachers to their devoted audience. Seeing these young, beautiful and talented stars from our nighttime TV viewing experience in "serious" daytime dramas, in effect growing up before our very eyes, made the After School Specials a powerful learning medium. Surely studies have shown that for many, learning is most effective when taught by a member of the opposite sex (let's say the desired sex) which one is attracted to.
As illustrated time and time again in these exceptional films, the formula for individual human progress is fairly simple (though elusive): every time you are aware of your behavior, and contemplate on it, you have matured. Each time you modify future behavior due to this contemplation, you have evolved. Yet even these adored sirens of our secret dreams couldn't help us grow en masse, so crippled were we by our surrounding environment (read: family, school, and nation). Not for want of trying, though!
Due to time constraints, the heroes' maturation in the After School Specials tends to be accelerated, and often graphically represented (Benji "rewriting" his image in the mirror in THE 18TH EMERGENCY, Sara's cartoon scribble of herself gallops up a stair case in SARA'S SUMMER OF THE SWANS).
In contrast, look around at Kid TV today; there is nary an instance of programming which deals with the myriad and complex issues of personal evolution. It's all about action, diversion, stimulation, idiot dexterity, and superficial social acclimation. Even "educational" children's programming today seems to have confused learning with knowledge accumulation, and personal evolution is a term unheard of…
One connection you really can't help but make is that these singular telefilms occurred during President Jimmy Carter's administration, a period of liberal growth, called by right-wing cynics "a culture of malaise". And from a purely dadaist, subversive level, the After School Specials is surely THE GONG SHOW for kids. Entirely different in format, both series were frank and superreal, at times virtually shocking, in their unblinkingly candid (narrative or documentary) conveyance of an ersatz reality.
Surely, the After School Specials contain elements which make them virtually experimental; strange asides, flashbacks, inserts of animations, unusual camera angles, creating a distinct yet altered physical universe, in which it is somehow normal for a child to be standing in front of a wall which says, in chalk, "Safe Here", with an arrow pointed to the child. This type of extraordinary editorial intervention layered on the fairly straightforward narrative has the aesthetic effect of a roller coaster, and for us, turned the experience into what would later be labeled as "art film." (Strange that the label "art film" obscures the truth of what they are: "arty films", films with a personal perspective as opposed to a generic, mass perspective).
Watching these glorious mini-dramas today, one is tempted to bemoan how liberal and adventurous TV was back then, and how sad and retarded it has become! Thank goodness for video and DVD, our only avenue to revisit exemplary artifacts of our popular media culture before it plummeted headlong into that vast wasteland of right-wing corporate mass-think garbage exemplified by hit shows featuring "Bimbos Eating Worms"!
So what happened to this grand experiment? Therein lies the mystery of the After School Specials! Just sit back and enjoy these mini-masterpieces of our communal aesthetic experience, but please accept this caveat: some of these films are so engaging and primal, as well as being an essential part of our collective cultural experience, you may find yourself emotionally overwhelmed. For instance, we were utterly horrified to find ourselves awash in tears at the finish of SARA'S SUMMER OF THE SWANS. We chuckled at our emotional vulnerability after all these years, and sighed, "Now that's a movie!"
In short, wistful and nostalgic as they may be, the After School Specials are also very "heavy" (which was their whole point all along); all the more reason these dear and wonderful films need to be revisited posthaste.
The newly released Brentwood/BCI Eclipse DVD sets of the After School Specials are a real treat in several ways, not the least of which is the bargain pricing. For four movies at about $3 a pop, you can't go wrong. But you also get some pleasant photo galleries (largely frame stills from the movies), plus a super-neato carrying case that reminds you of the folder you used to carry your homework around in school. Hell, we even got a kick out of seeing the old After School Specials logo again, in that garish "disco" type font, which looks positively surreal today.
What follows is a listing of the 26 Martin Tahse-produced After School Specials. Titles with asterisks (*) are currently available on DVD. Active links will take you to our review page for that film. In case you haven't noticed, we're nuts about the After School Specials, and we plan on reviewing all of them in due course!
* THE 18TH EMERGENCY (AKA PSSST! HAMMERMAN'S AFTER YOU!) (1974)
The After School Specials on DVD can be located at these, and other fine online retailers:
Christian Juttner
* SARA'S SUMMER OF THE SWANS (1974)
Heather Totten, Chris Knight, Eve Plumb
* THE SKATING RINK (1975) Stewart Petersen, Rance Howard
* DEAR LOVEY HART: I AM DESPERATE (1976) Susan Lawrence
* FRANCESCA, BABY (1976) Carol Jones., Doney Oatman
* BEAT THE TURTLE DRUM (1977) Melissa Sue Anderson, Katy Kurtzman
* THE PINBALLS (1977) Kristy McNichol
* TROUBLE RIVER (1977) Nora Denney
IT'S A MILE FROM HERE TO GLORY (1978) Steve Shaw
MY OTHER MOTHER (1979) Melissa Sue Anderson, Marion Ross
THANK YOU JACKIE ROBINSON (1978) Ronnie Scribner, Felicity Huffman
GAUCHO (1978) Panchito Gomez
WHAT ARE BEST FRIENDS FOR? (1980) Dana Hill
A SPECIAL GIFT (1979) Stephen Austin
THE GOLD TEST (1980) Melissa Sherman
SCHOOLBOY FATHER (1980) Dana Plato, Rob Lowe
TOUGH GIRL (1981) Karin Argoud
SHE DRINKS A LITTLE (1981) Amanda Wyss
A MATTER OF TIME (1981) Rob Lowe
BETWEEN TWO LOVES (1982) Robert Reed
DADDY, I'M THEIR MAMA NOW (1982) Mallie Jackson
ANDREA'S STORY: A HITCHHIKING TRAGEDY (1983) Carrie Snodgrass, Moosie Drier
THE DOG DAYS OF ARTHUR CANE (1984) Ross Harris
THE HOBOKEN CHICKEN EMERGENCY (1984) Alice Ghostley, Gabe Kaplan
ACE HITS THE BIG TIME (1985) Rob Stone
A DESPERATE EXIT (1986) Malcolm Jamal-Warner
JUST TIPSY, HONEY (1989) Joanna Petit