"Mom? Something's happened. Something bad." - Michele Greene in "Did You Hear What Happened to Andrea?"
After School Specials: 1982-86 DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
High school graduation is a bittersweet occasion - a time for goodbyes and new beginnings. Alas, fans of After School Specials now face a graduation of sorts. From 1974 to 1986, Martin Tahse produced twenty-six of these mini morality tales. The final four of these specials now arrive on DVD with the release of After School Specials: 1982-86. (Unless you were in remedial math, you may have noticed that the six volumes in the After School Specials DVD series include only twenty-four episodes. The other two are M.I.A.) So put on your satiny robe, grab your mortarboard, and get ready to earn your degree in teen trauma.
"Two Loves for Jenny"
Based on the novel by Sandra Peden Miller
Original air date: 10/27/82 as "Between Two Loves"
After her father dies, Jenny (Karlene Crockett) and her mom move from their small Arkansas farm to the big city. Sooner than you can say "Pa's fiddle," violinist Jenny has won a spot in the orchestra conducted by "Old Man Forbes" (The Brady Bunch's Robert Reed) and befriended fellow violinist Doug Henshaw (The Last Starfighter's Lance Guest). A member of the school's cross country track team, Doug is cute, smart, and funny. Doug's a little bit Tchaikovsky and Jenny's a little bit bluegrass. He has wanted to be a professional violinist since he was eight, and has devoted his life to winning the scholarship he'll need to attend college. Jenny, on the other hand, loves nothing more than a good hoedown. When Mr. Forbes recognizes her untapped classical music talents, Jenny finds herself in competition with Doug for the music scholarship. Is she willing to jeopardize their relationship and his dream, or will she bow out of the contest?
".Jenny" isn't the most exciting After School Special ever filmed, but its message about women not deferring their ambitions in favor of their mates is a positive one. Toss in a charming performance by Guest and this becomes an episode that anyone can like, if not love.
"Did You Hear What Happened to Andrea?"
Based on the novel by Gloria Miklowitz
Original air date: 12/7/83 as "Andrea's Story: A Hitchhiking Tragedy"
Remember that old '60s Vanity Fare pop hit "Hitchin' a Ride" about the joys of hitchhiking? It's a nice, perky song that makes thumbing sound like an innocent, carefree hobby. Everyone knows, though, that in real life, hitchhiking leads to RAPE! "Did You Hear What Happened to Andrea?" is a cautionary tale that explores the seamy underbelly of this dangerous activity. When Andrea (L.A. Law's Michele Greene) and her boyfriend David (Kids Incorporated's Moosie Drier) miss their bus, they decide to hitch a ride with a seemingly friendly gentleman (Terry Wills). He must be friendly - after all, he's married with four kids. But when David gets dropped off first and her chauffeur makes a pit stop in an isolated wooded area, Andrea learns that appearances can be deceiving. At first, Andrea and her parents (Carrie Snodgrass and Matt Clark) blame her for the assault, but together they must learn to rebuild their lives.
With its fine acting and tense musical score, "Andrea" is somewhat effective at portraying the horrors of sexual assault, but it best functions as a time capsule of late '70s/early '80s mores. Hitchhiking was a full-blown fad back then, but is extremely marginalized today, thus blunting this episode's message. It is notable, however, that most of the adults depicted in the episode are completely lacking in empathy toward Andrea and her plight. This was probably to help drive home the point that hitching was a potentially dangerous activity, but today it comes across as callous.
Be on the lookout for a very young Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains) as Andrea's brother.
"Ace Hits the Big Time"
Based on the novel by Barbara Beasley Murphy and Judie Wolkoff
Original air date: 4/2/85
Ace (Mr. Belvedere's Rob Stone) is a bit of a worrywart. His family recently moved from New Jersey to New York City, and he's terrified of the stories he's heard about the Purple Falcons, the ferocious gang at his new school. He imagines a thug hiding out in his closet and, in a synth-heavy musical number, a gang of ex-Solid Gold Dancers assaulting him in the streets. Still, he gathers his courage, puts on an eye patch to cover a sty, and heads off to Marshall High. In homeroom, he befriends Raven (Karen Petrasek), who turns out to be the only female member of the Purple Falcons. Turns out Ace didn't really have anything to worry about. The Falcons (including Ally McBeal's James LeGros and The Larry Sanders Show's Wallace Langham) are tres gay.and, apparently, tres stupid. They assume that he's wearing an eye patch because his eye was poked out in a rumble, and they figure they'd better invite him to become a Falcon before he decides to poke out one of their eyes. Ace accepts the invitation, and before you can say Krush Groove, he gets the entire gang a job working as extras on Street Smarts, a Hollywood movie musical about star-crossed lovers who are also members of gangs. Sort of like West Side Story, but not as butch. When a rival gang called the Piranhas, jealous at the Falcons' success, raids the set and kidnaps Raven, it's up to Ace to rescue her. His solution? He sends them a pink frosted cake with "Make Peace, Not War" written on top. The ploy works - the Piranhas are kinda gay, too - and the reunited Falcons sing, dance, and jump off of a building. The end!
In case you're a little slow on the uptake, "Ace Hits the Big Time" is extremely strange. With its "cool" musical numbers and "say what?" plot developments, this is one After School Special that fans of mid-'80s camp won't want to miss.
"Face at the Edge of the World"
Based on the novel by Eve Bunting
Original air date: 9/17/86
Rob Stone turns up in his second After School Special as Jeb, a high school who is struggling to understand the mysterious suicide of his best friend since childhood, Charlie (The Cosby Show's Malcolm-Jamal Warner). As Jeb tries to figure out Charlie's motives, he slowly uncovers a few secrets that paint a clearer picture of his "friend forever."
"Face at the Edge of the World" is part mystery and part public service announcement. While it covers all of the basics one would expect from an After School Special on suicide - warning signs, how to help, etc. - it also treats suicide as a puzzle that can easily be solved, making the episode a bit too pat. The episode also is a bit shorter than the others, and a couple of minor plot strands are left unresolved.
Eagle-eyed viewers should be on the lookout for Little House on the Prairie's Allison Balson and Hedwig and the Angry Inch's John Cameron Mitchell.
The four episodes included in 1982-86 are divided onto two DVDs. The DVDs are housed in a single keepcase that includes DVD hubs on both interior surfaces. The cover of the keepcase is designed to resemble interior pages from a school yearbook. The keepcases slide into a cardboard case that effectively conveys the look and feel of a miniature yearbook. Thick cardboard "covers" open to reveal yearbook-style "class photos" while the back cover's "Autographs" page provides plot synopses for the discs' episodes. This 3-D design is immensely appealing, and well in keeping with the Trapper Keeper packaging used for the 1974-76 and 1976-77 releases and the school lockers packing used for the 1978-79 and 1979-80 releases.
The menus are the same as those found in the previous releases. After loading the DVD into a player, viewers are taken on a short CGI tour of a school. The menus feature a loose leaf paper design. Full motion images from the disc's episodes play on faux Polaroid snapshots taped to the "page." Viewers can choose to play the episodes or jump to one of four scenes. The segues between the various menus - involving pencils and erasers changing info on the screen - are extremely clever.
