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09/23/2004: "A Very Special Episode"

Television, during the 1980's was notorious for "Very Special Episodes".
I didn't get to watch a lot of TV back then because I was on tour, but it
seemed like every time I plopped down on a hotel bed an turned on the
picture box, I was treated to a "very special episode" of Blossom.

I'm pretty sure that I've only seen three episodes of Diff'rent
Strokes, but I swear to Hubbard that at least two of those fuckers were
"very special episodes". While I enjoyed the episode in which Arnold's best
friend, Dudley (I'd like all of my Black readers who are named either
Arnold or Dudley to raise their hands.), got buggered by the guy who played
Mr. Carlson on WKRP (Which had a "very special episode" involving
people getting trampled a Who concert), I still have nightmares about the
episode in which the late (give or take a year or two) Nancy Reagan dropped
by to remind Arnold to "just say no" to drugs - and to bugger Dudley.

Unlike TV, when Radio promises a very special episode, it delivers.
Yesterday's episode of the Paul Kircher Show was a very special one, and
I dropped by to hone in on the fun. If you missed it, you can listen to
it here.

Paul's guests were Steve Pogorzelski, President of Monster.com, Peter
Javsicas from PenTrans, and Richard W. Bloomingdale, PA Secretary-Treasurer
of the AFL-CIO. Let's jump right to Mr. Bloomingdale.

Richard called in to discuss the negative effects of the Bush
administration's policies on the PA's economy (PA has lost more than
300,000 jobs since 2001, 160,000 were manufacturing jobs. The number of
uninsured Pennsylvanians has risen from just over
1 million to over 1.4 million.) and to endorse John Kerry, who must be
really surprised to learn that he's going to get the Union vote. In other
news, Bush was shocked to learn that conservative Christians will be
voting for him.

If you listen to the show (and you damn well better), you'll hear Paul
allude to some problems between the unions and MTV. This was a reference
to a dust-up between MTV and Philadelphia's carpenters' union over MTV's
use of a nonunion contractor. Of course, MTV is no stranger to slave labor
or, as MTV likes to call the, interns.

As Jim Frederick pointed out in his essay The Intern Economy and the
Culture Trust at any given time there are between 150 and 200 interns
working for MTV. This free labor saves MTV approximately $640,000 a year
in unpaid wages.

But why should you give a shit?

Well, of course there's the fact that a supply of free labor drives
everybody's wages down, as the plethora of interns now slaving away in
America's corporations are doing, but here's something you probably haven't
thought about - racism.

In order to work, for free, as an intern, somebody has to pay your bills.
How many minorities can afford to fund their children while they work the
photocopiers and fetch the boss's coffee at SPIN? Now, if people
who worked as interns for a company have an advantage in the hiring
process, how many minorities will get hired?

I hope to Hell you people aren't keeping this information to yourselves.



Volume One, Number Three in the series of RATYHTL Trading Cards.

RIP Russ. Thanks for Faster Pussycat.

Replies: 9 Comments

on Thursday, September 23rd, billzebub said

I remember that episode....Dudley and Arnold were watching dirty cartoons over at that guy's house.

Speaking of Monster.com - did you see my message about job opportunities at Walcallovaya a few days back?

on Thursday, September 23rd, razlerja said

Damn, Russ Myers died!! I loved that dude. Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill is a clasic; but you'll never see it on TCM.

on Thursday, September 23rd, Rodney said

I saw it on TCM - Totally Colossal Mammaries

on Thursday, September 23rd, Jackalope said

I've always contended that the whole "very special episode" apellation was the death knell for any sitcom. It was the producer's way of saying "My writers have run out of funny things to say, and since they've all gotten paid, they've suddenly developed a social conscience and want to run this franchise into the ground with a socially controversial subject."

Like most bad ideas, this all started with Norman Lear. I remember sitting around in the mid-'70s, laughing like a kid on a sugar-high to the sounds of Archie Bunker flushing the "terlet" upstairs and to his multi-"Meathead" slams. Then one "very special night," the Dingbat got raped. To this day, I couldn't even see how Archie Bunker hit that, so why didn't that dude just cruise across the street and hit Gloria before she started on the all-Twinkie diet? It was a smart move, though, since the gullible public who'd been watching the show for years suddenly had an emotional investment in the series, thus prolonging a definitely weaker product for a few more years.

I don't think networks do it anymore, but if one of you favorite shows starts getting pimped that way, just stop watching and enjoy the memories.

on Friday, September 24th, billzebub said

They don't even write scripts anymore. It's all reality TV. I'd take a "very special episode" any day over 7 strangers finding out what it's like when things stop being polite...

on Friday, September 24th, Pistaugh said

There's a pretty cool web site called www.jumptheshark.com

The name of it comes from the episode of Happy Days where Fonzie actually jumps a shark (on water skis, if I remember correctly). When a show has hit it's high point and its all downhill from there. Like when Vicki joined the cast of the Love Boat. Or the episode of What's Happening, when the Doobie Brothers guest star. Or when Terminator 2 replaced Mulder on the X-files.

on Friday, September 24th, billzebub said

It wasn't Jason Patrick's fault the X files sucked that last season. They were supposed to end it and they decided to milk more money out of it. It was the writing and the stupid explanations for Mulder's not being there that sucked the show up.

I actually liked the character Jason Patrick played, I just couldn't stand the plot line anymore.

on Friday, September 24th, Briannirvana said

What about the Very Special Episode of Family Ties where Mallory's Uncle is trying to get up her skirt? Claasic 80s TV.

on Friday, September 24th, Briannirvana said

So I never watched The Facts of Life, but was there a Very Special Episode of Facts of Life where they disgusted why they had started bleeding, like in that movie about that girl who thinks that she's Joan of Arc, and her sister Putterjacks thinks that she has been shot when in fact she just had her period?