Okay, let me just give you a little background about how I decided I had enough material to to this blogging challenge:
- I read about the challenge
- Oh my gosh how exciting! I want to try to do this with very special episodes!
- But wait…do I even know shows that start with every letter of the alphabet??
- Let me look up a show and episode for each letter and then I can sign up!
- Let me make sure I can find all of those shows/episodes!
- Actually, let me get really excited about this challenge and think that I have found all of the show/episodes!
Today’s episode was supposed to be Too Close for Comfort‘s “High and Inside.” Too Close for Comfort is a show I only knew existed because my mom doesn’t have cable or internet but she has some kind of TV that gets like 8 channels–one of which was “Antenna TV.” I was just chilling out a few years ago watching The Monkees, as one does, when I saw this show with Ted Baxter from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. So when I saw that there was an episode about pills I was like, DONE!
But now I can’t find that episode anywhere. Like where did I get the idea that I could actually view this episode?? I have no idea. So here’s what I’m going to do instead…I’m going to talk about one of my favorite shows of all time and how they parodied the very special episode!
The sixth season of That 70’s Show featured episode titles that were also songs by The Who. It seems like the writers tried to match up the episode themes most literally with the titles of the songs (not their original content.) So if you think about “Happy Jack” in very literal terms and within the context of a show about a teenage boy then you could see how this would be ripe for parody. Apparently, the original promos for this episode kept the details under wraps and joked that it would be a “very special episode.” And that’s how we ended up with this:
Richie decides to buy a motorcycle from Fonzie. I really can’t imagine Richie on a motorcycle at all. But fine, this is where the writers are taking us. His dad tries to prevent Richie from riding the bike until Fonzie promises that bikes are totally safe as long as Richie wears a helmet and leather or whatever. Now, what idiot seriously believed this even in the 50’s? I figured Howard might be a little more worldly since he’s the Grand Poobah of the Leopard Lodge, but I stand corrected.
Late at night, Fonzie breaks into Richie’s room to talk to him. Fonzie (who is essentially a mystic/archangel at this point in the show) make a deal with God. And guess what? Richie wakes up!
This is the first time I’ve watched Eight is Enough, so I figured why not start with the pilot? The show is about a family with eight kids (hence the title). Within the first ten minutes of this pilot, one of the kids gets arrested in a drug bust. Her parents immediately hire a lawyer and try to get her a light sentence. But oldest son (played by Mark Hamill in the pilot) freaks out and says that hiring a lawyer and will make her look “bad” to her friends because they’ll think she ratted out her boyfriend (who incidentally was the one who the drugs belonged to anyway. Very special rule #42: the drugs never belong to the regular cast member).
So all 7 of the other kids call a meeting to discuss Mark Hamill leaving the nest. Their dad gives this whole big speech about how he won’t apologize to Mark Hamill because he did nothing wrong. And the kids basically say they don’t really care one way or the other. The daughter who got arrested thinks her dad is doing the right thing by hiring a lawyer for her and not even providing one for her boyfriend (as Mark Hamill suggested) so it’s good to see she’s no idiot. But really, this whole meeting is about how the other 7 kids want Mark Hamill’s room. Vultures.
Mr. Carlson, WKRP’s station manager, has been bugging everyone around the station because he’s looking to be “more involved.” There’s nothing more annoying than an insecure boss–well except maybe an insecure boss with a Thanksgiving project.
It’s Halloween-time in the Brady home and the two youngest Brady girls are certain they’ve seen a ghost. And they insist that they heard it in the attic too. I feel like they really should be more skeptical since they all worked together to 
Carol & Mike over-hear the boys laughing in their room down the hall, and realize who the “ghost” is, but you know kids will be kids so who gives a crap. Marcia never believed the ghost was real and has already deduced that the boys are to blame. So she encourages the girls to sneak around and look for evidence. They find a slide projector and discover that they have a slide of one of the boys wearing a sheet. Okay, so Jan and Cindy aren’t so dumb. I mean a slide projection in the middle of the night would be pretty creepy.
So the next night at dinner, the girls trick the boys into spending the night in the attic. They bet their allowance that the attic is haunted, and of course the boys accept the bet–thinking that the girls are idiots. Mom and Dad Brady permit this to happen because they’re always 2 steps ahead of their children and figure the girls are plotting to get even. The Bradys love some good, healthy plotting.
So then they all join forces and decide to scare Alice. This just goes to show that the Brady kids are really total jerks. This woman cooks for them, cleans up after them, gives them prime life advice, and–in Jan’s case–saved her from near certain depression by showing her even an iota of attention. Basically, Alice is a freaking saint and this children are assholes.
But don’t worry, they get what they deserve. They screw up the timing so it’s their parents who arrive home first, not Alice. Of course, they see through this shenanigan immediately but it’s very dark in the house, so they have to track down the kids. Mrs. Brady stupidly leaves her prize-winning bust of Mr. Brady’s head on that partial wall divider that goes around the back of their couch, dividing the living room from the entry way. Well, to be fair the house is super dark–so maybe she thinks it’s safest where she knows she won’t trip and fall while carrying it.
The only problem with that plan is that Alice arrives home while the lights are still out and thinks a creepy man is sitting on the Brady’s couch. So she shatters the bust to pieces with one swift blow to the back of the bust’s head. Then the Brady kids learn their lesson because they’re not actually total assholes.
We open the episode with the Brady’s auditioning to sing on a television show. They get the spot on the show, and–even better–they’re spotted by an agent. They’re super excited about getting representation, and Greg goes down to her office to make a deal for the group. But as it turns out, they’re only interested in Greg. It’s just like when Michael Jackson didn’t need his brothers as a kid performer, but his brothers needed him so he stuck with the band–except Greg doesn’t do that. He accepts the solo deal. The other Brady kids are devastated.
But Alice tells them that they’re kind of being jerks to Greg. The agent didn’t want the rest of them, and it’s not fair for Greg to miss out on a great opportunity just because some record agent thought he was better than the rest of them. So they apologize to Greg and wish him well. The Brady’s are such nice kids. They resolve things so quickly and so easily. Part of the deal is that Greg has to perform as “Johnny Bravo.” And Cindy promises to start his first fan club.
Meanwhile, the Brady parents freak out over Greg’s future. They want him to go to college, but they don’t want to force him. They’re hopeful for his music career, but realize it’s very hard to succeed in the business or have any kind of lasting career. But Greg ultimately decides not to go to college, and heads back to the record company.
Well, if Mom and Dad Brady had taught Marcia about the right thing to do, she would keep the date with Charlie. She could also tell Doug that she was so excited to go to the dance with him that she totally forgot about Charlie. This means she’s going to a. keep the date with Charlie like she should and b. flatter the hell out of Doug even though she’s canceling on him, which means he’s definitely going to ask her for a rain check.
But no, that’s not how this story goes. She spends all of her time with Doug now and chats forever with him on the phone. It’s after one of these phone chats, that she walks out into the backyard to talk to Peter and Bobby–and that’s when we get the infamous football to the face scene. And after that we have to hear Marcia complain for the rest of the episode because she’s no longer pretty for her date. I mean it’s not like the first time she’s met Doug. Can’t he just use his imagination? And if not, then can we just agree he’s a jerk?
Anyway, Jan Brady’s freak out happened a little earlier in life than mine. While cleaning out some old junk, the Brady’s find a picture of Jan that Jan doesn’t remember. But it turns out it’s actually a picture of Carol Brady’s Aunt Jenny (Imogene Coca)–who happened to look exactly like Jan as a child. So Jan writes to her and asks that they exchange current photos of each other. When Jan gets Aunt Jenny’s photo in the mail, she freaks out because she thinks she’ll be ugly in 40 years. Well geez, Jan she doesn’t look that bad. Jan decides she’ll grow up to be a missionary because she’s ugly, and that is all that is left for her in life. But when Aunt Jenny comes to visit, she has to confront her fears face to face.
All of the kids think Aunt Jenny is super cool. She’s a wealthy, world traveler who knows loads of famous people. But Jan treats her like crap. Carol and Mike try to explain away Jan’s behavior as shyness, but Aunt Jenny doesn’t buy it. They finally tell her that Jan thinks she’s ugly and worries she’ll grow up to be ugly to. Aunt Jenny is super cool about it and sits Jan down to talk about how plastic surgery is always an option, but she is just fine with her looks because they make her unique. She also gets loads of marriage proposals that she always turns down, which seems to reassure Jan more than I wish it did. Then she decides she wants to grow up to be just like Aunt Jenny and her parents try to tell her (once again) that she can’t predict how she’ll turn out as a grown up.
The Very Special Blog 