According to Biography, Patrick Swayze was first a dancer and gymnast before joining Disney on Parade as Snow White’s Prince Charming. From there, he moved to NYC but was unable to fully pursue a career in professional dance due to a knee injury. It was during his 1978 replacement role as Danny in Grease’s original Broadway run that the television and film industry began to take notice.
His first film credit was Skatetown, USA with Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormick, and Scott Baio. The movie looks like the love child of The Warriors and Xanadu. I won’t subject you to a review of that movie (mostly because I don’t want to subject myself) but here’s a video of Swayze’s performance.
Swayze didn’t perform in another major motion picture until 1983’s The Outsiders. Between Skatetown, USA and The Outsiders, he made a handful of TV Movies, performed as a dancer in Toto’s “Rosanna” music video, and landed a guest starring role on a 1981 episode of M*A*S*H, “Blood Brothers.”
In this truly heartbreaking episode, Swayze plays an injured soldier with an even more injured buddy. Swayze spends most of the episode agonizing over whether or not his friend will pull through. Swayze and his pal are the same blood type (hence the episode’s title), so he volunteers to supply blood for his friend’s transfusion.
When he takes a blood sample, Hawkeye discovers that Swayze’s character has leukemia. Hawkeye and Honeycutt agonize over whether or not to tell him of their discovery, which is shocking to me. I didn’t grow up in the 1950s and have certainly never been in a MASH unit, but did doctors seriously not tell their patients things like that??????
The soldier becomes suspicious after a nurse takes several blood samples and Hawkeye tells him they’re moving him to Tokyo General. So Hawkeye finally comes clean.
It’s surprising that this is such an early film credit for Swayze because he seems so comfortable being vulnerable and raw in this episode. (Contrast this with Ted Danson’s fairly wooden performance on Laverne & Shirley around the same time.) And yes, Swayze certainly had a lot of performance experience from an early age in dance and, eventually, theater, but those mediums allow for a certain distance between the performer and the audience and require a different range of facial expression. That Swayze was able to transition between mediums so seamlessly, and seems utterly at rase with emoting to a camera lense in a tight shot, is truly remarkable.
Swayze’s soldier spends the entire night talking with the MASH unit’s priest and decides to stay by his friend’s bedside rather than go to Tokyo General for most-likely futile treatment. Swayze’s performance is made all the more poignant by his eventual real-life diagnosis with pancreatic cancer to which he would succumb in 2009.
Join me next week for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders.
For many, many years I was TOO sad to watch a Swayze movie because I miss him SO much. But this year, I’m swinging in the other direction. This is also my 500th post (!!) and we’re coming up on the blog’s 7th anniversary (!!!) so I want to do something big to celebrate. Very Special Readers, Welcome to the Summer of Swayze.
It’s a little like this but with more mullets and more Jennifer Grey. But it will include a lot of sitting around and watching TV, so I think George Costanza would approve.
I’m really excited to share this line-up with you.
–M*A*S*H – “Blood Brothers“ –The Outsiders –Red Dawn –Dirty Dancing –Road House –Ghost –Point Break –To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar –Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights
In the meantime, feast your eyes on a young Patrick Swayze dancing in Toto’s “Rosanna” music video. Swayze’s the one in the red jacket (until he takes it off at 04:15).
I spent so much of my time in the kitchen during 2020 that I enjoy shopping for kitchenware now! I’m obsessed! Here are some things I found on the internet that feel inexplicably important to have in my kitchen:
I’m a bit too old for Blue’s Clues but I really like that a paprika shaker exists in this set because honestly I think we could all use a little more paprika. I really like the idea of having it available on my table in an adorable shaker right next to the salt.
I have no idea when or why I would need this but it feels like a summer must-have for me. Also I’ll point out that the “muglets” appear to be quite small so it seems like they would be best utilized as shot glasses. Proceed with caution.
You know, honestly, this one is just a little wall decor to spruce up the place. I’ve been told my walls are too sterile and I’m trying to be more accepting of feedback now that I’m in my thirties.
I don’t know if it’s the cute little crank or the Toy Story Theme, but this is another item that I find myself undeniably drawn to even though it is rather expensive and I only eat popcorn twice a year because inevitably one kernel will get stuck somewhere in my teeth and it will take me an entire six months to work up the courage to try popcorn again.
My take on this would be to freeze some lemonade and use it to cool off when things get sweltering in July. However — I have read the reviews and there does seem to be some indication that these also work for cake pops.
This is so incredibly disturbing to look at, so I need it. Absolutely one of the funniest moments on the show. And who doesn’t love a little horror with their breakfast?
In yet another reboot we never asked for, Paramount+ gives us scary CGI Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and ANGELICA. She’s even scarier now if that were even possible! I won’t post photos here because I’m not looking to traumatize anyone.
In better news, Puma is releasing a Rugrats collab next week and it actually looks pretty cute. You can preview the collection here (and in the shot below).
Do you ever have a moment where you think you’re experience the Mandela Effect but it turns out to be REAL…so yeah I guess that’s actually the opposite of a Mandela Effect.
Anyway, I had a vague memory of being a wee child watching this show on the little TV set in my parents bedroom which like lol idk why my parents were letting a toddler watch a teen show (btw shout out to my mom who is reading this post)! But for years all I could remember is that there was a teen angel who wore a leather jacket and would travel down from heaven to help kids on earth. That is…only if it was real and I didn’t totally fabricate the memory…which it turns out I did not so that’s a win for my cognitive functioning!
I’m also convinced that the other reason I remembered this for oh – I don’t know – a few decades is that Jason Priestly is literally so beautiful my brain encoded his face like a work of art. Just like I cannot remember the first time I saw a picture of the Mona Lisa, I also cannot remember the first time I saw Jason Priestly’s face. And for those of you who are like WOW come on that’s a little heavy handed, please bear in mind that it is my journalistic duty to paint an accurate portrait of the millennial generation’s zeitgeist and I am just reporting the facts!
As it turns out, this show was so incredibly hard to find because it wasn’t a real show. Similarly to how the original Mickey Mouse Club aired short serial shows like “The Hardy Boys,” The All-New Mickey Mouse Club (the one with Britney, Christina, Ryan, Keri, Justin, JC et al) aired “Teen Angel.”
Here is an adorable behind the scenes clip featuring a pre-90210 priestly. (Evidently, Jennie Garth joined him in the sequel serial “Teen Angel Returns” so that’s cute too.)
Also, sorry I’ve been a little MIA. I’ve been busy socializing indoors in-person for the first time in a century and you can too if you get your vaccine!! (Please, please do. I got mine and it made me sleepy, sleepy for a couple of days but nothing too bad and I’m soooooo excited to be inoculated. Woohoo!!)
Oh and also, while you’re living your best roaring 20’s life and you’re maybe not in front of the computer so much, here’s a friendly reminder that we’re fully mobile friendly over here at The VSB and I will miss you all if you don’t continue to read this shit and leave me comments. THANK YOU!! — The MGMT.
Do you love the saving for retirement? Do you love Cheers? You do?! You love both!! Great. I have a very special “lost episode” for you.
At the top of this episode, or should I say mini-episode (because it clocks in at less than twelve minutes long), Cliff announces that he will be taking a trip to Tahiti by using his savings bonds.
Sam says he’s thinking of buying some savings bonds as well, but Diana poo-poos this and says they offer poor returns. But fun fact, this episode was commissioned by the U.S. Treasury, so for once Cliff gets to be right. Even better, you get to hear Norm actually talk about accounting and sound like he’s good at his job instead of just someone who sits at a bar when he’s supposed to be working.
When Carla and Coach admit that they don’t have many savings, Sam decides to start a payroll savings plan for the bar BECAUSE IT IS NOT THAT HARD TO BE A FAIR AND EQUITABLE EMPLOYER. This short film should be required management training!!!!
The rest of the episode is pretty dry. I’m so sorry to say that because if Cheers cannot make retirement planning interesting to me, then I’m probably doomed to work until I literally drop dead because I won’t have grasped the key fundamentals necessary to create my nest egg. Anyway, maybe you’ll get something more out of it than I did.
I got this adorable Murder, She Wrote zine on Etsy and I want to tell you all about it. The zine is a collection of thirteen freeze-frame endings from the show, hand drawn by artist Amy Talluto. The level of detail here is truly amazing.
I’m partial to the one from “Magnum on Ice.”
It’s only $5 (including shipping) on Etsy so snag yourself one here.
After Mary struggles with insomnia three times in one week, so goes to a doctor who gives her a magic little pill that makes everything better. Lou is immediately concerned that she’s in some kind of Valley of the Dolls situation. She tells him it’s really none of his business, so he tells her that it is work related because he’s putting together a documentary “on the dangers of sleeping pills.”
Mary reassures Lou that she isn’t addicted and that she’s taken them for fourteen consecutive days without issues. Lou challenges her to try to go one night without taking them (because he’s damn sure she is addicted). I mean wow what a strange way to handle a health concern with your subordinate.
That night Mary tosses and turns. She finally breaks down and takes a pill. But she feels pretty crappy about this because it proves that Lou is right that she is, at the very least, reliant on the pills. The next morning, Mary lies to Lou and says she didn’t take the pill. So he heaps praise on her…until she finally admits she took the pill as he suspected all along.
According to Lou, getting over insomnia is easy. He says, “All that you have to do is make yourself go to sleep at night.” Oh boy, if only someone had told me this in my mid-twenties. Could have saved me a lot of sleepless nights!
Lou urges Mary to skip the pill that night and promises to come over if she needs support. When he doesn’t hear from her, he goes over to her apartment, and the super just straight up lets him into her place. When Lou enters Mary’s apartment, he notices the phone is off the hook. Fearing the worst, he frantically searches for her presumably lifeless corpse. But she’s really just in the bath, reading a book and drinking some milk. Yikes.
Mary is understandably upset that Lou is in her bathroom. But he gets offended because he was only worried about her and he isn’t a pervert, he just insists that she is a dope fiend. So my GOD there is NO reason to be OFFENDED. WJM should be counting their lucky stars it’s the 70’s and they don’t have an HR department because this justifiable lawsuit would surely put them under.
Murray barges, quickly followed by Ted (who is as oblivious as Lou). Murray at least has the decency to turn around and face the wall. Murray and Ted leave but Lou stays behind to make sure that Mary doesn’t take a sleeping pill. She’s understandably a bit agitated and tries to sneak pill behind his back. So he puts them down the garbage disposal.
Lou wraps Mary in an afgan, sits her down on the couch, and puts his harm around her. He tells her to breathe deeply and pretend she is asleep. He then says he will sing to her just as he used to sing all of his children to sleep. I’m having a full on panic attack at the thought of being in this situation, so I’m not sure how Mary is feeling. For the record, Ed Asner has a pretty decent voice though.
Against all odds, this actually works. Incidentally, this is the first time that Mary Richards, a woman in her late-thirties, has had anyone tell her that she snores. It’s never too late for some good old fashioned self-discovery.
Very Special Episode: Evidently, the cure for insomnia is an Ed Asner a capella album of Irish lullabies and a warm afgan blanket. For best results, exhaust yourself beforehand by moving into a building whose super will gladly let all of your coworkers into your bathroom without your permission.
In the mid-90’s Disney had an animated television series based on the 101 Dalmatians movie. Personally, I think the 90’s animation is way less cute than the original 1961 animation. But anyways, in this episode Cruella De Vil is forced to stop smoking cold-turkey after she slowly sets every single room in her house on fire. Her insurance company gives her an ultimatum and refuses to let her live in her house again until she is a certified non-smoker. So she moves in with Anita and Roger temporarily. (This adaptation is a weird version of the story in which they appear to be neighbors and on rather cordial terms.)
In all seriousness, the amount of smoke coming from her house is sheer sweatshop level. It’s so bad it keeps the puppies awake at night. But the only thing worse than the constant air pollution is the possibility of endless cohabitation with the woman who is constantly trying to murder them for their fur.
Faced with a literal hellscape, the dogs decide to help Cruella with her smoking cessation plan if only so they can sleep a little better at night (a.k.a. without the constant threat of death). They spend a lot of time snatching cigarettes out of Cruella’s mouth and blowing out her matches. After realizing that this is a Sisyphean approach, they decide to lock her in the bathroom while they destroy her stash.
While Cruella is dazed and locked in the downstairs bathroom, these puppies create a literal assembly line to move several thousand boxes of cigarettes to the upstairs bathroom where they intend to flush them down the toilet. At this point, I have to ask where even are Pongo and Perdita?? It seems like these puppies could use some adult supervision!
As the puppies set about ruining the plumbing in this old house, Cruella breaks out of the downstairs bathroom. Just as she is rushing toward the stairs, the toilet over flows and floods the entire house. After that the puppies decide to try a different approach.
As it turns out, Roger stopped smoking his pipe by using a self-help tape in his sleep. That night, after Cruella returns home, the puppies break into her house with a boombox. Unfortunately, the puppies cannot read, so they accidentally play a puppy training tape for her instead of the anti-smoking tape. This somehow hypnotizes Cruella into a dog-like state. At one point it seems like Cruella is seriously considering urinating on a fire hydrant but opts to bite a delivery person’s leg instead. I never thought I would say this, but I am genuinely beginning to feel bad for Cruella De Vil.
Roger manages to snap Cruella out of her hypnosis, but it turns out this has all been for the better because she has finally hit rock bottom. Anita offers her a pack of gum to help with her craving.s And it turns out that’s all she needed! Except then she chews so much gum that she destroys her house with that too.
Very Special Lesson: Everything in moderation. Except for cigarettes. No cigarettes.
At the top of this episode, Shawn and Cory decide that Feeny’s job is so easy that even a kid could do it. Meanwhile, Mr. Feeny introduces that week’s lesson: Prejudice. The class will be covering Black slavery in the American South, The Holocaust, and several other issues concerning prejudice. ALL OF THIS IN ONE WEEK, FEENY? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
He sends this kids home with the first thirty pages of Anne Frank’s diary, but pulls Cory aside at the last minute to scold him for acting up in class. Cory and Feeny argue that it’s easier to be in the other one’s shoes, so they decide to swap places for the week. Cory will teach his class while Feeny sits in front of Shawn and acts up. To make it interesting, Cory bets his new bike and Feeny bets 20% of his weekly paycheck. If more kids do well on the test than usual, then Cory wins. Cory thinks it will be a breeze because: “The book does all the teaching. Feeny’s just Vanna White pointing at the letters.”
At school the next day, Cory tells all of the kids in class that they can wear their baseball caps and should refer to him as “Hey Dude.” That’s my kind of teaching! Topanga requests that Cory waive the entire dress code so that she can be more free to culturally appropriate and wear a sari to school. Cory agrees.
Back at Cory’s house, Morgan cramps Eric’s style with his new girlfriend Linda because she’s really nice and Morgan wants to be her new BFF. But I think this really works out for Eric because Morgan seems so endearing and it makes Eric look like a family man. The next day, Linda sends Eric home with a Japanese lantern for Morgan.
As Cory’s first day of teaching comes to a close, his father (who is very concerned about the new bike he just paid for) inquires about the details of Feeny’s grading. In the course of their conversation, Cory reveals that Feeny is going to take the test since he’s a student this week. Alan explains that Feeny will get the highest score, thus breaking the curve, and will win the bet.
Cory is STRESSED when he returns to class the next day. Topanga decides to sit on a yoga cushion instead of at her desk. She’s wear a sari, as promised, and there’s a whole joke about how “scary she is when she meditates. (For an episode that is all about everyday racism, this whole bit is a sour note.) Minkus decides to goof off for once in his life. And Mr. Feeny shows up wearing a Phillies jersey just in time for Shawn to deal him into poker. Suffice it to say, Cory isn’t able to get any teaching done and is bike is effectively toast.
When he arrives home from school, he agonizes over how to get through to the class. As Cory is trying to figure out a game plan, Eric arrive home with a sobbing Linda. Someone at the mall called her a racial slur. Cory, a white boy from suburban Philadelphia, is fully shocked that prejudice still exists in the modern world of 1993.
The next day at school, Cory goes fully Feeny and wears a suit. (Feeny wears a Meat Loaf sweatshirt.) Even though everyone is goofing off, Cory proceeds on with his lecture: “Class, I’d like to talk to you today about prejudice and how it still exists in today’s world. I didn’t even know that until last night when I saw a real smart totally cool Asian girl crying her eyes out because some idiot at the mall called her a bad name. My lesson for today is that when people treat other people badly because of their skin color, or their religion, or where they come from, then real smart totally cool people can really suffer.”
No one listens to him. Cory is totally dejected and is about to walk out of the classroom (and away from his proverbial bike) when Feeny gives him a meaningful look. Corey turns back around and asks Shawn what his mother’s maiden name is. Then he uses a slur for Italian people. When Shawn is just about to deck him (Feeny is allowing all of this to happen for “education purposes”) Cory points out that not everyone has the luxury of being able to stand up for themselves. (Cory doesn’t say this here but if you were listening to his lecture earlier it’s obvious that his larger point is that they shouldn’t even have to.) Cory concludes the class by reading the most famous quote from Anne’s diary.
The next day, Feeny reveals that the exact same number of students passed, so the bet is a draw. Cory keeps his bike and Feeny keeps his full paycheck. Cory is disappointed and feels like he wasn’t a good teacher. (Turns out it’s a lot harder than it looks.) But Feeny lifts his spirits by revealing that Shawn scored a letter grade higher than he usually does. He got a B! Feeny also reveals that Cory learned something as well. Oh Lord, this brought me to tears multiple times. This episode is AMAZING.
Okay, this episode is especially cute in the context of Girl Meets World where Cory really does grow up to be a teacher. It totally works. I love it.
Something that I think is particularly great about this episode is that it doesn’t stop at raising awareness. Part of this, yes, is Cory becoming aware of the fact that racism exists in his world — something he has never personally experienced as a white child in an upper-middle class bubble. But Cory quickly realizes that raising awareness to this issue through his lecture didn’t really get anyone’s attention. So he quickly moves on to a different approach: he provokes Shawn.
Shawn is a safe person to try this with. If he’s going to punch Cory, there will at least be a bit of a lead up to it (and hopefully time to de-escalate). And with this lead-time, Cory starts a conversation. It’s an inflammatory conversation, but it’s with someone who he knows will continue to listen even if things get tense because Cory has that kind of relationship with Shawn. Cory then uses a series of very pointed questions that provoke Shawn. He questions him on what he would do in this hypothetical situation and then remind him that he doesn’t have the power to actually do anything.
When Cory confronts Shawn in front of the class, it’s like he’s doing his own mini blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment where he, Cory, is the powerful blue-eyed boy while Shawn (the proverbial brown-eyed) can’t do anything to better his station in the classroom. Our budding activist wraps the class up with a call to action. He reminds everyone that it isn’t enough for the people who are suffering to stand up for themselves, but rather that the people in power must stand up for them too. It’s not a very great call to action because it’s pretty vague and evidently left a lot of kids still missing the point. But he’s only eleven, so we’ll give him points anyway. And hey, Shawn got a B on the final assignment, which really is saying something.
Is there some kind of campaign I can get behind to show this episode of Boy Meets World in every classroom in America? And also maybe every church and every office space? I know a lot of adults who could really benefit from this clip:
This episode may have aired in 1993 but it certainly feels like it could be describing life in 2021.
The Very Special Blog 