Saved by the Bell: Running Zack

August 4, 2014April 7, 2015 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 10 Comments

When I was looking for this episode of Saved by the Bell, I totally missed it at first on Netflix. I thought with this kind of title it must have be about an athletic event and could not possible have anything to do with Native Americans. They wouldn’t use such an insensitive title for a very special episode, right? Well, I was wrong.

So you are in for a real treat with this one.

As it turns out, this episode does involve a track meet, but this only bookends the story. Also, the entire gang is on the track team except for Kelly who is a cheerleader (for track and field?) and Screech. I guess they left Screech out of the sport because he is a nerd, but he looks way more like the track kids I knew in high school than anyone else on this show does.

Anyhow, the crux of the episode is that the gang has to do a history report on their ancestors. Slater’s ancestors were bullfighters, Screech’s ancestors were Italian spies, and I seriously feel like they did not mention Kelly’s ancestors at all. Perhaps, they were cheerleaders at the Circus Maximus. Lisa’s ancestors escaped slavery and helped others to do the same through the Underground Railroad. Lisa says, “My family calls this underground railroad the original soul train.” Lark Voorhies breaks for a second and scoffs at this line because what writer ever decided to compare escaping slavery to a dance show? Seriously.

In this episode, Jesse has a lot of white guilt because her ancestors were slave traders. To make matters worse she has to present immediately after Lisa and right next to her poster of the Underground Railroad. I know you might want to give Jesse some credit for being aware of her white privilege, but that is not even the case here. She basically spends the entire day harassing Lisa because she feels bad and wants Lisa to make her feel better by letting her do random things for her. Lisa eventually threatens to beat her up if she does not leave her alone, and seriously no one could blame her if this thing came to blows. It’s like all of the energy Jesse usually devotes to flirtatiously calling Slater a misogynist is suddenly devoted to bribing Lisa and it is super annoying. Then it is Zack’s turn to present about his Native American forefathers. Screech helps him present by “being” a Native American prop, I think…

Luckily, his teacher calls him out on being a total jerk. He obviously knows nothing about history—he says his family is Cherokee from Burbank—so perhaps she should also be pissed at her own lack of efficacy. His teacher conveniently knows a chief, who educates Zack on his ancestors. On their second meeting he greets him as “Running Zack.” He says, “You run, you’re Zack, it works.” Then he offers this valuable lesson in cliches and offensive statements about why the “Indians” and the “white man” have such a gruesome history:

Zack finally gets his A when he comes to class in full stereotypical Native American garb. Poor Mark-Paul Gosselaar. What sixteen year old wants to dress up as a stereotype of a culture to which he has no actual relation? And as a job requirement? The worst part of all of this is that I truly feel like Saved by the Bell‘s heart was in the right place. They set Zack up with this whole it’s bad to stereotype, it’s important to know where you come from, and we need to respect other cultures plot-line. But then the writers/producers/tween Saturday morning audience either had or expected so little actual knowledge of history and culture that this episode ends up confronting one cliche with another cliche.

But then, things really get heavy when Chief Henry dies. There are only six minutes left in the episode! How are we going to wrap this up? Oh, of course, a dream sequence. And what do you suppose happens in said dream sequence? Chief Henry gives Zack a message on a handmade headband: Beat Valley. [In the track meet, you guys. Maybe you already figured that out, but I wanted to clarify just in case I skipped over the track meet part of this episode a little too much.]

Very Special Lesson: Sometimes Very Special Episodes are just so misguided, you guys.

This Is Your Brain on Drugs

Image ~ July 31, 2014July 31, 2014 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ Leave a comment

This Post Is Brought to You by the War on Drugs

July 28, 2014August 17, 2014 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 2 Comments

In elementary school we had a class called “Values,” in which we discussed good behavior, moral codes, and not doing cocaine. Our “Values” teacher –a woman with no training in mental health or prevention-based programming aside from (maybe) a certificate—for some reason liked to regale us with Nancy Regan-esque warnings of PCP blunts that she saw on TV and cocaine supposedly offered to her from a compact in a public restroom of. Then there was the infamous day in which she told us all that she knew none of use would ever do drugs so she felt no problem telling us that we could easily buy some in any one of the abandoned warehouses near the waterfront.

This woman largely shaped my knowledge of drugs, tobacco, and alcohol from the first through fifth grades, so I spent most of my pre-teen days convinced that someone was going to hop out from behind a dark corner and force me to smoke a cigarette at gun point. I asked one day in class, “If someone smokes a cigarette…just one time…and they didn’t want to do it…but they did it anyway because of—you know—peer pressure (AKA GUN TO THE HEAD) how will they know that they are addicted to cigarettes? Like if they just did it that one time and then forgot about it, how do they know that they have to smoke them forever?” She calmly replied, “Well, I would imagine that they would remember the way it felt and that they would want to get that feeling again. But you can just say no.”

Based upon the fact that she had provided us with little actual knowledge about drugs, I can see how this was the least helpful education ever for my classmates who (most likely not afraid of being held at gunpoint and forced to ingest carcinogens) maybe did not feel so good about themselves or were innocently curious about substances, and then suddenly entered adolescence with absolutely no useful knowledge about substances that were now readily available. But I digress.

I promised you that this would be a blog about very special episodes, and I have one for you here. This blog post is about the ultimate very special episode. In the fifth grade, I was sick one week on a “Values” day, and when I returned the following week, the class was already engaged in an educational video. I spent the class sitting behind my crush while he enthusiastically caught me up on everything that I had missed in the previous video installment. I was a shy eleven year-old and I loved having a reason to talk to him. And I loved even more that he was so excited to talk to me about what I had missed. As much as I would like to imagine that he totally like-liked me and that I had returned to school–having triumphed over my respiratory virus–as a more mature and cooler fifth grader, the truth is that this video was so ridiculous that it served as a unifying factor for everyone in that class from that day through the end of high school.

Straight Up (funded by the United States Department of Education) was the great equalizer of my graduating class. Loser and cool-kid, brain and burn-out for years after could share a laugh over “give me that headband!” while those who had joined us later on in school looked confused and left out. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Straight Up is the story of a boy who just wants to fit in with the cool kids. It’s a classic tale really. He’s bad at skateboarding, while the cool kids excel at it. You know the drill. The cool kids all happen to have a ton of booze, cigarettes, and a quart sized Ziploc bag full of pot. I mean FULL. We are talking a clear possession with intent to distribute charge here, people. This boy, Ben (Chad Allen), just wants to be liked, and he thinks that handing out with this group of twelve year-old druggies will makes his life better.

"This grass is great, Sue." — “This grass is great, Sue.”

Luckily for him, he meets Cosmo (Lou Gosset, Jr.) who has a thing or two to teach him about peer-pressure and healthy life choices, which he does by using tools such as a magic headband, magic glasses, and an amulet. The headband spews facts in Ben’s own voice when others pressure him into doing drugs. The eyeglasses show been the true dark nature behind the glamorous facade of heavy drug use. The amulet is known as the “chain of command” that gives Ben the power to (all together now) JUST SAY NO!

Yeah, definitely no drugs around here... — Yeah, definitely no drugs around here…

Along the way, the kid meets “gateway” drugs, booze and pot, and then must face the added struggle of saying no to harder drugs, cocaine and heroin. And when I say meets, I mean literally meets. They are personified. Oh and did I mention that this is a musical? It’s a musical.

Here’s a direct quote from the recap the video plays after the first section: “Thanks to the knowledge that his magic head band gives him, Ben is able to keep out of danger. But when Pot steals the headband, Ben finds himself hanging over the edge of a deadly snake pit.” To be fair, the guy who plays heroin is very scary and has syringes in his hair.

Yep, those are syringes. — Yep, those are syringes all right.

In the interest of full disclosure, Straight Up is 90-minutes in total and I’m concerned that if I review the entire thing I will write a 5,000 word blog post about an anti-drug video and the internet will hate me forever. But you don’t have to take my word for it…you can watch the full series of three, 30-minute episodes on the National Archive YouTube channel. It’s available for you to watch online at your convenience because it is such a helpful learning tool for Americans of all ages and every walk of life.

Very Special Lesson: Guys, what is happening with our anti-drug education in this country? Seriously. Who thought this video was a good idea??

Clarissa Explains It All: Hero Worship

July 24, 2014July 11, 2014 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 2 Comments

Before Melissa Joan Hart was everyone’s favorite teenage witch, she played the coolest junior high schooler ever on Clarissa Explains It All. Clarissa writes articles for the school newspaper, has the best clothes, and a cool best friend who always enters by climbing a ladder to her window. My dad was always outraged at the inappropriateness of a teenage boy entering a girl’s window via ladder, but they only thing that made it inappropriate was him telling me it was inappropriate. I would still enter most rooms this way if possible. On a side note, I am astounded by the number of window seats in Clarissa’s house. I counted three in this episode alone. That sounds like a great place to live! But I digress.

In the world of very special episodes, there are a few go-to topics: substance use/abuse, 30-minute eating disorders, learning disabilities, and miscellaneous peer pressure. Clarissa Explains It All was a pretty cutting-edge show and thus could not fall prey to the cliches of very special episodes. So today I bring you a very special very special episode topic: stalking.

Eve is the new girl at school (as in All About Eve). At first it does not seem weird that Eve thinks Clarissa is the coolest (because duh, she is). Plus, Eve seems like a pretty great friend to have around. She hand delivers the new Nirvana tape along with research for Clarissa’s next opinion column. (Maybe Clarissa is like the godmother of blogging…) Then Eve starts to dress like Clarissa and begins begging for the inside scoop on her articles. Clarissa’s latest cutting edge piece is how virtual classrooms will take the place of actually going to school by the year 2000. Ah, if only.

Eve really starts to show her crazy when she overhears Clarissa and her bff Sam (aka cool guy who only enters the house via a ladder) talking about how they can use Clarissa’s school newspaper press pass to ride some of the monster trucks at a car show. Eve tells Clarissa there’s a last minute newspaper meeting and Clarissa generously offers for Eve to go with Sam to the car show. It’s so obvious that Eve is lying because she wants the opportunity to go to the car show and pretend to lead Clarissa’s life. But Clarissa is super nice and trusting, so she does not even notice that Eve is a psychopath until it is too late. Suddenly, Eve has totally taken on Clarissa’s personality and it is super creepy. She gets a whole new makeover and acts like she is the queen of the school newspaper. Everyone is totally into her because she’s cool like Clarissa. I guess they’re not worried about how this girl totally ripped of Clarissa’s personality. Maybe she was so shy they never noticed her when she was just regular Eve and now they’re all like “Oh cool, Clarissa has a twin sister who suddenly transferred to our school.” The whole situation really begins to mess with Clarissa’s brain and she hallucinates that her reflection is actually EVE!

Clarissa 8 — (Poor Melissa Joan Hart has been in some lighthearted sitcoms with weird hallucination.)

Clarissa’s mom tells her not to worry because eventually Eve will find her own path and give up on copying Clarissa. Clarissa’s mom was always super crunchy granola and maybe this attitude contributed to the warm welcome she offers to this girl who is not only stalking her daughter, but also stealing her identity. Still, this seems like such a cop-out. I’m not a mom, but Sorry, honey, I can’t think of how to help you, but I am sure your stalker will eventually get bored of you seems like the worst parenting ever in existence.

That's not Clarissa, it's Eve. And her mom is super fine with it. What?! — That’s not Clarissa, it’s Eve. And her mom is super fine with it. What?!

Things never get too bad though because Clarissa outwits Eve by planting a false story idea for a column that she know sucks and that she knows copycat Eve will steal.

Very Special Lesson: Stay away from creepers.

The Cosby Show: I’m with the In Crowd

July 21, 2014July 21, 2014 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 5 Comments

Remember all of the Cosby kids? How Denise was the cool one, Theo was the funny one, Rudy was the cute one, and Vanessa was the practical one, which meant she got very few of the story lines? (And Sondra was the already adult one that they added later kind of like an after thought.) But finally, in this very special episode of The Cosby Show, Vanessa gets her moment to shine in the sordid tale of a good girl gone bad. After finishing her chemistry final, Vanessa gets together with her friends to celebrate. When they run out of videos to watch, they decide to play the Alphabet Game with bourbon. I thought that people stopped playing this game in the third grade, but apparently sixteen year-old girls play it too and are surprisingly bad about naming American cities even with 100% sober.

Of course, that sober thing does not last very long, and soon half the girls are sick to their stomachs. For once, this seems like a pretty realistic depiction of first time drinkers because it happened out of boredom and not at a Toga party on a Tuesday night. Vanessa calls Denise and she totally covers for her because she’s the cool one, duh. But while Denise is upstairs trying to sober Vanessa up, one of the parents calls Clare tells her that all the girls were drinking. Denise (such a cool sister) tries to convince her parents that Vanessa got the flu on the way home, but they already know the truth. Clare and Cliff are uncharacteristically chill and all like, “Vanessa, you’re sick to your stomach and that’s your punishment.” Yeah, well there is NO way that the vomit is the punishment in this household. When Vanessa comes home from school, her parents sit her down to play another round of the Alphabet Game with little Rudy who is in the sixth grade. Rudy ends up with the letter J (which is one of the harder letters) and she totally blanks. Cliff starts to pour her a shot and Vanessa is all like “Dad, you can’t make your twelve year-old drink.” But Cliff persists and Rudy is all like “ew this is gross” but her parents are all like “These are the rules!!” and, in what looks like some seriously abusive, messed up shit, Rudy downs the shot and everyone cheers her on. Soon Vanessa, misses a letter and the entire family starts chanting “chug-a-lug,”–a phrase that I have never heard anyone use in real life but now would like to start using. Vanessa caves under the pressure again, and downs the shot which she finally realizes is tea because her parents are not actually psychopaths. Roll credits. Right there. No further analysis or decompression. It’s tea, we laugh, and the end.

Very Special Lesson: Playing mind games will always drive a lesson home.

The More You Know: Check out Stitch Boom Bang featuring knit hats based upon Cliff’s sweaters: http://stitchboombang.wordpress.com/

Chick Like Me: When Very Special Episodes Get It Right

July 17, 2014July 17, 2014 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 4 Comments

“Chick Like Me” is one of the most popular Boy Meets World episodes ever, according to Entertainment Weekly. It is certainly my personal favorite (even though there are many close seconds). Most importantly, this is one very special episode that I cannot mock because it actually does teach a moral lesson in a manner that is neither didactic nor trite. “Chick Like Me” is the gold standard of Very Special Episodes. Inspired by journalist John Howard Griffin’s classic Black Like Me–in which Griffin darkens his skin color and travels through the racially segregated 1950’s South–Corey decides to go undercover as a girl to conduct an investigation on gender relations at John Adams High. Shawn came up with the idea for this, so I’ll have to give him the creative credit here and not Corey. He also came up with the awesome title.

In fact, Shawn is definitely the key player in this episode. As it turns out, Corey is really bad at being a girl. He tries to look “pretty” and attempts to walk like a girl and it is awful. It’s so obviously that Corey is super uncomfortable. Shawn, on the other hand, has no trouble getting in touch with this female side and has even previously thought about what his name would be if he were a girl. In order to get info for Corey’s newspaper article, Shawn goes on a date as “Veronica” with the resident douchebag, Gary. Gary starts off the date by asking every single girl’s least favorite question: “How is it that someone like you doesn’t have a boyfriend?” This is one of the most backhanded compliments, I can think of. It’s almost like “you’re so great, what have you done wrong in your life that you’ve failed to achieve this otherwise attainable goal?” Or worse, “what’s fundamentally wrong with you that I’m not seeing?” What could possibly be the intended response to this question? “Oh, I don’t know. I’m just such a shy and unassuming flower. I’ve been waiting for the right person to discover me and here you are!” But that then again implies, that the woman even wants said questioner to be her boyfriend. And frankly, some of the most offensive things anyone has ever said to me start with that syntax: “How does a girl like you…” It’s not only inappropriate because it massively generalizes supposed “types” of women, but also because it leaves this vague question in the air of “What kind of girl do you think I am?”

Of course, this is the least upsetting thing that Gary does all night. He manhandles “Veronica,” implies that she is “asking for it” by the way she is dressed, and claims that she must not like guys when she pushes him off of her. Veronica a.k.a. Shawn eventually punches Gary in the face on behalf of “every girl [he’s] ever known” and vows to be a better listener (and thus more respectful) in his relationships in the future. Everything I wrote above is what makes the episode great. But what I think makes the episode amazing is Corey.

Shawn has clearly been tasked with educating us in this episode, so what is Corey left to do? He may appear at first to be the comedic relief, but I would argue that he is teaching us his own lesson about self-awareness and acceptance. While, he was awkward walking around as a “cute” high school girl type, he is totally at ease as Cora–the brash and punny new waitress at Chubby’s. Corey has not shared his plans to go undercover as Cora with Shawn (who is on his date with Gary) or Topanga (who is watching from a nearby table). The character of Cora is definitely scripted to lighten the mood in this otherwise assault-y date that Shawn is experiencing as Veronica, but it isn’t that drag that makes Cora funny. Sure, it’s funny in a novel way to see Corey as a saucy waitress, but after the initial shock of seeing Corey crash the Veronica/Gary date, Cora becomes just another character. The joke here is not “hey, look at me I’m dressed like a lady,” but rather “look at me I’m a cheeky waitress who tells it like it is, honey.” And the best part is that Corey doesn’t seem to think it’s funny that he’s in drag. Corey seems to really enjoy exploring this new archetype. Haven’t we all learned something new about ourselves when we experienced being someone different? Even if that lesson isn’t that we need to treat others better? Maybe that lesson is that we need to know ourselves better too.

Shawn’s transformance more classically resembles Black Like Me—in that it is done not for humor or entertainment but rather to gain understanding and empathy for a seemingly disparate person. But Corey learns a lot about himself as well through his experience as Cora. Corey is often worried about fitting in and being cool, so it’s really nice to see him confidently saunter around as Cora. Even though she’s weird and outspoken, I’d imagine that she might be saying plenty of things that Corey is already thinking.

Very Special Lesson: Don’t be a douchebag. Listen to what your date is saying.

Very Special Advice from Blanche Devereaux

July 15, 2014July 15, 2014 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ Leave a comment

Does that mean retail therapy can also be good for your looks?? Thanks for the solid advice, Blanche.

tori / always

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Full House: Under the Influence

July 14, 2014July 11, 2014 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 8 Comments

Full House is possibly the most wholesome show ever, which is why I am surprised that Joey, Danny, and Jesse allowed DJ to go to a frat party while she’s still in high school. I thought they would know better. But maybe they are so wholesome that they don’t. Kimmy gets drunk at the party and feels like she can fly. If getting drunk always had this affect, I would be an alcoholic. Well, probably not. But it does sound like a fun experience.DJ takes her home, presumably so that Kimmy does not get in trouble at her house. However, I never remember Kimmy having parents, so I doubt this concern is warranted. Apparently, Kimmy was so drunk at the party that the frat boys kicked them out. I went to a liberal arts college without Greek life, so I am not that familiar with how this stuff works, but I would guess that they kicked them out because Kimmy was annoying and not because she was too drunk.

[There’s a subplot about Michelle and her twin cousins learning about forgiveness but it’s really boring, so I’m not going to mention it here beyond this sentence. Uncle Jesse’s kids were soooo boring.]

It turns out that Kimmy does not remember the party at all like DJ does. Kimmy thinks she was super cool and DJ was lame, but it turns out that Kimmy was really just super drunk and obnoxious. It turns out that this frat party is full of upstanding students who do not want to have alcohol at their party. They kicked out the people who brought the beer that Kimmy drank because they were afraid of losing their charter. But it turns out that DJ is not mad at Kimmy for getting drunk, she is mad at her for trying to drive home afterwards. DJ had to fight her for her keys because Kimmy did not know she was drunk even though she could not stand up. (Is this a real thing or a very special episode thing? I’ve always known when I was drunk. Does that make me enlightened and self aware or does that make Kimmy an idiot?) The reason that DJ is so pissed is that her mom was killed by a drunk driver. I have to give this very special episode some credit because they basically never mention the girls’ mother on the show, and it’s really kind of nice how a young Candace Cameron-Bure handles the moment here. But it definitely drives the point home when the entire plot of the show essentially revolves around a death caused by driving under the influence–even if its depiction of frat parties is silly.

Very Special Lesson: Getting drunk at a college party will make everyone think you’re a jerk. You will embarrass yourself and everyone will have more integrity than you. They will send you home safely with your best friend whose dad is Bob Saget.

The Weirdest Outfits of the ’90’s (A Very Special Review)

July 8, 2014August 22, 2014 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 8 Comments

If you read this blog, you probably know by now that there’s nothing I love more than a little snark and Saved by the Bell.

I am especially excited for this episode, “Rockumentary,” because it’s a mockumentary and because it has Casey Kasem (may he rest in peace) narrating. It might not be a “very special” life lesson, but it’s a special episode nonetheless. How often does Casey Kasem narrate Saved by the Bell, you guys? And I wouldn’t be surprised if we learned a thing or two about friendship along the way.

The documentary opens with Casey Kasem chatting with Zack Morris about the “Friends Forever Tour” that Zack Attack is kicking off with a big arena concert.

Zack Attack is:

Lead Singer—Kelly Kapowski

Lead Guitar—Zack Morris

Bass—Lisa Turtle

Keyboard—Screech Powers

Drums—A.C. Slater

(Noticeably absent is Jesse Spano. Apparently, Elizabeth Berkeley broke her knee and couldn’t perform. Ouch.)

It’s interesting that Kelly is the lead singer because everyone sings about the same amount except for Screech. They don’t let Screech sing. But some crazed fans do run up on stage and rip his clothes off. Ew.

Alright, alright, I know this is not an actual very special episode. I just wanted everyone to see Not Michael Jackson and Not Madonna give the Saved by the Bell cast a (not) Grammy.

Not Michael Not Madonna — Not Michael
Not Madonna

Below are a few important fashion moments that every millennial needs to bear witness too. These are our early ‘90’s roots and we have to accept them.

Screech’s Ms. Frizzle Solar System Tuxedo Jacket:

Kelly’s Selena Style and Zack’s puffy, puffy coat:

Kelly’s diaper spandex belted bike shorts:

These vinyl sleeves:

This phosphorescent green jacket that even New Kids on the Block wasn’t brave enough to rock:

Very Special Lesson: Don’t let your ego get too big or you’ll end up looking like Zack in that ugly green jacket.

***Note: All outfits worn by Lisa Turtle were omitted from the post because she was and will always be fabulous***

The Golden Girls: Brother Can You Spare That Jacket?

July 7, 2014August 9, 2020 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 8 Comments

If you exist on this earth, I am going to assume that you know of, have seen, or worship The Golden Girls. If you are not from Earth, hello, welcome. Thanks for reading my blog! Please google The Golden Girls before proceeding to read this post.

Things start off simply enough in this episode with the girls casually playing the scratch off lottery. Dorothy wins $10,000 dollars and they’re all excited about splitting it. (I guess when one golden girl wins all the golden girls win?) They decide to keep the ticket in Blanche’s new vintage jacket for safe keeping even though a coat pocket is not a very safe place at all. Would you carry around $10,000 in your coat pocket? I didn’t think so.

Sophia accidentally donates the jacket to charity, the girls head to the thrift store to pick it up, and unfortunately Michael Jackson has purchased it on his way to a sold out concert. The fact that Michael Jackson stopped at a thrift store mid-concert-commute in order to update his wardrobe is by far the least farfetched aspect of this episode.

Lucky, for the golden girls, Michael Jackson is auctioning off that very jacket for charity the next day. The opening bid is $10,000 (which seems like a steal for Michael Jackson’s jacket) so the girls are out of luck again. Yet in another shocking plot twist, the congressman who has won the ticket decides to donate it to charity (again!) so that a homeless person can have a warm jacket. No offense, but how cold does it really get in Miami? Shamelessly, the women decide to spend the night in the homeless shelter to try to track down the jacket.

This has got to be by far the cleanest homeless shelter ever. Everyone has army blankets and cots, but all of the mattresses and sheets look brand new. The golden girls are all bummed out by what they’re witnessing, but not bummed out enough to oh, I don’t know, let actual homeless people have their beds.

Sometimes I like to go down to the homeless shelter and just gab. It’s like a big slumber party!

Blanche tells a homeless man who pays a quarter for a breakfast of coffee and cereal that she prefers to skip breakfast because she has to watch her figure. Ugh, I know the writers are trying to make a social point, but this really just makes Blanche look like an idiot at best. The good thing about this episode is that each of the girls meets someone at the shelter who (in an non-sappy way) educates them about how terrible it is not to have consistent food and shelter—and oh wait we are looking for the jacket again. The moment is saved by a folksy song as we thoughtfully pan the faces of the downtrodden—while still looking for the jacket. In a last minute change of heart, the girls donate the lottery ticket to the shelter.

Very Special Lesson: It’s okay to spend the night in a homeless shelter with limited bed space, as long as you hand over the winning lottery ticket in the morning.