Quote:
Originally Posted by TripletDaddy
What about being told that every show is filmed before a live studio audience? Why don't more shows do that today? "The Superbowl is filmed before a Live studio audience...." or "Predators: Caught on Tape is filmed before a Live studio audience..."
Another thing I miss about old school sitcoms....every now and then, esp when ratings were sagging, you would get the "A Very Special.....(insert the name of sit-com)" episode.
The "A Very Special..." tag usually meant that not only was the episode NOT going to be funny, but it was going to deal with serious issues of the 80s, such as a character contemplating an abortion, or someone being addicted to pills, or someone battling alcoholism.
The hallmark of the "A Very Special..." episode was two-fold:
1. The awkward silence before every commercial break (since there was no laugh track)
2. The closing fade-to-black silent shot as the camera pans out.
Sit-coms usually went off the air pretty shortly after the "A Very Special..." episode, but I miss them nonetheless.
*fade to black*
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"A very special episode of...." was indeed, the death knell for a sitcom. I would love to have seen these very special episodes:
Head of the Class - After years of repressing bad memories of childhood bullies, Arvid snaps and brings an AK47 to school and threatens to kill everyone. Mr. Moore tries to talk to him about how violence won't solve anything and he is the first to get shot. Arvid then executes each of the other students one at a time then turns the gun on himself.
Perhaps if this episode had aired, there would have been no Columbine tragedy.
Mr. Belvedere - Heather accuses Knob of raping and impregnating her. In a drunken rage, Mr. Belvedere kills Knob but gets off on a technicality in which his green card had expired and it is decided that it would be best to deport him back to England so he is their problem and at the same time, saves tax payer dollars by not prosecuting.
Meanwhile, Kevin, finally beds Heather's friend Angela. He thinks she loves him and is dumb enough to give her all his account numbers and personal information, including his SS#. She drugs him, steals his money and his identity and she and Heather - who never was pregnant - skip the country. It turns out that the two girls are lesbian lovers and all of what happened was an elaborate scheme to get back at her parents for her not being their first child.
And Wesley kills himself and his Mrs. Owens in a science experiment gone awfully wrong.
Square Pegs - It turns out that Weemawee High School is just a front for the largest illegal drug ring in the country and all of the administration, faculty and students are a part of it. The DEA invades the school and the resulting chaos, death and destruction heaped upon the community leaves horrendous mental scars and devastating economic effects for decades. We learn that Muffy is actually an undercover officer who broke the ring. (I chose Muffy as the heroine because Jami Gertz is a babe.)