Martin Tahse’s After School Specials: 1976 – 77, 79 – 80 and 81- 82 Sets (Brentwood\BCI Eclipse)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Episodes: B

 

 

The invention and implementation of the TV movie by ABC was so successful that the network decided to complement its amazing Saturday Morning line-up of children’s programming with a series of condensed TV movies aimed directly at teens and children in a long-running, on-gong series called The ABC After School Specials.  Martin Tahse was a producer of 26 of them and they have been finding their way onto DVD in new After School Specials sets from Brentwood/BCI Eclipse.

 

Each set has four films representing each season of his contributions and are cleverly packaged in faux high school items.  The 1976 – 77 set is set up like a Trapper Keeper from Mead, the 1979 – 80 set looks like a set of lockers and the 1980 – 81 set like a stitch-bound notebook.  All are icons of how school was supposed to teach new generations like the shows themselves, all made at a time when the TV movie was considered an event.  These were the very rare exceptions where they were targeted at this age group and were always exceptional and intelligent.  I remember how friends would make sure they were home (pre-VHS and Beta) to see the shows, then be talking about them the next day.  Part of this came from their uncanny ability to deal with social issues so well, even though shows like Bad Ronald were darker that you would imagine and have become cult classics.

 

The 1976 – 77 set has a program about alcoholism (Francesca, Baby), family and loss built around the gift of a horse (Beat The Turtle Drum with Melissa Sue Anderson), young people living in a foster home (The Pinballs with Kristy McNichol at her peak) and the realities of survival in a developing America (Trouble River).  The 1979 - 80 set has a father/son relationship spilt by a son’s love of dance versus farming (A Special Gift), a young lady who faces a health challenge as she goes for Olympic Dreams (The Gold Test), the pain of divorce (What Are Friends For?) and teen pregnancy as a very young Rob Lowe gets a young (and now late) Dana Plato pregnant and only Beatrice Colen as a counselor can help them in the very interesting Schoolboy Father.  The 1980 – 81 set has Lowe returning in A Mater Of Time, which is about a mother dying of cancer.  There is also another alcoholic parent story with a love of stage twist (First Step), the complex story of a young girl in trouble with the law and split parents that has some great twists (Tough Girl with Karin Argood, Bibi Besch and Kristina Sorenson) and a father who cannot grow up to pursue a Country Music career that is destroying his children (The Night Swimmers).  I remembered a few of these much to my surprise and how much smarter they are than most TV today.

 

It is also amazing that cable and public television never came close to recreating the quality of great run of such shows.  I should add that the acting is exceptionally sincere, mature and holds up incredibly well.  Why did Lowe give some of his best acting performances here?  His “Brat Pack” days seem regressive by comparison.  The loss of the show is more tragic than I thought, with Schoolboy Father sadly having the darkest subtexts of them all.  The latest generation of TV and filmmakers have much to learn and relearn.  The After School Specials series are yet more programming gems of the 1970s almost lost and now are available to everyone at very reasonable prices.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image throughout is softer than usual, even more dated that you would expect and that is because many of these shows are lucky to have survived at all.  Many look like they are from older U-Matic (large forerunner of Betamax) tapes, but too many telefilms and independent TV productions were only saved on tape and sometimes only exist that way because final credits and edits were done in that realm.  Many TV movies have been lost, but Mr. Tahse seems to have copies in at least this form.  Some later shows look better, but the shooting and production value are surprising.  The sound has been remixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is also in 2.0, boosting the old monophonic sound as well as possible.  Extras are stills only on all three sets, though the notes on each are very informative.  It is sad how much TV has fallen from this kind of excellence, but these sets bring that greatness back.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo