A Very Special Episode...

[SFK]

LOL, I still hear that used from time to time. And for the record, people were saying "squash it" before this episode!

[SFK]

I was actually surprised by how sweet Mother Winslow was. I was used to Rosetta LeNoire as Nell's bitchy mother, Mama Maybelle on GAB. I'm glad that RL continues to get the respect she deserves in the theatre community.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I don't think it was a vse but i loved the maude episode about Walter being a slum lord.

Did the shows "Mommies" and "The Torkelsons" have VSEs?

[SFK]

Oh gosh, every episode of The Torkelsons felt like a VSE. That show often felt like you were watching a play.

[Gray Bunny]

Weren't The Mommies just a poor man's version of Roseanne X 2 ?

[Shawn]

Which episode of the Torkelsons had the mother buying the daughter a dress for prom from a thrift shop, only to have the original owner embarrass her by telling everyone that the dress was hers?

[SFK]

Are you a mind reader? This is EXACTLY the episode I was thinking of last night but didn't feel like explaining it yet again on this board. I don't remember the ep name, but the thrift store dress had a big stain on it and the mom said she could make her a silk cabbage rose to cover it. At the dance, the dress' bitchy original owner was jealous of Dorothy Ann and her date and yelled in front of everyone that Dorothy's dress was a thrift store dress that her clumsy little brother had spilled something on. Then she ripped off the silk cabbage rose to reveal the stain. Dorothy Jane was mortified. Her date comforted and reassured her, then covered the stain with his hand and they continued to slow dance away.

[Shawn]

YES!!! That's always the very first episode I think about when this show crosses my mind.

I just found it too! It's called The Cotillion. The whole thing is posted. This is part one.

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[SFK]

Awesome, I haven't seen this since it first aired! Thanks for sharing!

[All My Shadows]

Why did they never rerun this show in the late 90s??

[SFK]

The Torkelsons/Almost Home reran on The Disney Channel back then, but this was when TDC was still a "premium" channel on my carrier. I remember flipping past the show a couple times when I was at my aunt and uncle's.

[All My Shadows]

Aww...yeah, we didn't have Disney then.

Since Roseanne was mentioned a little bit upthread, I gotta say. I love that this show handled "very special" topics without having to make them "very special" episodes. Especially in the early seasons. It was a LOT like early Good Times in that way, where they could cover serious topics and mix them in with the everyday comedy/drama of life. TV rarely does that.

[SFK]

You know, I think Roseanne and Good Times did that so masterfully because of the tone in which the shows were set from day one. It's much easier for characters straddling the poverty line to ease into the drama as the whole premise of these shows were built around a family's day to day struggles to keep on keepin on. Shows about rich people with rich people's problems just can't pull certain things off.

[VirginiaHamilton]

Blossom had VSEs? I know they had recurring themes (Anthony's alcoholism and Joey's abandonment issues with their mother), but I honestly don't remember any special episodes.

[VirginiaHamilton]

Good point about VSEs being mostly associated with sitcoms, though one can apply it to dramas as well (i.e. Boston Public, another series whose entire existence was a VSE to the point where I stopped watching because I thought that David E. Kelley was purposely messing with the audience by not producing a single non-VSE).

Was that Becca's dad or Jesse's dad that threw away that glass? I forgot, though I certainly will never forget Jesse snatching at his own body while wracked with pain.