Nine times out of ten, the world of a sitcom is filled to the brim with wacky hijinks, hilarious misunderstandings and all other forms of entertaining shenanigans. However, once in a while sitcom writers feel that mere entertainment isn’t enough. They want to tap into the sometimes depressing and complicated nature of real life. Enter the “very special episode”, or VSE. The VSE is a different kind of animal from your regular everyday sitcom episode. The VSE is the time where the characters that we’ve grown to love tackle the very real problems facing the world such as alcoholism, homelessness, racism or even the dangers of hide and seek (more on that last one later). These episodes are meant to be educational and informative with a very important lesson at the end. However, the VSE cane easily and quickly veer into melodrama with a large amount of hammy acting.
If you’re like me, the VSE can seem like a gift from the Gods. A tiny bit of drama mixed with a message is like a drug to me. From the touching to the ridiculously cheesy, the VSE always held a special place in my television obsessed heart.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on your tastes) the VSE has fallen out of vogue. If you’re in the mood for some, here are two can’t miss classics from the golden age of sitcoms.
Punky Brewster
The Norm: In this famous ’80s sitcom, adorably and spunky Punky Brewster’s parents abandoned her. She lives with her cantankerous but loving foster dad, Henry. This may sound outrageously depressing, but Punky was basically awesome personified, so everything came off cute rather than tragic.
The Very Special Topic: the dangers of hide and seek
The Episode: This is probably the VSE incarnate. In fact, if you google Punky Brewster, one of the first results that pops up is about refrigerators. That’s how huge this episode is. In this VSE, Punky and her gal-pal Cherie are playing hide and seek with a bunch of their friends. Poor Cherie decides to hide in a seemingly safe discarded refrigerator. In a tragic and bizarre turn of events, it ends up being the worst hiding spot in the world. Yep, you guessed it. Cherie totally temporarily kicks the bucket. This poor soul actually gets locked in and suffocates. Punky arrives in the nick of time and performs CPR and saves Cherie’s life. Presumably this episode was meant to stress the importance of learning CPR, but it managed to do it in the weirdest way possible.
Smart Guy
The Norm: Ten-year-old genius T.J. Henderson skips ahead six grades, joining his older siblings in high school. Kid genius hilarity ensues.
The Very Special Topic: Child Molesters/Internet Safety
The Episode: This VSE tackles the topic of both child molestation as well as Internet safety. Back in 1997 when this episode aired, the Internet seemed like the Wild West. Parents were terrified that their children would get snatched by some lurking creeper. Seeing the possibilities, the writers of Smart Guy jumped on the chance to tackle this subject with “Strangers on the Net”. T.J. and his friend begin using an online chatroom to pirate video games from an Internet friend. They all decide to meet up, and to the shock of no one, the “friend” is totally a middle aged pervert. The friend tries to get T.J. and his friend to strip down for a “surfing game” that he developed. T.J., being the smart guy that he is, runs off with his friend and tells their parents about what happened. A serious lecture about the dangers of the internet closes up the episode.