Very Special

In television history there are many "very special episodes" that strove to help to their audiences cope with timely and often controversial issues. There was the time when Growing Pains' Mike Seaver (played by Kirk Cameron) was tempted by peers to try cocaine at the world's most sophisticated high school party, and who can forget when the Keaton family navigated the perils of alcoholism and vanilla extract abuse with Uncle Ned (Tom Hanks) on Family Ties? Infamously, Too Close for Comfort explored sexual assault by having Monroe (Jim J. Bullock) abducted and molested by two women in a van overnight, audibly confusing their studio audience in the process.

For many years after they aired, these episodes became tantamount to folklore, viewed once and then buried beneath the static noise of broadcast whim. However, these days we can witness many of these televised morality plays firsthand thanks to home video releases and websites like YouTube.com. Any enterprising pop culturalist can now unearth the episode of Night Court where Bull (Richard Moll) becomes a nude fetish model to pay for his crystal methamphetamine habit. There's the ninth season finale of The Benny Hill Show where Benny Hill (played by Benny Hill) euthanizes a half-dressed syphilitic french maid while the Ladybirds hum a mournful version of "Yakety Sax". Even The New Scooby-Doo Movies has a "very special episode" where a scantily-clad Sandy Duncan learns racial sensitivity from the ghost of a Samurai warrior (Season 2, Episode 14).

And yet for all of these recovered gems, the one "very special episode" that seems to be lost forever is the third season premiere of Saved By the Bell where A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez) falls in love with an older woman that turns out to be Screech (Dustin Diamond) in disguise, causing Slater to take his own life. According to online copies of the shooting script, the hour-long special was to conclude with a lengthy speech by Mr. Belding (Dennis Haskins) on the dangers of costumed hijinks. The network decided to never air the episode, thus sparing the character of A.C. Slater for further adventures at Bayside High. However, the writers ultimately reused the Screech-in-drag storyline an additional 35 times during the series' run.

For additional information on "very special episodes", please reread this article, but slower.