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Mobituaries with Mo Rocca

Death of the Very Special Episode

Mobituaries with Mo Rocca

iHeartPodcasts and CBS News

Society & Culture, History

4.820.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you were a kid watching TV in the 1980s and 1990s, you probably saw a fair number of “Very Special Episodes,” when the usual blissful bubble of the sitcom world was punctured by real-world issues for a half-hour. Drugs, drinking and driving, stranger danger, even AIDS. But never fear, all would be resolved by episode’s end. (Sometimes the material was so heavy, it required a two-parter.) So why did such a mainstay for a generation of families disappear? And how much was Seinfeld to blame? Mo talks with entertainment writer Jessica Shaw and the late great Norman Lear about the birth, life and death of a cultural phenomenon.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Learn the chilling truth about the traitorous FBI agent Robert Hansen and the podcast Agent of Betrayal,

0:06.4

the double life of Robert Hansen from CBS News.

0:09.8

Binge the full series now wherever you get your podcast.

0:16.2

You know, I've spent many hours with children

0:19.8

who've gotten involved with drugs.

0:22.4

They start your age even younger.

0:25.0

In March of 1983 at the behest of a sixth grader named Arnold Jackson,

0:32.0

First Lady Nancy Reagan visited a classroom

0:35.4

at New York City's PS 406 to talk about drugs.

0:40.6

And they're all tragic stories of kids with great potential whose lives were ruined.

0:46.0

But this New York City classroom was actually on a Los Angeles sound stage,

0:51.0

and Arnold Jackson was a character played by actor Gary Coleman.

0:56.0

Who did tell me about Mrs. Reagan?

1:01.0

Well, I happened to be here in New York, and I saw that story about you in the paper, Arnold.

1:07.2

You know, I'm very concerned about drug abuse, especially among the young.

1:11.5

Mrs Reagan was taping an episode of the popular NBC sitcom Different Strokes to promote her

1:18.0

Just Say No anti-drug campaign.

1:21.0

In the plot the series regular, actor Gary Coleman, gets some help for Mrs. Reagan in his

1:26.6

own effort to curb drug abuse among students.

1:29.8

Do you remember when the Nancy Reagan Different Strokes episode aired? Yes? Yes absolutely because it was a big deal. I mean it was definitely like

1:36.7

this is something that we have to talk about. This is Jessica Shaw. She hosts the pop culture spotlight on Serious XM radio and is written about television for decades.

1:50.0

I mean, I'm Gen X. The fact that my parents even knew I existed was like a minor miracle you know so the fact that adults were going on our shows

...

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