Very Special Episode: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:7728 4665.jpg|link=Bronze Age|thumb|350px|[[Superdickery.com|His nickname is "Speedy!" What did you expect?!]]]]
{{quote|''Tonight, on a very special article of All The Tropes...''}}
An episode, often in a sitcom, in which the lead confronts some highly emotional or forbidden issue from everyday life. Drug abuse, teenage sex, bulimia... At the end of the episode, the protagonist is Enlightened, and the [[Long-Lost Uncle Aesop|guest character]] with the Very Special Problem is never seen or heard from again. Often there is an 800 number to call, should you (or someone you love) actually have the Very Special Problem. If the problem involves children in some way (and it almost invariably ''will''), then it may also be promoted as something that "No Parent Should Miss". These often come about when [[Oscar Bait|networks or writers are bucking for awards]].
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These episodes were far more common in the 1980s. They've largely fallen out of favor since then due in part to the increasing number of shows, particularly dramas, where issues such as drug/alcohol abuse, violence, sex and death are dealt with on an almost weekly basis.
There's a certain variety of shows where essentially ''every'' episode has a special message, such as ''[[Touched By an Angel]]'', ''[[Joan of Arcadia]]'', etc. However, the police documentary genre (i.e. ''[[Police Stop]]'', ''[[Police, Camera, Action!]]'', ''[[Road Wars]]'') and law enforcement dramas like ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' and ''Medium'' also use this trope fairly regularly, making this not quite a [[Dead Horse Trope]].
Often ends up as an [[Anvilicious]] [[Narm]], especially if it turns out to be a [[Clueless Aesop]]. Very ripe target for parody; these days, parodies of '''Very Special Episodes''' [[Dead Horse Trope|are probably more common than]] '''Very Special Episodes''' themselves. May also be vulnerable to [[Detournement]]. However they can also be handled with a great deal of respect and responsibility and outshine the rest of the regular season; though it's fairly rare that that happens.
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** Apparently, the magic mirror could have restored Akko-chan's voice and hearing as soon as she asked the first time, but it was simply proving its point, stating that Akko-chan got her Aesop all wrong: instead of feeling compassion for her new friend, she should have thought of how he's brave enough to get on with his condition without breaking down as she just did.
* In a Very Special Episode of ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]'', the eponymous [[Cute Witch|elementary school witches]] have to help Nagato, a little girl pushed on the brink of depression by the inherent competitive Japanese school system. [[The Woobie|Feeling inadequate, mercilessly bullied, teased by her peers, ignored by the teachers and witnessing her parents always arguing for her school problems]], Nagato starts to exibit psychosomatical reactions (aka throwing up in fear) whenever she approaches school, ultimately choosing to become an hikikomori. The witches just decide, without any use of their powers, to be Nagato's helping hand, going so far to offer their own hats for... Nagato's use and offering their friendship to ease her feeling of inadequacy and loneliness.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* Most of the other [[Green Lantern]] / [[Green Arrow]] comics written by Dennis O'Neil may qualify as Very Special Episodes - not just the one where it is revealed that Speedy was a heroin addict.
* The [[Modern Age]] Speedy, Mia Dearden, got her own Very Special Issue where it was discovered that she was HIV Positive.
** This issue was written by [[Judd Winick]], who seems to have a thing for Very Special moments involving AIDS and [[Gay Aesop|gay characters]], given how a close friend of his who was gay died from complications relating to HIV.
* [[Judd Winick]] also penned a very special issue with [[Green Lantern]] Kyle Rayner's assistant getting beaten up for his sexual orientation. Judd was the one who introduced the character and built up the homosexuality angle prior to this with a less [[Anvilicious]] issue, where Kyle discovered the assistant had a crush on him.
** Kyle Rayner's [[Green Lantern]] series wasn't entirely free of this before [[Judd Winick]], with Ron Marz penning issues on alcoholism, racism and hate crimes against lesbians.
* There's a Very Special ''Issue'' of the ''[[Robin]]'' comic book, wherein Tim Drake talks a kid down from jumping off the roof; it fits well in the story, as Robin himself had recently lost everyone he ever knew. It even came complete with a teen suicide hot line at the end of the issue.
* One of the most infamous of these stories was the ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' 'Drug Awareness issue' mentioned in [[
* ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' has been very a popular character for very special episodes, selected [[narm]]filled issues shows our hero:
** Saving a young boy from being molested by his female babysitter [http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/superhero2.jpg by telling the tale about how he was molested as a kid by an adult friend named "Skip", who had an uncanny resemble to Uncle Ben].
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* Around [[EC Comics]], these kinds of stories were called "E.C. Preachies." One of the best known of these was "Judgment Day."
* ''[[Captain America (comics)]] Goes To War On Drugs'' features Cap fighting ''drug dealing aliens'', and then later, a team of villains that are actually powered by drugs by the aforementioned alien drug dealers.
== [[Literature]] ==
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** This [http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/12/the_8_most_awkward_berenstain_bears_books.php# article] lists the "8 Most Awkward Berenstain Bears Books". Six of the eight could be classified as this trope. Namely bullying, Internet addiction, too much junk food, [[The Talk|birds and the bees]], guns, and racism.
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The fourth wall destroying quote above comes from the [[Lost Episode]] of ''Gap'', which also served as a [[Take That, Critics!]] to all the people who protested against the many many (mostly) implied instances of teenage drug use and alcoholism.
* Popularly attributed to ''[[Blossom]]'', which had a lot of Very Special Episodes, promoted as such. Frequently, episodes employing this trope were introduced by actress Mayim Bialik (who played the title character) intoning in a somber manner, "Tonight, on a Very Special ''Blossom'' ... ," followed by teaser scenes dramatically showing the conflict and cutting off before the most dire event reaches its climax.
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* ''[[Family Matters]]'' did episodes about the following topics:
** Marrow donation.
** Gun and gang violence among youth, complete with PSA from the actors out of character at the end, and a catchphrase [https://web.archive.org/web/20121013154206/http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/research/chc/squash-it-campaign/ "Squash it" ] that was part of a national anti-violence campaign.
*** It's obvious the actors were REALLY uncomfortable doing this PSA. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgD2Qr67ymc See for yourself].
** Police discrimination—a cop pulls over and unfairly tickets Eddie because he was a black teenager driving in a white neighborhood.
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* The ending PSA about the Very Special Problem was parodied in an episode of ''[[Dinosaurs]]''. Robbie and his friend, Spike, find a plant in the woods and become addicted to it; at the end of the episode, Robbie urged viewers "Don't do drugs -- and help stop preachy sitcom episodes like this one."
** And the finale itself was a Very Special Episode about pollution. It [[Sudden Downer Ending|wasn't]] [[Kill'Em All|very]] [[Tear Jerker|up-beat]].
* An episode of ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' was billed as an episode where Randy might have cancer. Turned out he didn't and the whole thing was a false alarm. He did wind up with ''hypothyroidism,'' a thyroid condition that effectively requires a pill a day for the rest of his life.
** In fact, most of the emotional turmoil the characters experienced were, indeed, that he ''might have'' cancer, or several other things, and that they simply didn't know. The stress of waiting to find out was the linchpin of the drama.
*** Well, that and the parents thought that not telling Randy was the best option. Which then backfired when he did his own research and understandably freaked out.
**** Yeah, withholding important and easily-researched information from the most intelligent and book-smart of their children really isn't the smartest move they could have made.
**** In their defense, this was their own '''''child''''' who might have cancer; if it were one of your children, you'd spaz out like a squirrel on sugar too.
** ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' was a rare show that actually handled these kinds of episodes very nicely. For example, in another Very Special Episode, Brad smoked pot. Parents behaved in the typical matter, but the episode lacked the soap box feeling most episodes of that nature had. Nobody died when Brad smoked, nobody even got injured, no [[Marijuana Is LSD|out of proportion hallucinations that pot doesn't actually have]], and Jill came out later in the episode, admitting she experimented with it. They said [[Drugs Are Bad]], but they didn't [[Anvilicious|put an anvil on the drugs]].
*** Unlike comparable sitcoms, in which the presence of marijuana is implied by the presence of a paper bag or tiny white sausages (joints) but never shown in actual plant form, the marijuana in this show was actually a green herb inside of a plastic bag. (Al mistook it for oregano.) Also, somewhat cleverly, Brad was keeping his stash outdoors, hidden underneath a chair. Perhaps some astute young viewers took note.
* Although not promoted as such, ''[[All in The Family]]'' had numerous episodes that qualified for this trope, with several episodes during the 1977-1978 season (the eighth season, and the final one featuring the original foursome together as regulars) having some very adult themes:
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* ''[[The George Lopez Show]]'' had a lot of these involving [[TV Teen|Carmen]]. Every teen sex related thing happened to her, just short of getting an STD or getting pregnant.
* ''[[Little House on the Prairie (TV series)|Little House On the Prairie]]'' in almost ''every'' episode. Walnut Grove had a never-ending line of suffering citizens needing help from the Ingalls.
* ''[[
* ''[[A Different World]]'' had an episode on date rape co-starring Tiamak.
** And one about AIDS starring Tisha Campbell.
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* ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' is a show about sex crimes and child abuse, two rather hot-button issues, and it had a Very Special Episode. What about? Teenaged binge drinking. Complete with a title card PSA at the end about the prevelance of underaged drinking. And the [[Narm]] did flow like a mighty stream...
* ''[[Victorious]]'' has ''Rex Dies'', which is about Robbie's puppet Rex being injured and while Tori tries to make amends, Jade and the rest of the gang attempt to make Rex die so Robbie will move on from him. In the same episode, Cat gets put into a mental ward. On the Victorious Wiki, it was called (at the moment) the most serious and emotionally toned episode the show had to date.
* [[Ghostwriter (TV series)|Ghostwriter]] had a whole story arc where one of the characters befriends a marijuana user.
* The Very Special Episode was viciously subverted, parodied, mocked, mooned, and otherwise brutalized with the kind of glee generally only reserved for children on Christmas Morning in every episode of [[Strangers with Candy]].
* ''Symbiosis'' from ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' included this exchange between Wesley Crusher and Tasha Yar about the evils of doing drugs. Something along the lines of:
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* ''[[Baywatch]]'' tended to do two half-hour plotlines within a single hour-long episode, running them simultaneously in the episode's timeline. Sometimes, this had... possibly unintended results. Such as the hilarity of combining a Very Special Episode plot in which one of the lifeguards gets skin cancer, with a plot in which Hulk Hogan has a wrestling match against one of the WWF heels in order to save a local youth center or similar.
* Parodied in "Mr. [[Monk]] and the Naked Man" which explains his prejudice towards nudists. He even has a silly [[Freudian Excuse]].
* The reimagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* Series 3 of the BBC childrens' sitcom ''[[
* "The Good Wound" from ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' obliquely dealt with spousal abuse.
* A season 1 episode of ''[[Early Edition]]'' dealt with gun violence.
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* [[Motorhead]] released a song called "Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me" which touches upon incest.
* [[Ozzy Osbourne]] has a song of his No More Tears album called Mr. Tinkertrain, which is about pedophilia.
== Newspaper Comics ==
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** Other "very special problems" various cast members have had to deal with included abuse (child and teen dating), alcoholism, war-related issues (including prisoners of war, land mines and post-traumatic stress disorder), pornography and so forth. While lighter stories have continued in the strip, the dramatic stories have taken precedence.
* Parodied in [http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2005/01/23 this] [[Pearls Before Swine]] strip, where Rat's head explodes. It ends advertising "A Very Special [[Sunday Strip]]": ''Coping With The Death Of An Unloved One'' [http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2005/01/30 Guess what ran next week?]
== Professional Wrestling ==
* Although by its very nature professional wrestling does not have "very special problem" plots in the vein of most sitcoms and such, [[World Wrestling Entertainment]] has aired very different types of "Very Special Episodes," most notably after the death of a prominent current member of its roster or after a notably tragic event. Current storylines will be dropped, and wrestlers will be invited to do [[Real Life|"out-of-character"]] tributes to their fallen comrade.
** The most famous "death" examples were tribute shows aired for [[Owen Hart]] (who was killed after a stunt gone horribly wrong), [[Eddie Guerrero]], and [[Chris Benoit]] (aired live, before the details of his murders of his wife and son, and his suicide became definitively known). WWE also aired a show six days after the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, as a salute to victims killed in the terrorist attacks.
== Radio ==
* In what might be the [[Trope Maker]], a 1945 episode of the comedy series ''[[Fibber McGee and Molly]]'' dealt with cancer. After the episode, the American Cancer Society received so may donations that they didn't know what to do with all the money.
== Toys ==
* Since the first wave, the stories of ''[[Hero Factory]]'' amount to this if the animated series is anything to go by - the Fire Lord arc is a drug PSA using fuel as a metaphor for drugs, and the Witch Doctor arc is about environmentalism.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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== [[Web Comic]] ==
* ''[[Ctrl+Alt+Del]]''. One word: [https://web.archive.org/web/20090519074746/http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20080602 Miscarriage]. This set off a slew of mockery and debate, including biting parody from [https://web.archive.org/web/20130804162322/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/108-Webcomics Zero Punctuation] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209164122/http://www.vgcats.com/cadaprilfools/ VG Cats].
* [[Take That|Parodied]] in one of the best [[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]] strips ever. Found [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/4/27/ here].
** Not really a Very Special Episode in the clinical sense, but in the very title of [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/02/17 Gabe's proposal] to Kara.
* Parodied in the comic-within-a-comic Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, wherein The Big Man [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/sweetbroandhellajeff/?cid=019.jpg wants that us all to keep it real about... AIDS].
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* ''[[Extra Credits]]'', normally a [[Visual Pun]]-centric commentary on video games, did this with the second part of an episode on game addiction. Instead of the show's normally minimalist art, the writer, James Portnow, sat down in front of a camera and talked about his previous experiences with gaming addictions and the harm it did to his life. It even came with a moral: ''"Life will always welcome you back."''
* The ''[[Brows Held High]]'' review of ''[[Angels in America]]'' for World AIDS Day in part of the Red Ribbon Reviewers project was mostly a PSA about HIV and AIDS, and praise for the play and TV miniseries.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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** Then there's "Lighthouse in the Sea of Time", the episode concerning illiteracy - though the gargoyles came from the Middle Ages, where the ability to read was very uncommon, it's still a little hard to credit a plot where the villain wants to throw away the personal diary of Merlin, and is stopped by heroes, who then deliver a speech about how stories are treasures. (Admittedly, the villain was just frustrated that Merlin's writings didn't include any magic spells, and quickly calmed down.) Again, Broadway's the one who got the major [[Character Development]], becoming quite the fan of [[Shakespeare]] - just look at that moment when he describes Castle Wyvern's kitchen, and then his eyes ''really'' light up when he describes the library. The blind author introduced in "Lighthouse" also becomes an occasionally recurring character.
* Nickelodeon's ''[[As Told by Ginger]]'' was, as far as Nicktoons go, never one to shirk away from touching on real adolescent issues. Three notable episodes stand apart for their efforts to address particularly tough subject matter: "Stuff'll Kill Ya", "And She Was Gone", and "Losing Nana Bishop" provided commentary, sometimes subtly and sometimes not, on addiction, depression/suicide, and coping with death, respectively. "And She Was Gone" was nominated for an Emmy Award in Outstanding Animated Program (Less Than One Hour).
* The "big 3" American networks united to air the special ''[[Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue]]'', where cartoon characters from ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' to ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' try to teach a child called Mikey about the dangers of marijuana. Ludicrously. The point that breaks Mikey, other than his addiction forcing him to steal from his little sister and his family worrying about him, is that marijuana [[Space Whale Aesop|will turn him into a green-skinned zombie]]; it's quite obvious where Mikey's priorities are, and it's made even worse when you consider most marijuana users aren't, y'know, zombies. Stupidest of all is that cartoon characters who really have no business knowing about drugs are the ones preaching to Mikey, such as Huey, Dewey and Louie of ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'', ''[[Alvin and The Chipmunks]]'' and, of all people, ''the [[Muppet Babies]]''. And seeing [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]] talking about a joint is really quite a childhood-killer. And ironic, considering his normal behaviour. Its first US airing began with a live statement from then-President George H.W. Bush, and airings in other countries similarly began with live statements from their respective heads of government or other persons of similar importance.
* ''[[Captain Planet]]'' is one big Very Special Show, telling children to not cause pollution (despite rarely going into ''why'' people polluted in the first place). However, it had many particular episodes that focused on more down to earth problems that children, teenagers and young adults may face. One of these was a drug episode "Mind Pollution" where [[Uncle Ned|Linka's cousin]] gets addicted to a designer drug called "Bliss" created by Verminous Skumm (who appeared to specialize in "pollution of the body" in the show, so to speak). Another episode was about AIDS, involving Skumm spreading lies about a young AIDS sufferer such as the virus could be contracted just through casual contact. The former episode is at least somewhat notable for breaking the [[Never Say "Die"]] rule by having Linka's cousin die from overdosing on the drug... Then again, the fact he leapt through a glass window and sliced his arms, causing him to ''bleed profusely on the floor'' might've had something to do with it too.
** Then there was the episode where Wheeler in a dream discovered an island inhabited by greedy, foolish humanoid mice who refuse to stop having large families. Initially clueless American boy Wheeler is against government mandated population control, but he learns his lesson when the humanoid mice overpopulate to the point that their island destroys itself.
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* Invoked [[In-Universe]] on ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]:'' Candace calls in to a TV show called ''Bust 'Em'' to catch her brothers in the middle of one of their crazy schemes. When the show's host sees the giant thing they built, she says, "I think we finally have our Very Special Episode!"
* The ''[[101 Dalmatians|101 Dalmatians: The Series]]'' episode "Smoke Detectors", which focused on the puppies trying to stop Cruella from smoking.
* In 1935, [[Fleischer Studios]] made two cartoons speaking out against animal cruelty: [[Betty Boop|"Be Human"]] and [[Popeye (comic strip)|"Be Kind To 'Aminals'"]]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Dead Horse Trope]]
[[Category:An Aesop]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Very Special Episode]]
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