SheWalksSoftly

The Day My Kid Went Punk

I missed this Afterschool Special growing up, but it’s truly a (temporary spray-on hair color covered) gem. I highly recommend it.

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Terry, the leading man, transforms instantaneously in an airport bathroom from an awkward orchestra geek to the world’s most innocuous punk. Is the resulting appearance-based prejudice he encounters a warning for parents to keep their children from going down this “bad” path, or a commentary on a shallow, judgmental society*?

*They make a point of having Terry save the day for a sad little girl with leg braces…by somehow materializing a doll with identical leg braces…while at a horse stable, after her mother is denied permission to just “strap her to a horse.” I’m not kidding.

Only one thing is certain: the special is entirely ineffective, and quite marvelously fails, at any of its possible aims. In other words: watch this ASAP.

shewalkssoftly

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5 responses to “The Day My Kid Went Punk”

  1. This was hysterical. Holy crap! They sure foist such glaring “suspensions of disbelief” on us–but what I found fun is that they actually are making a case for “judging a book by the cover” in such a bizarre way. “A Ziggy Ziggy Sputnik look a-like.” VERY watered down look alike. lol. Was 1982’s Sigue Sigue Sputnik still in the collective conscious by 1987, or did this sit in the can for 5 years until ABC decided it could be shown without causing an uproar? THANK YOU for turning me on to this.

    Reply

    • HAHAHA…I actually commented, while watching this, “I’m surprised this woman knows Sigue Sigue Sputnik!”

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      • Brilliant minds think alike, but somehow I managed to come up with that, too. My cousin bought me their cassette, unsure what music to buy a punk.

        Glaring issue–“punkers.” I detest that word like nails on a chalkboard.

        Difference between Punk and New Wave (old joke): New Wavers still love their moms and take out the trash.

  2. I saw this when it originally aired! And probably many times more back in the day. You see, I had a big crush on Jay Underwood (star of ‘The Boy Who Could Fly’ and other minor made-for-tv movies in the ’80s) so it was unavoidable. He was dreamy, but played a rather unauthentic punk.

    No matter, this afterschool special actually made me want to break out and it influenced me to be subversive!

    Reply

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