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Reviews
ABC Afterschool Specials: It Must Be Love, 'Cause I Feel So Dumb (1975)
Too bad there's no DVD
This was one of the best of the old-school Afterschool Specials, basically a comedy but with a lot more to recommend it.
It was written by Arthur Barron, who a few years earlier had written and directed a "teenager movie" with some definite similarities to this show, including the appearance of some of the lead actors (although Alfred Lutter was a bit shorter than Robby Benson, they were the same physical type otherwise).
His teenage protagonists have a lot in common with each other. They tend to live in New York; they are contemplative and reflective beyond their years; they are intelligent and appreciate music and art; and they are interesting to watch...at least if you grew up as a shy teenager yourself. These aren't the teenagers troubled by drugs and pregnancy that came to be media staples a few years down the road. They are 70's characters,with likable, nurturing, non-toxic parents. They might be a little hard for modern TV-watching teenagers to relate to. Which is not intended as a criticism as Arthur Barron, but of the current culture.
Apparently the rights to this show were bought by a company which made educational films, so the chances of it ending up on DVD, as other Afterschool Specials have, may not be great.
The Dark Wind (1991)
Phillips vs. Beach
Comparing Lou Diamond Phillips' rendition of Jim Chee to Adam Beach's version in the PBS specials, it's obvious that SOMEone decided that Chee had to assume a more authoritarian stance and actually seem like a physical threat when necessary to the story. In The Dark Wind, Phillips seemed to spend more time in handcuffs than anyone else in the story; his character seems less in control of his fate than (to make an apples-and-oranges comparison) McGyver, who relies on his wits and doesn't even carry a weapon (other than maybe a swiss army knife). Not to criticize Phillips' performance, which I thought was as good as it could be given the script,I think that the series of PBS specials would have ended at one had the Chee character not been reworked.