After School Specials: 1974-1976

Generation X-ers retain fond memories of coming home from school, casting aside their Trapper Keepers, and cozying up to moralistic tales of teen pregnancy, suicide, and drug abuse on ABC's Emmy Award-winning AFTER SCHOOL SPECIALS. Airing on weekday afternoons from 1974-1989, the series' issue-oriented storylines were adapted from young-adult novels and starred some of the most popular teen actors of its day: Rob Lowe, Dana Plato, Nancy McKeon, Melissa Sue Anderson, and the queen of 1970s television melodrama, Kristy McNichol. This collection offers a quartet of early specials produced by Martin Tahse between 1974-1976: "The 18th Emergency," about a 12-year-old boy who tangles with the school bully; "The Skating Rink" in which a farmboy's hard life is changed by the construction of a skating rink in his town; "Dear Lovey Heart: I Am Desperate," which details the mishaps of a high school sophomore who becomes her student newspaper's advice columnist; and "Summer of The Swans," co-starring THE BRADY BUNCH's Eve Plumb and Chris Knight in the story of 14-year-old girl who spends a warm summer day searching for her missing mentally-retarded brother.