Akira (Geneon Signature Series)

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, and the queen of 1970s television melodrama, Kristy McNichol. This collection offers a quartet of early specials produced by Martin Tahse between 1978-1979: "It's a Mile From Here to Glory," about a teenaged long-distance runner with an all-consuming desire to win at everything; "Thank You, Jackie Robinson," in which a young white boy and an elderly black man enjoy a warm and wonderful friendship based on their mutual love of the Brooklyn Dodgers; "My Other Mother," starring LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE's Melissa Sue Anderson as a girl torn between her foster and natural mothers; and "Gaucho," which details an immigrant boy's difficulties in adjusting to life in the U.S.