IN 2017 we had PSA month, were we looked at public service ads , but they weren't the only things trying to get you not to smoke or drink. TV Shows sometimes also try also have public service messages especially, those made to target families with kids that might be watching. Sometimes called "The Very Special Episode". That's our focus this time. (not for a month , that way we can space them out and come back when need be.)
So we head to the 1980's because this is the decade at the height of family TV and of the very special episode.
Our Show: Small Wonder
What is it trying to tell the audience? : Don't Smoke or Chew Tabbaco
Small Wonder is a weird show. It's a show about a guy who makes a robot girl because he wants to make it to impress his job but doesn't do anything with it. She lives with the family and acts as a snarky mono-toned daughter/sister. So this is the series I want to teach the ills of smoking.
From season 2, Episode 1 "Chewed out/ Smoker's Delight"
Ted , the father, had a stressful day at work and decides to pull out a cigarette which shocks his wife. (gasp!) She gives the lines of cigarettes are bad and stink up your clothes. Then she takes away his cigarettes and she steps on his foot then Vicki the robot does it too, harder.
Their kid and his friend (I'll say their names later) are now in junior-high school and feeling low because they are umm at the bottom of school compared to top of elementary school. Jamie ,that's the son's name, finds the cigarettes in the trash. (plot device and delivery done) Jamie's friend thinks of idea to get the older students to not think of them as babies. (OOh I wonder what ?)
The robot shows them how to smoke. (This like kids going on the internet, or what the robot future looks like , if we don't stop now) Because this is a comedy, we get funny robot smoking scenes like the smoke coming out of her ears because ha. The two boys try smoking and they cough and stuff and the taped in front a live studio audience laughs. (It's funny because coughing is funny)
Smoking.. darn AI has gone too far/ Copyright 20th Fox
Skipping unimportant stuff.
A boy named Peter ,who is in the 9th grade is coming to visit Jamie and Reggie. He's the biggest jock in the 9th grade apparently. (weee) Jamie bribed the boy to come with a rare baseball card then they offer the smokes. Now breaking news: smoking isn't cool. Well that's the episode Jamie and Reggie find out that smoking isn't cool and stop doing it. (Psst we have like 9 more minutes) Oh no wait. Peter says all the jocks are doing chewing tobacco.
You could say , eight is enough. Copyright 20th Fox.
Now the episode explicitly says again that cigarettes hurt you with the kids saying that to Peter. He says that chewing the tobacco is less dangerous than cigarettes. So this episode isn't about smoking after all it's about the dangers of chewing tobacco. Also he goes that all pro-ball players are doing it so it must be alright. (good thing this wasn't made during a later time) The taped in front of a live studio audience laughs at Jamie and Reggie trying it because faces are funny.
Laugh at this , audience /Copyright 20th Fox
Skipping the unimportant secondary plot line again. (Scratch that)
So the parents are trying to have the robot girl sleep (?) in their room because Jamie doesn't think she should be in his room anymore. When they see her sleeping cabinet is smoking they find out that she's been smoking. The parents find out that Jamie and Reggie were smoking before and they confront their son. Since the episode isn't smoking is just bad , but chewing tobacco is also Jamie tells his parents that he's not smoking because of chewing tobacco. (Laugh Track) Then Father Ted tells him the message (for the audience at home) that chewing tobacco is worse than smoking. So the father does something else, he tells his son to show him how to chew it, and tricks him into stuffing a whole bunch in his mouth. (laugh track) So the next day , they hope he learned his lesson. Just in case , the audience didn't get the message-- they gave Peter , cancer . Jamie says he will never chew or smoke again.
I do give the show a great point for actually going with the chewing tobacco angle instead of smoking. The idea that it was safer than smoking happened dafter smoking was reviled not to be safe and this show came out about a decade after , so that message was being given in everything. So to tell the audience that no it's not safer than smoking and they are both bad is a message to get with.
The writing of this series was not the best in the first place so they apparently needed a way to really nail in that chewing tobacco is bad, so they gave the 1 note character we didn't see before or after (WOAH) cancer as a way to instill that. The father really only said that it's bad then made his son barf because giving him too much tobacco and making him accidentally swallow it is a good plan? They did still nail in the message that smoking is bad in the beginning of the episode and in the middle with even the kids saying that they know it's bad to another kid. But the reason why they did it was to be "cool" with the bigger kids. Which does show a good reason why a kid would want to smoke or chew tobacco , because the cool kids are doing. Again the giving Peter cancer line (because we didn't see him or anything at the school , it was a line Jamie tells his parents) is like saying "see even cool kids can get cancer from doing something dangerous.
Here's something interesting , cigarettes ads on TV and Radio in the US were banned in 1971 , but smokeless tobacco ads were still allowed until 1986.
Even sponsoring the Olympics.
This episode aired after the ban of those ads took place so, the timing worked out. But yeah you could maybe see why people think its safer, it was even still advertised on TV for 15 years after cigarette ads were not allowed.
Does this episode work as a PSA? Yeah sure, It doesn't hammer fist the message with words that doesn't sound natural. It also tries to keep it feeling like a standard episode so no sappy music or weird drama , though they did kind of breeze through Peter having cancer. Also it was smart to make him somewhat likable otherwise the message would have gotten lost where an audience could go well he's a jerk so bad thing happened to him. They did that right.
That's our PSA ,don't smoke or chew tobacco. Tune in next time when we find out it's bad to smoke pixie sticks.
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