Very Special Episodes

Televising Industrial and Social Change

Edited by Jonathan Cohn and Jennifer Porst

Rutgers University Press

Very Special Episodes examines how the quintessential “very special episode” format became a primary way in which the television industry responded to and shaped social change, cultural traumas, and industrial transformations. With essays covering shows ranging from the birth of Desi Arnaz, Jr. on I Love Lucy to contemporary examples such as a delayed episode of Black-ish and the streaming-era phenomenon of the “Very Special Seasons” of UnReal and 13 Reasons Why, this collection seriously and critically uses the “very special episode” to chart the history of American television and its self-identified status as an arbiter of culture.

’Very special episodes’ are an intriguing and surprisingly underexplored topic. This excellent collection pulls together an impressive array of approaches to this concept that will give readers a broad but detailed look at how ostensibly challenging material was made palatable on television. Derek Kompare, Associate Professor of Film and Media Arts, Southern Methodist University

'Very Special Episodes establishes a compelling framework detailing how the TV industry makes and manages cultural value, relevance, and distinction not via aesthetic exceptionalism, but as special parts of its programming regularity. Historical grounding from the volume's sixteen astute essays provides a much-needed antidote to film studies' myopic 'discovery' of a 'golden age' of quality TV only in the premium HBO/Netflix era. This is Exhibit-A, a must-read, for understanding TV not just as an 'industry' but as a resilient critical industrial practice.' John T. Caldwell, Distinguished Research Professor, UCLA, and author of Specworld: Studying Folds, Faultlines, and Fra

JONATHAN COHN is an assistant professor in digital cultures at the University of Alberta. He is the author of The Burden of Choice: Recommendations, Subversion, and Algorithmic Culture (Rutgers University Press).

JENNIFER PORST is an assistant professor of media arts at the University of North Texas. She is the author of Broadcasting Hollywood: The Struggle Over Feature Films on Television (Rutgers University Press).

Preface and Acknowledgments
A Very Special Introduction
JONATHAN COHN AND JENNIFER PORST
1 Listen to Save Lives: Music and the Atomic Bomb in Cold War Very Special Episodes
REBA WISSNER
2 Blackface on a White Christmas: Bewitched’s “Sneaky Racism”
JONATHAN COHN
3 Conspicuous Morality: Very Special Episodes, the War on Drugs, and Broadcast Deregulation
PHILIP SCEPANSKI
4 “Due to Its Subject Matter”: Creating the Very Special Teen Sex Talk in 1980s Sitcoms
BARBARA SELZNICK
5 “Thanksgiving Orphans”: Cheers and Very Special Holiday Episodes of Television
JENNIFER PORST
6 Very Spooky Episodes: Roseanne, Working-Class Monsters, and the Playful Perversions of Halloween TV
DAVID SCOTT DIFFRIENT
7 A Very Special Visit to the “Old Neighborhood”: Containing the Los Angeles Uprising on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
LINDSAY GIGGEY
8 The Night the Lights Went out at (Most of) NBC: Producing a Network with 1994’s Must See TV Blackout Stunt
ERIN COPPLE SMITH
9 Ellen, “The Puppy Episode,” and a Special TV Milestone?
RON BECKER
10 “And Was There a Lesson in All This?”: Weaponizing—and Subverting—the Very Special Episode
ERIN GIANNINI
11 Animating Entertainment, or Very Special Media Reflexivity
MIMI WHITE
12 Liveness and the Live Episode in Television Comedy
BRETT MILLS
13 Too black-ish? Banned Very Special Episodes
APRYL ALEXANDER AND JENNIFER PORST
14 Knife Crime and Passion: A Very Special Episode of EastEnders
CHRISTINE BECKER
15 UnREAL, Sexual Assault, and the Very Special Season
JORIE LAGERWEY AND TAYLOR NYGAARD
Notes on Contributors
Index

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