5 After School Specials That Traumatized Every 80s and 90s Kid

Television is a lot different today than it used to be, especially for teens. While the younger demographic really came to prominence in recent years thanks to networks like The CW offering up plenty of notable (and in some cases, iconic) series with them in mind, it used to be that teen audiences had more limited choices — and the choices they did have were meant to be educational or inspirational. We’re talking, of course, about the unique genre called the after school special, a specific genre of television film that ran from the 1970s through the late 1990s.

For ‘80s and ‘90s kids, just mentioning “after school special” brings up a very specific sort of nostalgia. While ABC Afterschool Specials were largely the “gold standard” for their day, CBS, NBC, and even cable networks had their own version of this particular sort of entertainment. Each episode — usually running four about 40 minutes — offered up stories about kids dealing with issues like peer pressure, family issues, teen pregnancy, and more, all with a side of heavy-handed morality. The specials often featured actors who would later go on to have major careers and while some of these episodes were fun, others were simply… not. There were after school specials that were corny and weird, and then there are those that left us a little traumatized and a little messed up. These are the after school specials that have stuck with us all these years — including one we’re still not sure what it was really about.

5) Afterschool Special “What Are Friends For?” (1980)

Jan Levinson, what are you doing here? Airing in 1980, “What Are Friends For?” is notable not only because of how upsetting and strange the Afterschool Special was, but because it is also one of the earliest roles for Melora Hardin, who would go on to play Jan Levinson on The Office decades later. It’s a little detail that adds an interesting layer to the episode.

“What Are Friends For?” follows young Amy, who is struggling to adjust not only to her parents’ recent divorce but her mother’s move to a new town. In her new town, Amy ends up befriending her new neighbor, the unstable and emotionally disturbed Michelle Mudd. And when we say disturbed, we aren’t kidding. Michelle “drowns” dolls in the bathtub as what for the time period could only be considered a “satanic” ritual, shoplifts, ends up stalking Amy, and is extremely and dangerously jealous and obsessed. Amy eventually talks to her mom about her troubled friend who ends up going to live with her own dad and it’s revealed that Michelle is finally getting psychiatric help. The ending is hopeful, but it’s a weird little episode that made kids question making new friends.

4) Afterschool Special “One Too Many” (1985)

Drugs and alcohol were a common theme for Afterschool Specials, but this one form 1985 in particular stands out because it had a surprisingly star-studded cast. Released just a year before Top Gun, “One Too Many” starred Val Kilmer, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Mare Winningham and saw Kilmer play Eric, a teenager with a drinking problem.

But he’s not the only teen drinking and driving. While the episode sets things up for the viewer to assume that the tragedy that the police are investigating is Eric’s fault, it turns out that it’s actually Pfeiffer’s character who was behind the wheel. While she had also been drinking, she was far less intoxicated than Eric and decided it was safer for her to drive. Unfortunately, she ends up accidentally running down her best friend (Winningham), killing her. There’s nothing positive or hopeful about how this one ends. It’s a chilling episode — but if you can find it online, Kilmer is actually fantastic in it.

3) Lifestories: Families in Crisis “Public Law 106: The Becky Bell Story” (1992)

ABC wasn’t the only network that had “very special programming.” Other networks had them as well — including HBO’s Lifestories: Families in Crisis. This particularly take on after school specials leaned into dramatizing real-life stories and frequently ended with the real person the story was based on speaking at the end. One of the most upsetting is 1992’s “Public Law 106: The Becky Bell Story” which tells the story of Rebecca Bell, a teenager who died from complications from an abortion.

The episode is a harrowing watch as viewers see the 17-year-old first seek help at a Planned Parenthood in Indiana only to be informed that she needed parental consent or getting a judge to argue for a waiver. Becky ultimately seeks out an illegal abortion but ends up with sepsis as a result and dies, Becky’s parents end up campaigning against parental consent laws. As was noted, the episode is a harrowing watch and still traumatizes decades later

2) CBS Schoolbreak Special: “The Drug Knot” (1986)

In this CBS Schoolbreak Special, Dermot Mulroney plays Doug Dawson, a cool high school student who finds himself falling into heavy drug use all because he smoked marijuana and it leads to horrible tragedy. Doug’s life starts to fall apart, he alienates his friends and does a line of cocaine that his younger brother, Louie, witnesses. The episode also features David Toma, a former police officer known for his undercover work and drug intervention, as himself trying to help Doug and his family.

As is the case with some of these types of dramas, “The Drug Knot” has a bleak ending and a twist. Doug comes home to find young Louie face down floating in the family pool, the implication being that the youngster is dead. Louie had found his brother’s drugs and done them, leading to this tragedy. The episode’s ending with Doug frantically trying to save him paired with Toma’s voiceover is just… a lot.

1) Afterschool Special “Desperate Lives” (1982)

The jury is still out on if this one was traumatizing, insane, or both — and to be clear, we’re leaning towards both. Released in 1982, “Desperate Lives’ stars Doug McKeon, Tom Atkins, Diane Ladd, and a young Helen Hunt with Hunt playing Sandy Cameron, a teenager who “falls in with the wrong crowd” and ends up doing angel dust (that her boyfriend made in the school lab) and, convinced she can fly, jumps out a plate glass window at school and ends up paralyzed.

While Sandy’s story alone is dramatic, it’s only the tip of the ice berg when it comes to how wild this episode is. One student does angel dust and deliberately drives off a cliff while laughing about it, there are kids dealing drugs in the cemetery, and one kid nearly drowns because they are too high to remember how to swim. Somewhere in all of this, there’s a school counselor who confiscates drugs and burns them at an assembly and there’s supposed to be a message about how even good kids can have problems but this one is just insane. And, making it a little better, it was even released on DVD which is fairly unusual for these sorts of movies.

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