After School Special: The Day My Kid Went Punk (1987)

It's finally here… after many years of waiting, someone has uploaded The Day My Kid Went Punk to Youtube in near-entirety (looks like just the last minute or so is missing). 

It doesn't quite live up to the TV guide ad (above), but then, how could it? The writers have seemingly no familiarity with the subject matter. Granted the the kid is on the extreme end of the fashion scale, but still… at around the time this program aired, I was nearly getting my ass kicked at hardcore shows on weekends just for wearing my stupid spray-painted army jacket. And even I would have bust up laughing if I saw this poseur walking through the hall at school. He looks a cross between Boy George, Bret Michaels and King Vidiot from Joysticks:

But punk was more than the fashion statement this show regards it to be. That's what makes it pretty worthless as a social services program for teens; it doesn't acknowledge the obvious evidence regarding punks. Many of them feel alienated from their families and communities. Many have difficulties at home, and run away or drop out of school long before they're 18. But here, it's just a case of a suburban kid who inexplicably decides to give himself a makeover to look more edgy, and continues living his over-achieving, over-privileged lifestyle, and his parents wring their hands in concern and embarrassment over his clothing and the Halloween temporary color he sprays into his hair every morning, but they eventually give in and do what he wants. Even Degrassi Junior High respected the maturity and sophistication of its audience more than this.

Anyway, it's worth seeing just for for Bernie Kopell, so here it is: