10 "Very Special Episodes": Part 3 | More Tragic Cartoon Episodes

There was an episode of Static Shock where he helped a mentally ill and unhoused girl with ice powers named Permafrost. (I think her actual name was Marie but don't remember for sure) It was a really great look at mental illness and homelessness

I can't remember if it was Saved by the Bell or Hang Time (I think the second) but there was an episode I remember that delt with sexual exploitation in the work place. What made it memorable was that it was a female boss trying to exploit a male underling making it one of the few shows that talked about men being victims as well.

I have seen arguments along the lines that Buster, Plucky and Hamton are not really children, but rather young adults, since they and the rest of the crew go to Acme Looniversity, a name that implies it to be a higher education facility, as opposed to a high school. Therefore, it may not be specifically underage drinking, but rather drinking in general that the episode is addressing.

Even though Animaniacs was often known for humor, parody, and satire, they've also had very deep, emotional content. One particular episode that stood out was "A Gift of Gold," which centered around the adventures of a piece of gold wrapping paper, who went from being a stunning beauty (at least, in her opinion, anyway), to being reduced to a piece of scrap paper. Spoiler warning: The episode concluded with a homeless family, celebrating a young boy's birthday. The dismantled piece of paper was used to lovingly wrap the boy's birthday present, and he kept it in his pocket, to cherish forever. Not only was this a commentary on the environment, but on homelessness, as well. Jim Cummings' narration gave the episode an extra special touch.
Another episode that deserves recognition is "Inherit the Wheeze," from Pinky and the Brain, another series that was also often known for its clever parody and satire. However, this particular episode focused on the dangers of smoking. Brain was being subjected to a series of tests, on nicotine addiction, and became the spokesperson, or mouse, as it were, for a popular brand of cigarettes. Spoiler alert: If it hadn't been for Pinky's intervention, he would've continued in this fashion. It was Pinky's concern and compassion for his health, that really drove the message home.

Try Generator Rex, it's obscure, but it has stuff like amnesia, family betrayal, escaping reality. Not to mention Hunter Cain

I feel like one episode that isn't brought up as much as it should, is the transformers G1 episode, the golden lagoon, which tackles the problems wars take on the environment and even when. The good guys win, the consequences are very dire

There was a very special episode of The Smurfs that deals with addiction. It's called "The Lure Of The Orb." In it Poet, Farmer, Handy, Harmony, and Painter become addicted to a magical orb that an evil enchantress gives them and they nearly become slaves to the evil enchantress!

What about the Gang Wars episode of Fat Albert

Corny as it may sound, The Real Ghostbusters episode " Follow that Hearse" has an important environmental message and also the fact that the GBs spare the spirit.

There is an episode of Smart Guy called "Strangers on the Net" that dealt with internet safety and pedophilia.

Punky Brewster - a young adult friend (or teenager, idr) is babysitting a small child when the child drinks something from a cleaning bottle under the sink. The older girl immediately calls poison control, but is illiterate and unable to identify what the child ingested.

Not sure if this one has been suggested, but Arthur had an episode that was made in response to the terrorist attack on 9/11.
The episode is called "April 9th" and it's a fascinating dive into various different responses to traumatic incidents, from "missing out" to loss of sentimental objects (something that I think should be touched on more) to irrational behavior (Arthur's and Binky's anxiety and paranoia)

I originally wrote a post that got erased by accident after I backed out. I’m just gonna write down a list of shows both live action and animated. Some of the shows might’ve already been mentioned and I also don’t remember some of the episodes title, but I remembered what happened.

Animated shows:
Arthur- the episode where the elementary school had a fire, and it displayed different children’s perspectives in terms of how the fire impacted their lives.

Proud family- the culture exchange episode where Penny switched family lies with a Muslim girl.

As Told By Ginger- the episode where her and Darrin were going through a rough patch. Something happens between them, and while that occurs, Ginger endures a potential life-threatening situation(her appendix exploded).

Live Shows

Boy Meets World- it was the episode (I think if features Ben savage and I don’t know if a lot of people would be comfortable seeing him I don’t know). But it was the episode when he was a college professor and he was being inappropriate towards Topanga.

Fresh Prince- the two part episode I think it was where Will and Carlton were robbed.

The Parent Hood- there’s three episodes I remember from the show. There was one where Zaria’s boyfriend was trying to help his ex-girlfriend with alcohol abuse or drinking (can’t remember). There is an episode where TK gets harassed by gang members and Robert tries to intervene, but he gets shot. Then there’s also an episode where Zaria’s friend is in an abusive relationship with the up-and-coming artist.

ROC- loved this show! This show has a lot of good episodes. You can talk about the episode where the girl that roc takes care of friend get harassed by a gang and he brings a gun to school for protection. There’s also the episode that’s a follow up with that one that I just mentioned where one of the gang members who was arrested following the situation from that episode I mentioned is in jail and ROC tries his best to influence the child.

I can’t remember the show but it was a show about a woman taking care of a group of girls in an all girls school (Kim fields was in this and her character was named Trudy I think). But with this episode, I was thinking about Trudy gets lost in New York I think, but she ends up meeting another girl who was getting pimped by somebody and they were trying to “ recruit” Trudy.

If I think of any more shows, I’ll add them and comment . I know there are more. I just can’t think of them.

The Troq episode of Teen Titans helped me finally feel seen. I cried when I saw that another woman who at least looked whte, was experiencing racial discrimination and prejudice and people actually acknowledged it, cared and defended her, because no one ever did for me. Even though it was in an animated show, it helped at least a little bit to have the validation that racism can be experienced by anyone, not just people of certain skin tones, when in pretty much any other show when racism was discussed, we're presented as the aggressors. During that time I was experiencing the same type of bullying and harassment from my peers that people of other races say they've experienced, yet no one cared when it was happening to me. If anything they also laughed or engaged in it too. I didn't understand why it was wrong when other kids experienced that same type of bullying, but no one cared when I was the victim of it for the same reasons. When I would try to defend myself, the response would be "Oh, it's because I'm (insert race here)!" I didn't understand why they were just allowed to get away with it and even blamed me for it, like I deserved it. As an adult, I STILL see it. If anything it's even worse. I hate going out in public because I deal with at least one person spewing microaggressions, EVERY. TIME. But if I were to speak out against it, I'd be the villain and others would immediately stand in to defend the other person without even caring what the situation was. Seeing that Teen Titans episode helped me see that I wasn't crazy, that it IS the behavior and beliefs that are wrong and that it isn't just wrong based on the race of the person perpetuating it.

the best part of "Troq" was that Cyborg talks to Starfire about it. He tells her that he understands what its like to be discriminated against. The audience realizes that under the superhero robotic parts, he is a person of colour and he does understand.

For a live action one, how about doing Walker, Texas ranger. The original one. In the original one with Chuck Norris, they do an aids episode about how aids are transmitted with children. Unfortunately, the kid doesn't survive the plot if I recall correctly.

When I saw BraveStarr episode "The Price" for the first time, it shocked me. It was such a heavy episode even for a series that deals in crimes and consequences. Very few, if any others, took the consequence of substance abuse that far at the time. It was such a heartbreaking episode.

Haven’t watched all of Steven Universe, but wasn’t there one where a gem who was in an abusive relationship talks about how badly she wants to go back to them?

"I'll get Doc Clayton." "Don't bother. It's already too late."
I remember nothing of BraveStarr other than his horse being able to stand on two or four legs like a transformer, but that episode stuck with me.

There was a Doug show were they were taking drugs it was good

The series finale to Tom And Jerry had a really serious and f***ed up ending

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a VSE, per se, but there was one episode of Danny Phantom that stands out in my mind for its message - "My Brother's Keeper". It was about a new school counselor who turned out to be a soul-sucking ghost feeding on the children's misery, and in a weird way, it kind of dealt with the topic of depression in teenagers. As well as gaslighting and the fine line between being supportive and trying to force someone to be happy.
It's a big turning point for Danny's sister, Jazz, and is one of the few episodes in the series that tries to explore the mental/emotional toll of Danny's secret life - not just on himself, but his family, as well. So I think it might be worth a mention!

I think something great about the Teen Titans episode is also how unknown racism can happen. When Star tells them Troq means 'nothing', the team misunderstands and thinks it's just a word until she explains it better. It's the same way how people from another culture can sometimes run into problems where they hear someone calling someone a certain name but they don't know the meaning behind it.

Please make a part 4

The episode of Tiny Toon one drink was actually done by the creators of the show in the most sarcastic way possible because they didn't want to do a very special episode. They made that episode to troll the studio and were pleased with the reaction their malicious compliance received.

The Captain Planet Aids episode may be at odds with kids nowadays. But remember this was the 90s. In a pre-9/11 world, adult rat mutants in trench coats could've hung out at high schools without raising the alarm with teachers and school staff.

I like how Cyborg was the one that reached out in that episode because he most likely faced discrimination before he even got his powers.

You know, if “sons of the father” came out today, it would probably cover Richie’s father being homophobic. Because in the comics, Richie is canonically gay.

Teaching children about serious matters isn't easy, so I think the best way is through cartoons.
(You can learn from cartoons)

Saying the series and episode title, immediately followed by "in the series and episode title X happens" not only is very redundant. It it very redundant to say the title of the series and episode name in very close verbal proximity.

Actually,the boy's name was Jay that got addicted on spin and died at the end of that episode of Bravestarr,not Brad!

I don’t remember much of the Batman series, but I remember the Underdwellers episode

Yeah, Batman was so furious in this episode that he was very tempted to break his 'No Kill' rule; he considered Sewer King much worse than his usual Rogues Gallery. BraveStar was in a similar state when he destroyed the drug dealers' hideout; it was one of the few times when we see him genuinely furious. Bottom Line - Even the most reasonable heroes will go ballistic if you hurt children.

The Bravestarr episode was wild. It is kinda odd to think of a hallucinogen killing someone, but otherwise it's not the worst anti-drug episode I've ever seen.

Proud Family where Penny gets locked out of her house by her own mother

Static Shock handled that issue better than the Proud Family reboot

The kid who died in Bravestarr was named Jay Brad was the friend

This was great! Thank you for sharing it, God Bless You and stay safe 🙏 ❤️

Yeah , batman was a great show and the underwealers was awesome

Hey Arnold- Helga on the couch that’s good deep dive if it wasn’t done 😊

What is up, my fellow n-words?

Oh my god, a video that talks about Jem! I was thinking I was gonna have to suggest this one when I finished watching through all of these Very Special Episode videos, but you actually did it already! I first saw the episode Alone Again when I was in early elementary school and it traumatized me with the scene where Laura, while high, hallucinates her lunchbox turning into a bird and then tries to jump out a third story window, onto concrete below, because her mind decided that she's a bird. I didn't fully understand what was happening in the scene at the time, but I was terrified since I knew she could get badly hurt, and Jerrica was so terrified when she went to save Laura from jumping out the window. I understand the scene much better now as an adult, and wow, realizing what could have possibly happened to Laura if Jerrica didn't save her almost re-traumatized me! Thank you for covering the episode, it covers an important topic! I only saw the episode when I did since my mother had a DVD set of the series since she was a fan of the show growing up, and she forgot the episode existed. She says if she had remembered, she would have told me to skip that episode until I was a little bit older since I could be quite sensitive to things and got traumatized easily when I was little.

oh man you should do that cult episode form "Rescue Ranger!" its the one about "cuckoo cola" :P

oh oh you should do the Gargoyles episode from season one where Broadway accidentally shot Elisa. its about gun safety :P

The GI Joe story that involved the Joes and Cobra teaming up to battle a drug kingpin was awesome. Cuz i loved how it answered the question, what kind of evil would have to come across to get both sides to team.up.

I remember "one beer".

Thank you for more of these. I like seeing the ones I remember seeing when I was a CHILD (as Ren Hoëk would say) a ones I haven't seen but seem to be at the same level in messages

The ending scene of Greatest Evil always bothered me when I first saw it as a kid, and it still does when I think about it now.