I've been reading your site for a long time now and decided to finally submit this burning name-that-trauma question of my own: Sometime during the early 1980's, I was traumatized by what must have been some kind of after-school special or something that ended with a too-gruesome-for-daytime-T.V. moment. The show or T.V. movie was about a kid who made some bad choices and got mixed up either with a gang or drugs or both. The only part I remember vividly was near the end, when the young hero found himself lying on the pavement with a gaping stab wound in his side. I'm pretty sure there was some kind of montage or voice over here that was all about how much he regretted the choices that had led him to this sorry end, but mostly I just remember that gaping, red stab wound. It was probably much more tame than I remember it, but as a young lad it haunted me for years. (Maybe it worked! I never did join a street gang!)
Perhaps one of your readers can identify this after-school trauma special.
Cheers,
UNK SEZ: Aunt John and I have thought hard about this, but we have only come to one conclusion; the after-school special you are looking for is probably not this one….
HAHAHAHA! ACE HITS THE BIG TIME! I actually own a copy of that amazingly bad Afterschool Speacial. Where else ya gonna see the son from MR BELVEDERE make jazz hands???
Since the"gang", with their pulled punches and kicks, never actually came in any actual physical contact with the poor kid, we can only assume he was shaken and freaked-out by the pure force of their 80's Musical Theatre FUNK moves.
Ace Hits The Big Time is like one of the best after
schoolspecials ever
Wish I could be more help. The little I can say is that I do in fact remember this, and was likewise shocked by how bloody the wound was. I didn't see it on TV, though. It was shown during a school assembly. It was mostly voiceover, and it started with the kid knifed and bleeding, and then went back and told the story eventually coming back to that moment. I"m pretty sure it was an anti-gang thing. Sorry I don't have any more info.
Bigbadwolfboy–Yes, that sounds like the one exactly! (I'm the guy who sent the question in.) The only other thing I remember was that the kid was wearing a white t-shirt and maybe a black leather jacket. Could have be a Ralph Maccio look-a-like, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't him.