I'm pretty sure Danny was based on Ryan White. Ryan White was a hemophiloac who was receiving blood transfusions for his treatments and, unfortunately, contracted AIDS through bad blood, just like Ryan White. And Danny couldn't go back to school just like Ryan White.
to be fair, kids will say things like that, I mean kids say the darndest things anyone remember quantum leap where he's in a mentally challenged person's body? that was powerful
Awkward--really awkward, I'll grant you--but not nearly as bad as the "Hogan Family" AIDS episode. Everybody responsible for that one should have been roasted on a spit.
It’s not online, and I cannot remember it. All I know is they gave the disease to an actual recurring character, unlike this episode where Danny is suddenly Wesley’s best friend, yet we never heard of him before or hear of again.
I'm sorry but what misinformation. It's unlikely he had AIDS because he would have been very sick. He should have said "I have HIV" which would be more plausible. But whatever, I grew up in the 80s and even thinking about sex was supposed to give you AIDS according to our president at the time.
HIV actually wasn’t a term yet, but I get what you’re saying. I’d have to see the full episode again (it’s been a while), but I’m pretty sure he is sick in part of it (off screen). I guess he had a quick old recovery from an illness to cheerfully pop in their house like that. What a stretch.
Jen Fon You both are a tad misinformed. When this episode aired, Reagan had mentioned it just once, briefly. Even when he did start to discuss it more in following year, he was not really the one sending the message that everyone was at risk. Not sure why the OP thinks that. Maybe because it came from other government workers such as Koop and Fauci. The OP’s general memory is correct though. I also remember the scare tactics used when in fact, it did not hit the general population like they predicted.
As a child of the 80's, these types of traumatic things were crow-barred into sitcoms to raise awareness and open a dialog. Clunky, but done with good intentions, and that's one to grow on.
They had The Hogan Family with 'The Best of Friends, Worst of Times' where they find out Rich has AIDS. I'm sure they explained it but I don't remember how they said he contracted AIDS.
Princess Taboo I do not recall the episode, but from I’ve read online, if never is explained how Rich contracted the virus. That makes sense. That’d be a very sitcom sort of thing to do in 1991.
You’re mixing up “Very Special Episodes” from Mr. Belevedere! Wesley was the one to almost get molested by that camp counselor in a totally different episode. Seriously though, if you genuinely think molestation is the only way he could have AIDS, oooh boy.
Haha. 😂 I’ll never forget someone online claimed to be a caregiver to an elderly but otherwise spry Christopher Hewett. The person said Hewett would really never talk about being Mr. Belvedere or the show in general, but when he did, it was about this episode. Apparently he really liked that it was done because it was among the first times for a fictional program to address the disease and that it was done so to educate. If there ever was any doubt about Hewett’s private life, doubt no more, folks. (Assuming what the person said was true. It was told very plainly and without any bravado. It sounded very legit.)
It was a PSA episode. Lots of sitcoms of those had that. Hell in the early 2000's there were plenty of sitcoms that had episodes on cyber predators. If there is a problem that does affect a demographic of a certain era then the shows of that era will make episodes on it. It's called staying relevant. Good times had an episode about child molestation and not trusting strangers. You all need to grow thicker skin. Kids need to be told this stuff and parents don't always have the time to talk about every scenario.
This wasn't even the best line from this episode, just the most awkward. There was a much funnier part where Mr. Owens said to Wesley, "you can't get AIDS just by fooling around," then quickly realized what he just said. And the Miller-Boyett garbage factory shows that replaced this were much worse than this.
Christian B "Full House" was just a proto-"Friends", and those are the two worst TV shows ever, even worse than the worst "reality" TV shows. They never made me laugh, which is a primary qualification for something that claims to be a comedy, and Candace Cameron is a religious homophobe whose brother Kirk is an even worse one; I cannot stand "Growing Pains" for the same reason and I watched almost every successful network sitcom in the 1980s. "Family Matters" was tolerable only when Telma Hopkins was on it; Urkel was a stalker-why didn't Carl just issue a restraining order-and the later Stefan Urquelle episodes were just silly without actually being funny. Lorimar's prime-time actually made me laugh harder than any of their sitcoms, and I'm sure "Friends" would have been done by Lorimar had it not been folded into Warner Bros. Television. Thomas Miller is also partly to blame for why "Happy Days" declined in quality so severely, but none of Garry Marshall's shows were nearly as stupid even at their most mindless. But I'd watch every episode of "Mr. Belvedere" back to back before I watched a second of anything by Miller-Boyett again. I bought the DVDs and was surprised how well the show held up. It was more consistently funny than the average ABC sitcom of the era-and frankly, NBC had the best sitcoms in the 1980s-and if nothing else, at least Christopher Hewett could act. Meanwhile, the only other good show TGIF ever aired was "Dinosaurs," which ABC moved around on purpose. TGIF and Must-See TV were the two most overrated TV schedules ever. If you actually liked the shows, that's one thing, but if you want us to respect your opinions, you need to respect the fact that some of us don't and have concrete reasons for that.
