So I remember watching this series as a child (through the ages of about 10 to 14)--although I have no recollection of this particular episode. I recall clearly that I didn't think much of it at the time. I found the kids cloyingly cute, the score somewhat mawkish and overbearing, and the laugh track intrusive.
I do remember John Byner's hilarious stand-up bit in which he does an impression of Brian Keith, kneading his face at every opportunity as if it were a lump of bread dough. That, and the MAD Magazine satire pretty well sealed the deal for me. I thought it must be a pretty bad show.
I saw a re-run of this episode today, and am a little embarrassed to admit that I was practically moved to tears. Admittedly, the subject of terminal illness in children is a pretty easy way to get me. But I was stunned by the *economy* of the writing. There isn't a wasted word or moment in the whole thing. There isn't a scene that goes a second beyond the instant that its point has been made.
The acting, especially by Keith, was great.
SPOILER ALERT
And that ending (really a twist ending) in which French and Uncle Bill think they've pulled the wool over the eyes of the kids (with the most noble of intentions) only to find out that Buffy has figured out exactly what's going on--all without a word of dialogue. It was, as one of the other reviewers here put it, heartbreaking.
There's never a point at which any of the characters says, "The kid is going to die." There are no tender homilies or lectures to the kids explaining to them the essential tragedy of the biological condition. None of the on-the-nose, expository, radio-with-pictures dialogue that burdens the worst TV dramas I see today: "You know, Ashley, all your father and I--who died in a tragic drug overdose when you were a baby--ever wanted was for you to be happy, even though I could never blah blah blah."
Here, it's all communicated through reaction shots and people doing their best to protect each other from the inescapable and awful truth.
I do remember John Byner's hilarious stand-up bit in which he does an impression of Brian Keith, kneading his face at every opportunity as if it were a lump of bread dough. That, and the MAD Magazine satire pretty well sealed the deal for me. I thought it must be a pretty bad show.
I saw a re-run of this episode today, and am a little embarrassed to admit that I was practically moved to tears. Admittedly, the subject of terminal illness in children is a pretty easy way to get me. But I was stunned by the *economy* of the writing. There isn't a wasted word or moment in the whole thing. There isn't a scene that goes a second beyond the instant that its point has been made.
The acting, especially by Keith, was great.
SPOILER ALERT
And that ending (really a twist ending) in which French and Uncle Bill think they've pulled the wool over the eyes of the kids (with the most noble of intentions) only to find out that Buffy has figured out exactly what's going on--all without a word of dialogue. It was, as one of the other reviewers here put it, heartbreaking.
There's never a point at which any of the characters says, "The kid is going to die." There are no tender homilies or lectures to the kids explaining to them the essential tragedy of the biological condition. None of the on-the-nose, expository, radio-with-pictures dialogue that burdens the worst TV dramas I see today: "You know, Ashley, all your father and I--who died in a tragic drug overdose when you were a baby--ever wanted was for you to be happy, even though I could never blah blah blah."
Here, it's all communicated through reaction shots and people doing their best to protect each other from the inescapable and awful truth.