Preface and Acknowledgments A Very Special Introduction JONATHAN COHN AND JENNIFER PORST 1 Listen to Save Lives: Music and the Atomic Bomb in Cold War Very Special Episodes REBA WISSNER 2 Blackface on a White Christmas: Bewitched 's "Sneaky Racism" JONATHAN COHN 3 Conspicuous Morality: Very Special Episodes, the War on Drugs, and Broadcast Deregulation PHILIP SCEPANSKI 4 "Due to Its Subject Matter": Creating the Very Special Teen Sex Talk in 1980s Sitcoms BARBARA SELZNICK 5 "Thanksgiving Orphans": Cheers and Very Special Holiday Episodes of Television JENNIFER PORST 6 Very Spooky Episodes: Roseanne , Working-Class Monsters, and the Playful Perversions of Halloween TV DAVID SCOTT DIFFRIENT 7 A Very Special Visit to the "Old Neighborhood": Containing the Los Angeles Uprising on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air LINDSAY GIGGEY 8 The Night the Lights Went out at (Most of) NBC: Producing a Network with 1994's Must See TV Blackout Stunt ERIN COPPLE SMITH 9 Ellen , "The Puppy Episode," and a Special TV Milestone? RON BECKER 10 "And Was There a Lesson in All This?": Weaponizing--and Subverting--the Very Special Episode ERIN GIANNINI 11 Animating Entertainment, or Very Special Media Reflexivity MIMI WHITE 12 Liveness and the Live Episode in Television Comedy BRETT MILLS 13 Too black-ish ? Banned Very Special Episodes APRYL ALEXANDER AND JENNIFER PORST 14 Knife Crime and Passion: A Very Special Episode of EastEnders CHRISTINE BECKER 15 UnREAL , Sexual Assault, and the Very Special Season JORIE LAGERWEY AND TAYLOR NYGAARD Notes on Contributors Index.