I guess ABC had "Afterschool Specials" from 1972 to 1997, and CBS had "Schoolbreak Specials" from 1980 to 1996 (though it went by a different title prior to 1984). I didn't have ABC when I was growing up, so I'm not sure that I ever saw any of their specials, but it's not impossible (the channel I got CBS on did air a lot of stuff from other networks). But mostly I remember CBS Schoolbreak Specials... though I must say, I remember it vaguely at best. I'm sure I must've watched plenty of them when I was a kid, but most installments I don't remember at all. I remember My Past is My Own for sure, and looking at a list, "The Emancipation of Lizzie Stern" sounds familiar, at least. I do wish I could remember stuff better, but I at least remember the fact that I did watch the series. It doesn't help that these things aired so irregularly. But whatever, it was worth mentioning, anyway.

Of course you know... these things came on every so often, around the time kids would be getting home from school. They told socially relevant stories designed to help kids or teenagers deal with issues they might be going through, themselves. And stuff. I don't know that any of them really dealt with anything I personally was going through, because... I had no life. And also the lessons all just seemed like common sense, to me. They didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. But that doesn't mean they weren't interesting, I guess.

I dunno what else to say, but if you grew up in the 80s or early 90s (or in the case of ABC, the 70s), this is just something you were probably aware of. It's funny, though, even in modern culture you may sometimes hear people talk about after school specials, even from people who were probably too young to have ever seen any when they were growing up. (I mean people on TV shows may allude to these things, because shows are written by people who did grow up watching such things.) It's kind of a joke now, and I imagine more often than not the writing, acting, and production values on these specials may seem kind of laughable, in retrospect... but that doesn't mean they were any less serious or valuable. *shrug* Anyway, it's a part of a lot of people's childhoods, so it's important.