Angel Came Down From Chem Class Yesterday

Drugs are bad, m’kay? I thought we’d start this week out with a blast, and crash through a plate-glass window, from the past. Here is Helen Hunt in the 1982 made-for-TV movie “Desperate Lives.” It was among the genre of after-school specials that warned about the dangers of pretty much anything and everything in the world. This one in particular was about drugs. Their opinion is that they are bad, very, very bad. The film featured perhaps the most iconic scene in all of after-school special history. In it Helen’s character jumps through a second-story glass window after her boyfriend pushes her into snorting some angel dust. Say what you will about the cheesiness of these kinds of movies, but I’ve never done angel dust. So, uh, I guess it worked.

p.s. To be honest, Helen Hunt’s entire early 80s career, from “Desperate Lives” to “Quarterback Princess” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” deserves its own post. They’re all amazing in their own, very special 80s way.