Be-... least awful Valentine's special?

[EGBFan]

Oh dear. I've battled inwardly with myself over whether or not to do this for three years in a row now. And at last, this year, my braver side won.

We've had, I think, enough debates about how much Valentine's Day sucks and for what reason. There seem to be some very strong feelings about the day in both directions on this board. But this time... can we not? Please? I want to talk about the TV that Valentine's Day has spawned. Nothing else.

Why did I put the poll in? Oh... idle curiosity. Also, I'm hoping it will be sufficient for people to express their feelings about Valentine's Day before they post.

I happen to think Valentine's Day specials can be pretty good, if they're done well. One way for them to be good is if the producers of whatever make a nice shippy episode about your favourite couple, for example:

Hey Arnold: "Arnold's Valentine"
Will I give a synopsis? If I do, it'll sound terrible. It involves Arnold accidentally arranging two dates at the same time, one with the girl he's long admired from afar and one with Helga, his female co-star, who has been in love with Arnold for years and pretends to hate him, and has now decided to spend Valentine's Day with him by pretending to be his French pen-pal Cecile.

That sounds awful, doesn't it? Well, ok, it is a pretty stupid plot, and you have to suspend disbelief when Helga walks into the restaurant and Arnold doesn't recognise her. But it's all done very comedically, and it's a wonderful episode if you're an A/H shipper. Arnold finds that the object of his desire, Ruth, is vain and shallow and beautiful and nothing else, and ends up falling for the disguised Helga. Inevitably the real Cecile shows up towards the end, so Arnold goes home completely love-dazed and believing he's had dinner with a mysterious stranger. Helga has to take off her sister's borrowed shoes at one point, and they each go home holding one of the shoes - it's completely cheesey, but rather nice all the same. ;D

Or. They can make a complete pee-taker. And that's usually fun. I seem to remember Kenan and Kel did rather a funny one with mix-ups about who's taking whom to the dance and stuff - although there was a slightly sappy moment at the end. Not so All Grown Up; as Tommy observes, "This is like a bad after school special!"

All Grown up: "It's Cupid, Stupid!"
How can I explain this? Well, a fairly stereotypically cool black kid shows up at the kids' school throwing softballs around, and immediately befriends Dil, who is absolutely wonderful and voiced by the celebrated Tara Strong. The kid, Li'l Q, professes to be perfecting his aim for some sort of softball team, and Dil (of course, of course!) offers to help him. So the two of them roam around school, Li'l Q chucking his balls at people he thinks should go to the Valentine's Day dance together, always missing - which of course leads to all sorts of hilarious mix-ups. I probably don't need to tell you that it all gets fixed at the dance - and then Li'l Q disappears, leaving Dil to be cute and hilarious as the episode draws to a close.

...No, really, it's done well enough to be funny.

Well, I can't think of any others right now, off the top of my head. Did RGB have a Valentine's Day special? I've absolutely no idea.

[Jason Knetge]

I like the simpsons V day special with Ralph and Leesa

[Miss Janine]

I voted "love it" and feel so lonely...

I guess it's the romantic in me, the one that's been happily married for the past 10 years (has it been that long?? ), but I've always been a sucker for V-day. Maybe that's why I like the E/J stories so much.

[EGBFan]

Oh, c'mon - nobody else?

[Fritz]

I'm sitting her wracking my brain, trying to come up with something....I dunno, most of the cartoons and shows I watch didn't seem to have too many Holiday specials, and if they did they were Christmas and Halloween.

Since you mention it, you're right--the Ghostbusters never had a Valentine story. Both movies took place at the wrong time of the year (GB1: summer to early fall; GB2: around Christmas) and the cartoons took all the romantic stuff either very slowly and subtly (Egon and Janine) or for laughs (Venkman chasing every woman he met)

[Dr. Vincent Belmont]

I used to hate Valentine's Day. Now I have a girlfriend. Not resenting it is pretty much a job requirement...

[SuperStantzio]

I used to like Valentine's day and now I dislike because I have no one special in my life and it bites ever so much!

[Ghostbuster Don]

Muppet Babies had a good Valentine special. If just for the scene where Baby Gonzo's poem to Baby Piggy goes awry.

As for the holiday itself, I like the candy but I unfortunately have no girlfriend. I only get a gift from my mom and it's usually a Hershey's assortment. But last year she got me all the Pink Panther threatrical shorts on DVD, which is pretty cool.

EDIT- Interesting fact, Valentine's Day in Japan is celebrated by having women giving chocolate for men. Then on March 14, men do it the same for women, which is called White Day.

[ghostdiva]

As far as the poll goes, V'day isn't very interesting to me.


But anyway, while I don't usually have favoite holiday eps, I would have to say that I always like the V'day specials on "Unsolved Mysteries" I know that's probably strange. But I remember one in particular where they were talking about these fertility statues that had been put in the "Ripley's museum" corporate offices and almost every woman on staff had a kid nine months later. And then couples started calling all of the time wanting to visit the statue. And then they would discuss telepathy and finding lost siblings and such, those were always fun.
ghostdiva

[ectoman1]

I despise it. lonleyst day of the year for me.