Theme Song: Annoying Casio keyboard stock presets.
Interesting Dated References: Gary Coleman.
Best Line: Aside from a girl proclaiming that “someone is trying to get in her backdoor” there isn’t much else. A lot of these videos are full of funny lines, but it’s just too easy to point them out.
Social Context: See the Social Context summary for Home Alone . The same stuff applies here. Youthful sitcom stars of the 80s appear to have been forced to make anti-kidnapping/home safety videos. I don’t know what they got in exchange for their cooperation.
Summary: Coleman starts off by talking about how growing up in a city as a kid can be tough. He shows all these different images of urban dwelling. The only problem with this is that Coleman grew up in Zion, Illinois; my hometown. There was nothing even close to what Coleman is talking about in these pictures going on in Zion.
So Coleman goes into explaining phones, important phone numbers, designated adults, etc. Actually this tape takes the liberty of mentioning 911 well before it was in national use.
Then Jill Example informs the police that a man is trying to get in her back door. Coleman doesn’t look very healthy as he tells Jill to leave the phone off the hook so that emergency workers can get her address “through the magic of computers.” Then actor Barry Hope plays a pederast. This was really detrimental to his career as he doesn’t seem to have acted in anything ever again.
They go through the typical shit of things strangers do to try to get in the door. Jack Example is played by Bobby Jacoby. You may remember him from a bunch of 80s sitcoms. It’s also worth noting that his brother Scott Jacoby played Ronald in Bad Ronald. So Jack Example alerts the police that someone is trying to get in his front door. This whole time Coleman acts like some Wizard of Oz type guru who narrates all the action and dictates all the situations.
Next up is the phone segment that includes the whole “my mom can’t come to the phone right now” line. Coleman uses his massive editing table to dictate actions if there’s a fire, or if you come home and a door is wide open.
The fireman is played by that Rance Howard. The entire cast of this movie consists of people who either starred with Coleman in Diffr’nt Strokes or in any movies he was in. He must have mad strong guilt trip abilities in order to get all these people together. The lighting in this studio makes Coleman look really unhealthy. They probably should have lit it diffr’nt.
So yeah, then they go over the whole fire thing. This includes telling Bobby not to hide in the closet as well as Stop Drop and Roll techniques involving horns and guitar licks. Then, playing off the whole kids alone thing, they state that kids are alone more in the 80s than ever before.
Then Nurse Helpquick gives a bunch of worst case scenarios about first aid kids and scalding water and even more hot licks. Tons of hot guitar licks abound. Di
Nice motto. You know this tape is amazingly detailed, explaining how to deal with diffr’nt types of burns and cuts, and again, no parents to be found, just Coleman and his computer interface. Then Jack Example chokes and displays what they call the national symbol for choking:
Bobby Jacoby has been in like 500 sitcoms, it’s pretty impressive. Did you know he went on to become a big time card counter/poker player?. Then Coleman talks about the guidebook to fill out which I don’t have. Its one of those pause the tape moments. Then there’s ‘a review with Jacoby and the girl.
Poster and Box Art: Not much to say..
Availability: I was having trouble finding this online for purchase. All I saw was a bunch of other reviews by people trying to be ironic who like stealing my pictures.
What happened to your editor?