Oh, Dear God, this one is AWESOME

In December of 2007, I detailed two of my favorite Full House episodes (the one where DJ gets beer spilled all over her and the one where Stephanie drives the car into the house).

But today. TODAY.

I turned on my TV and caught the end of a fantastic episode. I was able to rewind it to experience the whole brilliant thing, sans commercials.

Gibbler decides to throw herself a surprise birthday party. (This is the exposition)

(Did I mention I used to teach the story narrative arc using an episode of Full House?)

Anyway. Gibbler's surprise party is a POOL PARTY. For all of us who do not look like the models in the magazines (unlike, apparently, Gibbler), these two words engendered fear in the heart of our middle school selves. At least, Full House suggests it does.

DJ decides she need to get as skinny as a model in the two weeks before the party. To do this, she tapes pictures of models to the refrigerator and enjoys ice on a stick while everyone else samples wedding cake. Of course, in the process of sampling cake, Michelle crawls across the table and starts stuffing her face with slices of cake, getting a ton of it on her face, hands, etc. I don't know about you, but I don't really find this charming. Especially if I was supposed to have some of that cake. I imagine that watching these types of scenes were one of the reasons Mary Kate later had a "relationship with food" of her own.

Anyway. Over the course of the half hour, DJ gets more and more focused on weight loss. She decides not to eat for three days, even at one point giving her lunch to both Gibbler and Comet the dog (who might be my favorite character).

Line of brilliance: DJ says to Comet, "You're lucky. Dogs don't have to wear bathing suits."

So DJ goes to the gym with the family. Of course, all the girls in the family minus DJ have workout leotards and leggins on. Poor DJ seems to have an oversized sweatshirt on and then bike shorts on underneath it. (Can I also add, the aerobics instructor has on a thong bikini bottom OVER leggings. This seemed to be a workout style in this time period. I can think of nothing more uncomfortable. And I really hope the girls wearing leggings-as-pants don't watch this show and get ideas.)

Another line of brilliance: Michelle to a very muscular man at the gym, "Hey mister, you are very lumpy." Zing!

DJ works herself into such a ferver that she passes out. This of course causes, rightfully, consternation and gnashing of teeth. Later that night, Stephanie spills the beans and DJ's secret is exposed!

During the inevitable heart to heart where DJ's eating issues and self-confidence issues are completely resolved, DJ does utter another Brilliant Line: "Show me one girl in here [these magazines] with this round face and these Charlie Brown cheeks!"

We know this is a Very Special Episode. And this is a huge concern for parents of girls (and guys, for that matter). So I guess I give them points for trying to tackle an important issue. But, for pete's sake, there has to be a better way to do it than this.

What do you think? Was there a Very Special Episode of a TV show that changed you or touched you in some way?

For me, I think I watched this episode as a kid and was shocked that someone would STOP EATING ON PURPOSE!