Never Too Cool for Jodie Foster- After School Special Alumni

 In my previous musings about "ABC After School Specials", I may have forgotten to mention that the teen morality series was truly special in that it won a number of Emmy Awards during its 14 year run. In that time, the show was the catalyst for a number of up and comings that up and became huge stars. I showed Helen Hunt on PCP in one post. Another top notch "After School" alumni is Academy Award winning actress Jodie Foster. She actually starred in a couple of episodes. My fave was "Rookie of the Year", where she plays a kick ass little slugger who completely pisses her brother off because she plays ball better than him.  It was a nice little feminist, girl power plug for the times.

"Rookie of Year"circa 1973

Is there nothing Jodie Foster can't do?

Then there's Rob Lowe, who's career evolved from chiseled faced teenage heartthrob to almost iconic  80s-90s film star, appearing in cult classics such as "St. Elmo's Fire" and "Wayne's World". Currently, he can be seen on the very funny "Parks and Recreation"comedy series. But before the glamorous life, Lowe was a regular ASS alumni. In "Schoolboy Father", Rob plays a teenager who is about to be a Dad, but is sore when he founds out his girl friend (played by the tragic but lovely Dana Plato of "Different Strokes" fame) wants to give the baby away.

There are many more notable alumni whose careers started with Afterschool Specials, and even more already seasoned actors that lent their talents to the series. We'll take a look at a few more in a later post, just stay tuned!