craptastic gymnastics after school special

ABC Afterschool Special – The Gymnast (1980)

If you like Aunt Joyce, you should check out Spanny Tampson’s Big Fake Smile. Funny, but sometimes profane. Big Fake Smile posted a detailed review of a Gawd awful gymnastics TV movie not starring Kurt Thomas.

Now, in light of other more horrifying, craptastic gymnastics-themed after school specials, what we’re about to see here isn’t that bad. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s BAD, but not as disturbing as the previous one. This one actually had Cathy Rigby as a consultant, and it shows, however slightly. I don’t know what was going on during the 80-84 quad to make people think that the public needed to be enlightened to the atrocities in gymnastics, but there seemed to be this epidemic of hating the sport.

Well, perhaps this video will explain to us just why training in gymnastics is the worst thing you could ever allow your children to do, ever.

As always, let’s start at the beginning. …

Click PLAY or watch The Gymnast – part 1 on YouTube.

• “The Gymnast” Part 2
• “The Gymnast” Part 3
• “The Gymnast” Part 4
• “The Gymnast” Part 5

If you can’t bear to be reminded how bad T.V. was back then, simply read the summary:

Big Fake Smile – it is the closest the irish will ever get to christmas

Update: After watching this voyage back in time, rapt, I’ve decided it’s not totally without any redeeming qualities. In fact, there’s even some truth in the dynamic of the older, bigger girl being pushed by the up-and-coming “hot shot”.

The acting is less two dimensional than expected. (O.K., perhaps it’s only 2.1 dimensional.)

Certainly there are fewer gymnastics “errors” than on any episode of Make it or Fake It.

Feel free to weigh in in the comments, if I’m too lenient nostalgic for the days when girls weighed in publicly.