Starring 70's child staples Shane Sinutko, Jarrod Johnson and Rachel Longaker, this ABC After School Special sought to answer for children where exactly babies come from.
We see a cartoon of a baby store, and we see a cartoon silhouette of a woman with a zipper across her stomach as the baby pops up and says "hi!"
So they venture to the doctor of young brother-to-be Petey's mother, Dr. Smith, who apparently appeared as himself. Candace Farrell, who played Petey's mother, was actually pregnant and the delivery was televised.
Nevertheless, as a child of the seventies, I must say that these "answer sessions" seemed to merely offer more questions. The videotaped delivery was never clear or precise on where exactly the baby was coming from.
We are treated to tedious nitpicking with Longaker objecting to why the baby is referred to as 'he' and she would also connect the word 'womb' to being short for 'woman'. How corny can you get? Well, it was the feminist seventies.
And the entire program consisted of detailing how far along the pregnancy was when the baby's fingernails would be developed and when the hair would begin to form. Essentially questions that no child ever wondered about babies or pregnancy.
So how does this thing deal with the actual conception of a child, namely, sex?
"When a man and a woman are intimate" and we see an embracing couple, silhouetted, but clearly clothed, in the background.
This thing hardly answered any questions, that's for sure!
It reminded me of what Carol Burnett said about the biology films she watched in school. The man and the woman would be working in the garden, planting flowers and the woman would suddenly smile, then the couple would be holding a baby. Carol said for all they knew, the couple could have picked the baby out of the flower garden.
No wonder this thing has never appeared again. It certainly wasn't helpful or informative.
We see a cartoon of a baby store, and we see a cartoon silhouette of a woman with a zipper across her stomach as the baby pops up and says "hi!"
So they venture to the doctor of young brother-to-be Petey's mother, Dr. Smith, who apparently appeared as himself. Candace Farrell, who played Petey's mother, was actually pregnant and the delivery was televised.
Nevertheless, as a child of the seventies, I must say that these "answer sessions" seemed to merely offer more questions. The videotaped delivery was never clear or precise on where exactly the baby was coming from.
We are treated to tedious nitpicking with Longaker objecting to why the baby is referred to as 'he' and she would also connect the word 'womb' to being short for 'woman'. How corny can you get? Well, it was the feminist seventies.
And the entire program consisted of detailing how far along the pregnancy was when the baby's fingernails would be developed and when the hair would begin to form. Essentially questions that no child ever wondered about babies or pregnancy.
So how does this thing deal with the actual conception of a child, namely, sex?
"When a man and a woman are intimate" and we see an embracing couple, silhouetted, but clearly clothed, in the background.
This thing hardly answered any questions, that's for sure!
It reminded me of what Carol Burnett said about the biology films she watched in school. The man and the woman would be working in the garden, planting flowers and the woman would suddenly smile, then the couple would be holding a baby. Carol said for all they knew, the couple could have picked the baby out of the flower garden.
No wonder this thing has never appeared again. It certainly wasn't helpful or informative.
