User Reviews

I saw this episode only once before, forty-five years ago, when I was in the 5th grade. Everyone was talking about it at school the next day, and I think some of the kids practically needed therapy! What I remembered through the years was the final scene, where wordlessly, Uncle Bill comes to comfort the crying Buffy. I just saw it again on Me-TV, and discovered that I had what I had remembered was a bit in error; I had thought that it was an epilogue, that there had been a passage of time during which we surmise that Eve has died. I now see that Buffy's tears are for a realization; that she understands - or finally lets herself understand - that the early Christmas party for her friend was to say goodbye, and that everything leading up to that moment was clouded by the inevitable. Wow. "Heartbreaking" is an overused expression, but that's what Anissa Jones is in her wide-eyed belief that Uncle Bill will somehow be able to fix everything. Her scenes are remarkable, and the moment when Eve says that she'll have a second Christmas to look forward to is almost too painful. Exemplary.

I first saw this one week before my 14th birthday, when I was in eighth grade. I think for the first time in our young lives it brought home the painful actuality that just because one is young one is not immune from death. When I have as an adult described this episode to people I still choke up as I talk about the end.

The next day in school it was what everyone was talking about, and we had discussions in class about it. Even the most hard boiled of kids were shaken up over it.

An impacting episode for members of the baby boomer generation. I guarantee if you ask anyone around my age (51) they will remember it.

And of course, the little girl in the story, whom we did not know at the time, was Eve Plumb, who went on to TV immortality as Jan Brady.

So I remember watching this series as a child (through the ages of about 10 to 14)--although I have no recollection of this particular episode. I recall clearly that I didn't think much of it at the time. I found the kids cloyingly cute, the score somewhat mawkish and overbearing, and the laugh track intrusive.

I do remember John Byner's hilarious stand-up bit in which he does an impression of Brian Keith, kneading his face at every opportunity as if it were a lump of bread dough. That, and the MAD Magazine satire pretty well sealed the deal for me. I thought it must be a pretty bad show.

I saw a re-run of this episode today, and am a little embarrassed to admit that I was practically moved to tears. Admittedly, the subject of terminal illness in children is a pretty easy way to get me. But I was stunned by the *economy* of the writing. There isn't a wasted word or moment in the whole thing. There isn't a scene that goes a second beyond the instant that its point has been made.

The acting, especially by Keith, was great.

SPOILER ALERT

And that ending (really a twist ending) in which French and Uncle Bill think they've pulled the wool over the eyes of the kids (with the most noble of intentions) only to find out that Buffy has figured out exactly what's going on--all without a word of dialogue. It was, as one of the other reviewers here put it, heartbreaking.

There's never a point at which any of the characters says, "The kid is going to die." There are no tender homilies or lectures to the kids explaining to them the essential tragedy of the biological condition. None of the on-the-nose, expository, radio-with-pictures dialogue that burdens the worst TV dramas I see today: "You know, Ashley, all your father and I--who died in a tragic drug overdose when you were a baby--ever wanted was for you to be happy, even though I could never blah blah blah."

Here, it's all communicated through reaction shots and people doing their best to protect each other from the inescapable and awful truth.

Other reviewers discuss this episode as if they were reviewing a "movie of the week" entry. The subject matter is a little offsetting for a sitcom. Eve Plumb plays a sick little girl with an unidentified illness. Since the story centered on such a touchy subject, I think it was wrong not to identify the sickness. This episode came before the Brady Bunch. However, since Eve Plumb is now so well identified as Jan Brady, that reality compromises her performance here. Interestingly, Paul Sorenson (as Eve's father) went on to appear in a Brady Bunch episode. The episode was written by Elroy Schwartz, also a Brady Bunch writer. The story is well presented, but ultimately too sad. Also, when Buffy cries at the end, the reason is not confirmed. You can surmise what happened, but why not come out and say it? Have the courage of your convictions.