History VerySpecialEpisode / LiveActionTv

* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' had one where the sub-plot involved Thomas trying to start a relationship with someone who had recently been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. It's not too thick on the coverage, however. At the end of the airing there was a PSA from his actor about [=MS=].

** Season 20 (November 1988-May 1989), had a central story arc involving Maria's pregnancy and how Big Bird and the other citizens of Sesame Street are coping with it. Notable moments include Big Bird and Maria visiting a maternity clinic in Episode 2558, Maria going into labor in Episode 2614, and the introduction of Gabby (now know as "Gabi) who became a regular in the later seasons.

** An episode about Oliver having diabetes had to be drastically retooled before being aired, since the original was [[CluelessAesop inaccurate]] and had some [[DudeNotFunny offensive jokes]] about diabetics.

* ''Series/AdamTwelve'': The third season had a very touching and insightful episode called "Elegy for a Pig," where Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner), the elder of the two regular officers, narrates a documentary about his one-time partner, who was killed while staking out a robbery. Malloy's emotional telling shows that when an officer dies, he is more than just a statistic, but rather a comrade, friend, family man and much more. The end credits for that particular episode did not use the usual sequence or theme, but rather [[SilentCredits a black screen with no music]] (the {{vanity plate}}s at the end were kept as usual).

* ''Series/{{Blackish}}'' is practically a Very Special Series, with episodes tackling everything from [[ComingOutStory coming out]] to gun control to [[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbation]] to NWordPrivileges, but "Hope," their episode about [[RippedFromTheHeadlines police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement]], is notable in that it was even advertised as such. Given its mostly black cast, many episodes dealt with racial identity and prejudice.

* ''BillyTheExterminator'': In one episode of Season 2, Billy and Ricky travel to the Gulf Coast to survey the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

** Season 20 (November 1988-May 1989), had a central story arc involving Maria's pregnancy and how Big Bird and the other citizens of Sesame Street are coping with it. Notably moments include Big Bird and Maria visting a maternity clinic in Episode 2558, Maria going into labor in Episode 2614, and the introduction of Gabby (now know as "Gabi) who became a regular in the later seasons.

** One particularly notable VSE is "Go Softly Into The Morning," an episode about drunk driving that just so happened to have been brainstormed right around the time Nia Peeples (Nicole) was about to leave the show. The producers got her permission to [[McLeaned kill off the character]] as the result of another student's carelessness. They later regretted offing Nicole, and said that they would have loved for her to come back for the GrandFinale.

* In season 5 of ''Series/{{House}}'' [[spoiler: Kuttner]] commits suicide, though this wasn't a typical Very Special Suicide Episode: it's possible to interpret the overall Aesop as "sometimes people just commit suicide, and you couldn't possibly have seen it coming so you could do anything to stop it, so there's no point beating yourself up about it." The behind-the-scenes reason for the suicide was that [[McLeaned the actor decided to leave the show]], and the lack of foreshadowing was because it was ''almost'' as big a surprise to the writers as it was to the audience.

* ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'': One episode takes the FantasticDrug aspects of the villains' [[TransformationTrinket Gaia Memories]] UpToEleven. It deals with a bunch of teenage runaways sharing a single memory in a way that's very reminiscent of sharing needles. The "actual" memory user says that the power gives them a high and they've been using it to cope with stress. In another episode, [[spoiler:Isaka[=/=]Weather Dopant]] dies from overuse of the Gaia Memories, which is presented very much as an allegory for drug overdose.

* ''Series/{{Sisters}}'' was practically a Very Special Series. It showed nearly every issue present in shows of TheNineties, and often [[UpToEleven multiple issues in a single episode]].
* ''Series/SisterSister'' had a few episodes that dealth with a serious issue:
** "Smoking in the Girls' Room" had Tia and Tamera develop a smoking habit after a friend talked them into it, but after they decide that [[SmokingIsNotCool they don't want to deal with the concequences that smoking has]], the girls decide to give up the habit all toghether.

** In season two's "Strangers on the Net", T.J. and one of the friends whose his own age, Karen, meet a guy named [=Marky412=] in an internet chat room for kids. When they meet him at a burger restaurant to purchase some bootlegged games that he's selling, they find out he's a 30-something man. Mark invites them to his house to test a surfing game he's "developing," only to give away the fact that he's had other kids play it at his house... having taken photos of kids who he convinced to take off their clothes to play the game. A shocked T.J., who got Karen out before anything bad happened, later tells Floyd about it. While not explicitly mentioned, when it cuts to after the police interview T.J. about Mark, it is later revealed that Mark had a prior arrest for child molestation, and violated the terms of his parole in talking to T.J. and Karen.
** In season three's "Get a Job," Yvette and her friend Nina get jobs at a clothing store. Their new boss, Ms. Hendra, asks Nina (who is white) to follow black people around the store to make sure they don't steal items. After Yvette catches Nina reluctantly doing the task, Yvette sets up hidden cameras around the store and hires her brother's friends Mackey (white) and Mo (black) to walk around the store with Mackey playing the shoplifter (putting the stuff back later in the tape) while Ms. Hendra follows Mo around to demonstrate that shoplifters can be of any race and mentions a Truth in Television that the average shoplifter is a middle-aged Caucasian females (particularly those who carry large bags, this fact is often taught in the merchandise industry). In response Ms. Hendra effectively fires Yvette for disagreeing with her stance. Later on Yvette has the founder and president of the store chain, who is black, come in and pretend to browse in the store, only to notice Ms. Hendra following him; once he reveals who he is and what Yvette told him about her methods, he takes her back into her office.

* ''Series/TheWestWing'': "Isaac and Ishmael" explored racism against Arabs and South Asians after the attacks in the city, similar to ''Series/TwentyFour''. A staff member has the same name as a terrorist, and Leo and the Secret Service interrogate the heck out of him. When it turns out he's innocent, he gives Leo a big TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. The episode also gives a discussion about terrorism in general, framed as a group of schoolchildren touring the White House when it gets locked down and the main cast has to entertain them while stuck in the White House's kitchen.

* ''Series/TheWestWing'': "Isaac and Ishmael" explored racism against Arabs and South Asians after the attacks in the city, similar to ''Series/TwentyFour''. A staff member has the same name as a terrorist, and Leo and the Secret Service interrogate the heck out of him. When it turns out he's innocent, he gives Leo a big TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.

* ''Series/TheMuppets'' has "A Tail of Two Piggies", which deals with body positivity. When Miss Piggy's tail sticks out of her dress at a ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' screening, she becomes a laughingstock, and sets out to prove that pig tails are beautiful... by planning to show it off on her talk show ''Up Late with Miss Piggy''. Naturally, due to network objections she isn't allowed to do so. [[spoiler:[[LoopholeAbuse But there's no rule saying that other animals can't show their pig tails on network TV]].]]

* ''Series/{{Girls}}'' had a very special episode entitled "Close Up," in which Adam's girlfriend Mimi-Rose Howard reveals she had an abortion. Show creator Lena Dunham then retweeted praise for the episode for dealing with the topic.

** "He Said, She Said" has Amy investigating a sexual assault case with only circumstantial evidence to support the victim's accusation. This eventually leads to her disclosing that she went through a similar situation in the past, making the case very personal for her. [[BrokenBase It's one of the lowest rated episodes of the series on IMDb.]]

%% * ''Series/SuddenlySusan'' had a unique one that dealt with the ActorExistenceFailure of David Strickland.

** Sixth season episode "Operation: Puerto Rico" is about El K'rajo in the San Juan, Puerto Rico, suburb of Loíza which was ruined by the one-two punch of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. Finding the entire surrounding neighborhood lay in ruins, he called in some heavy hitters--including entrepreneur Mark Cuban, actor Creator/LuisGuzman, and baseball player Bernie Williams--to practically reconstruct the entire neighborhood. Jon even gave the owner of El K'rajo $12,000 to pay off his mortgage and save his home from foreclosure.

* In season 8, ''Series/ModernFamily'' had one with the female characters, as well as Manny and Luke, attending a Women's March in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the Trump administration's poor treatment of women. This episode was poorly received by fans and critics alike and is the show's lowest-rated episode on IMDB because it focuses more on Manny and Luke trying to flirt with female protestors and the comedic B-plot with Phil and Jay trying to build a parking lot rather than the challenges the women faced and why they were participating in the march.

* In ''Series/TheNeighboorhood'', Gemma suffers from a pregnancy loss and the series takes a much more dramatic turn than usual.

** Possibly a third with "The Strange Case of Clarence and Anita" about the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court and the unprecedented hearings about sexual harassment allegations against Thomas by law professor and former subordinate Anita Hill. Thomas was confirmed on October October 15, 1991 and the episode aired November 4.[[note]] In an ironic bit of HypocriticalHumor, '''DW''' aired on CBS... the one major network that ''didn't'' air the Thomas case live, due to conflicts with their broadcast of the Major League Baseball playoffs; NBC, ABC, and even PBS and C-SPAN aired it live.[[/note]]

** Possibly a third with "The Strange Case of Clarence and Anita" about the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court and the unprecedented hearings about sexual harassment allegations against Thomas by law professor and former subordinate Anita Hill. Thomas was confirmed on October October 15, 1991 and the episode aired November 4.

** "[[Recap/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAirS1E6MistakenIdentity Mistaken Identity]]": Will and Carlton are pulled over trying to get to a fancy party. After Uncle Phil bails them out and threatens the arresting officer with litigation over it, Will and Carlton debate police racism, with Will thinking they were victims of racial profiling while Carlton says the whole thing was a misunderstanding and the police were just doing their jobs.