Diff'rent Strokes: S1E5: The Spanking

Hey Everyone, Angela Bowen here, the host of Diff'rent Strokes To Move The World: An Unofficial Diff'rent Strokes Podcast. Today, I covered S1E5: The Spanking, which aired on December 1, 1978. In this episode Arnold is caught throwing water bombs off the balcony and Mr. Drummond feels that a fitting punishment is a spanking. I really enjoyed this episode as it covered a topic that really isn't mentioned anymore on television, almost to the point of becoming a taboo subject and that is the physical form of child discipline known as spanking. It was more common to hear or see this form of discipline on tv shows back in the day in the 70's and 80's. The only time other than this show that I've see a child being spanked by their parent was the show Roseanne. In Season 6, their at the time youngest child DJ steals the family car and gets caught by the police, Roseanne's anger boils over and she lashes out at DJ by spanking him. Jackie tells Roseanne she was out of control and acting just like their father, which hits Roseanne hard. I covered an episode of Silver Spoons, Season 2, titled Spare The Rod, which dealt with child abuse as the main focus, but leading up to that has Ricky's father Edward ready to tan his son's hide after Ricky breaks a valuable gift that Edward had just bought Kate. Join me next month for a lighter episode in S1E6: Goodbye, Dolly, which aired on December 8, 1978. In this episode after Kimberly donates Arnold's ratty old doll named Homer to charity and it is sold, he can't sleep. Mr. Drummond quickly tires of this, so he hires a detective to try and find the doll. Have a Great July Everyone!