This article argues that ABC’s After School Specials (1972—95) employed a “rehabilitative approach” in representing teen problems and addressing teen viewers. The Specials represented coming of age by consistently linking heterosexuality with able-bodiedness and metaphorically representing adolescence as a process of “overcoming disability.” This rehabilitative approach united television’s “turn toward relevance” with educational and sexually themed programming strategies from the era to create hybridized television content and a narrative structure that addressed teen viewers and teen sexuality proactively rather than protectively. Articulating insights from disability studies to television studies, this article suggests that this strategy also rehabilitated television’s image: the Specials’ disability narratives redefined both teen television viewing and teen sexuality as productive rather than damaging. This article also historicizes the constitution of the “teen viewer” as a self-regulating proto-citizen while it examines how this series negotiated the complex terrain of teen sexuality, representations of disability, and an assertion of commercial television’s educational value.
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