I remember this most memorable episode from its first broadcast when I was 15 years old. The series "Family" had already made its mark on me and, as a gay youth, I was so impressed with this episode's frankness, dignity and honesty in dealing with such a delicate subject at that time. Most other portrayals of gay men in that day used rather typical stereotypes and made gay men seem to be laughable at best and pittiable at worst. This episode did just the opposite.

The gay character, was a charming and handsome teenage boy with good qualities. He wasn't just a gay character in an episode of a television show; the viewer saw him to be a whole human being, just as it really is in the human experience. He teaches the already open-minded Lawrence family and he teaches the individual viewer as well. That was most impressive for the mid 1970s.

This important episode of "Family" deserves to be remembered in the record of our era.

John Martin, 46
Fort Worth, Texas

Darlene has hastily written a last-minute poem for a school assignment. Darlene's only real ambition up till now is to get through school. To her surprise her teacher thinks her poem is so good that she has submitted it for "Culture Night," where high-achieving students perform for their parents, a thing completely repulsive to Darlene. She wrote the poem as a kind of afterthought so as not to get a failing grade, and she doesn't think of herself as an intellectual champion, anyway. She likes to just hang out and live life. Roseanne gently but firmly insists that she participate at Culture Night and read her poem in front of an audience.

In this most memorable episode we learn of Darlene's blossoming tallent as a writer and we get a real look at the extreme difficulty for most of us in transitioning from carefree childhood to the realities of "growing up."