A Very Special Episode:

'What about the bartender's special, it's called The Hunk.'

Waiter

Anyone who grew up in the 1980's or 1990's remember those 'very special episodes'.  Most sit-coms had one a season usually focusing on a social issue.  They often centered on a character drinking and driving, trying drugs, an eating disorder or teen sex.

The Waiter

For those who grew up gay, bi or sexually confused, a very special episode usually meant the episode when the characters went to a male strip club.  Almost every sit-com had at least one episode where the main characters, for one reason or another, went to a strip club. 

The Facts Of Life is generally thought of us a pretty tame, generic sit-com.  It never reached the heights of many critically acclaimed shows, yet outlasted many of them.  My mother watched The Golden Girls, but when I was a kid, I preferred The Facts of Life.   I recently caught a few minutes of the season 5 episode, 'I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can'.  I get the show on one of my new retro channels, and flipped it on the other day while channel surfing.  

In the episode, Jo and Blair take Mrs. Garret to a strip club for her birthday.  I'd seen the episode before when I was younger, but I'd forgotten how boundary pushing it actually was.  I don't think the show intended it to be, but most sit-coms don't show the male strippers sin speedos, the most we usually get is a dancer shirtless, or maybe in boxers or boxer briefs.  

The Fireman

This episode was filmed in the 80's, at the height of the popularity of male strip clubs for entertainment and of course the height of Chippendales.  If you look back on TV shows from the time, from sit-coms to talk shows, male strippers in speedos were everywhere.

After catching a few minutes last week, I decided to check out the cast on IMDB and was surprised at the casting of the men in the strip club.  The casting directly obviously wanted some realism.  Almost all of the men playing the strip clubs staff, from servers to strippers, were played by actors who had either done nude scenes, or were actually strippers themselves. 

The Cowboy

Check out who played who, what their nudity background was, and of course, take a look at them out of their sit-com speedos, on the NEXT PAGE HERE:

The Doctor