MovieChat Forums > The White Shadow (1978) Discussion > Michael Winslow episode- Any thoughts?

Michael Winslow episode- Any thoughts?


Remember the episode with Michael Winslow from Police Academy playing a student of the verge of a nervous breakdown?
That episode has haunted me for years.
The teacher, Christina Pickles realizes Winslow's erratic behavior, and tries to help him because she had a nervous breakdown as well. Winslow comes into class with a gun and threatens to shoot Pickles.
Mike

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Yeah that was a very memorable episode. Pretty eery.

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In the last season, it seems that thr producers were instructed by CBS to lighten things up and not do so many serious stories, so we get episodes like Vanity Fair, When Your Numbers Up, Get it Down, the second holiday episode and Trial and Error. Psyched Out is one of the better year 3 episodes in that it deals with a very serious issue and in a good way. If they suspected that they were on the road to getting cancelled, I'm glad they decided to go back to doing strong stories so that they could go out on a solid note. Cops and Burnout also handle very strong subject matter in a very good way.

Winslow was an unknown at the time, but a good enough dramatic actor in this context to make his schtick with all the noises and such appropriate. He was scary in several scenes, especially when we see Lee talking to the mice. Bit by bit, over the course of the episode, we see how he's losing touch with his mental health.

Christina Pickles was marvelous in this episode (I'm guessing she was offered the St Elsewhere role because of this episode).

All in all, this is, for me, one of this series' most memorable episodes.

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I remember laughing like crazy when Winslow started barking like a dog. As a kid at the time,I didn't know the serious problems he had, but yea, that was a pretty wild episode.

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Just watched this episode last night for the first time in years. Great episode. That was really scary with the scene in the kids house where he's looking in the mirror pretending he's at an audition.

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The PCP episode scared me.

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Agree...just the way that girl said 'I can fly' was spooky....

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Indeed; I started watching the show as a 9-year-old because it was about basketball, my new favorite sport. I wound up exposed to so much, including what drugs can do to you. Probably stuff I shouldn't have been watching so early all the hard things people went through, but my parents let me watch it.

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