# School movies they probably don't show anymore **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227 "2009-12-14T16:50:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/21 "2009-12-14T20:59:07Z")
As a kid in the UK they aired plenty of PIFs (public information films) between Television for Schools. Some of those were frightening. Such as: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0trzpwf0Er8) [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XshVLgJjw_4) ---
**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/22 "2009-12-14T21:00:39Z")
It’s been awhile since I was in grade school or high school for that matter, but I think Reefer Madness [Reefer Madness - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness) takes the cake. 🆒 And, yes, it was as laughable then as it is now. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/23 "2009-12-14T21:02:04Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > A Grizzly Adams type travels through the wilderness and the scenes jump from what it used to look like to whatever change there was. For instance, his canoe was all of a sudden 50 yards off shore because the water drained from a lake or he was about to drink from some crystal clear spring but then it turned all brown and chunky from polution. > > I have no idea what the film was called. I remember that one. “Ten thousand year ago today, the glaciers all were going away, bye-bye” He was jumping back and forth in time to show the chages caused by the Ice Age. At one point he was suddenly underwater and when he floated to the surface there was a Great Lakes ore carrier bearing down on him. Are we talking about the same film? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/24 "2009-12-14T21:04:26Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > I remember Paddle to the Sea.. we were still watching it in elementary school in the mid-80s… well that was in Montana, so the rest of the country had probably moved on. I was in Maryland in the early 80’s, and we watched Paddle to the Sea. I didn’t understand why the boy would carve something just to let it go, and thought it was sad that he’d never see it again. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/25 "2009-12-14T21:05:11Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I’ve often wondered if they still show “The Red Balloon”. I’ve seen other’s reference it and I assume they were in grade school in the '70s, as I was. There’s nothing particularly controversial about it, it’s just kind of arty and probably wouldn’t be very engaging to students today. I saw “The Red Balloon” in elementary school in the early 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/26 "2009-12-14T21:09:35Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > As a kid in the UK they aired plenty of PIFs (public information films) between Television for Schools. Some of those were frightening. Such as: > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0trzpwf0Er8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0trzpwf0Er8) > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XshVLgJjw\_4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XshVLgJjw_4) I was just thinking of that second one! I never saw it as a kid, only as an adult online. So awesome though. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/27 "2009-12-14T21:11:15Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I’ve often wondered if they still show “The Red Balloon”. I was shown it in my seventh grade French class, because the few lines of dialogue? were in French. It wasn’t very engaging. We liked _The Scarlet Pimpernel_ much more. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/28 "2009-12-14T21:15:09Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > I saw “The Red Balloon” in elementary school in the early 90s. I saw it in junior high in the late 70s. At the time I thought it was very boring (I think most of the kids did) but just now, reading the summary on Wikipedia, it sounds like I might understand it better now. I also was struck by a similarity between it and the movie “J. T.” ([being discussed on another thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11886355#post11886355)). In both films, an innocent that is loved by the main character is killed/destroyed by cruel bullies. I don’t deal too well with that particular plot device, so I usually avoid things that contain it. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/29 "2009-12-14T21:16:11Z")
Do they still show “Signal Thirty” and it’s ilk in Driver Ed? These were the bloody, scrape-you off-the-pavement movies they used to show in an effort into scaring you into driving safely. We brought popcorn when they showed it to us. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/30 "2009-12-14T21:20:35Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > I remember that one. > > “Ten thousand year ago today, the glaciers all were going away, bye-bye” > > He was jumping back and forth in time to show the chages caused by the Ice Age. > > At one point he was suddenly underwater and when he floated to the surface there was a Great Lakes ore carrier bearing down on him. > > Are we talking about the same film? Yes! Surely we must be talking about the same one. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/31 "2009-12-14T21:23:13Z")
I remember sometimes watching the early 70’s PBS show [Inside/Out](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside/Out_%28TV_series%29) as part of social studies. It was a great show about social issues facing kids done in a halfway realistic way. And the show always just ended abruptly, without resolution- sometimes the cliffhangers were terrifying for a young kid. I remember one that just ended with some kid with a broken leg stuck at the bottom of a hill… always wondered what happened to him- I just concluded the worst. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/32 "2009-12-14T21:25:28Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > There was another film we saw several times that showed the differences between America from 100 or so years ago and now (and by now, I mean the early 70s). > > A Grizzly Adams type travels through the wilderness and the scenes jump from what it used to look like to whatever change there was. For instance, his canoe was all of a sudden 50 yards off shore because the water drained from a lake or he was about to drink from some crystal clear spring but then it turned all brown and chunky from polution. > > I have no idea what the film was called. Was the canoe red? [The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes](http://www.nfb.ca/film/rise_and_fall_of_the_great_lakes/) > [@cjepson](#): > > When I was in grade school they were still showing the Bell Laboratory Science Series with Dr. Frank C. Baxter: > > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Bell\_Laboratory\_Science\_Series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Laboratory_Science_Series) > > (I recently got a DVD of two of those shows, in the interest of reliving a small part of my youth.) I remember _Hemo the Magnificent_; are the others as good? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/33 "2009-12-14T21:30:34Z")
Here’s the [Intro for Inside/Out](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X5W_UXE41E), brings back some memories. Here’s a rare full episode of [Inside/Out -Finding Information](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_3ihHAiL-Y&feature=related). ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/34 "2009-12-14T21:33:38Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Was the canoe red? > > [The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes](http://www.nfb.ca/film/rise_and_fall_of_the_great_lakes/) > **[The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Great_Lakes)** > > The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes is a 1968 Canadian short film produced by the National Film Board of Canada and directed by Bill Mason. It won the 1971 BAFTA Award for Best Specialised Film. > The 17-minute colour film is a humorous geography lesson, in which a canoeist travels abruptly through time as he crosses the Great Lakes, experiencing cataclysmic changes in different eras. The film is narrated in ballad form. > Some animation is employed to show the coming and going of the Ice Age when... That was it. I couldn’t get to the link, though I could get to the Paddle by the Sea linked earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/35 "2009-12-14T21:35:34Z")
> [@Simmerdown](#): > > There was a scare movie they showed us in an early year of elementary school back in the early 70’s. I remember my older sisters telling me about it, and that it would be shown when I reached such and such a grade. Apparently it was important enough to organize a special assembly, IOW, it was shown to multiple classes in the gym, rather than in the classroom. > > IIRC, it was about a couple of girls who got into some guy’s car with the promise of candy, or something. They were chased into the woods, where they were knifed to death. The final scene of the film was either: a bloody sneaker floating down a creek; or an aerial shot of the two dead girls. I can’t remember which, but I do recall both scenes. I’ve been meaning to open a thread about it, to see if anyone else remembers this. It definitely left an impression on a sprite in the single digits. [Here you go.](http://www.archive.org/details/CHILD) NOT safe for work! ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/36 "2009-12-14T21:36:38Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Do they still show “Signal Thirty” and it’s ilk in Driver Ed? These were the bloody, scrape-you off-the-pavement movies they used to show in an effort into scaring you into driving safely. > > We brought popcorn when they showed it to us. Its ilk, certainly. Our version was 'Wheels of Tragedy". I seem to remember a scene by a bridge, with some person who had been in an accident (and not wearing his seat belt) with his mouth open and you could see out the back of his head.I had Driver’s Ed before lunch, fortunately. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/37 "2009-12-14T21:39:03Z")
> [@Simmerdown](#): > > There was a scare movie they showed us in an early year of elementary school back in the early 70’s. I remember my older sisters telling me about it, and that it would be shown when I reached such and such a grade. Apparently it was important enough to organize a special assembly, IOW, it was shown to multiple classes in the gym, rather than in the classroom. > > IIRC, it was about a couple of girls who got into some guy’s car with the promise of candy, or something. They were chased into the woods, where they were knifed to death. The final scene of the film was either: a bloody sneaker floating down a creek; or an aerial shot of the two dead girls. I can’t remember which, but I do recall both scenes. I’ve been meaning to open a thread about it, to see if anyone else remembers this. It definitely left an impression on a sprite in the single digits. Sounds like the first three minutes of an episode of _SVU_. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/38 "2009-12-14T21:48:07Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > When I was in grade school they were still showing the Bell Laboratory Science Series with Dr. Frank C. Baxter… I remember _The Restless Sea_ from that series. Along the same lines was my favorite, [The Living Desert](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046008/). ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/39 "2009-12-14T21:52:26Z")
Oh yeah, Paddle to the Sea! I remember the tension every freakin’ time I saw it as it slid down and down the mountain to the water. Or near the falls. 'Course, I grew up in quite a different place from the OP – Montville. Good what, 8 miles? Another vague memory of school movies is some … something to do with the telephone. Bell Telephone put it together, I think it was Fantastic Voyage-like, with kids and a guide or something getting miniaturized inside a telephone to see how it works. Lots of lights and other hypnotic effects or something. And then there was the iconic professor and some animated drawings – a deer and a rabbit and maybe a turtle, all about the circulatory system. Or maybe that was the after-effects of the colored lights. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227/40 "2009-12-14T21:53:53Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > Do they still show the “Peanuts” Christmas special? I wonder about that because of the overtly christian message (Linus reciting a passage from the Gospel) would certainly rile up some parents. > > Or “Go Ask Alice” - I can’t imagine that kids of today would even remotely take seriously an anti-drug film from 1971. (Besides, compulsive texting has taken over as the new addiction for kids today.) I’m pretty sure they don’t show the aforementioned Johnny Appleseed anymore, since it contained song verses like this: The Lord is good to me And so I thank the Lord for giving me the things I need the something something and the apple trees The Lord is good to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-movies-they-probably-dont-show-anymore/521227.md?page=3)