Charles J. Schlotter pens The Spirit of Columbus which first debuted on 17 January, 1988. Alex (Michael J, Fox) sees an opportunity when Nick (Scott Valentine) sells one of his pieces at a flea market for $200.

However, when Alex keeps pushing him to work harder and harder to churn out more pieces Nick begins to lose interest in art because he’s not doing it for the love now, but for work. Sure, Alex is selling tons of them, but where’s the joy and creativity?

Eventually, Nick and Alex have to talk, and Nick is finally able, somewhat, to make Alex understand that art has to be unique, it can’t be mass-produced, or it becomes a product. Nick doesn’t want to make a product, he wants to make art.

There’s a b-story that follows Andy (Brian Bonsall) who has decided he wants to be a dog and wants Steven (Micheal Gross) and Elyse (Meredith Baxter) to buy him dog food. Happily, this doesn’t really last beyond the first commercial break.

Fox and Valentine are good together, but the script could have been a bit stronger, and done a little more to mine the relationship and the subject matter. But you also have to wrap everything up in twenty-three minutes.

The Blues Brother sees Alex being a DJ at his university much like he did in high school, but soon makes a mistake when he plays a blues record and claims the singer is dead.

Then the singer, Eddie Dupree (accomplished blues singer Brownie McGhee) calls in to notify Alex he’s not dead and agrees to come on the show. This is a great commentary about music, publishing rights, the way artists were treated, and how some of them simply disappeared to lead quieter lives.

Written by Burt Prelutsky this episode was first broadcast on 24 January, 1988.

Eddie agrees to the show, but won’t perform, and McGhee is simply wonderful in this role. Call after call comes into the station and Eddie hears from the lives he’s touched, and while he just sees himself as a bus driver the way others see him affects him and reignites his love for the music and he puts on one last show.

It’s a solid episode, with some fantastic music that really highlights performance, and the importance of the blues.

And Lauren (Courtney Cox) shows up.

This is arguably one of my favourite episodes of the season.

Read It and Weep: Part 1 brings another important (and still with us) topics up, banned books. Written by Marc Lawrence and Alan Uger this episode was first broadcast on 7 February, 1988.

Jennifer (Tina Yothers) finds herself in the middle of a heated battle over free speech rights when she chooses to do a book report on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which was banned by the school.

Alex agrees with his parents that there is no reason it should be banned, nor others. They argue about the context of language, epithets, and historical accuracy, as well as those forcing their religious beliefs on others.

It’s an important and healthy discussion that looks at both sides of the argument fairly and it’s wonderful to see Jennifer taking a stand for something she believes in. She starts to give her speech and her teacher stops her. Not because he wants to, but because he has to follow the rules of the school.

I love that Jennifer takes a stand and that the writers were determined to address this ongoing issue with wit and intelligence. Let’s see how the story plays out when I dig into part two next week. Is it going to cost Jennifer her grade? Or worse? We’ll have to wait until next week to find out.

And hey, there are a couple of familiar faces in the class, Christian Clemenson plays Jennifer’s teacher, and Stephen Dorff plays one of Jennifer’s fellow classmates.