Eggs, Babies and High School Health Classes

February 6th, 2008, 15 Comments »

Last night we were watching episode nine from season two of Veronica Mars. It was pretty lame (with the exception of a scene featuring Buffy alumni Charisma Carpenter and Alyson Hannigan), and featured an old television convention. Here’s an excerpt from the TV.com episode recap:

Neptune High School, classroom – Ms. Hauser’s sex education class is in session. Veronica and Duncan are in attendance. It’s welcome to parenthood as the students are asked to couple up and look after a baby doll which has sensors to detect how it is cared for.

This is a TV classic. In sex ed (or ‘health’ or ‘family planning’) class, students are forced to take care of an egg or baby doll for a week. The intent, of course, is to impress upon them how much work it is to take care of a baby, and thus compel to remain baby-free.

Hijinks always ensue, and there’s usually a moral lesson about who’s really the responsible kid, or a disclosure of someone actually being pregnant, and so forth.

I never did this in high school, despite it apparently being quite fashionable at the time. Did you?

Name That Plot Device

I started assembling a list of all the shows that have used this convention:

  • Veronica Mars
  • Beverly Hills 90210 - Julie says she remembers this, but I couldn’t find it. Does anybody recall egg-related fun on this show?
  • Degrassi Junior High - In the first opener of season two, the kids have to take care of eggs. If I recall correctly, Spike gives her egg to Snake Shane, the father of her baby. I think Snake screws up and breaks the egg.
  • Buffy The Vampire Slayer - In “Bad Eggs”, the Scooby Gang is given eggs to take care of. In a Whedonesque twist, there are nasty things inside the eggs which take over the minds of the eggs’ owners. Xander boils his egg for safe-keeping. In unrelated news, a couple of cowboy vampires come into town.

Can you name other examples of the egg-equals-parental-responsibility gimmick?

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