Tami’s So-Called Life, Episode Guide
Season 4
s04e01 Tami starts the school year with a list of schemes to get into clothes but the list is discovered by Assistant Principal Percival.
s04e02 Wanda hides a remote control vibrator inside the bronze horse on which Tami had “volunteered” to pose during a school play.
s04e03 Ms. Sen promises Tami clothes in return for demonstrating excretion for her biology class until the Principal intervenes and changes the terms.
s04e04 A new Japanese exchange student befriends Tami and reveals a secret obsession.
s04e05 Tami and Rod go out for pizza and fight off a crowd of gawkers.
s04e06 Rod stands up for Tami when she is again teased by the Fashion Police girls.
s04e07 Tami misses her train stop and has to make her way in a strange town with no money.
s04e08 Tami is “stripped” of first prize at an away gymnastics meet due to a clothing infraction.
s04e09 Tami tries to change her approach, demanding clothes loudly, cursing. It only serves to alienate her friends and she finds herself in Detention next to the Fashion Police.
s04e10 Tami reluctantly agrees to see the school psychologist.
s04e11 Tami volunteers to sew costumes for a school play but the extra cloth she had accumulated inexplicably disappears at the last minute.
s04e12 On a cold day Terri bravely risks public punishment under School Rule #1 by offering her coat to Tami only to find that it is Tami who receives the punishment with the person who gave her clothing wielding the cane.
s04e13 The Debating Club’s topic for the after-school competition is “Should Tami Smithers Be Allowed to Wear Clothes?”
s04e14 Tami’s views on animal cruelty are tested when she finds a real fur coat in the snow.
s04e15 Tami’s assignment as hall monitor carries an unusual stipulation.
s04e16 Tami saves a lost kitten by bringing it into the school on a snowy day only to find herself locked out afterward.
s04e17 The question of whether Tami can tie other kids’ shoes with her toes consumes the school.
s04e18 Jen gets in trouble for drawing sketches of Tami wearing clothes.
s04e19 A new school policy requires photo ID’s of everyone but Tami’s is different.
s04e20 Wanda evades punishment for gluing a surprise “addition” onto the gymnastics horse just before Tami jumps it.
s04e21 Rod and Tyrone devise an ingenious way to get Tami through the bishop’s school visit.
s04e22 Tami is horrified at the possibility that everyone can read her mind.
s04e23 Tami’s drunken confessions get her in trouble with the police and also with the Principal when they are recorded and played on the school PA system.
s04e24 Tami’s health class watches a boring film on menstruation to which surprise scenes were added.
s04e25 The Fashion Police torture Tami all week with an elaborate game of “keep-away”.
s04e26 Tami goes through an entire day thinking she’s wearing clothes and shoes, freaking out her friends.
s04e27 Tami assumes what she confessed to Father Albert was kept secret until the Principal starts acting strangely.
s04e28 Tami is depressed after creating prom dresses for the whole class but Rod has a surprise for her.
Interesting premise……Did you have plans to write these stories out beyond this crib sheet?
Why start at season 4?This feels like it’s set in a high school instead of at college?
Though the TV-show conversion might be a bit meta, it feels like a fun ‘Tami’ twist on something like WandaVision’s ‘TV-show’ alternate realities… Nice!
I’m extra curious about what school rule #1 is in episode 12…
From these snippets it sounds like Tami is not allowed clothes in this show/reality… (Instead of the fake religious nudity excuse from her ‘real’ college adventures)… Would be very interesting to read some scripts or episode notes to explain more…? Or if you could give more details please?
Especially episodes 8, 9 and 15 and the above. This could be a whole new Tami epic.
Thanks for the compliment.
You might remember a very good (albeit short-lived) TV series from the 90’s called “My So-Called Life”, about a girl in high school. I was doing a switch on that. You can picture this universe as a dream college-age Tami is having about high school, just as the Brigid the Majorette universe was a high school dream that college-age Rod was having.
I meant these episode summaries as the type of one-line entries you might find in wikipedia (or, previously, in TV Guide). For example, for M*A*S*H, “Fake orders are cut promoting Radar to second looie.” I didn’t mean to actually write 28 stories (particularly since some of the blurbs contain spoilers). Of course anyone is free to have a go at it, so long as you respect the integrity of the character.
Admittedly, it’s the easiest thing to do, to think of such one-line episode summaries. A lazy piece of writing; it took me all of about 15 minutes. It’s gotten a lot of hits on my web site. I feel guilty, kind of.
(P.S. The ten “School Rules” are posted in the front hallway. They are all pretty standard rules, except for Rule #1 which is in boldface:
Tami Smithers is to be naked and shoeless at all times. Any attempt to give her clothing or footwear will result in public punishment.)
(This might be a dream of Tami’s but I didn’t say it was a good dream. . . )
I don’t think we should use the stories and chapters area for non-stories. How about we replace these two spammy posts with real stories instead?
Agreed. These low-effort posts are pushing chapters from stories that people have actually put effort into off of the front page list.
It’s disrespectful to authors that are contributing new ideas now. Not recycling the same stuff.
These aren’t stories. Unless you’re going to actually write this, these notes shouldn’t be here.
You know, I was toying with this idea myself. However I envisioned the show like Lizzie McGuire. Outwardly, she’d be dealing with whatever situation she found herself in, those brief insigts into her inner thoughts would show a cartoon version of her yelling out her frustrations.
It’s fine donnylaja. You just posted in the wrong area. I suggest just make a single new post under ‘start a new topic’ and put all of your new season ideas under just that one new topic. All the seasons that you are musing about. That’s the proper way to do it.
A few years ago someone posted on the ASN Story Board a collection of brief, unconnected ENF ideas as to no character in particular, and then claimed copyright on them. The reaction was quite hostile, of course.
This is not that. This a two-part story. The many plot summaries contained within it (and there are 54 of them) in their totality paint a picture of a high school world, with Tami as the only naked student, and the reactions of her friends, the other students, and school officials. It describes the many aspects of the situation and (if read on its own terms) each summary provokes the imagination of the reader. It has a definite progression and there is a reason why some episodes are earlier and some later. These might have been “effortless” for me to write but that’s only because I know the universe so well (having invented much of it). Some stories just write themselves.
Expanding each of these 54 ideas into a separate story would just result in tedium. We know how they will turn out. For example: s04e11: “Tami volunteers to sew costumes for a school play but the extra cloth she had accumulated inexplicably disappears at the last minute.” What more is there to say? Or s05e06: “Jen tries to go naked in solidarity with Tami but is arrested for indecent exposure.” These two ideas illustrate Tami’s ingenuity and frustration, and the irony of her situation.
I could address your objection by bracketing these lists with paragraphs of Tami, in college, tossing and turning and unable to sleep, and fantasizing about high school life. (Chronologically she entered college in 1999, and “My So-Called Life” was in 1995, so her dreams would be related to her memories of the show.) But that wouldn’t add anything. In fact it would explain too much.
I was thinking how interesting it would be to have an else-worlds version of Tami. Maybe a universe with Wanda as the only one naked or Jen. It could get quite creative. I can not write like all of you, but I have some ideas.
You somehow stole the plot of a season 3 episode, “Tami the Wizard”, where she taps a magic wand and the world is changed such that Wanda is the only one naked, then taps it again and it’s Jen. Wanda is totally shamed, cringing, and Tami has a great time as the clothed bully; as for Jen, she at first enjoys being naked (being a secret exhibitionist), but then feels lonely and does not enjoy playing kickball in the snow, and ends up longing for clothes. Unfortunately at the end of the episode Tami wakes up; it was all a dream.
That comment was by me! (I forgot to sign on.)
Donnylaja, I guess great minds think alike.
“Tami saves a lost kitten by bringing it into the school on a snowy day only to find herself locked out afterward.” I want to see this one. 😛
Thanks.
A miniature of the typical Tami story — Tami puts herself out to help someone (or in this case a kitten), and as a result ends up worse than before. She is a remote descendant of de Sade’s Justine (“Virtue Properly Punished”).
No problem! 🙂
Very cool. :p (No pun intended, in this case. :P) I’ll have to check that story out at some point. 🙂
Actually the original “Justine” was written in the 18th century and the style is turgid. Crepax did an excellent graphic novel (you can read it online) but in either case the story is a bit heavy for me. A better example would be “Tami Saves Mei-lin”, https://www.donnylaja.com/tami-saves-mei-lin
I keep forgetting — “Tami Saves Mei-lin” is on this site too!