Remember Jeff Conaway? "Bobby" from Taxi... "Kenickie" from Grease?

Dude.

Seriously.

I don't have time for the sort of disclaimers, caveats, and excuses that any sane person would feel compelled to give before admitting to watching a VH1 reality show. But I'm saving the episode and a half of Celebrity Rehab (now with extra Dr. Drew!) that I have on my TiVo.

I remember being in seventh grade and having to get a permission slip signed so I could be shown an anti-drug propaganda film. It was effective. I have no memory of what it was called. The scene I remember most vividly is that of a heroin addict in a jail cell going through an agonizing cold turkey experience. The film pulled no punches and we the seventh grade class collectively groaned as we witnessed what I would later learn is called "loose booty."

Heroin may be making a comeback, but in this new era of Oxycontin and Xanax, we need a new poster child. Thanks, Jeff Conaway! No, that's cold. I'm sorry. But honestly, I'm strongly considering showing several clips from the show to my older son, and even recommending them to my friends. Let me start now.

It's a glorious age, as I can point to the whole dang series here. Follow that link and you should be able to see the third episode loading. Once you get past the short ad and the actual show begins to load, "drag forward" the show to about the 4/5th point. After seeing some former child star explain her trouble with weed, we join Dr. Drew and Conaway in the exam room. Keep watching. After that, watch episode Four. It starts slow, but you must not miss the sudden seizure/shakes at the lunch table. It sounds tame in writing. Ozzy was funny-sad. Conaway is scary-sad.

Be sure to watch through to the end, when the aging Kenickie frighteningly channels Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin. It's either that character or he was hoping to get the gig as Jack Bauer while Keifer slept it off in the hoosegow. Somewhere in the mix, Daniel Baldwin gives a valuable summary of his typical falling-off-the-wagon via cocaine sequence.

[Thanks, Safari or Amazon, for my browser crash and the loss of all of my post's link url's and its amazingly clever denouement. A quick summary will serve as a dim sad reflection.]

Dr. Drew seems cooly detached but it works well with the freaks. I respect him.

Googling Jeff.Conaway and trainwreck yields 1080 hits.

Googling (Amazon's) kindle and fugly yields 888 hits.