Any Day Now

TV ANNOUNCER. Say, this is Mental Health Week, folks. I’ll bet you guys and gals out there don’t realize what an important subject this is to all of us. Maybe you’ve never even given it much thought, you know? But honest, this is a big thing in this old world today, and all of us ought to, well, you know, sort of get behind it, like. I mean, learn more about it and kind of do what we can to help those who have it.

(Under a big poster reading “Help those who have Mental Health,”a whitejacketed scientist raises his head from a microscope to look grimly into the TV camera.)

SCIENTIST. Four out of five suffer from Mental Health.

(The words “four out of five” are picked up by the microphone and repeated in a series of diminishing echoes as background for candid studies of four typical victims — a workman, a housewife, a college professor, and, most touching of all, a little child.)

TV ANNOUNCER (pointing at a blackboard chart that proves conclusively that MH is on the rise). Mental Health can strike you or your loved ones at any time. Thousands suffer needlessly from this condition. Don’t let it happen in your community. Send in your dollars and dimes today and join the fight against MH!

HOUSEWIFE. I think my husband’s got it, and that’s why I am urging everyone to join the crusade against MH. If anything can lick it, TV can.