2501 In their defense, this was when the concept for each character was well defined enough that throwing in odd, one-off details like this could legitimately give fans of the show enough to be upset over. In Skinner’s case, the premise for his character was contrasting his stiff, by the books, almost servile demeanor as an elementary school principal against the hardened Vietnam vet he once was and could still be when the situation called for it, so adding the street punk story on top of that is redundant at best and gimmicky at worst. And at least for me (in retrospect), the episode always felt like the writers were complaining about a nonexistent problem they made up for the sake of complaining about it, or like they were complaining about narrative trends in other shows, regardless of any relevance they might have had to this one.
