In tonight’s episode of The Hitchhiker, a track coach (Charles Haid) is freaking out over the prospect of his son (Jonathan Crombie) breaking his 25 year-old track record.  The coach ends up taking things to extreme to try to preserve his record.

This episode features a ferocious performance from Charles Haid, who plays the coach as every high school student’s worst nightmare.  This episode has a lot to say about both the strange rituals of athletic competitiveness and how some people are so scared of getting old that they’ll go to any extreme to hold on to their accomplishments of youth.

The episode aired on September 30th, 1989.