Here’s something different and ambitious from ABC’s Afterschool Specials series: its first miniseries. For the next three weeks, Summer Stories: The Mall will dole out tales of teens laboring in a suburban mall. (The Mall was filmed at the Nanuet Mall in Rockland County, N.Y.)

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There are also Marla (Samaria Graham) and Diane (Jorjan Fox), waitresses in one of the mall’s fast-food restaurants. Marla is perpetually cranky because her mom is remarrying without having consulted her, and because she has recently been passed over for a promotion to assistant manager. Diane is a recovering alcoholic and former drug addict whose will is being tested by the sudden reappearance of her old boyfriend (Todd Graff), who used to provide her with drugs.

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