Who Turned Out The Lights?: Sitcom Episodes That Deal With Dark/Heavy Topics

[Kromm]

Thought about this surfing around on YouTube--after I stumbled on an episode of the NewsRadio episode "Copy Machine", where an employee, Ted from Accounting, that nobody really knew dies in a freak accident with the copy machine.

 

Ultimately the situation in that episode gets pretty ridiculous (in a funny but also interesting way--go find a copy of the episode and watch it if you don't remember it from years past), and I think that's the benchmark here.  The best sitcoms that do this don't forget it's comedy, but also tread a fine line with the heavy subject (I can think of a few others besides someone dying, although that's the most common form of this).

 

Anyone else have memories of sitcom episodes that did this kind of thing particularly well? 

 

 

[Shannon L.]

I think Designing Women had a couple of good episodes.  One was about a young man dying from AIDS.  He asked them to put together a room in the funeral home where his friends could gather and where others who had family members die of AIDS could gather as well after he was gone. It also dealt with some of the ugly comments made at the time towards these young men.  The other was about Suzanne's weight issues.  She was at a class reunion, excited to be there, only to find out they were making fun of her weight.  Earlier that day, she'd met a young man who had grown up in Africa and lost his entire family to famine.  Her speech at the reunion was excellent.  Then there was WKRP in Cincinnati addressing The Who concert where all of those kids died due to carnival seating. 

Edited December 30, 2014 by Shannon L.

[spaceytraci1208]

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air had quite a few "very special episodes." The best of which, I think, is the episode when Will's father shows up. This scene will always get me all in my feelings:

http://youtu.be/GmerFuzRNZ4

[vb68]

I always think of the Family Ties episode called  A; My Name is Alex dealing with the death of a friend of Alex's.  It was more dramatic than the series ever got that I remember with Micheal J Fox basically preforming monologues to the camera.  I believe he won an Emmy for it.

[Misslindsey]

Sports Night did a good episode about women in the locker room called "Mary Pat Shelby", where during a pre-interview a football player exposed himself to the woman doing the pre-interview. The following episode had more of the aftermath of the whole ordeal as well. Plus, the pressing question whether Dan should grow a goatee.

 

I think any sitcom that deals with an actor's death. John Ritter's from 8 Simple Rules is one that popped into my mind first, but I know there are more that I am not remembering offhand.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Misslindsey

[Kromm]

I think any sitcom that deals with an actor's death. John Ritter's from 8 Simple Rules is one that popped into my mind first, but I know there are more that I am not remembering offhand.

I'm gonna spit a bunch of these out in one post, because I think it's the most predictable way shows do this dark/heavy thing, and so we might as well lay them all out at one time, but also because we hit a lot of this same territory in the "When the Real World Intrudes On Our Favorite TV Shows" topic.

 

The old classic was Jack Soo dying on Barney Miller.  Basically what they did was wait a half season (he died halfway through) and at the end of the season do a clip show, with the cast breaking the fourth wall to introduce it. Here's the very end of that episode--and you can see that while this method didn't do much to explain the character Nick Yamana's death, it certainly showed how they felt about the actor's passing:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAJHmakicYs

 

On Cheers Nicholas Colasanto, who played Coach, died. They had him die on show, off-screen of course, and use it as a vehicle to introduce the very similar (but younger) Woody character--who was Coach's pen pal.

 

Then there was Phil Hartman on NewsRadio.  They of course weren't going to have Bill McNeil murdered, like Phil was, but had him have a heart attack.  The timing was such that it all happened between seasons anyway.

 

Another oldie was Chico and The Man and Freddie Prinze.  He basically was the core of the show so they had quite a bit of trouble with this. They also did a one-for-one replacement strategy with a similar character, but also used a waiting strategy to address the first Chico's death--having the character of "The Man", Ed, suffer a break down when the new Chico rooted around in the possessions of his predecessor and play with his guitar.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3VTcYT5oBM

 

I don't know if we count Glee as a sitcom (it's more of a dramedy), but they had to deal with Cory Monteith dying.  

 

Oh the record holder has to be Night Court, which had an elderly cast member (Selma Diamond as Selma the Bailiff) die, replaced her with a similar character (Florence Halop as Florence the Bailiff), then had the replacement die a year later. They both even died of the same thing (lung cancer--because they were a pair of gravely voiced old smokers, cast for that very quality).  Third time, they cast a few decades younger, and a non-smoker (Marsha Warfield as Roz the Bailiff). What I DO remember is that ONE of the two deaths (I don't recall which) they had lead to the character of Bull The Bailiff (the really tall guy) having a breakdown over it.  I don't remember which one, but I suspect it was the second death--which also served to acknowledge that the first death happened as well.

 

Plenty of others in dramas, but not so many in comedies, I guess.  Oh wait.  I think Redd Foxx died during his comeback vehicle and they did an in-show reboot around the other characters.  Sort of like what they did with Valerie Harper's show, except that Valerie Harper didn't actually die (only her character did). 

Edited December 31, 2014 by Kromm

[magicdog]

What I DO remember is that ONE of the two deaths (I don't recall which) they had lead to the character of Bull The Bailiff (the really tall guy) having a breakdown over it.  I don't remember which one, but I suspect it was the second death--which also served to acknowledge that the first death happened as well.

 

 

It happened following Flo's death. It was in part because Bull was fond of both characters and it came down to losing Selma, being bad enough, but losing Flo and so soon, just pushed him over the proverbial edge.

 

I do remember Halop being honored with a still at the end of the episode with the voice over of one of the cast members (I think it was Richard Moll) saying, "We'll miss ya Flo!".

[Luckylyn]

I think Designing Women had a couple of good episodes.  One was about a young man dying from AIDS.  He asked them to put together a room in the funeral home where his friends could gather and where others who had family members die of AIDS could gather as well after he was gone. It also dealt with some of the ugly comments made at the time towards these young men.  The other was about Suzanne's weight issues.  She was at a class reunion, excited to be there, only to find out they were making fun of her weight.  Earlier that day, she'd met a young man who had grown up in Africa and lost his entire family to famine.  Her speech at the reunion was excellent.

The episode about the man planning his funeral includes what I think is Julia's best rant.  Her line to the woman who spoke cruelly about the dying man, "If God were handing out STDs as a punishment for sinning than you would be at the clinic every day"  is a thing of beauty.

 

The episode about Suzanne's weight was extremely well done.  I think Designing Woman was a show that really could handle the balance of drama and comedy quite well.

 

I still remember when Carol's boyfriend Sandy on Growing Pains dies after driving under the influence.  One scene he's in the hospital looking okay and in the next Mike is telling Carol the horrible news.  That moment where she just can't accept it was so devastating.  I remember being shocked that they actually killed him.

 

That scene from Fresh Prince where he breaks down over his father is just one the most memorable tv moments for me.  There's another episode where Will is shot saving Carlton from a guy trying to rob them at the ATM, and Carlton gets a gun which leads to this powerful scene between him and Will.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Luckylyn

[GHScorpiosRule]

I only saw it once, but I remember that they killed off Valerie Harper in Valerie, because Harper had a dispute re her contract or something, and I remember that her death had Jason Bateman's character (I'm blanking on his name), turn into the perfect son, cooking all the meals, refusing to really talk about her death, and just going to school, coming home, and being all over protective.  I think at the end, he finally broke down, and accepted she was really gone.

[Shannon L.]

The attempted rape of Edith Bunker

 

 

Edith's death:

 

 

I rarely watched All in the Family or the next series after that show ended, Archie Bunker's Place, but I think I recall hearing a lot of talk about series topics on that show.  In regards to Archie Bunker's Place, the one episode that I saw that I've never forgotten was the sex education episode.  Archie refuses to let Stephanie take sex education in class until he overhears a conversation between her and her two friends.  The girl was pregnant and she was crying saying that she thought it couldn't happen the first time.  The look on Archie's face spoke volumes. 

[UYI]

THIS* proves what the power of a studio audience can create. There will NEVER be a scene quite like this ever again, and there is no way in HELL a modern sitcom would DARE touch a subject like this. 

 

ETA: Shannon L. beat me to it! :)

*The attempted rape of Edith Bunker. (TCS)

Edited January 2, 2015 by The Crazed Spruce
removed video of the ful episode, added footnote

[Rick Kitchen]

Family Ties with Tom Hanks as Alex's beloved Uncle Ned, who was an alcoholic.

 

[Shannon L.]

Speaking of Family Ties--while it wasn't the best of the bunch, there was also the one where Alex got hooked on amphetamines.

[Luckylyn]

Saved by the Bell had a famous failure to handle serious issues when they did an episode about Jessie getting hooked on caffeine pills.  It lead to a scene that was supposed to be poignant but ended up being hilarious instead.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

The attempted rape of Edith Bunker

 

 

During the filming of Edith's attack, people in the audience had to be told to go back to their seats and no interfere because they kept trying to rush towards the stage to help her. For years afterwards, David Dukes, the actor who played the attempted rapist, said that people would come up to him on the street  and be angry because he was the guy who tried to rape Edith Bunker.

 

Edith's death:

 

 

Aw, man, I remember Archie finding Edith's pink slipper under the bed after all of her things had been packed up. Watching him look into the empty closet and drawers gets me choked up, and when he says, "You had no right to leave me that way, Edith. Not without giving me one more chance to say I love you" before he probably finally starts to cry brings tears to my eyes. Archie, like most of Norman Lear's characters, was a shouter, but underneath his narrow-minded bullheadedness, he loved his wife with a fierce purity that most of today's TV characters can't touch.

[DittyDotDot]

Then there was WKRP in Cincinnati addressing The Who concert where all of those kids died due to carnival seating. 

 

WKRP in Cincinnati tackled serious subjects quite a bit, but never forgot they were a sitcom. A friend of mine gave me the first season on disc about a year ago. I wasn't ever really into the show, but at Thanksgiving time I pulled it out to watch the Turkeys Away episode and got caught up watching the rest of them. I mostly remembered the show being goofy jokes about how sexy and wonderful Jennifer was, so it kinda took me by surprise how they managed to work in a lot of serious issues into the show, but never turning the issue itself into a joke. There was the episode were Venus was outted as being a Vietnam soldier that went AWOL. The episode where Less was rumored to be gay and was banned from doing post-game interviews in the locker rooms. There was the one where a woman leaves her baby at the station for Johnny to care for and they end up having to call social services because the woman never came back. And, an episode with an ex-wrestler turned radio preacher "selling" redemption on the airwaves. I don't think the show has held up very well over time, but it still surprised me of some of the subjects they tried to tackle.

 

I haven't seen All In The Family for eons, but I think they are a shining example of this. Almost every episode was a look at a serious issue in the guise of a joke, IMO.

[UYI]

Another All in the Family example: Archie Gets Branded, where a swastika is painted on the Bunkers' front door:

 

Would anyone EVER do something like this on a sitcom today? Hell no.

Edited January 2, 2015 by The Crazed Spruce
removed video of the complete episode

[UYI]

The Facts of Life also had an episode about teenage suicide.

Edited January 2, 2015 by The Crazed Spruce
removed video of the complete episode

[yourpointis]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iju7igTfwm8

 

George Jefferson unknowingly shows up at a KKK meeting and the speaker has a heart attack. George saves the racist man's life by performing CPR. The racist man's son graciously thanks George for saving his dad's life, but the racist man was unappreciative. Warning: uncensored use of the N word.  

[ParadoxLost]

The episode about Suzanne's weight was extremely well done.  I think Designing Woman was a show that really could handle the balance of drama and comedy quite well.

 

In the beginning it did balance comedy and drama quite well and some of Julia's rants were fabulous.  But that did not last.  I'd say that the well done early years compounded the vile and damaging nature of the middle years.  Its possible they had a well done episode about Suzanne's weight but I can't recall it and I presume it was earlier in the series.  What I do recall is that when the showrunners disputes with Delta Burke exploded in the press that the show became the fat, stupid girls (Suzanne, Charlene) vs. the tiny, intelligent girls (Julia, Mary Jo).  I remember there being a trivia pursuit episode where I just gave up the show.

 

At the time, I remember thinking that Delta Burke was probably the main driver of all the set problems. but that the showrunners/writers decided to humiliate Suzanne on the show to punish Burke (with Charlene/Jean Smart as collateral damage) and were blinded that they were sending a message to the audience about weight and worth not just punishing Burke.

[giovannif7]

Designing Women was the first broadcast network sitcom to deal with AIDS, but Showtime's sitcom Brothers addressed the subject from a first-person point of view two years earlier, in October 1985. James Avery (RIP), who had previously appeared on the show as Bubba, a gay former football buddy of eldest brother Joe (Robert Walden), returned with the news of his diagnosis in the episode titled The Stranger. (The actual reveal and aftermath begin about 3 minutes in.)

 

Edited January 2, 2015 by The Crazed Spruce
removed parts 1 and 3 of the episode, kept pertinent clip

[The Crazed Spruce]

A clip or two is fine, but please refrain from posting complete episodes here in the forum.

[Mindymoo]

Maude had a great two-part episode about abortion. Roe v. Wade hadn't passed yet, but it was legal in New York State. Maude was in her mid-40s, on her fourth marriage, with a grown daughter, and not at all ready to have another child. They never used the word "abortion", but you knew what they were talking about. After much soul-searching and conversations between Maude, her husband and her daughter Carol, she decided to go through with it. They treated it very seriously, but it was still a funny episode. Sadly, I don't think an episode like that would be made today, not with that kind of frankness and honesty.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Mindy McIndy

[Kromm]

A clip or two is fine, but please refrain from posting complete episodes here in the forum.

Yeah, my own personal guideline has been that individual scenes almost always seem to be okay, because they're almost definitely fair use.  Take the Edith's Death clip used above as a great example.  Sure it's pretty long (like 4 or 5 minutes, and not just the 30 or 60 seconds a clip usually is), but it's a single distinct segment, which you need to include all of to intelligently discuss it.  If you were sitting in the Museum of Television and Radio in New York, or the Paley Center in LA, seeing an exhibit on the subject, that's what you'd see--that whole scene. There's no way it's NOT fair use.

 

Compilations and Supercuts seem to usually be okay too, if they aren't just an excuse to shove as much footage together as possible and seem to follow a theme (like showing different scenes with the same character, catchphrase, etc. over the course of an episode or whole series).  

 

But full episodes?  If I can't find a cut down clip that'll make my point, or if I simply want to let people know something is out there they can investigate themselves (without having to involve Previously), then I'll look up the Episode season, Episode number, and episode title, post that, and say "go find it yourself searching this".  Then it's all on them (the exception to this might be something like Hulu, where it's clear the episode is completely legal, or even the stuff on Youtube you find here).

 

The tough one to judge may be episode segments (where someone cut an episode up into three or four pieces and put them all on the Internet).  Clearly the original person who did that intended it to be a way to watch a whole episode, but if you, commenting on the show, only link/embed ONE of those segments, with lets say... four or five minutes of a show bridging successive scenes, then are you within "fair use"? I don't know... I honestly don't.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Kromm

[Kromm]

Okay, even as unlikely a source as Futurama can pack a dramatic punch when they really try.

 

Try not to cry watching this.  To give the necessary background first though to non-Futurama viewers, you need to know that the main character of the show, Fry, gets put into suspended animation and wakes up in the Future.  The following clip is one that flashes back to the one being who Fry left behind who missed him unconditionally.  It's truly heartbreaking, yet also inspiring (at least if you're a dog lover--if you aren't maybe you're rolling your eyes at this).

 

 

EDIT - Actually, Fry's discovery of his own past seems to be an area the show went back to a few times to similar effect. I'd never seen the following bit, but the above one with the dog (which I had seen) led me to this other scene as a recommended video (and was actually apparently first aired of the two--I must have just missed it when it first aired).

 

Edited January 3, 2015 by Kromm

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Oh, hell, Kromm.....

[Princess Sparkle]

I think Designing Women had a couple of good episodes. One was about a young man dying from AIDS. He asked them to put together a room in the funeral home where his friends could gather and where others who had family members die of AIDS could gather as well after he was gone. It also dealt with some of the ugly comments made at the time towards these young men. The other was about Suzanne's weight issues. She was at a class reunion, excited to be there, only to find out they were making fun of her weight. Earlier that day, she'd met a young man who had grown up in Africa and lost his entire family to famine. Her speech at the reunion was excellent.

Those Designing Women episodes were the first things that popped into my mind when I saw this thread. Suzanne's speech at the reunion makes me tear up whenever I think about it.

Boy Meets World, for what was mostly a children's show, nailed a couple of dark topics - the one where Shawn drinks (for the most part), are pretty well done, as well as the episode Chick Like Me. Actually, Chick Like Me could air today unchanged, and sadly, the message would still apply.

[Shannon L.]

 

The episode where Less was rumored to be gay and was banned from doing post-game interviews in the locker rooms. There was the one where a woman leaves her baby at the station for Johnny to care for and they end up having to call social services because the woman never came back. And, an episode with an ex-wrestler turned radio preacher "selling" redemption on the airwaves. I don't think the show has held up very well over time, but it still surprised me of some of the subjects they tried to tackle.

I don't know why I didn't think of those....you're right, most of the show had serious themes that they mixed well with comedy (some more serious than others).  Johnny thinking he heard God talking to him, the Carlsons dealing a later in life child (and his mother insisting that an abortion was the way to go), and Andy having to finally admit that he had a hard time with Venus taking his sister around Cincinnati because Venus was black, the importance of staying in school (the atom episode!)......I'm sure there are a lot more, too, that I can't think of right now (Les and the affects an overbearing mother and bullying had on him and wasn't there an episode where he found out that his father had ties to communism or something?).  Damn....it really did tackle some great themes.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Shannon L.

[Kromm]

I suppose we need to mention the medical comedies here, since by their very nature such shows have to balance light moments and dark comedy.

 

I'm one of the people who dislikes the self-righteous melodramatic style M*A*S*H adopted later in it's existence.  For me the balance worked much better earlier on. People who mis-remember the show probably think of the earlier episodes as pure silliness.  But that's not the case. The dark themes were in fact arguably even more poignant in the early episodes, because the outrageous antics were there to contrast them.  

 

A more current show that had to pull off a similar balance was Scrubs. It didn't have the dark underbelly of being in a war zone to play off of, but it's just plain fact that a hospital setting has to be built on a base of injury and death.  As far out as Scrubs went with their comedy, they didn't duck the storylines where patients died either.

[DittyDotDot]

I'm one of the people who dislikes the self-righteous melodramatic style M*A*S*H adopted later in it's existence.  For me the balance worked much better earlier on. People who mis-remember the show probably think of the earlier episodes as pure silliness.  But that's not the case. The dark themes were in fact arguably even more poignant in the early episodes, because the outrageous antics were there to contrast them.  

 

I have the first couple seasons on DVD and have no interest in buying the later ones for this reason. I agree they balanced the themes of the horrors of wartime and using humor to get through it better in the early couple seasons. I actually think the show is darker in the first two seasons than it ever was later.

 

 

I don't know why I didn't think of those....you're right, most of the show had serious themes that they mixed well with comedy (some more serious than others).  Johnny thinking he heard God talking to him, the Carlson's dealing a later in life child (and his mother insisting that an abortion was the way to go), and Andy having to finally admit that he had a hard time with Venus taking his sister around Cincinnati because Venus was black, the importance of staying in school (the atom episode!)......I'm sure there is a lot more, too, that I can't think of right now (Les and the affects an overbearing mother and bullying had on him and wasn't their an episode where he found out that his father had ties to communism or something?).  Damn....it really did tackle some great themes.

 

What I found most interesting was how they managed to tackle the issues but still landed the jokes. In the episode where Venus is outted as a Vietnam soldier that went AWOL, they had these funny moments of Venus trying to tell the army case worker that Carlson was his father and him telling the awful story of why he went AWOL in the first place all in the space of the same scene. Like I said, I don't think the show has held up very well, mostly because it's shot like a typical sitcom of its era, but the writing itself was rather layered at times.

[Kromm]

I have the first couple seasons on DVD and have no interest in buying the later ones for this reason. I agree they balanced the themes of the horrors of wartime and using humor to get through it better in the early couple seasons. I actually think the show is darker in the first two seasons than it ever was later.

The reason is that the later episodes replace dark comedy with melodrama.  And melodrama is dark comedy's extremely ugly, stupid, drunk stepsister.

 

Not that there weren't a few humdinger episodes later on.  But you had to wade through a lot of self-righteous heavy-handed bullshit to get to them.

[Rick Kitchen]

Sorry, Kromm, you can't sucker me into watching that Futurama clip again.  No way I'm going to start sobbing here.  Hell, I'm eye leaking just thinking about it.

[Bastet]

I think Roseanne did an amazing job of tackling heavy subjects without losing the comedy.  One of the best examples is the two-parter in which we learn Jackie's boyfriend Fisher was physically abusive.  What's most wonderful is that, looking back on the whole Fisher arc once that knowledge is gained, one can see subtle signs that so often go overlooked in real life, too.  But those two revelation episodes are just amazing on their own. 

 

The episode in which Roseanne's father dies is another terrific example.  No fan is likely to forget Jackie's call to the hard-of-hearing Auntie Barbara.   ( "I have some bad news, Dad is not with us anymore ...  I said Dad has passed away ... Dad is gone ... Dad's dead! ... He's dead! ... No, DEAD! ... DAD!! ... He's fine, he sends his love.  Bye.")  But Roseanne, alone with the body, saying all the things she couldn't say to him when he was alive, is as moving as the phone call is funny.

 

Also, Darlene having to read her "To Whom It Concerns" poem ...

 

Really, I could be here all night listing examples.  Roseanne did it better than just about anything I've ever seen.

[Luckylyn]

I think Roseanne did an amazing job of tackling heavy subjects without losing the comedy.  One of the best examples is the two-parter in which we learn Jackie's boyfriend Fisher was physically abusive.  What's most wonderful is that, looking back on the whole Fisher arc once that knowledge is gained, one can see subtle signs that so often go overlooked in real life, too. 

You are so right about how well the show subtly built up to Fisher being abusive so that initially the reveal is a surprise but when you look back at certain things in previous episodes signs were there.

 

Roseanne could be great at tackling serious issues.  I remember the episode where DJ doesn't want to kiss his costar in the school play because she's black, Roseanne being horrified at DJ's having that attitude and how the teacher makes it clear she thinks that attitude implies that Roseanne and Dan must be racists.  The really interesting thing in that episode is an incident when Roseanne is alone at night in the diner when a black man knocks on the door and Roseanne won't let him in.   The man turns out to be the girl's father wanting to discuss the situation with the children. The father makes it clear he thinks Roseanne wouldn't let him in just because he's black.   In a previous episode there had been an incident where a customer who was white got aggressive when Roseanne was alone in the diner.  So, there's this question of did Roseanne refuse to let the dad in because of past fears from that incident the last time she was alone or did she have a bias against black people she wasn't aware of?  Would she have let him in if he'd been white?  She really takes a hard look at herself and doesn't really know for sure why she didn't open the door.  I can't think of another show that tackled the idea of subconscious bias.  I wasn't totally happy with that episode though.  I felt that Dan was written out of character for plot reasons but appreciated the show's willingness to tackle a real issue that people tend to get too defensive about to discuss it.

[yourpointis]

So, there's this question of did Roseanne refuse to let the dad in because of past fears from that incident the last time she was alone or did she have a bias against black people she wasn't aware of?  Would she have let him in if he'd been white?  She really takes a hard look at herself and doesn't really know for sure why she didn't open the door.  I can't think of another show that tackled the idea of subconscious bias.  I wasn't totally happy with that episode though.  I felt that Dan was written out of character for plot reasons but appreciated the show's willingness to tackle a real issue that people tend to get too defensive about to discuss it.

 

 

There was an episode of Frasier where he had a guest analyst (not sure what her actual occupation is/was) Dr Mary (she wasn't an actual doctor) played by Kim Coles who kept interrupting Frasier's on-air advice with her off the cuff opinions. Frasier never admonished her actions and his family members pointed out his uncharacteristic actions were due to Dr Mary being black.  Not a great example I'm sure, but this is all I have at the moment. : )

Edited January 3, 2015 by yourpointis

[Chaos Theory]

"Mom" on CBS has been taking on some serious topics as of late.  It is not the best show on television but it does do gallows humor extremely well.  Topics it has done...drug abuse, teenage pregnancy,  homelessness,  and most recently spousal abuse.      For the record IMDB has this rated as a 7.0 which isn't bad.  The show has its moments. 

[bosawks]

I have this weird affection for. Who's the Boss but regardless of that there is an episode that deals with Angela discovering the possible infidelity of her mother that I just adore.

It is surprisingly mature and really doesn't become moralistic and is understanding to both Angela and Mona.

[rubaco]

I'm a fan of all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H (although even for a die-hard like me, some eps do get too melodramatic in the later seasons), but I'm surprised nobody has specifically mentioned the shocking death of Henry Blake yet. I believe it was the first time a comedy series killed off a major character. 

 

There was yet another Family Ties example, which was an adult friend of the family making a pass at teenage Mallory. As I recall, the scenes where Mallory tried to talk to Alex and later her mom about it were particularly well-done.

 

And let's not forget Soap. The moment that's most memorable for me: Jodie (the Billy Crystal character) being in the hospital for a sex-change operation and actually attempting suicide with pills after his boyfriend dumps him.

 

 

[ParadoxLost]

I think that Too Close For Comfort should be in the Hall of Fame for 'Very Special Episodes' for the episode where Monroe was kidnapped and raped by two women in the back of a van.

Edited January 4, 2015 by ParadoxLost

[GreekGeek]

I'm not a fan of most Very Special Episodes--too preachy, too obvious as Emmy-bait. But there were some shows that could take on serious subjects and still be funny:

 

Barney Miller showed the effect on a cop when he has to shoot someone. Chano did just that, and there was an excellent scene with him sitting home alone flipping through the channels and hearing his story on every news channel, including the Spanish language one. Then he shut off the TV and sobbed. Powerful. 

 

Another episode showed Harris's anger at being mistaken for a suspect and shot at because he was black.

 

There was some really dark humor on an episode where a man died in the station house when they were snowed in.

 

Taxi had a show where Alex's long-lost father was in the hospital. Alex reluctantly went to visit him and made a touching speech about how much his father meant to him...to the wrong man. When Alex's actual father entered, Alex had very little to say to him. As he turned to leave, the "wrong" old man called out "Alex!" and they hugged. 

 

I also loved the "Blind Date" episode where Alex's date turned out to be hugely fat. Throughout, she was hostile to him and insisted he was just going through the motions. She was unpleasant, but you could understand it--why try to be charming and fun if you can tell he's already decided you're unattractive? I don't think I've ever seen the "fat people and dating" issue quite like this before.

[mansonlamps]

The Mindy Project did an episode in which Peter is set up with a woman whom he clearly thinks isn't attractive enough for him, though she's not hugely fat and she picks up on that right away by his attitude. I can't remember the specifics but he finds out she's really fun and decides to go out with her anyway and she wins up dumping him. It was done in a pretty lighthearted way though.

[cpcathy]

I thought that Taxi episode was so very heavyhanded. but I feel that way about a lot of Taxi episodes.

[bmasters9]

I'm not a fan of most Very Special Episodes--too preachy, too obvious as Emmy-bait. 

Tell you the truth, that is exactly why I don't like The Facts of Life. I sampled it when a Minisode (Sony's name for a condensed episode) of it was on Season 2 of Barney Miller (Sony's releases of Seasons 1-3 are part of Shout!'s full-series release; the only difference is the packaging), and after seeing that, I became convinced that Facts would be very much a waste of money. 

 

I also thought the same way about Season 1 (1986-87) of Designing Women. At first, it seemed like a really funny CBS comedy that I might like to get all of. It seems, however, that there are a couple of those Very Specials towards the end of that first season, IINM, and as such, for me, no more. 

Edited January 7, 2015 by bmasters9

[topanga]

Did I miss a mention of the Very Special Diff'rent Strokes Episode where Dudley gets molested (and Arnold almost gets molested)? That one was burned into my childhood psyche.

 

That one and the Good Times episode with Penny's abusive mother reaching for the hot iron. The scene is now the butt of numerous jokes, but that episode was and still is an emotional portrayal of child abuse. And I always wonder if playing the role of Penny's mother affected Chip Fields' acting career. She's worked a little, but not much, since then.

[Badger]

"Leave It To Beaver" did an episode which dealt with a recovering alcoholic who had done some work for them previously but who had to be fired because of his drinking.  They let him do some work again, but unfortunately he got Beaver to show him where they get their liquor and he ended up getting drunk again.  

 

The problem was that June didn't want Beaver to know about the guy having a drinking problem so he didn't know not to give him any alcohol.  

 

Eve Plumb played a terminally ill child on "Family Affair."   Uncle Bill arranged an early Christmas celebration for her and the kids ostensibly because he was going to be out of town for the real thing but Buffy at least what the real deal was.  The last scene is Uncle Bill going to comfort her when he hears her sobbing in her bedroom.  

[opus]

Did I miss a mention of the Very Special Diff'rent Strokes Episode where Dudley gets molested (and Arnold almost gets molested)? That one was burned into my childhood psyche.

 

By Mr. Carlson, no less.

[Kel Varnsen]

Did I miss a mention of the Very Special Diff'rent Strokes Episode where Dudley gets molested (and Arnold almost gets molested)? That one was burned into my childhood psyche.

Diff'rent Strokes did all kinds of heavy subject episodes. I don't remember seeing the one you mentioned as a kid, but I do remember the one where Arnold and Kimberly decide to hitchhike home from the mall or something and get kidnapped (was public transportation in NYC in the 80's really that terrible), and one where some kid in Arnold's class is bringing alcohol to school in his thermos and getting drunk in the bathroom.

[ParadoxLost]

Diff'rent Strokes did all kinds of heavy subject episodes. I don't remember seeing the one you mentioned as a kid, but I do remember the one where Arnold and Kimberly decide to hitchhike home from the mall or something and get kidnapped (was public transportation in NYC in the 80's really that terrible), and one where some kid in Arnold's class is bringing alcohol to school in his thermos and getting drunk in the bathroom.

 

 

Didn't Nancy Reagan do a guest appearance for he 'Just Say No' campaign?

[kassygreene]

I think NYC in the 80s was generally that terrible.  Of course, the closest I ever got to that was The Equalizer.

[Kel Varnsen]

I think NYC in the 80s was generally that terrible.  Of course, the closest I ever got to that was The Equalizer.

I get that New York in the 80's was pretty rough. Although the closest I ever got to that was the intro to Night Court. But even that said you think those kids, growing up at that time would be aware enough to realize that even the subway would be safer than hitch-hiking.