# Disturbing/upsetting moments in TV shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 24, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761 "2002-12-24T20:30:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/101 "2003-01-02T23:41:26Z")
The one from the 80’s. I am quite a bit older than 4 now. ---
**Author:** ![DeskMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DeskMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeskMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/102 "2003-01-02T23:45:01Z")
There was a scene from “Fantasy Island”, of all things, that wigged me out for a long time. There was a fire in a bedroom and this little clown doll became a human-sized clown doll - all on fire and moving around weirdly. I have no earthly idea why Mr. Rourke would allow such horrors to besmirch his lovely island, but he did and I lost it. Bastard. Mr. Evans dying on Good Times was also pretty awful. They were having a great party because they were finally getting out of that dump and poor Florida got the telegram. That made me sad for a long time. I thought the actor who played him had really died, but a year or so later, I was relieved to see him in a movie or something. Every time I saw him after that, it always made me feel good to see him alive. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen him in a while, anyone know if he . . . uh . . . ---
**Author:** ![Dryga\_Yes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@Dryga\_Yes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dryga_Yes)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/103 "2003-01-03T00:05:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sam Stone \* > **Jack’s wife being shot in the back in the first season of 24.** Here in Sweden they’ve started airing the first season quite recently. You evil, evil man. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/104 "2003-01-03T00:31:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Harvey The Heavy \* > \*\*The Emergency Broadcast System used to freak me out as a child, and still makes me uneasy now. I always half expect a voice to come on and announce that the missiles are on the way. \*\* Yeah, and the “Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By” used to make me run from the room in tears. Still gives me the creeps when the cable signal goes out or they do that EMS test, I have to turn off the TV when they do that. ::shudders:: ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/105 "2003-01-03T00:35:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DeskMonkey \* > \*\* > Mr. Evans dying on Good Times was also pretty awful. They were having a great party because they were finally getting out of that dump and poor Florida got the telegram. That made me sad for a long time. I thought the actor who played him had really died, but a year or so later, I was relieved to see him in a movie or something. Every time I saw him after that, it always made me feel good to see him alive. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen him in a while, anyone know if he . . . uh . . . \*\* No, he’s still around, right now he’s on the **West Wing** playing the Chief of Staff. I believe he just turned 61 the other day. [John Amos](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Amos,%20John%20(I)) ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/106 "2003-01-03T00:44:11Z")
\*\* Dryga\_Yes\*\*: My sincerest apologies. I thought it was safe to mention that in this thread without spoiler tags, since it’s a year and a half old here. I should have been more careful. Did I mention it was a flu shot? (-: ---
**Author:** ![Dryga\_Yes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@Dryga\_Yes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dryga_Yes)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/107 "2003-01-03T01:00:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sam Stone \* > \*\*Did I mention it was a flu shot? (-: \*\* Hahaha. 😃 Actually, after I posted it, I realised how ridicolous I was acting. There were spoilers in every single post for two pages, but only when someone spoils a TV show I’m currently following I start being an ass about using the spoiler tags. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![Flowerchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/858c86/32.png) [@Flowerchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flowerchild)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/108 "2003-01-03T01:06:11Z")
I remember an episode of "Tales From the Crypt"where this woman kills her husband on Christmas eve in the middle of a snowstorm in a cabin in the country.Her young daughter is upstairs asleep waiting for santa while the woman is dragging her husband out of the house to throw him down the well. After her deed is done, she hears on the radio that a phsyco has escaped from the local mental hospital and that he was wearing a santa suit. She locks up and gets this big axe out of her closet or somewhere and stats to get paranoid. Soon our crazy santa \* finds himself in this lady’s house and locks her in the closet for a time.She cuts herself out of the closet with the axe and beats santa out of the house as well. Just as she is sitting down to her christmas scotch she notices that Santa’s body isnt laying outside anymore.A few seconds later she hears a thump against the side of the house. Thew lady runs upstairs to find her daughter hanging out the window reaching to our crazy santa who is climbing up a ladder. The little girl thinks that this is the good santa and is trying to help him. Then it just cuts to the cryptkeeper who implies that santa killed them both. \*Santa was played by Dr. Giggles, That SOB gives me chills without having to play another crazy. Ditto on Sybil, that movie realy disturbed me. ---
**Author:** ![Flowerchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/858c86/32.png) [@Flowerchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flowerchild)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/109 "2003-01-03T01:20:00Z")
Sorry to double post but I just remembered another one that totally disturbed me. Another episode of “Tales From the Crypt”, where this guy who works for the Circus or something meets a mad scientist who tells him that he will pay him to have a minor surgery.The guy is broke so he says yeah,. It turns out that the scientist found out what gives cats their 9 lives and has killed a cat to remove it. Now the guy has “9” lives and decides to make a few bucks off them. He starts to do stuff at the Circus\* like being electrocuded and dround until he just springs back to life.He does this 7 times and decides that his last expendable life should make him alot of money and he kills everyone that he would have to share with.So he sells tickets to his live burial . When he is underground he starts to think of all of his deaths and then remembers that the cat had to die as well. This means that this is his 9th life and he is anbout to stay dead and buried.\* I have always had a fear of being buried alivew so this really creeped me out. - I think it may have been a carnival - I think this is how the episode went, but I’m positive about the ending. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/110 "2003-01-03T01:27:24Z")
How about some TV nonfiction that was disturbing? What first comes to mind for me was a segment on _Dateline_ a few years ago, profiling a man whose van had gotten stuck in a snow storm on a road that had been closed for the winter. Lost, and unable to start the van again, he slowly starved to death…and all of it was chronicled in a journal they found in his van. :o Still gives me the shakes. ---
**Author:** ![Flowerchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/858c86/32.png) [@Flowerchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flowerchild)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/111 "2003-01-03T01:29:38Z")
Sorry to double post but I just remembered another one that totally disturbed me. Another episode of “Tales From the Crypt”, where this guy who works for the Circus or something meets a mad scientist who tells him that he will pay him to have a minor surgery.The guy is broke so he says yeah,. It turns out that the scientist found out what gives cats their 9 lives and has killed a cat to remove it. Now the guy has “9” lives and decides to make a few bucks off them. He starts to do stuff at the Circus\* like being electrocuded and dround until he just springs back to life.He does this 7 times and decides that his last expendable life should make him alot of money and he kills everyone that he would have to share with.So he sells tickets to his live burial . When he is underground he starts to think of all of his deaths and then remembers that the cat had to die as well. This means that this is his 9th life and he is anbout to stay dead and buried.\* I have always had a fear of being buried alivew so this really creeped me out. - I think it may have been a carnival - I think this is how the episode went, but I’m positive about the ending. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/112 "2003-01-03T17:40:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Flowerchild \* > \*\*Sorry to double post but I just remembered another one that totally disturbed me. > > Another episode of “Tales From the Crypt”, where this guy who works for the Circus or something meets a mad scientist who tells him that he will pay him to have a minor surgery.The guy is broke so he says yeah,. It turns out that the scientist found out what gives cats their 9 lives and has killed a cat to remove it. Now the guy has “9” lives and decides to make a few bucks off them. > > He starts to do stuff at the Circus\* like being electrocuded and dround until he just springs back to life.He does this 7 times and decides that his last expendable life should make him alot of money and he kills everyone that he would have to share with.So he sells tickets to his live burial . When he is underground he starts to think of all of his deaths and then remembers that the cat had to die as well. This means that this is his 9th life and he is anbout to stay dead and buried.\*\*\* Oh, I remember that one! Chilling! > [@](#): > > What first comes to mind for me was a segment on Dateline a few years ago, profiling a man whose van had gotten stuck in a snow storm on a road that had been closed for the winter. Lost, and unable to start the van again, he slowly starved to death…and all of it was chronicled in a journal they found in his van. Didn’t they find a last note from one of the sailors on that Russian sub that sank off the coast of Norway? ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/113 "2003-01-03T19:07:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Flowerchild \* > \*\*I remember an episode of "Tales From the Crypt"where this woman kills her husband on Christmas eve in the middle of a snowstorm in a cabin in the country.Her young daughter is upstairs asleep waiting for santa while the woman is dragging her husband out of the house to throw him down the well. > > After her deed is done, she hears on the radio that a phsyco has escaped from the local mental hospital and that he was wearing a santa suit… > > Then it just cuts to the cryptkeeper who implies that santa killed them both. > > \*Santa was played by Dr. Giggles, That SOB gives me chills without having to play another crazy. > Ditto on Sybil, that movie realy disturbed me. \*\* That was originally done in a Tales From the Crypt movie back in 1972 (far superior to any later TFTC offerings IMHO). It was titled All Through The House. To make things scarier, the woman was played by \ Joan Collins. [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0069341](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0069341) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/114 "2003-01-03T20:39:10Z")
I have already posted this on similar threads, but I might as well mention it again. For a short time when I was very young, there was a “Sesame Street / Electric Company” knockoff show called “Vegetable Soup” that featured lots of strange, psychedelic-style cartoons. In particular, it featured a puppet segment called “Outerscope” that freaked me out. The characters were all supposed to be kids, but the puppets themselves were little more than heads. The puppeteers’ hands stuck out the sides of them and were grossly out of proportion with the rest of the puppet bodies. They always reminded me of thalidomide kids who had no hands, but no arms. I always got the creeps and had to leave the room when my brothers watched it. ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/115 "2003-01-03T21:24:17Z")
Huh. Why do comedies, like Blackadder and M_A_S\*H, have to suddenly knock you out for the count? Not that M_A_S\*H isn’t my favourite show of all time… ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/116 "2003-01-13T00:05:05Z")
When Gary died on thirtysomething, I was so shocked and upset, as if someone _I_ was friends with died. You’re all braced for Nancy to die, as she has ovarian cancer, but she’s fine and Gary dies riding his bike to the hospital to celebrate, leaving behind a new wife and infant. Soooo sad. Spazcat, I remember that ep of New Twilight Zone to this day, and it freaked me out too. re: Spike and Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer–Yes, the attempted rape by Spike in Seeing Red was awful and disturbing, but I thought what Angel did to her in Innocence and after was much, much worse. In this season of Buffy, the ep Same Time, Same Place, where Willow is paralyzed in a cave and a demon is slowly peeling off and eating her skin while we watch is the most disgusting gross-out scene in the show’s history. The number of disturbing scenes in The X-Files is too long to list, but in Leonard Betts, when Leonard is eating people’s tumors out of a bag of discarded post-surgery removed parts is nauseating. In Folie aux Deux, when a giant bug comes to eat Mulder while he’s strapped to a hospital bed also got to me. ---
**Author:** ![mug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@mug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mug)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/117 "2003-01-13T02:11:34Z")
On _Angel_ when Wesley had his throat slit. Totally shocked me and grossed me out. I thought he was dead for sure. BTW, **NotWithoutRage** , I totally remember the Sonny/Brenda scene! Great acting by Vanessa Marcil, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Fluffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Fluffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fluffy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/118 "2003-01-13T15:23:32Z")
I also thought it was upsetting when Gary died on Thirtysomething. Especially when Michael had to identify the body. When Edith was almost raped freaked me out as well… ---
**Author:** ![fatmac98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3ec8ea/32.png) [@fatmac98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fatmac98)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/119 "2003-01-13T17:35:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Harvey The Heavy \* > \*\*The Emergency Broadcast System used to freak me out as a child, and still makes me uneasy now. I always half expect a voice to come on and announce that the missiles are on the way. \*\* I second this. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761/120 "2003-01-15T18:48:12Z")
I’ve got a very vague memory of a show from the late 70’s/early 80’s. For some reason, I _think_ it was little house on the prairie, but that can’t possibly be right, given the subject matter. There was a little girl (around 10? 12?) alone in a field, attacked (maybe raped?) by a guy wearing a hideous clown mask. Anyway… it really freaked me out… as did the baby on V. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-upsetting-moments-in-tv-shows/144761.md?page=7)