Nah, it’s pretty much established within the show that robots like him run on alcohol like a car runs on gasoline. At least until the 1-X model, which runs on pollution and emits . . . pine-scented oxygen, or something.
But it was also established that Bender got a buzz off of the alcohol he supposedly “needed.” Something tells me the “I run on alcohol” bit was added to the show after encouragement from people at the Box Network.
But Bender was also addicted to electricity in an episode as well.
Oh yeah, jacking on. Hell is other Robots.
I do remember the episode where Bender and Fry are roommates and Bender gets really depressed and stops drinking, and starts looking disheveled/drunken and Leela tells him he needs to have a drink before he stops functioning and does something very dangerous to himself.
Then there’s the oh-so-badly written and handled “magic addiction” of Willow’s on BtVS.
“I do not have a pain management problem. I have a pain problem.”
House takes the pills because he is in real pain. As long as he gets the pills he is (more or less) a functioning member of society.
Well, technically yes. However the That 70s Show guys only seem to indulge infrequently and it doesn’t seem to negatively affect their lives.
Remeber Bailey (Scott Wolf) from “Party of Five” (AKA “That 90s Show”)? Wasn’t he an alchoholic? I seem to remember Claudia (Lacey Chabert) constantly whining “BAILEY!!! YOUR DRINKING AGAIN!!!”
The question is whether he would have a hard time giving up the pills if a permanent nonpharmaceutical solution were found for his pain. Many in his situation would. It’s called iatrogenic addiction. In House’s case, probably not – I recall he did get some kind of solution at one point, and went off the pills while it lasted. In Rush Limbaugh’s case . . . I dunno.
Well, I know that there was an episode where House went off his Vicodin (as part of a bet, I want to say) and he ended up smashing his hand with a paperweight.
I can’t believe I forgot “Starved,” in which all of the lead characters have eating disorders and/or food addictions.
Wendy Malick’s character on Just Shoot Me had a number of problems, played for laughs. Similarly, Joanna Lumley’s “sperm and alcohol bank” role on Absolutely Fabulous.
Father Jack and alcohol on “Father Ted.” And I suppose Father Ted (cigarettes) and Father Dougal (roller blading).
Titus’ Dad was an alkie. In one episode Titus and his brother and GF got together for an “intervention.”
TITUS: Dad, it’s about your drinking.
DAD: I haven’t had a drink in two weeks!
TITUS: I know. We want you to start again.
(Apparently when Dad’s not drinking he’s even more impossible to be around.)
If ever there has been a sex addict on prime time TV, it is Dan Fielding of Night Court.
There’s a cut-away on an episode of Family Guy where the Cookie Monster gets sent to rehab (don’t ask me the context in which this was brought up on the show, I have no idea). After being there awhile, he sneaks into a bathroom stall with a tube of cookie dough, digs some out with a spoon, and attempts to “bake” the dough on the spoon with a lighter.
I guess you might say that Wallace of Wallace & Gromit is addicted to cheese.
Beverly Hills 90210:
Dylan was an alcoholic, but after Luke Perry came back they neglected that trait and got him hooked on smack instead.
Kelly was addicted to cocaine, as was her then-boyfriend Colin. She also got hooked on OTC diet pills.
Brandon was a gambling addict.
David was addicted to some kind of speed.
Donna was addicted to pain pills following a back injury for, like, five minutes.
Noah was an alcoholic.
Well, if we are veering out of sitcoms and into drama:
They got Carter hooked on drugs in ER.
Then there was that *Starsky & Hutch * episode where gangsters kidnapped Hutch and got him hooked on heroin.
If you want a sex addict (as it were!), Roz in Frazier counts, I think…
Desperate Housewives:
Lynette became addicted to Ritalin
Bree was an alcoholic for a while
Mike was addicted to pain medication
Gabrielle is addicted to money
Susan is addicted to drama
How about the Wire? Bubbles is one of the most convincing addicts I’ve ever seen on T.V.
On Girlfriends, Joan dated a recovering sex addict for a while, in a storyline not played for laughs; she was initially disturbed by his reluctance to have sex with her (when he was trying to say sober) and then, when they had become lovers but were in different cities, she was vexed by his need to have constant phone sex before he could sleep.
On the same show, Lynn’s sex addiction is played for laughs. She clearly cannot go very long without sex, has made passes at all her girlfriends at one time or another (and was willing to sleep with the male girlfriend, William, so long as it was impersonal), and more than once has had to leave when her friends were having a serious discussion because she could not function unless she had an orgasm and thus had to go masturbate.