TV characters who have a drug problem but....no one cares

Cafe Society
1

Usually (even in a comedy) when its revealed that a character abuses drugs…they quickly are non-functional and it becomes a ‘special episode’…see The Drew Carey Show.

But what characters openly flaunt their abuse and their compatriots just roll their eyes and move on?

The FIRST character i noticed was Karen on Will and Grace…and then there’s Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock. Of course these are usually pills, booze and an occasional mention of cocaine. I don’t think I’ve seen a character admit they do heroin and the show just rolls on.

2

Otis Campbell on the The Andy Griffith Show

3

Norm on Cheers.

4

Penny on Big Bang Theory certainly liked her wine, and seemed like she was being portrayed as borderline alcoholic…but I don’t think anything came of it. I could be wrong, because I didn’t watch the final season.

5

Charlie on Two and a Half Men. Come to think of it,I think his mother was too.

6

The doctors on MASH.

7

Lucille on Arrested Development?

8

Scooby Doo

9

Most of the cast of “Archer”.

10

Thats a good one…and if we’re including Scooby-Doo, then Popeye for sure.

11

I think Shaggy had the real problem-- he was the one pushing the edibles

12

In the backstory for Cheers, Sam Malone was a recovering alcoholic who ran a bar, but his alcoholism was rarely mentioned.

13

Charlie on Always Sunny in Philadelphia huffs glue.

14

If we’re doing Popeye, then definitely Wimpy.

15

Is there a 12-step program for Hamberder addicts?

16

Have you ever seen a hamburger addict use the stairs?

17

Klaus in The Sparrow Academy is seen in the first seen breezing out of detox like he’s been on vacation. He’s seen as a lovable fuckup. Occasionally someone says “are you high again” and that’s the end of it.

The Queen’s Gambit does get into the problems a little bit, she abuses alcohol and Librium, but by and large it’s seen as a competitive chess enhancer.

There are a lot of problems with drug portrayal on TV, but none of them grinds my gears as much as when they treat mind-altering drugs as performance enhancers. Guzzling alcohol from the bottle should lead to lethargy and bad decisions in the next scene, not superpowers or bravery.

Also it’s annoying when they mix up the effects of different drugs. If you’re going to take any drug at all to be a chess master, it would be a stimulant, not an anxiolytic. It seems like TV has spent so long pretending recreational drugs don’t exist that they really don’t know how to handle them realistically. It’s always got to be something helpful or destructive, never just a thing people do that creates minor interesting problems and sideplots.

18

Dean Winchester on Supernatural was a huge alcoholic, but by season 7 if not earlier everyone knew it. Didn’t keep him from being one hell of a badass Hunter.

19

Didn’t “That 70’s Show” almost revolve around the fact that just about all of the young central cast members were stoned practically 24/7?

20

Shaggy had the munchies so bad, he regularly ate dog food just to satisfy his cravings! That was a young man with a problem. But rather than helping him, his friends just used his craving for dog biscuits to manipulate him into investigating the latest ghostly happening.

Let’s not even get into his delusion that the dog could talk…