# TV Moments That Scarred You For Life **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2006, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051 "2006-05-09T12:30:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![moonstarssun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@moonstarssun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonstarssun)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/61 "2006-05-09T21:24:19Z")
[QUOTE=Poysyn] … or when Caroline cuts her leg and it becomes really infected. [/QUOTE] That’s one for me too! I also remember a show called _Dark Room_, which was similar to _The Twilight Zone._ One episode was about a couple who wanted to hire someone to stand in as his father so they could continue collecting his social security and disability checks. The guy they find for the position is pretty happy with the deal–free meals and housing. Then he finds out that Dad’s disability was that he lost both legs, and in the last scene Son is firing up a circular saw. There are also two movies that I just saw little bits of as a kid, but they really stuck with me. I don’t know what they are, but someone may recognize them. One was black and white, and people in it would be struck by lightning, but it was sentient (an alien probably?). I remember a guy on a ladder being hit by it and falling. The other one was a guy who encased beautiful women in blocks of plastic (no, not Comic Book Guy). Both of these were on TV in the early 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/62 "2006-05-09T21:26:12Z")
I was an easily spooked child so pretty much any episode of “In Search Of” would do the trick, especially the aformentioned Bigfoot one with the Bigfoot screams. Auggh. I remember an early 80s tv movie about a girl who herds a bunch of horses to safety away from the evil dog food factory–I think it might have been titled “Wild Horse Annie”? I don’t think she was “the” Wild Horse Annie of the 40s and 50s though…but anyway, during the journey her own horse falls and breaks his leg and she has to shoot him herself. Being a 10 year old horse lover, this definitely scarred me for years. ☹ This is much more recent–an episode of COPS where the cops are called out to investigate the scene of a murder. They walk into this alley and there’s this young guy just kneeling down against the wall. I remembered thinking “I bet that kid’ll get in trouble for messing up a crime scene.” He’s just sitting there, looking like he’s about to get up and walk away but he’s the dead body. Kneeling with a couple of bullet holes in him. I hadn’t watched COPS in a long while and after that when I couldn’t get that image out of my head I remembered why I’d stopped watching the show in the first place. Oh, and this one is pretty silly but I cried for a long time after watching “Thirtysomething” when Gary dies in a bike accident. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/63 "2006-05-09T21:42:06Z")
When I was a very young girl, sometime in the early 80s, probably around '83-'84, there was a movie on television, and the only part I remember is showing a woman, very calmly, putting a pillow over the face of a small, crying child. Eventually, the child stopped crying. I didn’t quite understand what had just happened, so I turned to my mother and I asked her if putting a pillow over a crying kid’s face was a good way to make them stop crying. My mother gently explained to me that the mother in the movie was a bad, bad person, and that she had just suffocated her child. I didn’t quite know what “suffocated” meant, and asked my mother… and she told me the child was dead. I was horrified. _Horrified_. I remember being scared to death of being a bad child from that point on, and that I should never, ever cry for a very long time, and if I did cry, I should cry quietly, because strangers - babysitters, daycare workers, _policemen_! - would suffocate me for being too loud and annoying. I didn’t for a moment believe my own mother would do it - she said the mother in the movie was bad, and my mother wasn’t _bad_. But apparently everybody else in the world could be… When I was about three years old, my parents once called my into the living room from wherever I’d been playing and told me to watch something they thought I would love on the television. It was some variety program, or possibly even a news show, and they showed a real cat on a little surfboard. The cat sat contentedly on the little surfboard, riding along on the gentle waves. Thinking about it today, they must have been slowly towing the cat along off camera, because he was cruising pretty good without any real waves or anything. The song they played in the background was that godawful “Sailing” by… who? Christopher Cross? Ugh. Anyway, naturally, my parents thought I would love this. I loved cats, and hey look, there was a cat, and he was doing something neat! Nut uh. No way. I saw that cat and burst into uncontrollable tears. My parents couldn’t understand why. But I know why. I kept thinking that cats couldn’t swim/hated water, and since I couldn’t see any boats in the shot, I thought the cat was stranded forever and ever. I thought this was a cruel fate for the poor kitty, and I was mad at the people who put him out there. I ran screaming to my bedroom and cried my heart out for that damn cat. And for years, _years_ afterward, anytime that stupid song “Sailing” came on the radio, the tears started afresh, and I mourned for that poor cat, stranded out there on the ocean somewhere on a surfboard. As for truly disturbing, well, that just happened about an hour ago. I’ve heard people mention again and again, one of the most famous scenes or most-showed footage on television is the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination. Well, I’d never even seen the original footage. I thought it must be grainy and bad, so you wouldn’t really see anything. I looked up the Zapruder film. Honest to god, never seen any of this shit before in my life. It shocked me to instant sobs. And Jackie… I feel terrible. I can’t seem to find anything to comfort me; my familiar routine and music just feels off today. I wish I’d never seen it. I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep tonight. I’m not _scared_… but I feel deeply disturbed. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/64 "2006-05-09T21:45:17Z")
I guess, in it’s own way, watching Dr Who in the 1960’s was “scarring” for me - not so much that here is anything which I am perma-creeped out about but I do get a thrill, a little tingle inside whenever I see those elements which made '60s B&W Who so scary - the slow pacing, the eerie electronic music, those tight shots of terrified faces. And Pat Troughton. That man is just super creepy. It’s just those little elements whichs till set off the same thrill in me which made me watch the show from behind my grandfathers chair… mm ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/65 "2006-05-09T22:10:27Z")
[QUOTE=mamboman] I guess, in it’s own way, watching Dr Who in the 1960’s was “scarring” for me - not so much that here is anything which I am perma-creeped out about but I do get a thrill, a little tingle inside whenever I see those elements which made '60s B&W Who so scary - the slow pacing, the eerie electronic music, those tight shots of terrified faces. And Pat Troughton. That man is just super creepy. It’s just those little elements whichs till set off the same thrill in me which made me watch the show from behind my grandfathers chair… mm [/QUOTE] One of my moments was Dr. Who, as well, though it was Baker’s Doctor. The episode with the humanoid wasps got me. Especially the larvae they uncover in the cells…just remembering it gives me creepy spine chills even now… ---
**Author:** ![priapus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@priapus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/priapus)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/66 "2006-05-09T22:10:52Z")
I remember a Twilight Zone (orig show)where a kid talks to his dead grandmom on his toy phone.I get the still get the creeps thinking about it. And there was an Alfred Hitchcock Presents (orig show) where these nurses have to care for an invalid during a storm and a killer from the asylum is in the area.That was way too much for kid priapus ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/67 "2006-05-09T22:43:30Z")
[QUOTE=Greywolf73] Oh, and this one is pretty silly but I cried for a long time after watching “Thirtysomething” when Gary dies in a bike accident. [/QUOTE] Oh, me, too. I hadn’t seen it coming, hadn’t been spoiled for it at all and was shocked when it happened. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/68 "2006-05-09T22:48:01Z")
[QUOTE=winterhawk 11] The second one didn’t scare me, but rather really upset me. It was a kids’ special about a young boy who found a stray kitten in an abandoned building and began taking care of it secretly. At some point near the end, a couple of young bullies find the kid and the kitten. There’s a scuffle, and somehow the kitten is either frightened or tossed out into the street, where it’s hit by a car. I was devastated. Even though the kid ends up getting a whole litter of kittens at the end, that poor kitty’s death haunts me to this day. I discovered the show while channel-surfing a few years back and it had the same effect (albeit not as strong because I knew it was coming). [/QUOTE [QUOTE=bup] [**J.T.**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158681/) [/QUOTE] I remember watching that show, as a child! I felt so bad for the boy and the cat. One of the creepy things about the MASH episode in which Hawkeye was in the mental hospital is not so much the the smothering occured, but Hawkeye’s guilt that he was the one who drove the woman to do what she did. Until the doctor helped him, he couldn’t face the fact that his fear for his own safety drove a woman to kill her child. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/69 "2006-05-09T23:08:56Z")
None of you were disturbed permanently by Rob & Amber’s wedding? :: curls into ball and cries :: ---
**Author:** ![cruel\_butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@cruel\_butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cruel_butterfly)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/70 "2006-05-09T23:37:25Z")
I think the movie was called “The Hitcher” with Rutger Hauer. It’s been so long since I saw the movie, I can’t remember much about it except for the emotionally-scarring part where Rutger Hauer’s character has lashed a young woman to the bumpers of two semi-trucks: hands to one and feet to the other. The semi-trucks are facing each other and put in reverse. Agonizing suspense follows for about two minutes as the trucks very slowly pull away from each other as she is stretched nearly beyond her capacity. Whatever it was that Hauer’s character wanted from the woman’s boyfriend in exchange for her life, he didn’t get, and the poor girl is torn apart between the two trucks as they separate at high speed. ::shudder:: ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/71 "2006-05-10T00:21:55Z")
You know, for a family show, _Little House on the Prairie_ was rather gory. Kids watching their parents die as their wagon tumbles down a hill, nastiness from Nellie, fistfights in the schoolyard, young girls getting raped, Albert getting hooked on morphine (who can forget his vomiting scene!) :eek: I think Sept 11 did it for me. That was live, that was real, and you didn’t know what would happen next. I remember seeing bits and pieces of _Roots_ when I was younger. I remember Toby/Kunte getting half his foot cut off for running away. I read the book, and I don’t think the mini-series mentioned that Toby was given a choice of what got cut off…his penis or his foot. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/72 "2006-05-10T00:35:09Z")
[QUOTE=Baker] One of the creepy things about the MASH episode in which Hawkeye was in the mental hospital is not so much the the smothering occured, but Hawkeye’s guilt that he was the one who drove the woman to do what she did. Until the doctor helped him, he couldn’t face the fact that his fear for his own safety drove a woman to kill her child. [/QUOTE] I got scarred watching Vic Morrow do the same thing to a little European baby in _Combat!_ ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/73 "2006-05-10T00:49:19Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Mapp] _Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark_ - an early '70’s made for TV movie in which Kim Darby is tormented by these little gremlin creatures that live in the chimney… and at the end, drag her into the chimney to become one of them. When I see it as a grown-up, I can see how crappy the special effects are, but I saw it for the first time when I was about 8 years old, and had nightmares about it for years afterwards. [/QUOTE] Ooooh! Me too!! I soooo want to own this movie, but for the time being I’m even too cheap to put out whatever little bit it costs to buy it off eBay. ☹ However, in the same category was another made-for-TV (I think) movie called [The House on Greenapple Road](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065857/). If I remember correctly, the premise was fairly predictable about the fate of a promiscuous housewife, but what stayed with me (and still has me shivering at the thought some 30 years later) is the opening scene. The daughter comes home from school all happy and goes in the house through the ante-room, where stuff like the washer and dryer, etc., are. The camera pans to show the whole thing in black and white, with a large sideways freezer there and BLOOD EVERYWHERE! Even dripping out of the appliances. Totally freaky, although I’m sure it wouldn’t be out of place on a commercial for cleaning supplies today. Then there was [Gorgyles](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068622/) where one of those giant flying suckers landed on the roof of a moving car when a family was driving through the dessert at night. The thump and screech of metal! Oh how I loved these 70s romps. 🙂 As already mentioned, both **Duel** and **Helter Skelter** kept me awake. Then there was the episode of either Twilight Zone or Night Gallery with the “ear wigs.” Which still makes me wonder, snopes aside, if something could crawl up into your brain and lay eggs that’ll kill you in your sleep. :o Lastly, anything that had to do with up-close glimpses of a “real live” satan. TZ and NG had several that would fit the bill and I think I’ve purposely eradicated any real memory. Think I better go find my teddy bear for the evening now… ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/74 "2006-05-10T00:54:12Z")
**Scruffy**. I saw this when I was a kid - it was on with Saturday morning cartoons. It was about a dog that suffered through everything imaginable - except for being doused in gasoline and lit on fire, I guess. My mom didn’t understand how some kids’ cartoon could cause this - I had to be exaggerating. Mom couldn’t handle watching the second installment. Traumatized me for years. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![blueserge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@blueserge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blueserge)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/75 "2006-05-10T01:08:09Z")
[QUOTE=Green\_Means\_Go] I couldnt tell you the name of the movie, I just remember watching it at my grandparents house because nothing else was on. This group of people in a school bus (assuming kids and adults then) run afoul of something or another and end up locked into a cave. The only way to get out is to swim through a sump in the cave (Basically diving into a flooded passage and swimming out to the other side) with no guide rope or any way to see where they are going. One of the last women to go takes a wrong term, gets lost, and starts to run out of air. You see her frantically struggling underwater and clawing at the rock ceiling. She gets rescued but it sure freaked me the hell out. “Uh, no thanks guys… you go risk drowning in the dark. I’d rather stay here and starve to death. Thanks though…” [/QUOTE] Is this the movie “Fortress” (1986) with Rachel Ward? If yes, that one is based on a true story about an Australian schoolteacher who was kidnapped along with her students. It has a scene like the one you describe, but it’s been a long time since I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/76 "2006-05-10T02:13:17Z")
I remember _Fortress_! I love that movie (saw it on TV as a young teen), but boy was it freaky! The funniest part was when one of the girls (she was the eldest) pulled the teacher aside and informed her that she had started her period. I remember laughing because I could see the same thing happening to me, plus she referred to it as “the curse”. Has anyone mentioned that crazy _Punky Brewster_ when they’re in the Indian ghost cave? It creeped me out big time (and it also made me angry, because it was one of those “to be continued” episodes). During the early 80s, Atlanta was going through this whole “Murdered and Missing Children” scare. Most of the victims were from a neighborhood near mine. One evening a TV special about it aired–prefaced by a grave “viewer discretion” advisory–and my mother pushed me out of the room. I eavesdropped from the hallway, despite being terrified. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/77 "2006-05-10T02:23:12Z")
As a wee Goob in the '70’s we had HBO when it was the only premium channel on cable. I rememebr seeing [Burnt Offerings.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074258/#comment) Ok a cheesy horror movie right? Having the Dad do a digger off the roof to kill himself and land on top of the station wagon was horrible. There was a camera inside the car and the shot was his face and upper body hitting the windshield. Wrong, just wrong for a wee Doper. ---
**Author:** ![moonstarssun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@moonstarssun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonstarssun)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/78 "2006-05-10T02:40:09Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Goob] As a wee Goob in the '70’s we had HBO when it was the only premium channel on cable. I rememebr seeing [Burnt Offerings.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074258/#comment) Ok a cheesy horror movie right? Having the Dad do a digger off the roof to kill himself and land on top of the station wagon was horrible. There was a camera inside the car and the shot was his face and upper body hitting the windshield. Wrong, just wrong for a wee Doper. [/QUOTE] I had forgotten about that one, but it creeped me out too. That very scene! I also forgot to mention Willy Wonka. The scene when the boy gets sucked up that tube. :shudder: ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/79 "2006-05-10T02:43:48Z")
[QUOTE=moonstarssun] I also forgot to mention Willy Wonka. The scene when the boy gets sucked up that tube. :shudder: [/QUOTE] Willy Wonka! I know it’s a movie, and I know that scene with the kids and their parents on the boat was supposed to be creepy. And trust me, it worked very, very well. I became a regular X-Files watcher when I was about eight or nine, by the way. This gives you an insight into the way I think. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![sneezy5660](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@sneezy5660](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sneezy5660)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051/80 "2006-05-10T03:03:53Z")
I tend not to watch scary shows on television, but once I broke down and watched an episode of Twilight Zone. It wasn’t very scary, but it _still_ upsets me. It was about a rich couple who had a son and a daughter, whom they paid little attention to. They had a pool in the back yard, and one day while the children were swimming, they heard kid’s laughter and voices through the pool drain. Curious, they swim through the drain, and find a fantasy land. Kids playing, Mother Goose, the whole shebang. I don’t remember much else, but at the end, they hear their parents calling for them, they look at each other, and run off to play. Damn, I got chills typing this! Sneezy [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356051.md?page=5)