Hot off the press! New developments in the mysterious Too Close for Comfort rape episode. In case you aren't familiar with it and didn't read my post Was Monroe Raped by a Pack of Women in the Back of a Van? here's a brief rundown:
It seems that almost every GenXer has a fuzzy memory of an episode of Too Close for Comfort where the overtly gay neighbor, Monroe Ficus, is raped in the back of a van by two women. Highly disturbing, yes. But did it ever happen? Who knows.
Ted Knight died just before the show was eligible for syndication, so it never ran in reruns; the episode came and went, never to be aired again. Those that were unlucky enough to catch it were permanently scarred by the memory. Yet, it is almost impossible to find someone who remembers it clearly.... it's as if those who watched it repressed the memory as if it were some highly traumatic event.
For years, I doubted myself as to whether I'd really witnessed it, maybe it was just a delusion.... that is, until I started meeting others with the same memory. We all vividly remember Gordon Jump as the child molester bicycle shop owner on Dif'rent Strokes because it aired repeatedly in reruns, but the Monroe rape was just an extraordinarily bizarre 30 minutes never to show its ugly head again.
In the previous post on the subject, I outlined a few clues that seem to indicate there's actually some truth behind these memories. Now we have narrowed down our search:
Original air date: July 20th, 1985
Episode: Season 5, Episode 10
Title: For Every Man, There's Two Women
Unfortunately, they have only released seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. So, until season 5 comes out, we may never know for sure.
A big thanks to Ookla for bringing this important information forward and also adding that "The Rape of Richard Beck," starring Richard Crenna also featured the plot device of male rape. "It was released in 1985, the same year as the Monroe rape episode, so I think we can safely say it was a theme that year."
It seems that almost every GenXer has a fuzzy memory of an episode of Too Close for Comfort where the overtly gay neighbor, Monroe Ficus, is raped in the back of a van by two women. Highly disturbing, yes. But did it ever happen? Who knows.
Ted Knight died just before the show was eligible for syndication, so it never ran in reruns; the episode came and went, never to be aired again. Those that were unlucky enough to catch it were permanently scarred by the memory. Yet, it is almost impossible to find someone who remembers it clearly.... it's as if those who watched it repressed the memory as if it were some highly traumatic event.
For years, I doubted myself as to whether I'd really witnessed it, maybe it was just a delusion.... that is, until I started meeting others with the same memory. We all vividly remember Gordon Jump as the child molester bicycle shop owner on Dif'rent Strokes because it aired repeatedly in reruns, but the Monroe rape was just an extraordinarily bizarre 30 minutes never to show its ugly head again.
In the previous post on the subject, I outlined a few clues that seem to indicate there's actually some truth behind these memories. Now we have narrowed down our search:
Original air date: July 20th, 1985
Episode: Season 5, Episode 10
Title: For Every Man, There's Two Women
Unfortunately, they have only released seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. So, until season 5 comes out, we may never know for sure.
A big thanks to Ookla for bringing this important information forward and also adding that "The Rape of Richard Beck," starring Richard Crenna also featured the plot device of male rape. "It was released in 1985, the same year as the Monroe rape episode, so I think we can safely say it was a theme that year."
