The 1970s and 1980s provided us with copious amounts of well-intentioned wisdom about the most sensitive and traumatic social issues of the day — drug and alcohol addiction, eating disorders, rape, pedophilia, suicide, child abuse and more — and packaged them into very memorable “Very Special Episodes.” These heavy-handed moral lessons were often hard to watch … yet were incredibly valuable and effective. Today we’re describing some of the more shocking of these episodes from shows including All In The Family, Maude, WKRP in Cincinnati, Laverne and Shirley, and the king of the VSE, Diffrn’t Strokes. If this isn’t comfortable for you, we understand, and you officially have a signed note from your host doctors to skip this one. Big hugs to you.

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