User blog:Umbrello/Childhood Nightmares: TV

As a kid, I had the crap scared out of me by episodes of otherwise innocent TV shows. Think "lost episode" but without the "lost" part. Some shows are downright creepy, but I'm talking about shows that were fine until that one episode. I wanted to talk about these two specific ones:

Punky Brewster: A little girl is abandonded by her parents and taken in by a stuffy photographer. Comedy ensues! But then... there was the cave episode. Punky and her friends are telling scary stories in a cave (I forget why they were there) and then weird things start happening. The two parts that scared me the most were Punky's friend's face trying to push out of the cave wall, saying "Help me, Punkyyyy" in a super creepy voice. Then Punky turns to see her friend... WITH THE BODY OF A SKELETON! I thought I was going to soil my underoos. Then Punky wakes up alone in the cave. It was all a dream! But why the hell did her friends just leave her there??? Seriously... thanks sitcom writers for my years of nightmares that followed.

Too Close for Comfort: An old guy who draws a comic strip called Space Cow annoys his family and has an effeminate neighbor. Classic comedy! But then... there was the episode with the painting. The guy has a portrait done of himself that ends up talking to him whenever he enters the room with the lights off. I had to sleep with the lights on after that for a long time because I would see the portrait on my wall whenever the lights were out. Not as scary as Punky Brewster, but with similar results.