OK so this is totally random but.. is it just me or is there like hardly ever a diabetic in any shows on tv or movies? i was thinking about this and i dnt think i can honestly say i have saw one movie/tv show that has had a character with diabetes.. i just thought its kinda weird.. well maybe not weird but i bet u know what i mean lol have u guys ever saw any shows with diabetics in the??
There was a Hannah Montanna episode a long time ago where one of the characters was diabetic. it was a really bad episode and they disney did not do they're research on diabetes because a lot of it was wrong. but otherwise...i don't think i've ever seen anything else.
there aren't a lot..but there are some. even just minor characters.
the ones i can remember are:
the babysitters club (the movie and the book)
panic room (the daughter was diabetic..i dont' remember the movie, but i think they got some of it mixed up...)
steel magnolias (my mom saw this before I was dx..and it apparently caused her great stress when I was dx, because the diabetic in this movie dies of a low bloodsugar.)
and DLife has a whole list:
Oliver, on "Hannah Montana", was diagnosed with diabetes. I have not seen the episode, but I work with kids who are newly diagnosed with diabetes and many of them mention this when asked if they know anyone with diabetes. Since Nick Jonas has diabetes in real life, I think it would be cool if his character on "Jonas" had diabetes too, but they have never mentioned that. I used to watch "General Hospital" and a long time ago I remember that one of the young kids was diagnosed with diabetes as part of a storyline, but, in true soap opera fashion, it was hardly ever mentioned after that.
Nikki
Yes, the "Panic Room".... I don't remember the movie very well either, but I remember thinking after I saw it that I wish Hollywood would leave diabetes alone because they always get their facts wrong. I seem to remember that they had to get the girl her insulin or she was going to pass out from a low blood sugar...something like that.
This is an interesting list. Some of those movies sound hilariously bad (I want to see Scarecrows Gone Wild!). On the other hand, I've never seen Panic Room or had any desire to, but it would be interesting to see a thriller in which the protagonist has to cope with diabetes on top of the other extenuating circumstances, if they did their homework (which it sounds like that movie did not).
Ah, Steel Magnolias...that Julia Roberts character was so insulting. And it would have been only momentarily cringe-worthy if it were just that horribly written/acted orange juice scene, but to actually build the whole climax of the movie around the idea of a very healthy-looking type 1 in her ~ 20s dying from kidney failure? Really? My best friend and I were able to find some gallows humor in it, though... We have a habit of every so often watching one of those tearjerker friendship movies (Fried Green Tomatoes, Beaches, etc.) that invariably end in one of the main characters dying young, and joking about which one of us would be "the dead chick" if our lives were a movie. In that case, I had to (jokingly) concede that I guess it would be me.
On another note, one obscure example of diabetes on the screen comes to mind...in the very first few episodes of the TV show Cold Case, one of the detectives was diabetic, presumably type 1. They even made a point of showing him injecting insulin in one scene. But then he just vanished, and several weeks later, they mentioned that he transferred to a desk job because he was having trouble with his diabetes with erratic hours. Which a big part of me did not like, although the other part of me honestly could not imagine doing a job like that for a living (the hours would actually probably be one of the easier parts to work around, but having to chase someone at gunpoint after bolusing for a lunch you don't have time to eat, not so much). It's too bad, as that show was often really good at depicting specific, little-known issues that people struggled with and making them relatable and compelling to viewers who might otherwise have no exposure to them, so seeing one of the protagonists realistically cope with T1 would have been an interesting counterpoint. For me, anyway.
Greys Anatomy just recently had a character with diabetes on it...but his was brought on by having parts of his pancreas removed!
There are more references to diabetes than characters who have diabetes. There are also a lot of rude jokes about diabetes on TV. I noticed sometimes on Cold Case, CSI and Law and Order there are diabetic victims, but that's about it. To reply to a comment above. I wish Nick Jonas' character on "Jonas" was diabetic. I think it would help out a lot of teenagers. He just appears to be a normal guy with not a care in the world, but he's not.
[quote user="acousticmelo"]
There are more references to diabetes than characters who have diabetes. There are also a lot of rude jokes about diabetes on TV. I noticed sometimes on Cold Case, CSI and Law and Order there are diabetic victims, but that's about it.
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Or diabetic killers. Well, maybe more so on the more "genteel" (for lack of a better word) crime procedurals in the 80s and 90s, where the murder weapon was sometimes something more unusual, like poison via injection, and the script called for an excuse for the character to have access to a syringe but otherwise the condition has no bearing on anything. (I do have fond, pre-diagnosis, childhood nostalgia for Murder She Wrote, but whenever I see an episode in syndication and they use insulin/diabetes as a plot point, it's always so bad.)
TNT has a show called "Men of a Certain Age" that has a character, Owen, a man in his 40's that has diabetes. Last season he was on injections and this season he has a pump (an Animas, I think). There isn't much said about it though.
There was a T1 contestant on the Amazing Race - and she won!
Turk from the show Scrubs has Diabetes, but it may be Type 2.
Also, when I heard about the episode of Hannah Montana where Oliver gets diabetes, I watched it on youtube and was very annoyed. The information was not presented accurately and nothing about treating Type 1 (with shots) was mentioned.
I can't think of any characters on tv that are diabetic, but have seen a bunch of funny, although really wrong, references to it.
On Family Guy for instance, there's a scene in an episode where Brian is complaining to the guys at the bar and Joe goes, "Peter, your dog is giving me diabetes." There is also one in another episode where the newscasters are reporting and Tom says to Dianne: "Geez Diane, be any perkier and you will give us all diabetes."
There was also an episode last season on Parks and Recreation (really funny show by the way) where they had a diabetes telethon that was pretty good.
[quote user="Mal"]
Turk from the show Scrubs has Diabetes, but it may be Type 2.
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yeah he has type 2. i remember the episode he was dx, his wife kept trying to feed him cupcakes and stuff and he eventually freaked out and she thought she was to blame for feeding him so many treats, etc or something (i watched it a loooong time ago haha)
I used to watch Army Wives, and one of the main characters found out she was diabetic. I stopped watching after that episode though because they had a scene where her blood sugar was low and it was the worst acting I've ever seen!
I guess I wouldn't think that if I wasn't diabetic, because I wouldn't know how it really is and I would still be watching that show haha!
Two things came to my mind in reference to diabetes and movie/tv. First, many of you may remember the fine film Con Air. In case you don't Nicholas Cage was a convicted felon about to go home to his wife and child. He of course had to ride a prison transport plane to make it home. The prisoners eventually take over the plane and plan to use it to escape jurisdiction. While Cage does have time to escape, he sticks with the plane to help his diabetic friend who does not have any insulin or needles and is going into diabetic shock within a few hours after having his last shot. It is truly a fine flick and I don't understand why the academy ignored it.
Also, there was an episode of Law and Order in which I remember the killer used his wife's insulin. If I remember correctly, his wife was a diabetic and this sick guy enjoyed his wife shaking from a seizure while in bed. One time he ended up giving her a little too much and it killed her.
Those are really the only two instances I can remember besides the aforementioned Panic Room.
Yes I like panic room, for the diabetic girl, but also Jared Leto!! Also on Nurse Jackie the male big guy nurse, dont know his name has some type of diabetes. They only refrence it when he is low, and also he cant see very well beause of it.
And i saw the oliver episode whe miley and lily had to run around stopping him from eating everything in sight. Pretty bad!!
[quote user="Dan"]
Two things came to my mind in reference to diabetes and movie/tv. First, many of you may remember the fine film Con Air. In case you don't Nicholas Cage was a convicted felon about to go home to his wife and child. He of course had to ride a prison transport plane to make it home. The prisoners eventually take over the plane and plan to use it to escape jurisdiction. While Cage does have time to escape, he sticks with the plane to help his diabetic friend who does not have any insulin or needles and is going into diabetic shock within a few hours after having his last shot. It is truly a fine flick and I don't understand why the academy ignored it.
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You know, I never saw Con Air or knew about the diabetes connection, but I have a feeling that this description was more entertaining than the movie itself.
They referenced diabetes last week on Grey's Anatomy. When the doctors told the patient he may be diabetic all he said was, "wow that sucks."
[quote user="Batts"]
[quote user="Mal"]
Turk from the show Scrubs has Diabetes, but it may be Type 2.
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yeah he has type 2. i remember the episode he was dx, his wife kept trying to feed him cupcakes and stuff and he eventually freaked out and she thought she was to blame for feeding him so many treats, etc or something (i watched it a loooong time ago haha)
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Yeah, I thought he was Type 2, but I couldn't remember b/c I haven't seen that episode in a very long time either :)