The Star Trek TOS episode 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield', in which Frank Gorshin is half white and half black. When told that his 'inferior' opponent is also half white and half black, Gorshin replies "He is black on the LEFT side. I am black on the RIGHT side. That means he is clearly inferior."

My 6 year old self said "But that's so STUPID!" And fortunately, I was just old enough to realize that the TV lesson also applied to the wider world of monochrome humans. Now, when I hear someone say Black people are this way, or White people are that way, I think: "He is black on the LEFT side..."

Murphy Brown vs Dan Quale: I learned that politicians care what we do in our private lives. I was in high school, young and naive. Yet 20 years later that notion still puzzles me.

I learned from the Matrix that in order to conquer your fears, you must first learn to face them.

I learned from the Soupy Sales show that the adult world is bull**.

I learned from Murphy Brown that I could have a baby alone and it would be okay.

I learned how to speak English from TV! Growing up in Israel, where TV and films are not dubbed, I got my English from an early age, and when I moved to the US I was fluent!

I learned from the episode of Red Dwarf about a robot god that there probably is no god.

I developed my moral compass watching Star Trek TNG. For example, it is never worth sacrificing the few for the benefit of the many.

One of the characters on Six Feet Under lamented that he did not even have the discipline to floss his teeth regularly. His comment motivated me to be more disciplined. I floss regularly now, and my dentist jokes that I won't have any reason to see him. (He is a great dentist, so I will keep visiting.)

in terms of being led astray by TV, here's one sad example:

Antonin Scalia debating torture in the Supreme Court:

"Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. ... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives," Judge Scalia said. Then, recalling Season 2, where the agent's rough interrogation tactics saved California from a terrorist nuke, the Supreme Court judge etched a line in the sand.

"Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" Judge Scalia challenged his fellow judges. "Say that criminal law is against him? 'You have the right to a jury trial?' Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so.

"So the question is really whether we believe in these absolutes. And ought we believe in these absolutes."

"The Prisoner"....don't trust anyone !!

Star Trek taught me to accept everyone, even Klingons. WWJD- what would Jean-Luc do?

The advantage of scripted drama is that it compresses and distills a wide range of real life issues in a fictional setting in a way that provides insight. The season finale of HBO's The Newsroom did this brilliantly.

The Sun. morning talk shows! These are mere soundbite factories on which politicians cynically manipulate public opinion.

I have heard Spike Lee repeatedly state that although White people didn't know much about Black people, Black people knew a lot about White people. When asked specifically how he knew about Whites, Mr. Lee mentioned that he watched a lot of TV made by Whites when he was a kid in Brooklyn. Now, when Black people seem to have really weird expactations based on my race, (I'm White) I think about watching Gilligan's Island and they make more sense.

I've learned much too much about crystal meth production and dealing from watching the fabulous and addictive "Breaking Bad" on AMC. There's no better television.

I was a huge fan of ER and I followed the story line when one of the main characters John Carter and his wife endured the still birth of their first child. I watched as the couple went from grief to depression to the dissolution of their marriage. Later that year when my daughter died in utero and I faced the labor and delivery of a still born child, those episodes helped to prepare me for what I was about to face. That story line encouraged me to immediately seek help and counseling for myself and my family.