Chandler Bing's Fears - During an episode of FRIENDS/NBC/1994-2004 Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) and his buddies got together to test their knowledge on just how well they knew each other. One of the items in the "Fears & Pet Peeves" category asked "What gave Chandler the heebie-jeebies?" The answer: "Michael Flatley and the Lord of the Dance." Chandler justified his fear of Irish folk dancers saying "His leg flails about as if independent from his body!" Monica Geller's pet peeve was "animals dressed in clothing." When Chandler's friends were counseling him on the dangers of smoking, he got defensive and informed them his smoking was no worse than their annoying little habits including Joey's knuckle-cracking, Monica's snorting laughter, Phoebe chewing her hair and Ross always pronouncing everything "perfectly" and the "excessive need to have everyone agree with him." 

Clown Phobia - Overton Wakefield Jones (John Henton), the building superintendent on the sitcom LIVING SINGLE/FOX/1993-97 had a fear of clowns. It all started as a child when his mother took him to Ding-a-Dong Circus. The firefighter clown asked him to ride on the tiny hook and ladder. Every thing was fine until it crashed into the back of an elephant. The sight of 37 clowns digging him out of the aftermath was permanently burned into his brains. His friends tried to cure him by slowly introducing him to clown related paraphernalia. When one of them put on a red clown nose, Overton said pensively, "OK, but don't squeak it."

Dust Bunnies - On the sitcom NEWHART/CBS/1982-90 Dick Loudon (Bob Newhart) the host of a local talk show "Vermont Today" inadvertently humiliated his wife, Joanna (Mary Frann) when he told his TV viewers that she had a phobia over dust bunnies. Later that day when Joanna went to the supermarket, they advised her not to go down one of the aisles because they were "sweeping down there" and another town jokester placed a giant pile of lint on her front porch with a sign that read: "Killer Dust Bunny." To make amends Bob later revealed one of his own phobias on TV to atone for his earlier indiscretion. It seemed when he was in college he modeled nude to make some extra cash. Unfortunately, the students in the class voted to replace him with a bowl of fruit. To this day he has a phobia about art. TRIVIA NOTE: On the sitcom GRACE UNDER FIRE/ABC/1993-98, Grace's mother-in-law accuses her of seducing a local minister into her "web of desire." Grace (Brett Butler) responds "I'm 38-years-old. I don't have a web of lust. I have dust bunnies of desire." 

Cunningham Family Fears - Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard), the editor of the school newspaper decided to do an article on "Why people are afraid of things." on   the sitcom HAPPY DAYS/ABC/1974-84. During a discussion at the kitchen table, each member of the Cunningham family spoke of their own fears. Richie was afraid of flowers (well, just smelling flowers) every since that "bumble bee incident." Marion, his mother feared taking a shower every since the movie Psycho. His sister Joanie was afraid of the Boogie man; and Howard, Richie's father didn't like worms because they were squishy, (this didn't keep him from enjoying squishy jelly donuts.) Later, talking to his pals, he discovered his friend Ralph Malph had some 50 fears, giving him Phobo Phobia (fear of everything.). To cure his fears of a suspected tornado strike at 6.22 PM that evening, a local scientist hypnotized Ralph to be "brave courageous and bold."

Jerry Seinfeld's Germ Phobia - Standup comic Jerry Seinfeld on the sitcom SEINFELD/NBC/1990-98 was extremely neurotic when it came to germs and cleanliness. On episode No. 72 "The Conversion" Jerry actually reconsidered a relationship with a girlfriend with fungicide in her bathroom; and on episode No. 142 "The Pothole," he couldn't bring himself to kiss his girlfriend, Jenna (Kristin Davis) after discovering her toothbrush had fallen into the toilet. Phobia's ran in the Seinfeld family. Jerry's father, Morty (Barney Martin) couldn't stand sound of Velcro tearing. On episode No. 44 "The Watch" Jerry's gave his father a new wallet with $400 inside, but his father immediately threw it away because it was made with Velcro.      

Top Neat/Clean Freaks In TV LAND
1.   Adrian Monk	Monk
2.   Felix Unger	Odd Couple
3.   Monica Geller	Friends
4.   Danny Tanner	Full House
5.   Jerry Seinfeld	Seinfeld
6.   John Cage	Ally McBeal

Mister Ed's Phobias - The sitcom MISTER ED/SYN/CBS/1960-66 featured a talking horse (voice of Allan "Rocky" Lane) who had a number of phobias. They included water, fat men with whiskers, cockatoos, cats, prowlers, wooden carousel horses, and heights (he inherited a fear of heights from his grandfather who fell off a cliff while chasing a filly).           

Rebecca Howe & The Righteous Brothers - Kirstie Alley played Rebecca Howe, a frustrated business woman on the sitcom CHEERS/NBC/1982-93. While working as manager at Cheers, a bar in Boston, Rebecca was always being propositioned by Sam Malone (Ted Danson), the head bartender. One day, Rebecca told Sam there was one special song that made her melt when she heard it. Under its influence, Rebecca would be likely to do anything, even with Sam. She was confident he'd never guess the right one. Sam, however, using his ingenuity, called Rebecca's mother and discovered her Achilles heel was the song "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" by the Righteous Brothers. Armed with a tape recording of the song and hopeful of a swift conquest, Sam entered Rebecca's office and clicked on the song. Summoning all her strength, Rebecca fought the urge to kiss Sam. Disappointed, Sam left the office defeated. With Sam gone, Rebecca let  the music work its charms and she became very amorous. Accountant Norm Peterson (George Wendt) just happened to enter her office at fever's pitch and mistaking Norm for a returning Sam, she planted a passionate kiss on the unsuspecting bar patron. Later in the series, Rebecca fell in love with millionaire business man Robin Colcord (Roger Rees). On two separate occasions he flew each of the Righteous Brother (Bill  Medley & Bobby Hatfield) to sing their songs to her in person. Bobby Hattfield sang "Unchained Melody" at Rebecca's failed wedding ceremony to Robin. 

Sam Malone's Bottle Cap - On the sitcom CHEERS/NBC/1982-93 the character Sam Malone (Ted Danson), a former relief pitcher (for the Red Sox baseball team) turned bartender always carried around a bottle cap for good luck. Actually, Sam had a drinking problem and the bottle cap was from the last bottle of beer he ever had to drink. Carrying it around helped him remember his problem. As Sam told Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) one night at closing time "That little bottle cap keeps me from drinking. When I was tempted to drink I'd look at that bottle cap and it would stop me. I remember holding onto that bottle cap during some pretty rough nights. I'd wake up in the morning and it was flat, I was squeezing it so tight." Once Sam let another baseball player (Rick Walker) borrow his lucky charm to help him out of his losing slump. While the cap was out of Sam's care, he became clumsy and lost his edge. When Sam discovered the cap was lost in Kansas City, he got angry and grabbed a bottle of beer with a real urge to drink. But instead he took the cap off the bottle, poured its contents into a heavy mug and faced down the foaming golden brew. He then took the new bottle cap as a replacement for his lost talisman. 

Superman & Kryptonite - Much like the Fonz, Superman, was the toughest guy on the block, but in the presence of Kryptonite, (the remnants of the exploded planet Krypton where Superman was born), he began to lose his super abilities. Prolonged exposure to this deadly green substance (harmless to humans) would cause his death. On the sitcom FRASIER/NBC/1993+ it was revealed that whenever either psychiatrist brothers Frasier or Niles Crane needed to be swayed into doing something they didn't want to do, one only needed to use a quote from Sigmund Freud to get their help. This was the "Crane Boy's Kryptonite." See also - METALS & MINERALS: "Kryptonite" 

Wade Swoboda's Aversions - On the sitcom GRACE UNDER FIRE/ABC/1993-98 Grace Kelly's next-door neighbor, Wade Swoboda (Casey Sander) once mentioned that he had a few things he didn't like. They included wet feet, bicycles, and blueberries. His reasons? He hated wet feet because he spent a lot of time walking through rice paddies and swamps during his tour of duty in Vietnam and very rarely had dry feet. He hated bicycles because a Vietnamese riding a bicycle tossed a bomb into a building and killed his army buddies. As for the blueberries, Wade had an Aunt Flo who canned blueberries every year and forced him to eat the bounty of her harvest when he was a kid. "Not all my drama comes out of South East Asia," he confided to Grace.