Cults and New Religious Movements in Literature and Popular Culture - Television

Television

• Season 5 of Beverly Hills, 90210 has a storyline involving Kelly getting caught up in a cult.
• In Brookside, Simon Howe indoctrinates an increasingly mentally unstable Terry Sullivan into a religious cult much to the dismay of his friend Barry Grant. The two later hold Grant hostage and blow up the his house.
• In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Schnit-heads", Heffer joins a sausage-worshiping cult. When he tires of eating nothing but sausage, and is caught eating pizza, the cult holds him prisoner, and it is up to Rocko and Filburt to save him.
• In the Simpsons episode "The Joy of Sect", most of Springfield join a new sect called The Movementarians, led by the mysterious "Leader" who persuades most residents to give up their material possessions to him. A skeptical Marge tries desperately to deprogram her family with the help of Reverend Lovejoy, one of the few town residents not to join the sect, and Willie (who offers to "kidnap Homer for fifty, deprogram him for a hundred, or kill him for five hundred"). Eventually they kidnap Homer and "deprogram" him with beer. The Leader is then revealed to be a con-artist and the whole town return back to normal.
• In an episode of King of the Hill, Luanne Platter than later Peggy Hill joins an All-female, Bitheistic-style cult disguised as a sorority called the "Omega House". Members, deprived of the bathroom, must change their name to Jane, sell jams and eat a diet of only rice.
• The X-Files episodes "Gender Bender", "Red Museum", "Die Hand Die Verletzt", "The Field Where I Died", and "Via Negativa" dealt with mysterious or murderous cults.
• The Law & Order episodes "Apocrypha" and "Bogeyman" deal with cults involved in serious crimes, as well as the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episodes "Con-Text" and "Sound Bodies".
• In an episode of Monk, entitled "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult", Adrian goes undercover within a cult to investigate the murder of one of its members. However, he becomes brainwashed and has to be deprogrammed by his therapist Dr. Charles Kroger.
• In an episode of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Norman Lear's 1976-1977 soap-opera parody, one of Mary Hartman's neighbors joins the Hare Krishnas and his family decides to have him deprogrammed.
• In a Seinfeld episode entitled "The Checks", Mr. Wilhelm joins a religious cult that masquerades as a carpet-cleaning service. When George tries to talk him out of it, Mr. Wilhelm reveals his new name: "Tanya" (a nod to the Patty Hearst case).
• Spoofs of Lyndon LaRouche have appeared several times: on programs such as The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, and in the comic strip Bloom County. An episode of the science-fiction series Sliders depicts a parallel universe in which LaRouche has become President of the United States.
• "The Plan", an episode of Six Feet Under first broadcast on 17 March 2002, deals with a seminar reminiscent of an est or Landmark Education Forum.
• The Family Guy episode "Chitty Chitty Death Bang" deals with a fictional cult that parodies elements of Heaven's Gate and Peoples Temple.
• The Criminal Minds episode "The Tribe", which first aired March 8, 2006, involves a fictitious cult with an affinity to the Native American people who are killing people in ritualistic ways in New Mexico and a character kidnapped from the cult who needs to be 'deprogrammed'. The cult are led by Chad Allen who followers call 'Grandfather'. There are similarities with the Manson Family and Manson's idea of "Helter Skelter".
• The Criminal Minds episode "Minimal Loss", which first aired October 8, 2008, deals with a fictitious cult 'the Separatarian Sect' at 'Liberty Ranch' in Colorado. Two of the team are investigating reports of child abuse made against the cult leader (Benjamin Cyrus, played by Luke Perry) and are taken hostage when a federal raid on the ranch goes bad. References are made to 'similar' real life incidents in Ruby Ridge, the Waco Siege and the Freeman Standoff.