Week of 3/10: Remember Those Hurt By Charlie Sheen Situation

By Sylvia Gurinsky

In another instance, I wish I could be writing about Charlie Sheen and Martin Sheen as one of the successful teams of father-child combinations on classic television. Hopefully I'll be able to, someday soon.

For now, it's just a matter of hoping the Sheens don't wind up like the O'Connors.

Carroll O'Connor, the brilliant actor who won Emmys as Archie Bunker in "All In the Family" and Sparta Police Chief Bill Gillespie in "In the Heat of the Night," died in 2001, officially of heart trouble brought on by diabetes, but really because of a broken heart brought by the tragedy of his son, Hugh.

Hugh O'Connor, who played Lt. Lonnie Jamison on "In the Heat of the Night," struggled for much of his life with drug addiction and finally committed suicide shortly after the show's cancellation in 1995. (In addition, Howard E. Rollins, Jr., the Academy Award nominee ("Ragtime") who played Virgil Tibbs on the series, also battled drug addiction for years.)

The heartache was too much for Carroll O'Connor to take. For years, he fought to have drug dealers connected to his son brought to justice. He did numerous interviews and public service announcements about the dangers of drugs.

If there was any consolation for Carroll O'Connor, it could have been that his son's battle was conducted in relative privacy. Anyone who watched "In the Heat of the Night" never would have known about it unless they'd seen some news stories about it.

Martin Sheen and the rest of the Sheen/Estevez family don't have the same consolation with Charlie Sheen. Not only is seemingly everyone watching the horror show, but too many - including correspondents at three television networks (ABC, NBC and CNN) and an executive (Mark Cuban) at a fourth, who should all know better - are exploiting it, or trying to, for ratings and profit.

Forget about what you see of Charlie Sheen. Think about his parents, his three siblings and especially his four children.

This isn't entertainment.

For them, this is persistent pain. One can only hope it won't end in the same tragedy that befell the O'Connors.