I remember seeing the episode where Rich dies of AIDS complications, but I don't remember if they ever addressed how he contracted HIV/AIDS. I've been trying to find the episode, but it doesn't seem to exist anywhere on-line. It's not a big deal; I was just curious.
shareAll the episodes used to be on YouTube but I can't now find them. I don't remember all of the details regarding this episode but I believe it was said that he contracted it from a girl with whom he had a fling. I may not though be remembering it correctly.
shareI don't think they came right out and said how he contracted it. I think they sort of implied he got it in Paris. David even says that he hasn't seen Rich since they went to Paris. In reality, I'm not sure Rich would have died so quickly like that.
"I'm not a doctor...I'm a funeral director" - Hiram Baker
Oh okay, so it was never stated. I wasn't certain. He though could have died quickly in the 80s before much of the drugs were available and because it was on TV and they tend to wrap things up rather quickly to fit it into an episode. It was a time lapsed episode but I'm not sue if they stated how long over time it was supposed to have been, did they? I wish they still showed this program.
shareNo, they didn't say how long it was either. The Paris episodes aired in Sept-Oct 89 and the episode where Rich died aired on 12/1/90. That's a little over a year, but the episode where Rich died sort of implied that Rich had been in the AIDS wing of the hospital for some time, again David's mention of not having seen Rich since Paris comes into play here. It could even be argued that Rich was in the hosptial right after they got back from Paris. I'm sort of suprised that David didn't know Rich's whereabouts, they were best friends after all. You would think he would have heard something.
"I'm not a doctor...I'm a funeral director" - Hiram Baker
I haven't seen this episode in years. Did David day he hadn't seen Rich since David went to Paris or was it since Rich went to Europe? I thought they were talking about Rich's travels, not David's.
shareAnyone know where you can find it online?
shareThey used to have the original cbs broadcast on YouTube back in 2008. It was Rich who went to Europe. Because David talks about using a condom and warns heterosexuals that they are also susceptible "because it happened to Rich", it is implied Rich got the virus through heterosexual sex.
Also HIV mutates, he could have caught a particularly lethal strain. He may not have necassirily caught it in Europe. Maybe he got it from a fellow Northwestern student he was sleeping with.
"We share the same biology regardless of ideology"-Sting, 1985
Rich catches it from some girl.
I remember watching the episode (on syndication a few days after Magic Johnson made his announcement in November 1991), David gives a speech when he says "don't think it can't happen to you just because you are straight. It happened to my friend Rich."