PLAGUE NOSTALGIA
The Golden Girls did an episode where Rose might have contracted HIV through a blood transfusion. Many a canned laugh was had as Sophia frantically washed every piece of silverware she touched as soon as her back was turned

The dark humor aspects comes with what we didn't see. Estelle Getty came from the theater so many of her younger friends had died of AIDS and she was hysterical between takes. They made her do it anyway.

It goes without saying that a network show wouldn't dare draw a connection between sexual promiscuity and sexually-transmitted disease and have Blanche "Russian Roulette" Devereaux be the one in fear.

This refusal to acknowledge any correlation between "bad" behavior and bad consequences is a great example of a blue pill.
The exception is if the behavior is "bad" by Cathedral ethics, in which case the character must be portrayed as an unambiguous villain.