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The Synanon Fix Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
4 Episodes 2024 - 0
Episode 1
Here Come the Dopefiends
Mon, Apr 1, 2024 60 mins
Recovering alcoholic Charles "Chuck" Dederich opens a storefront drug rehabilitation program in Santa Monica in 1958, offering addicts a welcoming space to work through their problems via emotional, verbal catharsis. Synanon, as he names it, soon attracts celebrities and non-addicts who donate their time and wealth to the program. The community grows into a social movement that expands across the country, with thousands of people saying Synanon saved their lives.
Episode 2
A War on Convention
Mon, Apr 8, 2024 60 mins
By 1970, Synanon has become a version of model society. The self-sustaining, member-run, communal living enclave boasts its own farm, a school, and multiple businesses. Chuck establishes "The Synanon Religion" and maintains their tax-exempt status. As Chuck becomes increasingly authoritative and dictatorial, he implements more extreme edicts, including mandatory head-shaving and living conditions in which the children are kept apart from their parents.
Episode 3
What in the Hell is Happening?
Mon, Apr 15, 2024 60 mins
Chuck's behavior becomes more belligerent and abusive. He forms a military-like boot camp for delinquent children where corporal punishment abounds. He mandates vasectomies and abortions and, when his wife dies, he quickly remarries and decrees that all current relationships must end so that everyone can find new partners.
Episode 4
Strap Yourself to the Mast
Mon, Apr 22, 2024 60 mins
In 1977, the Los Angeles Times reports on the nine-day abduction of Frances Winn by Synanon. Lawyer Paul Morantz wins a settlement case in her favor. With media focus heating up, Chuck spends $62,000 on guns and ammunition, at the time the largest single firearms purchase in California history. Soon thereafter, he allegedly orchestrates an attempt on Morantz's life. He is sentenced to five years probation.
