Kriti Mehrotra
With Netflix’s ‘Woman of the Hour’ being a crime drama that carefully retells the tale of serial killer Rodney Alcala, we get an original that can only be described as bafflingly intriguing. That’s because it delves into not just his heinous crime spree but also how he managed to participate in and win ABC’s reality show ‘The Dating Game’ right in the middle of it in 1978. However, the bachelorette who did end up choosing him as the winner, Cheryl Bradshaw (Sheryl in the film), fortunately never became his victim – she managed to escape him and his depravity by saying no.
Cheryl Bradshaw Never Actually Dated Rodney Alcala
It was back in 1978 when aspiring actress and local drama teacher Cheryl’s entire world turned upside down as she found herself on the small screen as the bachelorette in ‘The Dating Game.’ That’s because she was a huge success among the viewers owing to her dazzling smile as well as light-hearted personality, especially with her asking open-ended questions to the bachelors in the hopes of finding her perfect match. The answers she received were raunchy most of the time, yet she still thought the way one man carried himself was better than the others, resulting in her choosing Bachelor Number One (Three in the film), Rodney Alcala.
At one point, Cheryl had asked, “What’s your best time?,” to which he had responded, “The best time is at night… When it really gets good.” Then, she later asked, “I am serving you for dinner. What are you called, and what do you look like?,” so he responded with, “I’m called ‘The banana,’ and I look really good,” only to then add “peel me” when she asked him to be a bit more descriptive. At the time, these answers just seemed a little saucy to build a bit of chemistry even when they couldn’t see one another, but they are simply eerie in retrospect, considering his offenses.
According to records, after Cheryl picked Rodney as her best match, they were told they had also won a tennis lesson as a date, followed by a trip to the Magic Mountain amusement park in California. The duo spoke just briefly that night, but it was enough for her to get a really strong negative feeling about him and, causing her to back out without giving any explanations. From what we can tell, they never went out for dinner and drinks that same night, as portrayed in the show, and she was able to grasp his creepiness within mere moments of talking backstage.
Therefore, the very next day, Cheryl called the network’s office and said something along the lines of, “I can’t go out with this guy. There’s weird vibes that are coming off of him. He’s very strange. I’m not comfortable.” She then asked them, “Is that going to be a problem?” to which she was simply told, “Of course not.” She has since said, “I started to feel ill. He was acting really creepy. I turned down his offer. I didn’t want to see him again.” Then, not long after, she also left Los Angeles, California, behind for good to start anew, and now she seems to be perfectly content with an independent career and a family of her own. After all, she did also survive a serial killer.
Read More: Woman of the Hour: Is Ed Burke Inspired by a Real TV Host? How Did He Die?
