The saddest moments in sitcom history...

[Guest Downhome]

Just a few of mine are...

 

1) The final episode of All In The Family, when Archie is sitting on his bed in his bedroom, talking about Edith. Just him sitting there, saying how much he loved her and never meant to hurt her, and actually CRYING, it just get's to me.

 

2) The final episode of The Wonder Years, where Kevin is saying what happend to everyone. He tells us that Paul went on to study law at Harvard, that Karen has her baby and that he looks like Kevin, that Norma goes on to become a board chairman and that Wayne takes over the family furniture business after Jack passes away two years later. Kevin and Winnie write to each other every week for the eight years after she leaves for France to study art history. When she returns, Kevin is married and has a son. Kevin realizes that nothing turns out how you plan, but that his memories of childhood will be with him forever.

 

Just the whole thing about his dad and his family, it always reminded me of MY family. Then saying he didn't get with Winnie, and all of that, it just is really sad to me.

 

3) The final episode of Cheers, when right when everyone except Sam has left the bar, and a man comes to the door and knocks, and Sam simply says sorry, we're closed. That got to me also, very much so.

 

...so what are yours people? I'm sure you have at least a couple, like me, right?

 

Sincerely,

...Downhome...

[Guest El Satanico]

I completely agree about The Wonder Years. Hell I'd include the last episode or two before the finale as well. I still have trouble watching the finale on reruns.

 

The final Micheal J. Fox starring episode of Spin City would probably be a good canidate with the whole Fox being sick in real life stuff.

 

I seem to remember the Family Ties finale being something "emotional", but i can't recall.

 

I can't think of anymore off the top of my head.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer...when she finds her mom dead, that's just too hard to watch.

 

The Family Ties thing...was that when the dad was in the hospital for a brain tumor or something? Damn...I saw that when I was a kid

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer...when she finds her mom dead, that's just too hard to watch.

 

The Family Ties thing...was that when the dad was in the hospital for a brain tumor or something? Damn...I saw that when I was a kid

Yeah "The Body" was a very hard episode to watch of Buffy, but it's a very good episode

[Guest Mole]

Home Improvement - When Jill finds out she has cancer. I guess this was extra sad because she had the same cancer my mom has.

 

Punky Brewster - When Punky gets taken away from her Henry for the first time. I was a little kid when I watched this, and I just thought it was so sad.

 

What I hate about is that we watch sitcoms to laugh, not to be sad. So when something sad is going to be on, I tend not to watch it.

[Guest Downhome]

The Family Ties thing...was that when the dad was in the hospital for a brain tumor or something? Damn...I saw that when I was a kid

Ugh, how can I forget the last episode of Family Ties. Here is the last part of that show...

 

Standing in Alex´s room, a melancholy Elyse is surprised when her son walks in and apologies for fighting. Elyse confesses that his leaving reminds her that a part of her life is ending, while Alex tells her that bravado aside, he´s scared about leaving the security of the family. Their love for each other reaffirmed, Alex and Elyse embrace.

 

Early the next morning, the sleepy family gathers for breakfast before taking Alex to the airport. However, Alex insists that he doesn´t want an emotional airport goodbye and calls a cab. When the cabbie arrives, Alex shakes hands with his family members and leaves, only to return moments later to hug them and bid them a tearful goodbye.

 

..so yeah, sad as hell.

[Guest Downhome]

Punky Brewster - When Punky gets taken away from her Henry for the first time. I was a little kid when I watched this, and I just thought it was so sad.

I seem to remember watching an episode of Punky Brewster, and it was about the space shuttle blowing up. I remember that really, really got to me.

[Guest godthedog]

there's something about that last 'wonder years' episode that really gets me. i remember being really affected by it the first time i saw it, when i was eleven. then, when nick at nite was starting to play the show, i caught that episode on a marathon & all the memories came rushing back to me.

 

a lot of the episode is really melodramatic and over the top (like kevin & winnie being picked up by the same people, then being abandoned & having to spend the night together in a barn), but somehow it manages to be a culmination of everything the show was about: nostalgia, childhood memories, the subtle changes people go through, loss of innocence. it makes you think of everything kevin and winnie had gone through up to that point, and that this was the last time you would see them together. when winnie tears up and says, "i don't want it to end," that's the climax of the entire series as far as i'm concerned.

[Guest Downhome]

Jesus, how in hell could I forget this one...

 

News Radio --- Bill Moves On

 

...that is one of the saddest things, EVER. Here is a description of it...

 

The death of Phil Hartman was perhaps the most tragic and traumatic event any television series has had to deal with. The first episode of the fifth season, "Bill Moves On" [5-1] was a moving but, in keeping with NewsRadio’s style, relatively and gracefully unsentimental episode. Some may regard it as a hard episode to watch due to the intensity of the emotions associated with the Hartman tragedy, but artistically it is, along with Chaplin’s Modern Times and Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner, the most moving piece of tragicomedy the cinema has ever seen.

 

 

The plot explains the death of Bill McNeal as being due to a heart attack, and the episode takes place immediately after the memorial service. We are given gags such as Matthew not believing that Bill is really dead, complaints about Dave’s prolonged and boring eulogy, and Bill’s posthumous ‘in case of death’ letters to each of the staff (Catherine Duke makes a brief return as well). In interviews the cast admitted that the magnitude of the loss was felt most acutely when they were actually shooting the episode and during the letter-reading scene real tears were obviously being shed. In typical NewsRadio fashion, the scene was shot in a long mid-shot so that we never lose track of the dialog that is the primary part of the scene, and it allowed the actors to recover and deliver the next line without seeming to miss a beat. The comedy in this episode is wry but moving, heartfelt but never sentimental. From the tearful letter-reading scene we break out with the graceful turn of a fire and a marshmallow. Similarly, what other work of art would have the daring and proficiency to break out of deeply emotional moments with a ‘drunk Lisa’ gag? "Bill Moves On" succeeds in making us cry and laugh at the same time without ever losing its balance.

 

 

The most amazing accomplishment of "Bill Moves On" was how the episode was such a complete but concise synopsis of everything Bill did and meant on the show. The style of the posthumous letters was very much as he would have written them, even to the inclusion of McNealisms like "Anywho." Moreover, the episode dealt with each character’s relationships with Bill, both in the staff’s reactions to his death and his letters to them, in ways that were wholly consistent with those relationships in the past. We are given Matthew’s continued worship of Bill and his supposed infallibility, Beth’s now-expressed fondness for his unique rudeness, Joe’s encounter with Bill’s sense of mischief, Jimmy’s peer-level camaraderie (he and Bill were the closest in age), Bill’s irrepressibly saucy obsession with what Lisa looks like naked, Bill’s fond remembrances of his one fling with Catherine, and the adversarial but friendly game he played with Dave. The perfection of this episode was that it managed to maintain all the definitions of character and relationships on which the show depended. Bill McNeal may not have been there in person, but he was certainly there in spirit.

 

 

"Bill Moves On" ends with each person taking home a memento to remember him by. These moments are filmed as a procession for they are private moments revelatory of each person’s private devotion to the man. Beth takes his stapler, Joe takes his in/out tray, Matthew takes his coffee cup, Lisa takes his Rolodex, Dave takes his blotter, and Jimmy makes off with his desk. We are then left with the quiet grace of a darkened room…an empty office…a silent pause over an empty chair.

 

...ugh, how many people broke down durring THIS?

[Guest spiny norman]

I remember when Coach died on Cheers I was really really saddened, partly cause he really did die (actually, mainly cause he really did die), but Coach was my favourite character. At least Woody was a good replacement though.

[Guest Dmann2000]

Jesus, how in hell could I forget this one...

 

News Radio --- Bill Moves On

 

...that is one of the saddest things, EVER. Here is a description of it...

 

The death of Phil Hartman was perhaps the most tragic and traumatic event any television series has had to deal with. The first episode of the fifth season, "Bill Moves On" [5-1] was a moving but, in keeping with NewsRadio’s style, relatively and gracefully unsentimental episode. Some may regard it as a hard episode to watch due to the intensity of the emotions associated with the Hartman tragedy, but artistically it is, along with Chaplin’s Modern Times and Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner, the most moving piece of tragicomedy the cinema has ever seen.

 

 

The plot explains the death of Bill McNeal as being due to a heart attack, and the episode takes place immediately after the memorial service. We are given gags such as Matthew not believing that Bill is really dead, complaints about Dave’s prolonged and boring eulogy, and Bill’s posthumous ‘in case of death’ letters to each of the staff (Catherine Duke makes a brief return as well). In interviews the cast admitted that the magnitude of the loss was felt most acutely when they were actually shooting the episode and during the letter-reading scene real tears were obviously being shed. In typical NewsRadio fashion, the scene was shot in a long mid-shot so that we never lose track of the dialog that is the primary part of the scene, and it allowed the actors to recover and deliver the next line without seeming to miss a beat. The comedy in this episode is wry but moving, heartfelt but never sentimental. From the tearful letter-reading scene we break out with the graceful turn of a fire and a marshmallow. Similarly, what other work of art would have the daring and proficiency to break out of deeply emotional moments with a ‘drunk Lisa’ gag? "Bill Moves On" succeeds in making us cry and laugh at the same time without ever losing its balance.

 

 

The most amazing accomplishment of "Bill Moves On" was how the episode was such a complete but concise synopsis of everything Bill did and meant on the show. The style of the posthumous letters was very much as he would have written them, even to the inclusion of McNealisms like "Anywho." Moreover, the episode dealt with each character’s relationships with Bill, both in the staff’s reactions to his death and his letters to them, in ways that were wholly consistent with those relationships in the past. We are given Matthew’s continued worship of Bill and his supposed infallibility, Beth’s now-expressed fondness for his unique rudeness, Joe’s encounter with Bill’s sense of mischief, Jimmy’s peer-level camaraderie (he and Bill were the closest in age), Bill’s irrepressibly saucy obsession with what Lisa looks like naked, Bill’s fond remembrances of his one fling with Catherine, and the adversarial but friendly game he played with Dave. The perfection of this episode was that it managed to maintain all the definitions of character and relationships on which the show depended. Bill McNeal may not have been there in person, but he was certainly there in spirit.

 

 

"Bill Moves On" ends with each person taking home a memento to remember him by. These moments are filmed as a procession for they are private moments revelatory of each person’s private devotion to the man. Beth takes his stapler, Joe takes his in/out tray, Matthew takes his coffee cup, Lisa takes his Rolodex, Dave takes his blotter, and Jimmy makes off with his desk. We are then left with the quiet grace of a darkened room…an empty office…a silent pause over an empty chair.

 

...ugh, how many people broke down durring THIS?

Speaking of Hartman, on the SNL 25th special when they do the trubute to Phil, Jon Lovitz is so shaken when talking about him that the other cast members from the 87-93 period have to hold onto him, You really can see how much Lovitz loved Hartman. So sad. Because of all the SNL deaths I think we can agree that Hartman's was the most shocking and senseless

[Guest Mattdotcom]

News Radio --- Bill Moves On

 

...that is one of the saddest things, EVER. Here is a description of it...

 

The death of Phil Hartman was perhaps the most tragic and traumatic event any television series has had to deal with. The first episode of the fifth season, "Bill Moves On" [5-1] was a moving but, in keeping with NewsRadio’s style, relatively and gracefully unsentimental episode. Some may regard it as a hard episode to watch due to the intensity of the emotions associated with the Hartman tragedy, but artistically it is, along with Chaplin’s Modern Times and Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner, the most moving piece of tragicomedy the cinema has ever seen.

 

 

The plot explains the death of Bill McNeal as being due to a heart attack, and the episode takes place immediately after the memorial service. We are given gags such as Matthew not believing that Bill is really dead, complaints about Dave’s prolonged and boring eulogy, and Bill’s posthumous ‘in case of death’ letters to each of the staff (Catherine Duke makes a brief return as well). In interviews the cast admitted that the magnitude of the loss was felt most acutely when they were actually shooting the episode and during the letter-reading scene real tears were obviously being shed. In typical NewsRadio fashion, the scene was shot in a long mid-shot so that we never lose track of the dialog that is the primary part of the scene, and it allowed the actors to recover and deliver the next line without seeming to miss a beat. The comedy in this episode is wry but moving, heartfelt but never sentimental. From the tearful letter-reading scene we break out with the graceful turn of a fire and a marshmallow. Similarly, what other work of art would have the daring and proficiency to break out of deeply emotional moments with a ‘drunk Lisa’ gag? "Bill Moves On" succeeds in making us cry and laugh at the same time without ever losing its balance.

 

 

The most amazing accomplishment of "Bill Moves On" was how the episode was such a complete but concise synopsis of everything Bill did and meant on the show. The style of the posthumous letters was very much as he would have written them, even to the inclusion of McNealisms like "Anywho." Moreover, the episode dealt with each character’s relationships with Bill, both in the staff’s reactions to his death and his letters to them, in ways that were wholly consistent with those relationships in the past. We are given Matthew’s continued worship of Bill and his supposed infallibility, Beth’s now-expressed fondness for his unique rudeness, Joe’s encounter with Bill’s sense of mischief, Jimmy’s peer-level camaraderie (he and Bill were the closest in age), Bill’s irrepressibly saucy obsession with what Lisa looks like naked, Bill’s fond remembrances of his one fling with Catherine, and the adversarial but friendly game he played with Dave. The perfection of this episode was that it managed to maintain all the definitions of character and relationships on which the show depended. Bill McNeal may not have been there in person, but he was certainly there in spirit.

 

 

"Bill Moves On" ends with each person taking home a memento to remember him by. These moments are filmed as a procession for they are private moments revelatory of each person’s private devotion to the man. Beth takes his stapler, Joe takes his in/out tray, Matthew takes his coffee cup, Lisa takes his Rolodex, Dave takes his blotter, and Jimmy makes off with his desk. We are then left with the quiet grace of a darkened room…an empty office…a silent pause over an empty chair.

 

When I was younger, I cried over stupid stuff, like any TV show going off, no matter what. Cosby? Check. Fresh Prince? Check. This one show is one of the few that actually holds up and gets to me everytime.

[Guest Incandenza]

"Bill Moves On," definitely. I've always hated Very Special Episodes of sitcoms--they seemed more like an excuse for the performers to flex their acting chops than to entertain--but that one episode of Newsradio is the only time I've ever been choked up watching a sitcom. And I remember watching that goddamn Punky Brewster episode involving the Challenger when I was a kid, and I hated it then.

[Guest JangoFett4Hire]

Let's see... Wonder Years was a bummer and a half... uh, how about when Stretch Cunningham died on All in the Family, that was a funny/sad moment. And this one is really lame, but I remember being super duper bummed out as a kid during an episode of "Silver Spoons" when Ricky went hunting with his English Paper Chasing Grandfather (get the joke?) and they shot a deer, and just kind of stood over the animal as it died. Yeah, now I realize the episode was just a leftist Hollywood 30 minute PSA, but being an animal lover, it severely depressed an 8 year old me. Silver Spoons should have stuck to episodes about Erin Grey.

[Guest bob_barron]

Bill Moves On no doubt. Everyone has added their thoughts but as a HUGE Phil Hartman fan that episode was able to be funny while still being a tribute to the Great Sir Lord Bill of McNeal.

 

The letter reading scene makes me cry every time I see it especially Matthew's letter. As he reads it and finds out that Bill is really dead the camera shows Maura Tierney and though I've seen the episode more times then I would've liked that part still gets to me. By the time the credits rolled for 'Bill Moves On' I felt sad for selfish reasons in that I would never get to see his great work again but I also felt kind of happy that in his time spent here he was able to make so many people's lives happy.

 

The SNL25 tribute to Phil is probably the best of them. David Spade seemed really uncomfortable out there for Chris Farley and seemed like he wanted to get it over with which I understand but with Phil they let their emotions out. I commend Jon Lovitz for going out there and letting his emotions take centre stage as he paid tribute to his older brother Phil. I also was suprised at the skit they chose- Instead of chosing a comedic moment (of which there were many), they decided to show this film by Tom Schiller which featured Phil and Jan Hooks and was filmed to make it look like an old time movie. It was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and I get goosebumps watching it today.

[Guest The Hamburglar]

Definitely Blackadder goes Forth's final episode, all British people cannot fail to agree.

The series was set in the World War 1 trenches and Blackadder was a soldier constantly trying to escape "The Big Push", the pleasant WW1 process of attacking by which the soldiers would climb out of their trenches and run towards the enemy trenches, thus getting massacred by machine guns. In the final episode, Blackadder has one last go at escape. He fails. He and the other principal characters go over the top. And they all die. The episode ends with the battlefield fading out to what it is today - a poppy field in the sun. Captures the tragedy of the First World War like nothing I've ever seen, and the tragedy of war as a whole.

[Guest JangoFett4Hire]

Wasn't Mr Bean in Blackadder? And that's a plotline for a sitcom? Wow, next thing you'll know, they'll have a sitcom that takes place at a Nazi Prison Camp!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, wait...

[Guest Steve J. Rogers]

Wasn't Mr Bean in Blackadder? And that's a plotline for a sitcom? Wow, next thing you'll know, they'll have a sitcom that takes place at a Nazi Prison Camp!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, wait...

Yes actor Rowan Atikson (sp) is both Mr. Bean and Blackadder, and I don't know if you heard of this little American sitcom that was on and was set during the Korean War? M*A*S*H* I think it was called?

 

Speaking of which, that finale has to rank up there, as well as the moment that Radar announces that Henry's plane was shot down.

 

Steve

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

The one that hasn't been mentioned yet is the Seinfeld finale. My mother was all weepy and kept saying things like "Jerry and Elaine were meant to be together!!," I was just sad that the show was ending.

 

Just about any series finale makes me sad.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Yup, "Bill Moves On".

 

It always gets to me when Jimmy says "No, I want this desk right here" (in reference to taking Bill's desk).

[Guest Anglesault]

The one that hasn't been mentioned yet is the Seinfeld finale.

The one we're they made fun of the fat guy and were jailed for a year? Not exactly a tear jerker.

[Guest Lord of The Curry]

The one episode of Fresh Prince that get's to me every single time is the one where Wills father shows up, but ends up leaving him at the end like he always does. Uncle Phil and Will are left alone in the room, with Will get enormously pissed off at what his father has done to him pretending to angry though he's crushed. He then breaks down and hugs Uncle Phil while repeating "How come he don't want me?".

 

Others

 

- The oil spill episode of Saved by The Bell

- Will gets shot standing in front of Carlton and the subsequent argument they have afterwards in the hospital on F.P.O.B.A.

- The last episode of Family Ties

[Guest Youth N Asia]

The one that hasn't been mentioned yet is the Seinfeld finale.

The one we're they made fun of the fat guy and were jailed for a year? Not exactly a tear jerker.

Being that the show's never had ONE serious moment I can't take their final seriously...they never did one thing on the show in a sad why, unless they were trying to make a joke to go along with it.

 

What about when Carol's boyfriend die in Growing Pains...I remember that making me sad as a kid

[Guest Incandenza]

The final episode of The Young Ones, entitled "Summer Holiday." The boys have managed to sucessfully rob a bank, become rich, and are able to escape the dreariness of their lives. Of course, on their way to paradise, they all die in a bus explosion.

 

Wait...that wasn't sad. It was friggin' hilarious!

[Guest imajackoff?]

Abyssinia, Henry -- McLean Stevenson's last appearance on MASH.

 

"I have a message. Lt Col. Henry Blake's plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors"

[Guest The Hamburglar]

The final episode of The Young Ones, entitled "Summer Holiday." The boys have managed to sucessfully rob a bank, become rich, and are able to escape the dreariness of their lives. Of course, on their way to paradise, they all die in a bus explosion.

 

Wait...that wasn't sad. It was friggin' hilarious!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

CLIFF!

 

Oh yeah, that one rules. Such a funny series, that. There are few better comedic moments than when Rick tries to kill himself with laxative pills. The whole University Challenge episode is the best one, and not just because Motorhead are in it.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Hey Hamburglar,

 

Thanks for mentioning the last Blackadder. The last shot where the battlefield fades into the peaceful sunny field is powerful, especially when you consider all the aboslutely hilarious moments to come out of that show.

 

Also touching were the monologues each character got, where they all talk about how scared they are about dying, but accepting that they have to go over the top because their comrades are depending on them. Very powerful and unexpected.

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

Back on topic, I think the Full House episode where Jesse moves away is a tear-jerker. That scene where him and Michelle are both crying......

 

*sniffle* Damn allergies...

[Guest Anorak]

Definitely Blackadder goes Forth's final episode, all British people cannot fail to agree.

The series was set in the World War 1 trenches and Blackadder was a soldier constantly trying to escape "The Big Push", the pleasant WW1 process of attacking by which the soldiers would climb out of their trenches and run towards the enemy trenches, thus getting massacred by machine guns. In the final episode, Blackadder has one last go at escape. He fails. He and the other principal characters go over the top. And they all die. The episode ends with the battlefield fading out to what it is today - a poppy field in the sun. Captures the tragedy of the First World War like nothing I've ever seen, and the tragedy of war as a whole.

There's definately a real power and sense of pathos to the last few scenes. Captain Darling begging Melchett not to send him over the top is perhaps the most painful scene as the news was completely unexpected and crudely delivered to him. The farcical selfishness and ignorance of Melchett's character is magnified in an especially cruel manner in the presence of the shellshocked and whimpering Capt. Darling. The moment when Darling and Blackadder meet up together in the trench is beautifully understated and effective as their constant battle of one-upmanship is set to end not by Blackadder successfully worming his way out of the front line or by Darling court-martialling him but by them simply dying together side by side. Darling's fate is a bitter irony even Blackadder cannot mock. The final closure of the series which Hamburgler and Conspiracy Victim have already described are effectively restrained and very moving.

[Guest Grand Slam]

There was an episode of "Family Ties" called "My Name is Alex" where a good friend of his dies in a car wreck. The catch was Alex was supposed to be there. He goes to see a shrink and it is the greatest combination of humor and pathos I have seen in the sitcom format. At one point he just breaks down, screaming "I should have been there!" over and over. Heartbreaking.

 

There is also an episode of "The Wonder Years" (spectacular show, BTW) where Kevin's teacher dies. He was one of those "tough but fair" inspirational types and it just devesstates Kevin that his friend, the teacher, is dead. It killed me.

 

The aforementioned "NewsRadio" and "Wonder Year" episodes are classics, as is the episode of M*A*S*H where Henry Blake dies.

 

But the episodes of that show that get me are Radar leaving and the finale, where Haweye is being choppered away and looks down to see "Good-Bye" spelled out in rocks. Damn...

 

Goota go now, its a little dusty in the room... ::sniff::