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Heartbreaking Television Moments | Pajiba - Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People

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Your Most Heartbreaking Television Moment?

An Afternoon Comment Diversion and “Veronica Mars” DVD Giveaway / Dustin Rowles

Comment Diversions | October 10, 2007 | Comments (334)


Believe it or not — despite our mission statement — PR folks still have a tendency to send unsolicited emails asking us to plug some godawful film (Hey Bryan — we’re not interested in clips from D-War, capisci?) or feature a video clip from some terrible television show that I know, the PR firm knows, and the general public knows will eventually get canceled within a week. More often than not, these emails find a home in my junk folder next to the “kinky lady in stockings sucking and jerking thru gloryhole” or the many electronic solutions for “ShortDick.” We’re not for sale, folks.

However, given the rabid “Veronica Mars” fan base on this site, it would be damn near criminal of us to turn away the opportunity to give a reader Season Three of “VM” on DVD. And, this particular PR company actually encourages transparency, so I’m all the more willing to participate; we have no intention of hoodwinking any of you into believing this is a “Pajiba Exclusive Giveaway,” (nor would we have you believe that some 5 minute conference call with a minor celebrity that 20 other people are in on counts as an interview). So, for transparency’s sake, in exchange for the free giveaway, I need to include this synopsis:

The DVD is Veronica, Logan and more of your VM favorites join cool new characters for a Season 3 of seething mystery and sardonic wit. College is indeed a learning experience as Veronica aces a crime class led by a hunky prof, solves the case of on-campus rapes that began in Season Two, and gives a grad seminar in sleuthing when two faculty members take sudden, eternal early retirements. Frosh year is gonna be freaky!

“Hunky prof”? “Frosh year is gonna be freaky”? Clearly, Rob Thomas isn’t writing the press releases, but don’t let that dissuade you from buying the “VM” collection. This is not the series’ best season, but it’s pretty swell (and check out Dan’s obituary for the show, if you haven’t already).

At any rate, with Warner Home Video getting what they want, I now need to figure out how to give the DVD away. A “caption this …” contest comes to mind, but the good folks over at Your Blog Blows think that’s tantamount to “Highlights for Adults,” and I tend to agree. Besides, we pander for cheap page views with our comment diversions, so how about it? In the spirit of the heartbreaking early cancellation of “Veronica Mars,” share with us your most painful or heartbreaking non-sports related television memory. The person who extracts the most pity wins the DVD.


I Love New York Two | Pajiba Love 10/10/07





Comments

If TV gets more painful than the Buffy episode "The Body" or the whole Illyria arc on Angel I don't want to see it.

Posted by: twig at October 10, 2007 3:36 PM

damn you! You took my moment!

Posted by: Tereasa at October 10, 2007 3:36 PM

End of Doctor Who, season 2, the Doctor and Rose, separate Universes forever. Ugh.

Posted by: Regan at October 10, 2007 3:41 PM

The entire final episode of Angel, down to the title "Will Not Fade Away" is my moment. And yes that definitely includes Illyria turning into Fred for Wes' last breaths. Good god that chokes me up just thinking about it.

Posted by: Lunchbox at October 10, 2007 3:42 PM

The first thing that comes to mind is the death of "Buck the Dog" (played by Buck the Dog) on Married...With Children.

Which reminds me..also dog related:
I was watching "Rescue 911" about a guy on a motorcycle that flew off his bike and hit a tree after he ran over a dog. Two ambulances show up --one takes the guy to the hospital, the other takes the dog to the animal hospital. The poor dog (re-inactor dog, i'm guessing) had internal injuries and was blowing blood bubbles out of his nose. (It looked real, I swear!) I had an explosion of tears for the poor little guy. But when the drs. at the human hospital told the motorcyclists parents that the kid's brain was swelling and they didn't know if he was gonna make it--nothing, not one tear. What is wrong with me? I still think of that little dog.

Posted by: wsapnin at October 10, 2007 3:43 PM

I'm a complete and utter dork for this, but...the episode of Futurama with Fry's dog from the past that died while waiting for him outside the pizza parlor after he was frozen. I love Futurama and watch it almost every night...except for this episode. I cry every time and now just change the channel when it's on, so I don't cry again.

Posted by: Christina at October 10, 2007 3:47 PM

The Scrubs where Cox spends the entire episode talking to Ben about his son's birthday. When, in fact they are going to Ben's funeral. I weep every time!

The other moment also comes from Scrubs. I am pretty sure I watch other shows, too. The one where the sick woman says she hopes death is like a big Broadway musical. Then we see her singing "Waiting for my Real Life to Begin" as she dies.

Damn, I think I have got something in my eye...

Posted by: carrielynn at October 10, 2007 3:48 PM

I know it's not a show that immediately brings to mind "heartbreaking," but the tail end of the season finale of 'Ugly Betty' kills me every time. You see Hilda, through a pair of auditorium doors (she's at her son's performance of 'West Side Story'), being told that her fiance was just killed, and she does that hoarse-sob "No!", while 'Somewhere' from WSS plays over the top, sung a capella by the little girl playing Maria.

It's really touching, and makes me tear up every time. Ana Oritz was surprisingly affecting.

Posted by: Mimi at October 10, 2007 3:49 PM

So, first season of Joan of Arcadia. All season, they've been kind of dancing around the idea of Joan getting together with Adam, who's very withdrawn and weird but clearly a cool guy. To keep him from dropping out of school, Joan has smashed his artwork (it made sense). Anyway, he's not speaking to Joan. Joan finds out from their mutual friend Grace that Adam's mother killed herself when Adam was a kid and left him a note. Adam has never read the note because he's afraid it will say that she did it because of him. He shows up at Joan's house, holding the note. He can't bring himself to read it, so Joan's mother Helen reads it to both of them. It's about how, even when Adam's mother was at her worst, Adam was what kept her hanging on for so long and she always loved him and OH GOD THE TEARS. So beautiful and sad. Later on Joan and Adam kiss, which was also nice, but hooly crap. That is my go-to episode of television if I feel the need to cry.

Posted by: Ruby at October 10, 2007 3:50 PM

wsapnin- you and i are of the same ilk. ailing people- no problem. an animal with a hangnail- i'm a puddle of tears.

Posted by: steph at October 10, 2007 3:51 PM

God, there are so many... As Joss Whedon is a genius, there are a ton of Buffy/Angel scenes that make me weep like a baby (I second Lunchbox! I watched that episode of Angel the other morning before work. I totally ruined my mascara.)... However, Scrubs also brings out the kiddie tears. When Dr. Cox is talking to Ben in the graveyard as he finally realizes that this is Ben's funeral, not Jack's birthday party? Jesus Christ... Also the episode entitled "My Lunch" when Cox looses 3 patients, set to The Fray. It's almost soul destroying.

Posted by: Jennifer at October 10, 2007 3:53 PM

I would have said The Body, but that's been taken, so my pick is the season 1 finale of The O.C., "The Ties that Bind."

I've watched tv that has affected me more deeply (SFU finale, Mrs. Landingham's death on the West Wing, Deadwood and VM's cancellations). But watching a full season of Ryan and the Cohens' relationships, particularly that of Sandy and Ryan, pulled me in from episode one. In the season finale, Ryan decides to leave his surrogate family and move back to Chino, devastating everyone, including myself. In what could be the Most Cheesy Montage Ever, Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah plays over clips of Seth sailing away, Ryan leaving, and most heart-breakingly, Kirsten entering the pool house where he lived and breaking into sobs over the loss of her not quite adopted son. Watching her in the arms of the brilliant Peter Gallagher as she cries to this day makes me weep as if someone were punching my dog in the face while burning my Buffy dvds.

Now I need to go home and re-watch "Frank sets Sweet Dee on Fire."

Posted by: Julie at October 10, 2007 3:53 PM

In keeping with the theme of 'cancelled too quickly' I'd have to talk about Firefly. I was crushed when I learned the show was cancelled but I think the biggest crime Fox committed against viewers (hard to pick given the love of cheap shlock over there...how The Simpsons is still there I have no clue.) was not airing the episode 'The Message'. From top to bottom this was the best hour made for TV I've ever seen. The cinematography was beautiful and the score heartbreaking for this episode that looked at the greater effect war has on the combatants that supposedly make it out 'alive'. Its still haunting to watch and makes buying the series DVDs even more worthwhile than they already were.

Posted by: Ms. Parker at October 10, 2007 3:59 PM

I will have to say that the saddest moment of TV for me was watching the final episode of Six Feet Under. God, what isn't heartbreaking about this episode? From the very roll of the opening theme song and the birth of Brenda's baby, Willow, you already know that you're in for an emotional roller coaster.
What really got me was the reality these characters were living, I had begun watching the shown on DVD's at the beginning of 2006, so by then the show was over. But that didn't stop me from watching every amazing and moving episode of Six Feet Under. Watching this show felt like I was watching my life ten years from now, and seeing what these characters did was just incredibly real to me. I could relate to (almost) every last thing some of the characters did. And it was the fact that these people were so near and dear to me that made the finale all the more excruciatingly painful.
I started the night by watching the final four episodes of Six Feet Under and watching as Nate sleeps with Maggie and dies before the show is even fully over, which to me was just so endearing and hard to get through my head. Then comes the funeral, which may have been the saddest funeral on the show. I have never been to a funeral(Gasp!) and watching these final episodes was like watching my best friend, my aunt or the guy at work I wanted to befriend but never did, just die. Tissues were used, tears were shed and my heart slowly deteriorated and fell apart as if it were torn to shreds then stuck back together with a glue stick. However, my heart truly fell apart when Claire is saying her final goodbyes and says this somewhat corny but bittersweet line to Ruth. "Thank you for giving me life." The perfect foreshadowing for the final six minutes that are about to unwind.
Next, we see Claire pulling out of the driveway, popping in a CD. Suddenly, my ears flood with the opening piano chords of "Breathe Me" by Sia.
And it is then and now that I realize that this is really the end.
As Claire drives along, we the viewer are exposed to bits that show what will happen in the near and later future. Me, the emotional wreck is just weeping, then suddenly, Ruth Fisher dies before my eyes.
I am now officially a blubbering mess.
I don't fully know why, but it is Ruth's death that first strikes a chord for me. Just how Nate and Nathanial are standing there, waiting for Ruth to join them, as if they had never left. And so, she goes. And one by one, the Fisher family and their loved ones pass away.
Some deaths were not as heart wrenching as others, I will admit. Kieth's death is very sad, considering he and his partner David through out the show were such a great couple. Rico's death too is tragic, but on an emotional level not the most melancholy, neither did Brenda's, but it was still hard to let them go. I think that tied with Ruth, the deaths that really evoked the most emotion were David watching boys playing football at a family picnic, then he sees Keith, looking as handsome as he did when they first met. And of course, the end where Claire is left all alone, lying in a bed with a nurse, her eyes blinded by Cataracts but more all seeing then ever. Up and down her walls, we see pictures of her family, friends and loved ones. So while she mad die after everyone else does, she still is near them. I personally feel that what makes her so unique is that Claire lives to be 100+ years old, and how she lives through each and every one of the blows the Fisher family takes. It ends with the car driving into the endless road and the screen fades to white.
I don't think there will really be anything that comes this close to home for me, because Six Feet Under is just the one show that I've seen that will haunt me, move me and help me appreciate life. So goodbye Six Feet Under, you will not be forgotten.

Posted by: Ben at October 10, 2007 4:00 PM

Easy: The cancellation of Sports Night.

Posted by: JMW at October 10, 2007 4:02 PM

Since "The Body" has been taken already, I'll say the season 2 finale of Buffy, where she's just stabbed Angel and sent him to hell and then rides out of town on a bus. That song is probably what does it for me. I'm tearing up just hearing that song in my head!

Posted by: rae at October 10, 2007 4:04 PM

I will proudly show off my age with my choice of the death of Captain Freedom from 'Hill Street Blues.' I was a little slow getting into the show so by the time I watched the episodes I knew he was going to die but when I saw it I was still devestated for days.

Posted by: librarygrrl at October 10, 2007 4:05 PM

"It was Arrested Development."

Posted by: litelysalted at October 10, 2007 4:06 PM

Wow, I hat to follow Ben's dissertation on Six Feet Under, but my most heartbreaking moment was when Dr. Cox fell apart after losing 3 patients to infected organ transplants. Gets me choked up just thinking about it.

Posted by: Nate at October 10, 2007 4:08 PM

Mine would definitely have to be the finale of SFU. It broke my heart for so many reasons.
1) I had seen every single episode of the show, and I felt like I "knew" the characters, like they were part of my life.
2) The episode was absolutely perfect and beautiful. I would not have wanted it to end any other way.
3) I was going thru so many changes in my life at the time (had just moved to a new city, just taken the Bar Exam, was about to start my "real life" as an attorney) that I was just so shaken up by the end of something that had been there with me throughout my educational journey. SFU was always a show about change, and it felt so weird and empty to not have it around anymore.
4) I literally cried through the entire ending montage, and broke down in tears numerous times in the weeks that followed whenever I would think about it!

Posted by: ads510 at October 10, 2007 4:08 PM

When they replaced Bo and Luke with those two other Duke cousins. I mean, of course I continued to watch the show, but it was never the same again.

When can I expect the DVD?

Posted by: schadenfreude at October 10, 2007 4:09 PM

Mine was the series finale of Roseanne. I watched that damn show from beginning to end because it resonated with my own blue collar roots, and the character Becky was being the same teenage drama queen that I was at the time. After suffering through that god awful last season, we find out that Dan had actually died at the end of the previous season, from his heart attack. WTF?!? I was devastated. I have not watched a single episode of Roseanne since then, despite it's once heavy rotation in syndication.

Posted by: katy at October 10, 2007 4:11 PM

I think for me, it's the episode of "Dead Like Me" when George (who looks like a different girl to the living) tries to tell her mom that it's her, that she's right there in front of her, and her mom (thinking some strange girl is mocking her daughter's recent death) calls her a bitch and tells her to get out and never come back. The injustice of the whole situation killed me.. I try to imagine what it would be like if my mother wasn't able to recognize me and seemed to hate me, and it's the most heartbreaking thing I can ever imagine.

Posted by: Nikki at October 10, 2007 4:12 PM

I would have to pick a scene from the Office. I love that show, and it plays poignant just as well as it plays hilarious.

One of the sweetest moments of The Office came in season 3, when Pam had her first art show. She invited all of her co-workers, but attendance ended up being pretty abysmal. At the last minute Michael comes in apologizing that he is late, and instantly is mesmerized by Pam's drawings. He seems genuinely amazed that she drew them, and exhibits a child-like wonder and awe as he discovers each new picture. Then he pauses and says, "I am really proud of you," and you know he means it. It's one of the most honest pieces of acting I have ever seen, and Steve Carrell carries it out beautifully. It makes me cry every single time, and it makes me cry a lot. It makes me cry for sweet Pam, who is trying so hard but is still so unsure of herself. And it makes me cry for Michael, who is so lonely and so awkward, yet he has real emotion just like anyone else, and he genuinely cares for the people around him. This moment never fails to have me sitting in a puddle of my own tears.

Posted by: valerie at October 10, 2007 4:15 PM

Not in it for the giveaway - I just want to giveaway my experiences! Ha! Ha!
...
Dexter, last episode - when he kills Rudy.
I cried. It makes sense that only a serial killer killing another serial killer would bring tears to these eyes. Seriously, "I can't hear you anymore"?
Fucking heartbreaking.

Posted by: Lola at October 10, 2007 4:17 PM

Let me set the scene: It is 2004. I am a freshmen in high school. My friends and I are all very, very obsessed with Angel. We know that it's not good, per say, but it's addictive. The four of us would call each other between commercials (or, during the show, as was the case when Wesley and Fred finally got together, prompting my friend Meagan to squee as she dialed me) for minute-long intervals to discuss what had happened.

But then it got cancelled in a way that can be best described as "assy" and we all mourned. And then I decided that the four of us should get together to watch the finale. Now remember, we are all 15, so it's not like we could drive, and even convincing our parents to go out past 9 was a huge deal.

So we somehow got our parents to agree to the crazy scheme and I made "Angel Finale Brownies" (with blood-red frosting, 'cause that's how cool I was back then) and when nine PM rolled around, we squeezed onto the couch to watch the finale. Now, for those of you haven't seen this episode, to say that it's a little depressing is to say that "2001 a Space Odyssey" is a little slow-paced. By the end we were all on that couch sobbing and holding each other. It was one of the saddest nights of my TV-related life. Even though it could be argued that the show needed to end, Joss and company pulled the "Wild Bunch" that Buffy warned against back in the first Buffy episode. What a way for Joss to leave TV.

(God damn WB)

(As a side note @ Regan: "Doomsday" is a very close second. I rewatched it recently and felt completely wrecked all over again)

Posted by: Claire at October 10, 2007 4:18 PM

my sophomore year of college, i caught a rerun of that simpsons episode with dustin hoffman as lisa's substitute teacher, where he leaves her with the note that says "i am lisa simpson." i was literally sobbing.

Posted by: Brittany at October 10, 2007 4:19 PM

i second the episode of futurama where fry's dog waits for him. it always gets me and i also avoid it now to avoid the sad. futurama is my favorite cartoon because so many episodes have so much heart, they are clever and emotional and funny all at once.

in the 90's i was a huge NY Undercover fan, and the episode where Eddie dies...yeah i freaked out, you just can't tell me you saw that coming.

Posted by: protest at October 10, 2007 4:21 PM

valerie--that's a good one. I love moments like that on The Office; real emotion among the comedy. It makes the funny even funnier, and the dramatic more profound.

So I'm going with another moment from The Office; when Jim kissed Pam on Casino Night it made me cry. I so identified with it, and later when Pam is talking on the phone to her mom...oh!
And there are so many moments from Buffy, I couldn't pick one.

Posted by: Kt at October 10, 2007 4:21 PM

Reaching back to one moment that has stuck with me for over 12 years is the "Love's Labour Lost" episode from the first season of "ER" where Mark tried to save a mother and her baby. Heartbreaking stuff.

Posted by: Glenn at October 10, 2007 4:21 PM

Aww, Christina stole mine. LOL.
Seriously, I cried like a baby after seeing that Futurama episode ("Jurassic Bark"). That poor dog waiting outside for years, with that Connie Francis song playing in the background...man. I still get choked up. It has to be one of the saddest things I've ever seen on TV.

Posted by: Brie at October 10, 2007 4:24 PM

Well unfortunately, my scene has already been taken. But in the name of pity, my reasons, while similar, are a bit more specific.

The scene: the last 6 minutes of Six Feet Under beginning as Claire puts the CD in her car stereo. The music soars, I am weary. As she drives away and we watch each character meet their fate, I am reminded by my lover that he has never told me about this ending since it originally aired a year prior (I didn't have HBO then). He's been holding this inside for a year.

So Ruth passes. I thought this would be our blubbery moment considering his mother has been in a coma for the better part of a decade. But nothing.

There's a little remembered bit during the funeral, where Claire is visibly upset and lo, who is that just beyond the gravesite? Why, it's the only love she's ever had! And here is where Al breaks down in hysterics and mumbles, "this is it."

I'm now weeping.

You're likely wondering what the fuck I'm talking about. See, to the naked eye, I broke up a union. As Al has repeatedly told me (as has his jilted ex), this is not the case. Al left him after 10 years of one-sided acceptance (Al was a trophy wife basically). I came along at the end but was very reluctant out of both fear and causing a rift. We cautiously circled each other for months.

It was when Al summoned up his courage to leave his ex, and found me still waiting for him, after months of indecision on both our parts, that he knew we were in love. So when Claire spies that guy coming to the funeral, after they hadn't seen each other in so long, it's that moment of clarity, joy and relief that finally, your true self can emerge and your life can truly begin.

I will never forget the moment we watched this for the first time in his crappy midtown Manhattan excuse for an apartment. It was freezing out and we huddled on the couch until neither of us could prevent the onslaught of tears that we knew were coming.

We've been togther 2 1/2 years now. Short time for some, but a wealth of happiness for us.

Having said that, to a much much lesser impact, the cancellation of veronica mars made me want to punch the douche who thought cavemen was a good idea.

Posted by: Scott at October 10, 2007 4:24 PM

"'It was Arrested Development.'"

Litelysalted: SOB. That's a wound that never heals.

Posted by: Julie at October 10, 2007 4:24 PM

Deadwood: when Ellsworth is sitting in the mining camp chatting happily to his loyal little dog and Hearst's men come in and kill him. It says a lot about me that most of my heartbreak was for the little dog left behind as opposed to the nice man who was just murdered.

However, if I'm allowed a non-fiction heartbreaking TV moment, it would have to be waking up on November 8th 2000, turning on the TV and learning that George W. Bush was President of the U.S.

Posted by: PaddyDog at October 10, 2007 4:25 PM

Two:

1. The West Wing episode where the navy ship is caught in the hurricane, and Bartlett is on the phone with a random sailor who knows they're not going to make it. Bartlett was standing in a room full of people, and never looked so alone as he did then. The realization of how powerless a president can be was brutal.

2. Firefly - The one at the brothel (Heart of Gold?). When the Madam, who, damn it, I can't recall her name... when she dies, and Mal just comes apart... they have the funeral and there's just the one woman standing singing "Amazing Grace" unaccompanied, as everyone else just looks on stone-faced. I dunno... it was the only time, in that entire show, that Mal got to show his feelings for someone, and enjoy their company, and finally feel something... and she dies? Broke my heart...

Posted by: TK at October 10, 2007 4:26 PM

First of all: Christina, I am SO glad to know that I'm not the only person who can't watch that Futurama! I had the exact same reaction you did.

But, for most heart-breaking? Saul Tigh killing Ellen Tigh. No contest.

Posted by: megbon at October 10, 2007 4:27 PM

24 spoilers ahead...(as I assume most of this thread is)

I'd have to go with the Season 5 murder of President Palmer followed immediately by the murders (well, one attempted) of Tony and Michelle. I was stunned...and saddened. =(

Posted by: jamie at October 10, 2007 4:28 PM

Just jumping to comment that I'm amazed that no-one has yet picked Flower's death on Meerkat Manor. I'm not a regular watcher but apparently half the world is traumatized and grieving.

Posted by: PaddyDog at October 10, 2007 4:28 PM

The age of your readers is evident by the selections. I'll go back to 1971 and the made-for-TV movie Brian's Song, starring James Caan and Billy Dee Williams. This film was so well-received that it was later made available in theaters, something we'll never see again.

To understand the depth of the heartbreak in this movie, you need to understand both the historical significance and the role of men in our culture. Crying was for sissys. Period. Moreover, love was stated more in terms of providing and protecting than anything else.

So in the locker room, when Billy Dee Williams tells everybody of Brian Picolo's cancer, he says, with a shaken voice, "I love Brian Picolo," it's impossible not to weep.

Like most other people my age, I saw that film in its original telecast, and the pain is still hard to deal with. Brian Picolo and Gayle Sayers had a special relationship, and in one of its finest moments, television captured it brilliantly.

Posted by: Terry Heaton at October 10, 2007 4:28 PM

24 spoilers ahead...(as I assume most of this thread is)

I'd have to go with the Season 5 murder of President Palmer followed immediately by the murders (well, one attempted) of Tony and Michelle. I was stunned...and saddened. =(

Posted by: jamie at October 10, 2007 4:28 PM

24 spoilers ahead...(as I assume most of this thread is)

I'd have to go with the Season 5 murder of President Palmer followed immediately by the murders (well, one attempted) of Tony and Michelle. I was stunned...and saddened. =(

Posted by: jamie at October 10, 2007 4:29 PM

The season finale of Angel was sad, but the episode that made me cry was when Fred was first possessed Illyria (A Hole in the World). The part where she and Wes are just determining that they will finally be able to be together and they're walking down the hall with Lorne and Fred starts singing and Lorne just looks at her horrified, then she collapses. Tears, tears, tears...

Posted by: osmate77 at October 10, 2007 4:29 PM

My saddest TV moment has to be when Lucy Knight (Kellie Martin) was killed off ER. I had seen them get rid of characters in unimaginable ways before(Omar Epps stepping in front of Subway car), but there was just something that broke inside of me when I saw that episode. You could tell something was going to happen with David Krumholtz's character acting all schitzo. First we see him stab Carter in the back, and that was sad enough. But then to watch as he falls to the ground and see his eyes lock onto a dying Lucy Knight was devastating. I figured since she was a popular character, she'd probably be in the ICU for a while and come back in a couple of months or so. But that was not to be the case. They strung me along for another episode and then dropped the hammer. I was crushed. How could they kill off Becca? I couldn't watch ER for quite a while after that. I've since come back to it, but I've lost a bit of my ability to fully invest in my favorite characters. Thank you for that ER.

Posted by: G at October 10, 2007 4:30 PM

The age of your readers is evident by the selections. I'll go back to 1971 and the made-for-TV movie Brian's Song, starring James Caan and Billy Dee Williams. This film was so well-received that it was later made available in theaters, something we'll never see again.

To understand the depth of the heartbreak in this movie, you need to understand both the historical significance and the role of men in our culture. Crying was for sissys. Period. Moreover, love was stated more in terms of providing and protecting than anything else.

So in the locker room, when Billy Dee Williams tells everybody of Brian Picolo's cancer, he says, with a shaken voice, "I love Brian Picolo," it's impossible not to weep.

Like most other people my age, I saw that film in its original telecast, and the pain is still hard to deal with. Brian Picolo and Gayle Sayers had a special relationship, and in one of its finest moments, television captured it brilliantly.

Posted by: Terry Heaton at October 10, 2007 4:30 PM

The last two minutes of the series finale of the Wonder Years. When he says that he meets Winnie at the airport with his wife and child, my stomach drops to my shoes every time.

I also cry every time Dawn opens her Christmas present from Tim during the Christmas Special of the (original) Office.

Posted by: amber at October 10, 2007 4:30 PM

I hope I don't bring anyone down with mine.

I am too young to have been able to watch MASH during its original run, but I'm certian I've seen every episode in syndication. When I was a VERY young child, both of my parents worked late into the night, and my sister and I would spend Fridays and Saturdays at our grandparents' house. My grandfather was a veteran of the Korean War, and he was addicted to MASH. We watched it every night that we were there, religiously. The episode when Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake leaves to go home to his family in America, only to die when his plane was shot down over the Japan Sea, still gets me to this day. I always feel like someone I know has died, and I still feel disbelief and anger every time that episode is on (Husband and I still watch MASH all the time). Just thinking about it has me choked up, and I'm sitting in a damn cubicle. My grandfather died two years and two weeks ago, which makes that show (even the music, oy the tears) - and that particular episode, more touching to me than ever.

Posted by: Kolby at October 10, 2007 4:30 PM

I've got a few. Do I have to say it? Really? OK... Spoiler alert:

- The end of the episode of Futurama with Fry's dog gets me every. damn. time. It's just crushing to see him waiting... and waiting... and waiting. And then closing his eyes. And right after they leave Fry saying that the dog probably led a happy life. Fry will never know! Gaaah I'm busting up just thinking about it.
- There's another episode of Futurama with the Harlem Globetrotters and they're jumping randomly through time. When you see that Fry had literally rearranged the stars to say "I love you, Leela" but it all gets sucked into a black hole before she can see it. God the writers of Futurama are cruel.
- Mrs. Landingham dies at the end of Season 2 of The West Wing, which is mean enough but then they linger on it for a whole 'nother episode, climaxing with that great monologue when Bartlett is yelling at God in latin in the cathedral.
- In the Scrubs episode "My Old Lady" when the grandma (Kathryn Joosten--same actress as Mrs. Landingham!) has terminal something-or-other and tells J.D. that she's ready to go. He tries to convince her that she's got so much to live for but she counters that she's lived a vibrant, full life and is ready to move on. When they hug it out and JD accepts it, that's just devastating.

Posted by: Lee at October 10, 2007 4:30 PM

Uh... "Friday Night Lights," anyone?

Man, I cannot watch a single episode of this show without crying. I cried in the pilot where Jason Street got paralyzed. I cried when the players took the field again, but all stopped by Jason's hospital room first. I cried when Matt Saracen's dad came and then had to go back to Iraq. I cry anytime there's an interaction between Matt and his sweet grandma. I cried when Coach found out that Tami was pregnant and he was just SO happy (Man, Kyle Chandler. The things you to do me. Really).

I could go on and on and on.

Oh, and I also loved the season premiere of "Ugly Betty," when they pull the ol' switcheroo on us and Santos is really dead.

Posted by: Jelinas at October 10, 2007 4:31 PM

This is actually a tale of sadness that has a happy ending. One of my favorite shows ever (still, to this day) is an old UPN show called "Haunted" staring "Lost"'s Matthew Fox. The day this show came on was a couple of weeks after the day that a good friend of mine passed away. I was heartbroken about the whole experience, and dove headfirst into my TV to try and get away from thinking about death and stuff. But, when I was watching this show (Fox is a detective that, afer a near-death experience, can talk to the dead), I had a bit of an epiphany about my friend. I realised that I can still think of him as being alive, just on the otehr side (i was 5 years younger at that time, and still rather impressionable for my age). So, I sat watching Frank Taylor (Fox) solve all these different mysteries every week, thinking about how cool it would be if my friend helped out some detective in the world solve murders. Then, one day, the show was cancelled. I was completely heartbroken, becaus the one show that helped me to cope with my friend's death wasn't there anymore. I was disgruntled for a while, until I learned that Frank Taylor was going to be on a new show called Lost, and everything was good again.

Posted by: jonr at October 10, 2007 4:31 PM

One more moment made me cry: the series finale of Friends. I was sobbing like a little sissy bitch...because it was FINALLY over! I was so happy I wandered around my friends' apartment wondering how the hell these dorky people had managed to stay on the air for 10 years?!!!

Not being a hater here, but let's face it. The show always was pretty idiotic, but never more so than during the last 4 years (i.e. the damn marriages and the baby that disappeared and reappeared at will).

So when those credits finally rolled, these were tears of joy!

But then came Rules of Attraction and that dumb Brad Garrett show.

I see Hollywood has learned very little.

Posted by: Scott at October 10, 2007 4:33 PM

Final episode of The Wonder Years. Oh, and there was an episode of McGuyver way back when where the bad guys were cutting the horns off of rhinos and selling them. Much, much bawling from me.

Posted by: Mattfactor at October 10, 2007 4:34 PM

The most heartbreaking moment for me came when I fully realized that Amy Sherman-Palladino was never coming back to Gilmore Girls. I love that show with a passion that many on this site would equate to BSG, Firefly, and Veronica herself. I thought for sure that Amy would watch the beginning of the 6th season, see how much Rory and Lorelai needed her (not even mentioning how much the viewers needed her), and come running back to the CW and renegotiate. But that didn't happen. So repeatedly, week after week, I watched the slow, painful, excruciating death of a show that allowed me to laugh, cry, and the most difficult of all: bond with my mother. At least they cancelled Veronica Mars before it sank into complete crapitude. The same cannot be said for my beloved GG. And that hurts most of all.

Posted by: Sarah at October 10, 2007 4:35 PM

I've got a few. Do I have to say it? Really? OK... Spoiler alert:

- The end of the episode of Futurama with Fry's dog gets me every. damn. time. It's just crushing to see him waiting... and waiting... and waiting. And then closing his eyes. And right after they leave Fry saying that the dog probably led a happy life. Fry will never know! Gaaah I'm busting up just thinking about it.
- There's another episode of Futurama with the Harlem Globetrotters and they're jumping randomly through time. When you see that Fry had literally rearranged the stars to say "I love you, Leela" but it all gets sucked into a black hole before she can see it. God the writers of Futurama are cruel.
- Mrs. Landingham dies at the end of Season 2 of The West Wing, which is mean enough but then they linger on it for a whole 'nother episode, climaxing with that great monologue when Bartlett is yelling at God in latin in the cathedral.
- In the Scrubs episode "My Old Lady" when the grandma (Kathryn Joosten--same actress as Mrs. Landingham!) has terminal something-or-other and tells J.D. that she's ready to go. He tries to convince her that she's got so much to live for but she counters that she's lived a vibrant, full life and is ready to move on. When they hug it out and JD accepts it, that's just devastating.
- In The Office the Halloween episode (can't remember the episode name) when Michael has to fire someone, waffles for the entire episode ("Yeah, I went hunting once. Shot a deer. But it didn't die so I had to beat it with a stick for an hour. Why do you ask?"), pisses off the entire office, has to clean a jack-o-lantern off of his car... he's having this awful day and shuffles home. Sitting alone, looking beaten up, and these little kids show up and he just lights up. New people to entertain! Clean slates! It's just a brilliant and very touching look at someone that just wants to be liked.

Posted by: Lee at October 10, 2007 4:38 PM

Ok, I know I am going to get made fun of for this, but I think mine would have to be Ally McBeal, the episode where Gil Bellows dies and then Ally has to tell his wife, but decides to take the high road and tells her that his last words and thoughts were of her. I don't know why, because I wasn't a great fan of the show before or after that, but that episode, for some reason still sticks with me. God, I need a hobby

Posted by: lawyergirl06 at October 10, 2007 4:38 PM

Aw, Scott, I think Friends seasons 2-6 was some of the funniest traditional sitcom t.v. out there.

"What was Monica's nickname as a field hockey goalie?" "Big fat goalie!"

Posted by: Julie at October 10, 2007 4:40 PM

I'd have to say the series finale of Coupling (UK series). Steve is completely indifferent to the birth of his baby and then becomes an entirely different person when he looks in the baby's eyes. Can't help but tear-up.

And yes, that Futurama with the dog makes me cry too. Also the episode with the bee sting (I won't spoil it for anyone).

Also, any show that plays the "Over the Rainbow" song, the one with the ukelele. It makes my heart break.

Posted by: Izzie at October 10, 2007 4:45 PM

I'm going to go with the episode of NYPD Blue in which Simone died. Actually, it wasn't so much his death that did it for me as what Sipowicz went through. Simone had been in the hospital for heart surgery, and over several episodes it became increasingly clear that it wasn't going to work out and he was dying. Sipowicz, helpless in the face of this, was getting ever crazier (and he was always a little crazy). Then, the day that Simone was clearly on the way out, Sipowicz's ex-wife showed up. She had begun drinking in the wake of their son's death and had been charged with drunk driving. She had some kind of hearing later that day and wanted Sipowicz to help. He was in no mental shape to do so by that point, but called in some favors and managed to get a deal so she wouldn't have to go to jail. Then he sat down with her and told her that he would help her through things and go to AA meetings with her.

At the end of the episode he went to see Simone at the hospital, and you could see that, by helping his ex-wife, he had healed himself and reacquired the strength he needed to get through his best friend's death. Heartbreaking and beautiful.

Posted by: Todd at October 10, 2007 4:47 PM

For me, hands down, the season two finale of Buffy. It was the end of my senior year of high school, and I happened to be in one of those incredibly high-school-ly high school romances, where we both felt like the other person was our "soulmate" (hee!). I was highly emotional about everything at the time, and I cried for maybe an hour after watching THAT scene (for those not in the know, or for those who have forgotten, Buffy has to send Angel to hell, even though his soul has been restored). Then I watched it 5 more times, crying more every time. Sarah McLachan's Full of Grace???!!!! COME ON! That song alone is enough to make me a little teary. The scene really didn't have any parallel to my life, but in my overwrought, 17-year old, hopeless romantic state, I felt like it did...

Posted by: Kowala1000 at October 10, 2007 4:50 PM

Yeah, color me old. The death of Colonel Blake on MASH has already been mentioned. Also when they killed off James Evans on Good Times.

More recently (but still almost a decade ago), the fictional/real-life death of Phil Hartman on News Radio where the staff sat around and read notes from Bill McNeal.

Posted by: KRK at October 10, 2007 4:53 PM

Oh, and I also forgot to mention episodes of "The Simpsons" and "The Office" that made me cry:

1. The one about how Marge and Homer met and Artie Ziff tries to take advantage of Marge at the prom and she slaps him and drives home on her own and sees Homer at the side of the road and picks him up and when they get to his house, he looks all sad and she asks why and he says, "Because when we stop, I'm going to want to hug you. And then I'm going to want to kiss you. And then I'm never going to want to let go. [fade to present time] And I never have." WAAAAAH!!!!
2. The one about how Maggie was born and before she was born Homer was finally out of debt so he quit working at the SNPP and got his dream job at Barney's Bowl-o-Rama only to have to beg for his SNPP job back because Marge was pregnant and Mr. Burns puts a sign in his workspace that says, "Don't Forget: You're Here Forever" and Homer covers it with pictures of Maggie so that it says, "Do It For Her." *SOB!!*
3. The one where Homer is reunited with his mom, who's on the run from the FBI.
4. The episode of "The Office" on Halloween where Michael has to fire someone and he ends up firing Devin and Devin hates him and the camera crew follows Michael home where he's just sitting on the couch feeling miserable, but when kids come trick-or-treating, he's nice and cheerful for their sakes.
5. "Office Olympics," where Michael ends up signing for a condo that he really doesn't want and when he gets back to work at the end of the day, they have a gold medal waiting for him and he's standing on the box and he's crying and smiling as they all congratulate him on his home purchase.

I love that both of these shows are funny, but manage to bring some poignancy in every once in a while.

Posted by: Jelinas at October 10, 2007 4:54 PM

(Thanks to Terry for representing the old folks. I, too, saw Brian's Song in its first run, and wept for days.)

An HBO movie (made for tv, so it counts, right?)

"Wit." Emma Thompson plays a college professor of literature who has never formed close relationships with people, immersing herself instead in her work. We meet her as she is being treated for late stage ovarian cancer, and -- from most of the medical professionals -- being examined and evaluated without regard for her humanity. She comes to appreciate the sad fact that her doctors find her case fascinating to the exclusion of a relationship with her -- in the same way she found poetry fascinating to the exclusion of intimacy with the people around her.

If you might ever see this, stop reading now.

On her deathbed, without family or other visitors as usual, she is in great pain and near delirium. A older female colleague comes to see her, having been unaware previously of 'Emma's' condition. Shocked and saddened by what she sees, the woman pulls out a book she has just purchased for her granddaughter. She gets herself up onto the hospital bed so that Emma can lean against her, and she reads...The Runaway Bunny.

It is love and compassion and tenderness. I'm a weeping mess just typing this. Easily the most heartbreaking scene I've ever seen on television.

Posted by: Louise at October 10, 2007 4:56 PM

The season two finale of Veronica Mars (and no I'm not trying to elicit extra points by going with something VM related) From the moment that Beaver blows up the plane, from Veronica telling Logan "He Killed my dad, he killed the kids on the bus, he raped me!", to finding Mac on the floor of the hotel room naked and asking "why?", to Veronica waking up in the morning and thinking her dad was cooking eggs for her when Logan was the only on there...it's a heartbreaking 5 minutes. Of course it gets a bit happier but I was devastated when I thought they had killed Keith Mars...

and poor Veronica I thought I had boy problems try thinking you were raped by your first love because you were accidentally (through a series of events) given drugs by the second man you loved. Then find out you had consensual (even though she has no memory of it) sex with your first love but he never talked mentioned it because he thought he was sleeping with his sister. Then to top if off ohh btw you were raped before all that happened by Beaver who left her with a lovely parting gift, which a whole court room of people find out about. ...which ends up being one of the reasons the man who killed your best friend gets out of jail.

That scene on the roof was just simply a cumulation of two seasons and it was painful to watch her struggle through all that and try to fathom that the a-hole just killed her father.

Posted by: Ashley at October 10, 2007 4:57 PM

This is sad, but the only thing that comes to mind is a simpsons episode...The one that starts off with them looking at a family album and Bart and Lisa as why there are no pictures of Maggie. Homer and Marge go into flashback mode and tell how before Maggie was born, Homer quit his job at the power plant and got a dream job at the bowling alley, but when Marge found out she was pregnant again, he had to go beg for his old job back, and to punish him they put a plaque up on his office wall that says "Don't Forget, You're Here Forever." He's all angry and bitter about it, but of course when Maggie is born he falls in love instantly. In the end when they ask again why there are no pictures Homer says "I have them where they need them the most," and it cuts to a shot of the plaque, and Homer's covered it with pictures of Maggie so now it reads "Do it for her." Gets me every time. I'm actually tearing up now...

Posted by: s. pisaster at October 10, 2007 4:57 PM

I share the tears with the folks who spoke of M*A*S*H, West Wing, and Six Feet Under, but the single episode of any show that actually had me sobbing almost uncontrollably was an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, of all things.

The episode is called "The Visitor" and it recounts a tragic warp core accident (naturally) that traps Sisko in some sort of space/time warp. He manages to pop in on his son Jeremy for a few minutes or a few hours, every few years. Jeremy spends his whole life trying to resolve the problem, trying to keep his father with him, etc etc.

I can barely even think back on it without clouding over. Truth is, I saw it just shortly after losing my Mom unexpectedly and much too young, and the twin ideas of (a) somehow being able to see her again, even just for a few minutes and (b) somehow being able to go back in time and save her ... snif!

Posted by: Paris at October 10, 2007 4:57 PM

OK, so there are a lot of things that are pretty heartbreaking listed already. Particularly the cancellation of Arrested Development. But then I reread the post, and the word 'pity' jumped out at me. Pity? TV related? You can have my pride. Just give me Veronica!

So-- April 2006. My boyfriend had come back from Iraq for the second time a few months earlier and was very distant and guarded. Things got worse in the form of a very public break-up that culminated in my best friend and my boyfriend hooking up and then him dumping me on SPEAKERPHONE (PITY PITY PITY) while she LISTENED (PITY), in the street, outside a friend's graduation party. It was messy and awful and I was in a real pit. Veronica would have slashed some tired or sent Backup after them. Instead, I tried to focus on small things that could make me happy. Like LOST. It got me through the week. Oh, how I looked forward to Wednesdays! I could watch and be grateful I wasn't being chased by a smoke monster. Oh, John Locke! Whoa, Michael just shot Michelle Rodriguez! Instead of contemplating my own misery, I just thought about what happened when you didn't push the button!


And then the TV cut out five minutes into the finale. TA DA!

Posted by: Allison at October 10, 2007 5:00 PM

Four of them...and admittedly I was mostly inspired by answers above, so I don't deserve to win. Nevertheless...


1) The last episode of The Wonder Years. That final monologue when we find out that Kevin's father, Jack, passed away two years later while we see the family enjoying one last Fourth of July together really hit me in the heart. Their relationship had been strained that entire episode, and it was one of my favorite dynamics on the show as a whole. Truly Dan Lauria portrayed one of the best TV dads in history.


2) 24 - I wouldn't have even thought of this, but someone mentioned 24 above. It's a silly action show with a completely regrettable sixth season. I mainly watch it to see Jack Bauer achieve new levels of badass-itude. But the hidden strength of the show is its quieter moments between the main characters that pop up every once in a while.

The one that put a huge lump in my throat was the conversation between Jack and Kim when it looked as if he were going to blow up with the nuclear bomb that he was taking on a plane into the desert. The show had just reached a farcical low with Kim's run-in with the cougar, but - wow - when they're both on the verge of tears and saying goodbye and talking about Jack's dead wife/Kim's dead mother, it kills me.


3) Again, inspired by above. The Simpsons - "Lisa's Wedding." This is my all-time favorite episode. It's a terribly underrated glimpse into the future of the family and Lisa's almost-marriage to a British intellectual. In the end, he forces her to choose between her family (particularly gauche Homer) and him, and despite their flaws, Lisa would never surrender her ties to her family.

After the fortuneteller's vision ends, young Lisa is reunited with Homer, and as they walk off into the sunset together, Lisa revels in hearing about Homer and his very simple yet wonderfully human pleasures that he loves sharing with his daughter. Glassy eyes for me everytime.


4) Of course, the other Simpsons episode that has a similar effect on me is "Lisa's First Word." To his frustration, Homer just couldn't get respect from Bart and Lisa, her first word being "Homer," largely thanks to Bart's influence. At the end we have Elizabeth Taylor giving us Maggie's first word.

I'll let it speak for itself...

Homer: The sooner kids talk, the sooner they talk back.
[tucks Maggie in]
I hope you never say a word.
[leaves and shuts the door]
Maggie: [taking her pacifier out] Daddy.

Again, glassy eyes for me everytime.

Posted by: Darth Corleone at October 10, 2007 5:00 PM

Four of them...and admittedly I was mostly inspired by answers above, so I don't deserve to win. Nevertheless...


1) The last episode of The Wonder Years. That final monologue when we find out that Kevin's father, Jack, passed away two years later while we see the family enjoying one last Fourth of July together really hit me in the heart. Their relationship had been strained that entire episode, and it was one of my favorite dynamics on the show as a whole. Truly Dan Lauria portrayed one of the best TV dads in history.


2) 24 - I wouldn't have even thought of this, but someone mentioned 24 above. It's a silly action show with a completely regrettable sixth season. I mainly watch it to see Jack Bauer achieve new levels of badass-itude. But the hidden strength of the show is its quieter moments between the main characters that pop up every once in a while.

The one that put a huge lump in my throat was the conversation between Jack and Kim when it looked as if he were going to blow up with the nuclear bomb that he was taking on a plane into the desert. The show had just reached a farcical low with Kim's run-in with the cougar, but - wow - when they're both on the verge of tears and saying goodbye and talking about Jack's dead wife/Kim's dead mother, it kills me.


3) Again, inspired by above. The Simpsons - "Lisa's Wedding." This is my all-time favorite episode. It's a terribly underrated glimpse into the future of the family and Lisa's almost-marriage to a British intellectual. In the end, he forces her to choose between her family (particularly gauche Homer) and him, and despite their flaws, Lisa would never surrender her ties to her family.

After the fortuneteller's vision ends, young Lisa is reunited with Homer, and as they walk off into the sunset together, Lisa revels in hearing about Homer and his very simple yet wonderfully human pleasures that he loves sharing with his daughter. Glassy eyes for me everytime.


4) Of course, the other Simpsons episode that has a similar effect on me is "Lisa's First Word." To his frustration, Homer just couldn't get respect from Bart and Lisa, her first word being "Homer," largely thanks to Bart's influence. At the end we have Elizabeth Taylor giving us Maggie's first word.

I'll let it speak for itself...

Homer: The sooner kids talk, the sooner they talk back.
[tucks Maggie in]
I hope you never say a word.
[leaves and shuts the door]
Maggie: [taking her pacifier out] Daddy.

Again, glassy eyes for me everytime.

Posted by: Darth Corleone at October 10, 2007 5:01 PM

I'd have to say the last couple of scenes from the series finale of Quantum Leap. Sam is out on the bench talking to the bartender/God. He starts crying as he tells God he is tired. And God tells him he's not only not done leaping, but the leaps will become longer and harder. He asks Sam what he wants and Sam says "I want to go home, but I can't". And then he goes and saves Al's marriage. Absolutely heartbreaking, every time I watch it.

Posted by: Dean at October 10, 2007 5:04 PM

"Uh... "Friday Night Lights," anyone?"

I just started watching FNL recently and can't get enough of it. Funny thing is that every time I watch it, the air must be very dry, or my allergies must be acting up because my eyes get watery every so often. Yeah....that must be it.

Also Scrubs with Cox and Ben's funeral, and Laverne's death when they start playing Keane's "A Bad Dream"...ugh here we go again with the allergies.

Posted by: Trent880 at October 10, 2007 5:04 PM

My heartbreaking TV story is what I missed on American TV when I spent 4 years living in Europe (2 years in Amsterdam and 2 in London). I started reading Pajiba while I was over there and I read about both Arrested Development and Firefly but they came and went while we were living overseas. I now have both of them on DVD so I'm catching up, but I can't bring myself to watch the last couple episodes of AD because I like having them to look forward to watching still.

On the flip side, I got to see some great British TV (but plenty of crappy stuff as well--don't let them act like they're all The Office and Doctor Who over there--they're reality shows are just as bad or worse as the American stuff).

Posted by: Lainie at October 10, 2007 5:10 PM

Louise: I had completely forgotten the Runaway Bunny scene in Wit. To this day, when it's on I watch to that point and then have to switch off for fear of going all wobbly. Of course, it's made more poignant by the fact that the older professor is played by Phyllida Law, Emma Thmpson's mother so you know she's projecting this whole "that's my daughter dying" vibe into the performance.

Posted by: PaddyDog at October 10, 2007 5:12 PM

Gosh guys, now I'm super depressed.

Posted by: Stacy at October 10, 2007 5:14 PM

Star Trek: TNG - Picard and the flute.
And in keeping with a musical theme:
MASH - Winchester and the musicians.

Posted by: ormond at October 10, 2007 5:14 PM

My moment, sadly, is from Gilmore girls.
Even though this isn't the "shameful" or "guilty pleasure" diversion, here we go...

In Season 5, Rory begins to realize her true potential as a heart breaker, a life ruiner, and an all around home wrecker. The season picks up where her and Dean left off, in her bed, her having just lost her virginity.

As the story unfolds, Rory takes off to Europe just to spite her mother (one of the many reasons I hate her). Upon her return, Emily, her grandmother has decided to throw a party for her to meet some Yale friends that all turn out to be guys because Emily doesn't believe that Rory should be galavanting around with Dean, who's married and stuck in Stars Hollow for the rest of his life.

As Dean shows up at Emily and Richard's estate to pick up Rory for their date, he in his distressed denim and flannel shirt, sheepishly standing against is faded blue pick up truck, and her in her black cocktail gown with her diamond tiara, drunk as a skunk, he sees the girl she has become is different than the girl he fell in love with. With tears in his eyes he asks her why he is there, and above all, why he broke up his marriage for someone that already left him for bigger and better things.

She, being the oblivious drunk that she is, stammers on about her love and her devotion to her small town roots. Dean leaves and we see she's just never been able to grow into the bitch tree with long, ungrateful branches frought with leaves of false entitlement that she really is, stumbling home out of her limo, to a mother that doesn't recognize her.

And so I wept.

Posted by: Kash at October 10, 2007 5:15 PM

In "Freaks and Geeks" when Bill is picked last for baseball in gym class. "No Language In Our Lungs" is playing in the background, while Bill silently mouths "Pick Me" over and over to himself. Until he sees a group of girls laughing at him. Breaks my heart everytime. Then when he prank phone calls the gym teacher out of frustration, and is caught, he has to explain how it feels to always be the one picked last. Man, I'm tearing up right now.

There are others with Bill, too. Bill always makes me cry.

Posted by: Stacy at October 10, 2007 5:18 PM

Cheers series finale -- it was already a sad but great ending to an iconic TV show, with Sam closing the bar only to have a customer try to come in right after. Sam says, "Sorry, we're closed," which was perfect since the show was ending.

But the true heartbreaker was a gesture to regular viewers who had followed the show during its early years. As Sam finished up, he straightened the Geronimo photo hanging over the bar as a final goodbye to former cast regular Coach, who had died in real life during the show's run. The actor who played Coach, Nicholas Collisanti (sp?), had kept the photo in his dressing room, and they hung the photo on the set as an ongoing tribute. [*large gulp*]

I absolutely loved Coach and thought he was one of the funniest supporting characters to ever appear on a television show. That final, subtle gesture was a gut-wrenching finish to my favorite comedy up to that time, a show full of priceless, easy-to-miss bits running along under the main gags. I still get misty whenever I see that episode aired.

Posted by: socalledonlycousins at October 10, 2007 5:25 PM

good one Ashley...fishin' for the dvd.

If only I had thought of it first. If only I had ever seen even one episode of Veronica Mars.

Posted by: wsapnin at October 10, 2007 5:27 PM

Okay, so, the episode of MASH where Henry Blake dies. The final episode of MASH.

Pretty much anything that Joss Whedon has ever written where he's trying to be sad. Because seriously, that man could coax a tear out of a dead miser's corpse. He's that talented. I could list all the episodes of Buffy and Angel that got me scene for scene, and even the episodes of Roseanne that he wrote for because they were sad too, but I'll spare you.

The first time that I ever seriously, seriously freaked out over any show was when I was eleven and the chick who babysat by kid brother got me crazy-addicted to General Hospital. Yeah. A soap. Sue me. Anyway, the story line was actually pretty cutting edge for it's time--Stone has AIDS.

To give you back story, Stone was a character who was originally introduced as a street kid, he got taken in by a gangster (I know, but it's a soap) and he was Sonny's (the gangster's) runner. He fell in love with Mac Scorpio's daughter (Mac was the police commissioner at the time I want to say so they were rocking the Romeo and Juliet vibe) and the two were having all kinds of unprotected sex like teenagers do.

Anyway, it comes out that Stone has AIDS because he was a street kid, I think it was intimated that he did drugs but I was eleven so I don't remember. His whole downward spiral (complete with scenes like that asshole rich kid AJ thinking he could get AIDS from Stone's sweat and freaking out at the gym, and some random soccer mom telling Stone he was going to hell because it was a gay person's disease at a WALK FOR AWARENESS for god's sake) were really heartwrenching.

General Hospital also has a yearly Nurses' Ball honoring Stone that raises money for AIDS awareness now (in the show).

But I digress. The scene I'm talking about was when he finally died. He'd gone blind a few episodes back and he was all kinds of guilty about Robin because everybody kind of new she was HIV positive by that point. So, he's in his bed, hooked up to all kinds of machines. They've spent the entire hour having this really long, heartfelt conversation about love and what happens when you die. Some of his other close friends are in teh other room and everybody's all choked up. Robin's sitting at the window, the sun's pouring in...when all of a sudden the camera goes fuzzy, then slowly into focus, Stone murmurs "I can see you" and smiles beatifically... then dies. Everybody's crying. Cue theme music.

Seriously, I was so upset I didn't go to school the next day. It was like my brother died. My mother thought I'd gone crazy for getting so worked up and threatened to call a shrink.

Anyway, that storyline was important too because it was the first time on a daytime soap that a major character was diagnosed with AIDS and then the show showed the natural progression of the disease while still showing him as a real person.

Oh, and unlike the rest of you guys--I can't just go pick up a season whatever DVD because it was a freaking soap and I never taped it. I can only live with the memory.

Posted by: Scarlett at October 10, 2007 5:28 PM

I willingly admit: I'm a sap. I cry over even the worst, most blatantly manipulative television shows regularly. However, my most heartbreaking moment is in a league all its own. It still remains so difficult for me to comprehend that I am getting sick to my stomach just thinking about it right now, but here goes:

The Shield. Fifth season finale. An increasingly paranoid Shane Vendrell is mistakenly convinced fellow strike team member Lem is going to rat him and Vic out in order to get out of some jail time. To fix this problem, Shane drops a live grenade into Lem's lunch sack and gives it to him under the guise that he brought him some much needed food. As Lem pulls out his sandwich -- ah, this is getting hard for me to recap through the tears and gut-wrenching nausea -- he sees the grenade and gives Shane an incredulous look that would stop even the evil hunter that killed Bambi's mother from taking the shot. And then he blows up.

I have never cried so hard or been so physically ill from a television show in my entire life. It remains the only episode of The Shield I cannot rewatch.

Posted by: Carrie at October 10, 2007 5:29 PM

despite not even making my top 5 for favorite television shows, my most heartbreaking television moment would have to be from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" season 5 finale, "The Gift" and also the beginning of season 6 "Bargaining" part 1 and 2...mostly 2 when she arrives back at the place where she sacrificed herself. oh my god, so many tears.

Posted by: citizen_cris at October 10, 2007 5:29 PM

How could I forget Freaks and Geeks! The episode where Lindsay tells Eli that the popular kids aren't really his friends; I was Lindsay. That show was so good at reflecting the hell that was high school. So many moments made me cry.

Posted by: Kt at October 10, 2007 5:33 PM

As a kid, the episode of Fresh Prince in which Will's father returns briefly, promises to take Will with him on his truck route, and then leaves without him. When it's just Will and Uncle Phil in the living room, Will coming to terms with his anger and sadness, building to the point where he screams "...and there ain't a DAMN thing he could EVER teach about how to love my kid!" and then quietly, "How come he don't want me, Uncle Phil?" And big bear embrace from Uncle Phil. Aaaand dust particles in my eye.

As an adult, and far more affecting to me, was the close of the 5th season of The Shield. That entire season was so fantastically layered, and each layer so thoroughly engrossing, that I could never predict or anticipate where it was going with the finale. I hung on every last word spoken by Forest Whitaker's Kavanaugh, the battle of wits between him and Vic, Vic's struggle to protect himself, his crew, and Lemansky in particular. I pitied Lemansky's hopeless situation, but fully expected Vic to resolve it. But somewhere around the point of a half an hour remaining, I was startled to realize Shane's agenda. It hit me like a truck. I literally began pleading with my TV, begging for it not to show me what I was expecting. It mattered not. After a season's worth of rallying to protect his partner, after FIVE seasons of brotherhood on the Strike Team, Shane rolls up to Lem's car, makes some small talk, and casually drops a masked grenade into his lap. Smoke clears to reveal Lem clinging to his last breath, unrecognizable. Shane stands 20 feet away, weeping, apologizing.

Totally. Unequivocally. Wrecked.

Posted by: Paul at October 10, 2007 5:36 PM

Due South - "Victoria's Secret part 2". It left me such an emotional wreck.

Posted by: Amy J at October 10, 2007 5:38 PM

My favorite ones have been named: Henry Blake's death in MASH, Brian's Song,Bobby Simone's death in NYPD Blue. I especially felt Kim Delaney's speech as Bobby was dying (paraphrased) "you'll see your parents in Heaven, you'll see your first wife(he had been a widow),you'll see our baby(they had had a miscarriage). Also loved the series finale of the Mary Tyler Moore show. Such pathos and humor!

Posted by: rlr260 at October 10, 2007 5:40 PM

Buffy has a lot of moments for me, but I really wept in the series finale, (odd because I felt the last season was the second weakest, after the fifth season) when all the potential slayers have their powers delivered to them, and they immediately become strong. One of them is at bat in a little league game, and she suddenly knows she'll knock it out of the park, another one is being hit by some guy, and she stops him... It's a little heavy-handed, but as a girl, I love it, and it made me cry.

Don't even get me started on "The Body." I have the entire collector's edition box set of the series, and I still have to skip over that episode. It's the only Buffy episode I've seen only once.

Posted by: Stacy at October 10, 2007 5:41 PM

I know it's not cool, but I have cried at several episodes of Grey's Anatomy. I dissolve into a blubbering mess of tears whenever there's a sick or dead baby on TV, so when Addison has to go in and tell the happy young couple that their baby has died in the womb, and the woman has to give birth to it anyway and then holds the dead baby in her arms...oh man. I'm crying right now. It's just. so. sad. I know a woman who actually had to do that and I just can't imagine what that must feel like. Ok and I'm actually weeping thinking about it. Thanks for starting this thread, Jesus Christ.

Also, on Scrubs when Zach Braff is told that his baby was miscarried (even though it turns out not to be true) I just lose it. And that SFU episode that starts with the SIDS death? And the parents don't want to say goodbye because he just got there? I was inconsolable. Babies shouldn't die, damn it!

I'm not even a parent yet. I bet I'll be ten times worse when I have my own babies to worry about.

Posted by: Brianne at October 10, 2007 5:42 PM

Oops! "Widower," not widow.

Posted by: rlr260 at October 10, 2007 5:43 PM

Man, I am so glad I'm not the only person that cires at Simpson episodes. The one with Homer's mom gets me too. And the one where Homer gives up an air conditioner to buy Lisa a saxophone, or when he enters her in a beauty contest because he thinks she's beautiful and she's insecure.....

Posted by: s. pisaster at October 10, 2007 5:47 PM

Ha, this is embarrassing. In college, the WE network re-ran the entire series of Felicity at midnight during the weeks. I had a friend that wached it almost as obsessively as I did and we would chat about it on IM during the commercial breaks. I know, we were super cool. It's one of those memories I have of college that has just really stuck with me, along with the night I was watching it and my friend/roommate brought home a boy I happened to be in love with. A low point, you could say. Anyway, I watched the whole series by junior year, I think, and my last semester of college I happened to catch the season finale from season one. The scene where Felicity goes into her closet and sees all the names of past residents written on her wall did me in. She adds her own name to the list, and this damn sad music is playing, and she closes that chapter of her life- for her it was freshman year, for me, it was all of college coming to a close in the very near future. The tears people, I cannot even tell you.

Posted by: Jenny at October 10, 2007 5:47 PM

1. Season finale of the West Wing. I think it was Season Three, when CJ was getting death threats, and she had a body guard assigned to her. Being CJ, she of course resists him and has many sassy arguments with him that ultimately result in flirting. The best/worst CJ/Simon moment is when she loses the bet and has to tell him something she likes about him, and says "I like that you're taller than me. It makes me feel feminine". Later Simon is released from duty as her guard and agrees to go on a date with her, goes to pick up flowers and gets caught in a convenience store hold up. It's so contrived but so beautiful and moving. When CJ gets the word that he's been killed in this pointless death (that still redeems him as a hero for trying to save the cashier) and she wanders off in her gown with Hallelujah playing I completly lost it.

2. The episode of The Office where Pam helps Jim and Karen with her apartment search, and it seems at first like she's okay with helping them only we find her later in a hall crying. Dwight comes over to her and says "Who did this to you?".

Posted by: Allison at October 10, 2007 5:47 PM

I also have some of the same heartbreaking moments as others- Six Feet Under finale, the Jurassic Bark episode of Futurama and the Simpsons episode with Maggie's pictures.

However, those never compared with what I went through in high school. I was obsessed with the X-Files, as were my group of friends. When that episode came when The Lone Gunmen were killed off, saving everyone in that building from the chemicals (or whatever, I haven't seen it in a while), I was bawling like a crazy girl. I loved them, I wished Mulder would have died instead. Then I started crying all over again when Scully was at the funeral remembering them. I cried again Monday morning as my friends and I re-lived that episode. It was a bit more than "normal" obsession.

Posted by: Natakie16 at October 10, 2007 5:50 PM

Oh god -I almost forgot! The last episode of Cowboy Bebop. Spike finally finds his lost love Julia and she gets shot shortly afterwards, and he just goes crazy and basically goes on a suicide mission to get Vicious. Julia's death and the final scene kill me.

Posted by: s. pisaster at October 10, 2007 5:51 PM

There are lots, and they're not all coming to mind right now, but here are a couple fairly recent ones.

The Office, when we see Michael on that children's show and when asked what he wants to do with his life he replies: "I want to get married and have 100 kids so I can have 100 friends and nobody can say no to being my friend." As a girl who was frequently rejected for friendship as a child, "so nobody can say no to being my friend" makes me tear up every time. (The one where Pam has her art show and Michael shows up and is so genuinely proud of her and excited by her art makes me tear up too, but somebody already mentioned it).

How I Met Your Mother when we get that flashback of Barney asking his mother who his father is and she says: "Oh, that guy," pointing to Bob Barker on the tv. And then little Barney starts showing the tv his report cards and stuff during the Price is Right... argh. (Yeah, it's stuff with kids that gets me every time)

Friday Night Lights where Matt's grandma takes a bad spell and mistakes him for his grandpa, and he talks to her and sings to her.

Posted by: roses at October 10, 2007 5:54 PM

The series finale of Alias. Hands down. Despite the fact that seasons three, four, and five were a mess (some more so than others), that they gave complete personality overhauls to some characters (Irina), and the Rambaldi endgame ended up being immortality (lame), I still nearly cried when I saw the goodbye message "Thank you for the last five years" or something to that effect.

I was in seventh grade when it premiered, and I remember seeing the teaser commercials for it and thinking "This is going to be my show." I watched the pilot that fall, and did not miss an original airing of an episode during its entire run. The ABC monkeys gave me and the rest of the Alias fans a hell of a run around, but I managed to never miss an episode. Once a week I got to go into this fantastically complicated universe and watch characters that I truly cared about, and it was pretty awesome. That show consumed over one hundred hours of my life, but I do not regret it at all.

Posted by: Katie K. at October 10, 2007 5:54 PM

Though it's a popular choice, I still have to go with, "The Body" episode of Buffy. I don't think a TV show had really clicked with me until Buffy came along, and when the "The Body" aired, I'd been watching and anticipating every Tuesday for 5 years. I can even remember where I was-I was sitting on my bed under flourescent lights in my crappy dorm with it's institutional white walls. My roommate usually watched the show with me, but she was mercifully out that night. So when the realization washed over me that her mom was really gone, I was really able to let go and completely break down with shaking and gasping sobs. It really shook me how she knew she had to call the ambulance, walked towards the phone, threw up, called, and then went and placed a paper towel over the vomit. No music played to cheapen the moment-it's one of the most honest reactions to death ever portrayed on television, and I've never been able to bring myself to watch it again.

Posted by: sleater at October 10, 2007 5:57 PM

I have to agree with all the tears for "The Body," especially because Buffy was the first TV show I absolutely fell in love with, but--good God--Doctor Who's "Doomsday" broke me. I knew it was coming and put off watching it for TWO MONTHS because I knew I couldn't handle it. When I finally did see it, I was wracked with sobs and dreamed about death and separation for the next three nights. Seriously.

Posted by: charlottelightanddark at October 10, 2007 5:58 PM

Robin Williams in the "Bop Gun" episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. I mean, it's Robin Williams, so it should be awful, but the moment where he wants his dead wife's clothes put back on her because she was self-conscious about her body, and you can tell from his delivery that he never understood that because to him she was the most beautiful woman in the world, and now she's gone forever...well, it gets me every time.

Posted by: Kate at October 10, 2007 5:59 PM

Paul - That Fresh Prince moment is my heartbreaker too! Although I still love every episode of the show, primarily out of nostalgic attachment, that one has always stood out for me... To quote a certain Pajiba staffer, I was (at least temporarily) Will Smith's bitch.

Posted by: b at October 10, 2007 6:01 PM

"Season of Death" on Farscape. Chrichton has an evil Scorpious chip in his and head, and long story short, it takes over and kills the woman he loves (i.e. Aeryn Sun).

I know it may be a little too nerdy, but that show was good. The fact it was cancelled made me call on a boycott of new shows by sci-fi channel. So much so, I watched BSG all of first season with a level of hatred and bitterness. This is because the budget of BSG was a major reason Farscape was cancelled, way to free up funds.

Also, when Daniel Jackson dies on Stargate SG-1 (the first time) sorta sucked on the episode "Meridian". But he didn't really die and just ascended. Damn sci-fi, no one is ever really dead. A blessing and a curse for the writing team sometimes.

Posted by: Teresa at October 10, 2007 6:06 PM

The Freaks and Geeks finale, unrequited peanut-butter spoiling turbo combo, Disco and Dragons. Nick watches Lindsay walk away and there's no big "I love you" stupid trite finale moment, just nothing and he's got that stupid disco outfit on. And while watching it, you know there's no more episodes and that makes it extra sad, Firefly Messenger style.

Oof.
Or Bill as the Bionic Woman.

Posted by: Brin at October 10, 2007 6:06 PM

My fave heartbreaks as follows:

1. Last few minutes of the final Sopranos
2. West Wing episode where Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" is playing and Bartlett is walking through a church, I think? (that song KILLS me)
3. Just about any Wonder Years show
4. Alice- I too, adore any Dwight-infused Office moment
5. Simpsons episode where Lisa plays her sax for Homer as an adult, and he's sleeping in a retirement home
Sure I am forgetting a few...

I am the only person who HATED the Six Feet Under finale. Talk about uncreative closure, IMO. Oh well!

Posted by: Be Adequite! at October 10, 2007 6:07 PM

A lot of my favorites have been mentioned, but this . . . well, my dorkitude, let me show you it.

I've watched Lost from the first episode, largely because I'm a Dominic Monaghan fan and I was thrilled when he was cast on the show. I've stuck through it despite the frustrations with the story and the slow pace and the long breaks . . . and then came the season 3 finale.

Charlie, DM's character, had sort-of known all season he might die--visions of the future from Desmond, y'see--and he makes the deliberate choice to put himself into a situation where he probably will die, and basically prepares for it in the episodes leading up to the finale . . . and dammit I can't even type it without tearing up.

Suffice to say Charlie sacrificed himself to give the others a better chance to escape the island, and while I tivo'd the episode I've yet to rewatch it because it's just too much.

And part of the reason why it hit me so hard--not just because my favorite character died and my favorite actor was leaving the show--is because I'd played Charlie in a roleplay game ever since the first episode was broadcast, and I'd already decided if they did kill him off in the show I'd kill him off in the game, and saying goodbye to my own inner Charlie was one of the hardest things I've ever done in the name of entertainment.

Posted by: minorblue at October 10, 2007 6:07 PM

There's an episode of Monk called something like "Mr. Monk, Up All Night". In it, Monk makes split-second eye contact with a woman on the street. He can't understand why he feels he knows this woman, he races after her but she gets lost in the crowd. He frets over this woman for days and developes insomnia. He sees this woman again as he's out walking after midnight; she's a cab driver. He hunts for her all night...and after he characterically solves the murder sub-plot in the episode, the cab driver winds up at the crime scene and Monk finally gets to look into her eyes. He realizes that he's looking at Trudy's eyes, his dead wife. His wife had been murdered years before. Guess she was an organ donor. Monk sees the tattoo of a date on the cabby's arm, it's the date of his wife's death. It's the date that the cabby got her eyesight back. Monk's crying as he realizes he could never forget his wife's eyes, the cab driver was crying because she realizes what he lost. It's all pretty corny (and macabre reading this to myself), but I got pretty misty watching this.

Posted by: Adam at October 10, 2007 6:16 PM

I have to go with the episode of ER as Carter reads the letter from Mark. It's completely manipulative, but it broke me completely. ER was the thing that my mom and I did together on Thursday nights, and we both cried like crazy when Carter read the last section from Elizabeth informing everyone that Mark ha died. Watching it all these years later still gets me.

I also have to mention the Buffy episode The Body. Anya and Willow's interaction sums up the human attempt to understand death better than anything else I've ever seen.

Posted by: Rioux at October 10, 2007 6:17 PM

OK, I hope no one has listed this one already, but mine is the "Jurassic Bark" episode of Futurama. I tuned in that night, ready for another light, enjoyable episode of Futurama, only to end up racked with sobs (no exaggeration) by the end of the episode. Fry decides not to clone his beloved dog after learning that the dog lived for several years after Fry was transported to the future. His reasoning is that he probably found another owner and had a happy life, and probably wouldn't even remember Fry. Then it cuts to a flashback of the dog, lying patiently and sadly outside the pizza parlor where Fry worked as the seasons change and the dog ages.

I'm actually getting misty right now just writing about it. My husband thinks I'm nuts.

I LOST IT. I literally stated sobbing and couldn't stop. My dogs are family, and all I could think of was how tragic it was and how painful it would be for me and for them if we were separated. I seriously cried for the rest of the night, snuggling with my dogs and sniffling into their fur.

To this day, I still can't watch that episode. I actually have to check the guide on my cable to make sure that episode isn't showing before I switch over to Adult Swim at 10 PM. If I even see the first couple of minutes of that episode, it just brings it all back and I'm sad and sniffly for the rest of the night, spooning with my Jack Russell. Seriously. It was permanently emotionally scarring.

So, anyway, I realize it's pathetic to be traumatized by the fictional abandonment of a cartoon dog, but that is the case.

Posted by: AnnArrogance at October 10, 2007 6:19 PM

This scene in Babylon 5 made me cry like a baby. A hungry, angry baby.

A little background: Kosh is what we know as an angel- a being of pure light, a guardian and mentor for mankind, and in particular Captain Sheridan. Yet he is deeply flawed, and has, as he admits himself, been standing in the way of what is right. And now he won't be any more, because the destructive, chaos-loving shadows are about to literally tear him apart.

I loved Kosh. I loved his snazzy encounter suit, his cryptic utterances, his ass-kicking powers, the awe he inspired in other characters, and especially the sinister undertones of that effect. So to see him appear to Sheridan as a mere human, and to admit his weakness, even as he bravely awaits his brutal demise, well, it evoked a feeling in me analagous to that of having a tiny violinist sneak down my trachea and play the world's saddest music on the tendons of my heart valves*.

Even now, I don't think I could talk about it aloud without bawling. In fact, I think I'll have to slip back into lurkage now in order to pour myself a drink and have a little weep.

*which I may have invented. My knowledge of human anatomy is abysmal.

Posted by: Vee at October 10, 2007 6:21 PM

Watching the series finale of Six Feet Under was the hardest 1.5 hours of television I've ever watched. Mainly due to the extended period of crying time involved. I usually snuffle here and there at sad things, but this was 45 straight minutes of soul shattering, body wracking tears.

Posted by: Sara at October 10, 2007 6:26 PM

AnnArrogance- My Jack Russell wants to send you a hug...don't be sad! ((( HUG ))) Arf arf arf!

Posted by: Be Adequite! at October 10, 2007 6:28 PM

Oh boy.

1. As said by so many, Futurama's "Jurassic Bark" leaves me a quivering wreck every time.

2. The West Wing's "The Women of Qumar," where CJ just loses it and sobs "They're beating the women" and then has to pull it together to go in the press room and defend the White House's arms deal against all her principles.

3. BSG: Saul helping Ellen "go to sleep" is tied with Baltar trying to help the abused Gina on the Pegasus, telling her how he was in love with someone "who looks exactly like you."

Posted by: smark at October 10, 2007 6:31 PM

1) The West Wing's 'Election Day' episode. It was the episode that aired after the magnificent John Spencer died. The show was forced to write out the character of Leo, who had been the rock, the foundation holding this show together. To lose him not only meant losing one of the greatest television actors of recent years, but it also hit me that my favorite show (EVER) was ending. I cried, so hard and for so long after the episode aired my parents thought I was going through a depression. It was heartbreaking.

2) Also from West Wing--'The Two Cathedrals'. From that incredible moment with Martin Sheen railing against God, to the final scenes playing against Dire Straits' 'Brothers in Arms', that entire episode gave me chills.

I miss that show.

Posted by: Maria at October 10, 2007 6:38 PM

1) The West Wing's 'Election Day' episode. It was the episode that aired after the magnificent John Spencer died. The show was forced to write out the character of Leo, who had been the rock, the foundation holding this show together. To lose him not only meant losing one of the greatest television actors of recent years, but it also hit me that my favorite show (EVER) was ending. I cried, so hard and for so long after the episode aired my parents thought I was going through a depression. It was heartbreaking.

2) Also from West Wing--'The Two Cathedrals'. From that incredible moment with Martin Sheen railing against God, to the final scenes playing against Dire Straits' 'Brothers in Arms', that entire episode gave me chills.

I miss that show.

Posted by: Maria at October 10, 2007 6:44 PM

The Doctor Who season finale of season three had me crying and near sobbing when The Master dies. Which is strange because he killed almost all the humans on Earth and used a paradox machine to force the humans from the future to feed off the humans from their past and essentially was crazy and disgusting and the opposite of everything good The Doctor is.

And yet, when The Doctor held The Master and begged him to regenerate, to fix himself... begged him to not leave him alone again. Pleaded that he would not be the last of the Time Lords and granted forgiveness for all the horrible things The Master had done.... I was a mess. And not just because of how much pain The Doctor was in, although that was a large part of it. It was the thought of being so utterly alone (as both The Doctor and The Master were) and imploring the other to be or stay. It was the thought of being that alone again. It was the inability to save and the unwillingness to accept the forgiveness offered. It was a combination of many things, not the least of which was the simple desire that things had worked out differently.

It is a very relatable moment. But, imagine having the ability to time-travel but be unable to change any of the outcomes of the bad in your (or a loved one's) life. And now I am crying again.

Posted by: jadeblue at October 10, 2007 6:46 PM

The season finale of Season 4 of The Wire. Four kids in middle school are doomed to a life of drug dealing or death. Only one of them escapes, the others end up as gangsters, in a state home doomed to be an outcast or dead. These kids played the hell out of their scenes which made them all the more heartbreaking and realistic. And the saddest part is this stuff happens everyday in real life. Also, criminal Bodie makes his last stand on his only remaining corner as Marlo Stanfield's men close in and shoot him to death. That's pretty damn heartbreaking.

Posted by: Jeff at October 10, 2007 6:47 PM

Most Painful Memory? yeah, that's easy. So, there I am, watching southpark. My 17 year old sister is watching it with me. We are laughing up a storm. Then, one of the characters mentions the Clit. Now, I'm laughing, but I am the only one... my sister, who is a senior in public school and, I reiterate, is 17, turns to me and asks... "what's the clit?" Did I mention she is my only sister, and baby sister? Some things you dont' ask a family member...cuz I had a minor heart attack right there. and that is my most painful TV memory... To this day I can't watch SouthPark without getting really nervous.

Posted by: Nico at October 10, 2007 6:48 PM

wsapnin, Steph, and the other animal-sobbers out there, I'm with you. I don't even watch Futurama and just reading the description of the poor dog made me tear up. I'm SUCH a sap for animals. Like last nights House ep. Sure, the poor paralyzed man died because of a doctors mistake, but it's jsut TV so its ok. But then the dog whined, and I couldn't stop crying. AND THEN THE DOG DIED TOO.

Anyway. My actual saddest moments, even though I won't win and don't want the DVD anyway:

1) Cosby episode, Loving Madeline. It was a tribute to Madeline Kahn after she died of ovarian cancer, and the whole ep was just the cast talking about Maddy, cut with clips of her in previous episodes. I think I cried myself to sleep that night.

2) Xena, which may be laughed at around these parts but is still one of the best shows ever. Buffy's got nothing on Xena. But anyway, a couple choices from here. S1 finale, Xena decides to be stubborn and take a path through a known warzone rather than a longer route around it, and Gabrielle ends up seriously wounded in an attack. She stops breathing, and being ancient Greece, they don't have respirators and whatnot, so everyone says she's dead. Xena won't accept that, and keeps pounding on Gabrielle's chest, screaming 'don't you leave me!' One last desperate pound, and Gabrielle's eyes fly back open. S1 was largely pretty rough with the acting, but my gods this episode is still one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

I've got plenty of other Xena moments I could cite, but I'll just go watch clips on YouTube instead.

Posted by: Gabs at October 10, 2007 6:52 PM

I saw one mention of this, just skimmed through so there might be another. Anyway, two for you now:

'The Message' from Firefly. When Tracey is dying and talking to Mal? When they play his message again? The very ending, where they deliver the body? I cried. I sat here in my chair and bawled.

I recently bought the entire series of OZ on DVD. Early birthday present to myself. I'm about midway through S3 (episode U.S Male). Anyway, possibly the most heartbreaking ep for me so far is the season finale for S2. One, Keller betraying Beecher. That was sniffle-inducing (it also induced quite a few comments of 'Keller, you cocksucker'; since watching this show, I've started swearing even more than usual). Two, Alvarez scooping out the hack's eyes (Rivera, was it?), hiding in Mukada's office, and screaming when they threw him in solitary. The screaming just broke my heart, it really did. Kirk Acevedo did a really great job with that; of course it helps that Alvarez is in my Top 6 (joined by Beecher, Keller, Vern Schillinger, Ryan O'Reily, and Hill; yes, I like Hill).

Posted by: 'Cuno at October 10, 2007 6:56 PM

Picard and the flute - The Light, definitely tears me up

But the one that had me sobbing and calling my dad long distance...

My family and I watch a lot of TV together over the phone. We're spread all over the globe, so those of us who share obsessions call before, during, and after, spending hours debating the whys and wherefores. My father and I shared an obsession with PBS' Mystery!, and in particular, the amazingly complex Inspector Morse played brilliantly by John Thaw.

We analyzed every episode. Dad worked out that the music at the end of part one held Morse Code clues to the show almost immediately (I didn't find that out for years!), but he never spoiled the mystery for me. We watched the originals, then caught the re-runs to see where we lost clues and had a running bet on Morse' real first name (we weren't even close).

When we found out that John Thaw was dying of cancer, we thought, how sad, and wondered if the BBC would be stupid enough to re-cast. Then they announced that they were going to kill off Morse so the role would die with the actor...

I still can't describe how hard it was to watch that last episode, knowing that one of my favorite actors was dying, knowing that one of my favorite characters was going as well. Surprisingly enough, I didn't lose it when he collapsed, but Lewis had to go to the morgue and ID the body. Lewis leaned over and kissed Morse on the forehead, then said a very quiet "Goodbye, sir."

Absolutely did me in...

Posted by: funtime42 at October 10, 2007 6:56 PM

Heartbreaking moment #1: Gilmore Girls, end of season six -- Lorelai breaks off her engagement with Luke and sleeps with Christopher. The double heartbreak that a) it was sad to watch and b) one of my favorite TV shows had essentially killed itself. I was angry and heartbroken. I still watched season 7, but I glowered through the first half. I was so mad. I thought I could never trust another show again. But the thing is, like all heartbreaks, you find a new love. For my quirky family drama, I now have "Brothers and Sisters." Shut up, I love it. Rachel Griffiths fucking rules.

Heartbreaking moment #2: This little scene Freaks and Geeks:
Neil: Shut up! You don't even have a father!
Bill Haverchuck: I DO have a father! I talked to him three months ago!

And Bill's voice cracking at the end! Shit.

Posted by: tetetetigi at October 10, 2007 6:57 PM

I don't want the GH viewer to feel lonely, so I'll see her "Stone's death" and raise her "B.J's Heart."

(Anyone who watched that show when it was actually good knows what I'm talking about when I say that the scene in which Felicia realizes whose heart Maxie has been given? Brutal.)

Posted by: Louise at October 10, 2007 7:04 PM

So yeah, lots of people here mentioned their Buffy moments, the Body or my personal fave, when Oz and Willow break up, or SFU, or West Wing.

But I had to think back to that one moment that predated them all - one that spoke to me of adult compromise, of attempting to do right versus attempting to be cool, a moment of paint and regret and cutting off a limb so the body could life.

Of course, I'm talking about the time that they kicked Puck out of the Real World.

It never happened this way before. For three seasons, no one really knew what they had on their hands. This was before the producers started to follow rule of "just get them all drunk". This was back when they actually got people of interest. And this was, in the heady days of the early Clinton administration, the relationship that got America talking. That is the dynamic between Pedro and Puck.

The thing was - Both were pure. One was full of hope and good will and a desire to save the world. The other was an angry, immature devil, bent on destruction and chaos. But they both were pure. Both sexy. Both lovable, in their own way. We all admired Pedro. But, in our secret harts, we all wanted to be Puck.

However, Puck was a bastard. That was clear from day one. But he was an attractive bastard, so we tried to love him. Was he just hurt, and lashing out? Did he just need a hug? Or did he really hate the world so much that he had to destroy everything in front of him, including a beautiful dying man who spent every day as if it was his last, because it just might be?

Finally, the house could no longer put up with this conflict, and more importantly, Pedro could no longer. He threatened to leave, because the house was a toxic environment. But Judd, good Judd, liberal Judd, Judd the worshiped Pam from afar, Judd who loved her so much that the only thing he could think to do for her birthday was FLY HER BOYFRIEND OUT TO SEE HER -

Judd said no. You're not going anywhere. And he got the entire house together. Conservative Rachel. Laid back cool Mohammad. Naive Cory. And the serene, beautiful Pam. And one by one - they all voted him out.

But it didn't end there. They called him. And via speaker phone, they begged him to come home. So they could talk to him face to face. It was breaking their hearts, what they had to do. They all still loved him, even if they could no longer live with him. But the angry Puck, crown prince of Bike Messengers, demanded to know of his fate via speaker phone. And they told him.

They cried. But it was the right thing. And as Puck philosophized on how no one can really change anyone, and he'll always be the same angry punk no matter how many hugs he gets, we were shown shots of him biking gracefully along the San Francisco Streets, under the early morning haze of the Bay Area. And as "It's Over Now", a now long-forgotten song from the indie-fueled early '90's played, we all got a little sadder. A little older.

I guess it's over now.
I think we've seen the end.
When our common dream.
Faltered in the between.
Though I've tried so hard to make it real.
It doesn't matter now.
I guess it never did.

and it's alright alright alright with me.
and it's alright if that's how you want it to be.

-Cause and Effect

Posted by: Withnail at October 10, 2007 7:09 PM

A lot of the moments mentioned here are real tear-jerkers. Scrubs, 6 Feet Under, even the Simpsons and Futurama ones are really emotional, really sad scenes. Of course, VM season 3 finale's last, oh, 2 to 3 minutes ("It Never Rains In California") deserve a honorable mention here. Will Keith lose the election and be forever disgraced? Will Veronica ever be in a lasting happy relationship? Is it all "back to square one"? In a way, this is the perfect ending to a series I never wanted to end.



However, the truly saddest moment I can think of is from MASH. Not the death of Henry Blake, although that's stunning too, but an episode from season 1. A friend of Hawkeye's comes to the camp to see his buddy, then later is brought in wounded and dies. Hawk cries for his friend, at the same time wondering why he never cried for any of the dead soldiers before. The scene gets me in its quietness.

Posted by: muzz at October 10, 2007 7:10 PM

Oh, and another scene that should be mentioned here: In the faux-documentary episode of MASH, Father Mulcahy tells the interviewer in his particular, silent manner that on cold days, a MASH surgeon will warm his hands in the steam rising out of an operative incision. It almost makes me cry, and it almost makes me sick.

Posted by: muzz at October 10, 2007 7:16 PM

i have four moments that brought me to tears (for either emotional or nostalgic/sentimental reasons), and one that just plain blew my mind because of the power of the scene and the actors involved.

1- M*A*S*H- Radar coming in to the surgery to tell everyone that Col. Blake's plane had been shot down. Many years later I read that the actors had not been told of this development (as far as they knew Blake was just being discharged) and that their reactions to the news of his death were as genuine as could be.

2- Hill Street Blues- ignoring the fact that almost every episode of this show had at least one gut-wrenching moment and that the bloody theme song still chokes me up, the episode where we had to watch and live with the station dealing with the death of Sgt. Esterhaus is perhaps the saddest hour of television that i have ever lived through.

3- Doctor Who- the episode in which the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker dies, and is replaced by the 5th Doctor, Peter Davidson. Doctor Who was the first show that I can consciously remember watching- i literally grew up with it (thanks to TVO- public television in Ontario), and Tom Baker's Doctor was my boyhood hero. I hadn't had to deal with the death of a loved one up until this point and this episode really f**ked me up.

4- M*A*S*H (again)- the series finale- Hawkeye and BJ saluting Col. Potter for the first (and only) time before he rode off on his horse. Touching.

5- Homicide: Life on the Street- sometimes i get the feeling that I'm the only one who appreciates Andre Braugher for what he is- one of the greatest actors of our time. His performance as Pembleton being interrogated after his partner took a bullet for him because of his inability/unwillingness to pull the trigger is probably the most powerful performance i have seen on screen (big or small).

(sorry for the overly long and probably boring comment)

Posted by: causaubon at October 10, 2007 7:16 PM

Since a lot of moments that came to mind have already been mentioned, I will say that episode of Homicide: Life On the Street with the guy stuck in between the subway train and the landing. That whole damn episode just kills me every time and both Andre Braugher and Vincent D'Onofrio were spectacular.

Posted by: Erin at October 10, 2007 7:26 PM

Lee,

Your 2nd heartbreaking Futurama moment gets to me too - the way it ends is the worst part of it. Right after the stars get sucked into the black hole, Leela & Bender arrive at the helm and are mad at Fry for interrupting whatever they were doing earlier. When Leela impatiently demands, "What did you want us for, anyway?", Fry just sighs (in a whisper), "Nothing..." Fade to black.

Another sad moment from Futurama is from "The Luck of the Fryish", when Fry realizes that the statue of his brother in Old New York is really of his nephew, whom his brother named after him. Flashback to Fry's brother & sister-in-law with their newborn, as Fry's brother proudly names him after Fry. From Wikipedia: "The inscription on the tomb reads "Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit". Fry returns the clover to his nephew's grave as Don't You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds rolls over the end credits."

Posted by: a at October 10, 2007 7:31 PM

sorry, but i just remembered one more that really affected me. you have to promise not to laugh, but it was an episode of Magnum P.I. where Magnum had to tread water for a day and he had these flashbacks from his childhood and of his father, and, of course, his father's death. i first saw this episode with my dad when it aired originally (this show was a father-and-son thing for me and my dad) and my father got really choked up but i guess i was too young to understand it at the time. now however, the father-and-son relationship shown in the episode hits a little closer to home.

Posted by: causaubon at October 10, 2007 7:37 PM

Mine is heartbreak-by-proxy. My daughter, Emma, is four years old and loves Winnie The Pooh. A couple months ago, I walked into the room while she was in the middle of watching "Piglet's Big Movie," which is, for the most part, a crappy repackaging of lousy Winnie The Pooh cartoons which involved Piglet. It's all tied together by the other characters in the movie as they ponder over the ways in which Piglet, who's missing for some reason, has made a big difference in their lives.

Okay, I walked into the room and there was my daughter with teary eyes. I asked her what was wrong, and she started sobbing. Piglet went away, she told me, and all his friends were thinking of him and worrying about him and they all loved him so much. By now she could hardly talk because she was crying so hard.

Well, you can imagine how I reacted to this. I cried my eyes out, too, over my sweet little girl who cares so much about the sadness and worries of a bunch of cartoon characters that she's reduced to a puddle of tears. And I cried over the fact that, like me, my mother, my grandmother, and who knows how many generations before me, she can be moved to tears by the plight of another. I felt a thread run from them, through me, to her, and I cried over that tie.

And then I deleted that blasted movie from the DVR for making my baby cry!

Posted by: Shannon at October 10, 2007 7:37 PM

Man I jumped on this comment diversion way too late. Eveything that has ever choked me up seems to have been taken.

It's nice to see so many Buffy, Angel and Firefly fans. Everyone sad moment from that show seems to have been mentioned at least a couple of times already. The same goes for West Wing and ER. There were tons of moments from those two shows that totally got me all of which seem to have been mentioned.

One thing that really got me recently was The War. The Ken Burns documentary they just ran. It had so many moments that really got to me but I have to say the one that got me the most was when they interviewed family members of a soldier named Babe Ciarlo who was in Italy. Throughout the whole episode they would talk about letters that they got from him and how their mother would sit on the patio everyday to wait for a letter from him and would light up eveytime they came. You can totally see the writing the wall but at the end when they talk about getting the telegram telling them that he was KIA. It totally got to me. It was so sad.

Posted by: Greg P. at October 10, 2007 7:44 PM

I doubt anyone's going to agree with me... but there's an episode called "One" in the last season of Sex and the City. Charlotte miscarries her child, and gathers all her strength to get off her couch and face everyone. But more emotional is the next scene, where Miranda, who is so closed off and tries to always be strong, finally tells Steve she's in love with him. It just comes out, and you can tell she's so uncomfortable, but that she had to say it. I know people knock this show, but Cynthia Nixon is one of the best dramatic actresses out there.

Posted by: jen at October 10, 2007 7:49 PM

Hill Street Blues . . . Sgt. Esterhaus

Guh, forgot about that one; I was in high school and far too cool to cry, so I had to take leave of the fam for a few minutes for some alone time. Was anyone else, um, aroused by Esterhaus's sexy girlfriend, the early 40's redhead? I was about 15, so I was wildly attracted to just about anything female, but Barbara Babcock may have been my first older woman fantasy.

Posted by: socalledonlycousins at October 10, 2007 7:49 PM

Oh, God, the Futurama clone-Frye's-Dog episode had me crying like a baby. I have a dog, who is the kind of dog who would swim in vats of pizza sauce and wait unmovingly on the curb for me after my untimely cryogenic freezing. I recently found out that the shelter I got him from lied about his age and he is three years (!) older than I thought he was. It got me all sniffly, thinking about how much less time I would have with Eddie than I thought, and then they aired that stupid Futurama, and it was all over for me. I had to put ice packs on my eyes in the morning to keep from looking like death.

Speaking of death, the Six Feet Under finale is a given. Bawled (at work) during that one after you ran it on your 'best finales' list (and I never even watched the series).

Scrubs, at Ben's funeral, and the one where Cox loses the patients. Because John C. McGinley is a freaking genius and should get some acknowledgment here even if he's never gotten an Emmy. In fact, his dearth of Emmies may one of the most heartbreaking circumstances in television. I will give that my nom.

Posted by: Jen at October 10, 2007 7:50 PM

Ah, I remember seeing an episode of TAXI when Christopher Lloyd's character is remembering his dead father, who left him a tape. I was young enough that is was probably the first time I'd heard "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" and I'll probably always think of that moment when I hear it...

Posted by: matt at October 10, 2007 7:50 PM

the first time buffy ended was really sad. i can't remember if i knew that the show was already coming back on UPN but when she decides to take her life so her sister can live. and then everyone is crying, and i cried with them.

also grey's anatomy when denny dies, but i had been crying previously to that because of the dog that they had to put down. i lost it! and then denny was dying, and i was a mess. also when they blew up kyle chandler when they had the bomb in the lady.

Posted by: anna at October 10, 2007 7:59 PM

My oldest sister was the one to get me into Veronica Mars, desperate for me to love better shows than Smallville. (Don't judge!) She brought the first season home one summer and we watched the entire thing in the span of a week or two. The moment that really broke my heart was the scene where you first get a look inside of the Echoll's family, after the bum fighting fiasco. Logan is looking in his father's closet, picking out a belt and I was naive enough to ask, cautiously, "What's he doing?" My sister told me to keep watching and I knew what was going to happen. That one moment was disturbing enough to me that I was depressed for the next couple of days.

Posted by: Erin at October 10, 2007 7:59 PM

I know I already listed four, but I gotta go with two shameless additions from old school Degrassi and new Degrassi, since I'm the Degrassi nerd around here...

Old Degrassi:

Wheels' parents are killed by a drunk driver, and he has a nightmare at the beginning of the next episode in which they come home and everything seems fine. In the dream he is so relieved to see them, and he says he thought they were dead. And then, his mother says something like: "But, honey, we are dead," and her voice echoes, and he wakes up. That sent a chill up my spine and made me want to check my parents room to make sure they were o.k.

New Degrassi:

Spinner is indirectly responsible for putting Jimmy in his wheelchair, because out of fear he told the guy who committed the school shooting that Jimmy was the one who set up this whole scheme to humiliate him. Despite Spinner's attempts to reconcile, Jimmy goes the whole school year refusing to acknowledge Spinner's existence much less speak to him. Then finally at the graduation ceremony out of nowhere Jimmy speaks to Spinner. Spinner can scacrely believe his ears. Jimmy forgives him and apologizes for blaming him. They're still too awkward to do anything beyond talking, though. Spinner gets this incredible smile on his face, feeding off the energy he leaves to try to win back his girlfriend, but then seconds later he runs back in and gives Jimmy a full body hug. I just find it a great testament to forgiveness. (And I smiled when I learned that the actor who played Spinner improv-ed the bit where he ran back in and hugged him.)

Posted by: Darth Corleone at October 10, 2007 8:03 PM

I wasn't really allowed to watch much tv when I was younger (I know! The horror!) but when I was a junior in high school I made honor roll and was allowed to pick one show to watch every week. I chose Party of Five because...well because I was a junior in high schoo, you know?

So there's an episode I think it's at the end of season 2, where Charlie and Kirsten are supposed to get married, but it's called off at the last minute. I just hadn't ever seen TV that moved me so much. I think my parents seriously reconsidered their decision to allow me this one show given how much I cried that night.

There's another episode, where Julia and Justin have broken up, and she crawls through his bedroom window to tell him that she doesn't know how to live without him. Very melodramatic, but I watched it at an age where that kind of unbridled, hurdling ahead at the speed of light kind of emotion made total sense to me, and that scene just made my heart feel like it was about to shatter into a billion pieces.

So there. That was quite embarrassing and now I'm a bit mopey.

Posted by: bluestar at October 10, 2007 8:05 PM

Animal Cops Detroit makes me cry EVERY GODDAMN TIME. Who would chain a puppy to a fence and then just LEAVE TOWN?

Posted by: Sarafina at October 10, 2007 8:07 PM

Sicne soemoen already wrote an essay on the end of Six feet under....


Battlestar Galactica: Col. Tigh, probaly the most battle hardend, raging alchoholic, XO in a universe far far waya or right around the corner is forced to kill his wife for making a deal with the enemy to save his life. While Elen Tigh was unfaithful, they were had finally worked through their issues and and become the type of coupling that marrige idealizes wife. But in this this case love and justice were not compatible and the old man of the sea (in space)decides that if she has to die for her treachery then he will be the one to kill her.

If something brings Col. Tigh to cry... I feel that even a real Cylon like Cheney would feel his eyes moisten.

Posted by: matt at October 10, 2007 8:07 PM

Erin: Since a lot of moments that came to mind have already been mentioned, I will say that episode of Homicide: Life On the Street with the guy stuck in between the subway train and the landing. That whole damn episode just kills me every time and both Andre Braugher and Vincent D'Onofrio were spectacular.

Oh my God, Erin, I forgot about that one. That episode gets to me so bad. When they find his girlfriend in the park and she denies it's her because she doesn't know what's happening, and so she never gets to say goodbye to him.... oh God... I seriously have to stop reading these comments now.

Posted by: AnnArrogance at October 10, 2007 8:09 PM

Oz, season six. Two episodes. The first is when they thought Cyril would be executed and Ryan is saying good-bye to him, and everyone in Em-City is pounding on the walls...and then he is saved. The second is when he really is executed and Ryan is walking around the meditation maze... Both episodes kill me, but the one where he doesn't actually die is the more depressing one.

Posted by: Courtney at October 10, 2007 8:09 PM

Withnail, thanks for the Willow-Oz break-up shout out. I cried many many times during Buffy, and yes, 'The Body' is brilliant fucking television, but my most visceral gut reaction?

Willow: Oz . . . Don't you love me anymore?

Oz: My whole life, I never loved anything else.

Sweet jesus, was I a mess.

Posted by: Lizzie (greeneyed fem) at October 10, 2007 8:12 PM

I never watched ER on original airing. However, I have watched the re-runs since. The episode where Mark Greene dies kills me every time. He was such a great character from the show.

At the end, when his daughter finally has enough
decency to think of him and tells him how she remembers all the good times from her childhood, It's heartbreaking to me. Then, they play that wonderful version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It was almost hopeful, yet crushing.

Greene gets to see visions of all those he loves while that breathtaking music plays. You see Elizabeth and their child and all the folks at the ER. Then Greene leaves the vision through the ER and all the lights go out.

Just thinking about it makes me tear up a little.


PS- That Futurama episode with Fry's dog was just on the other day. I kept telling people how sad that episode makes me.

Posted by: Emily at October 10, 2007 8:18 PM

I just thought of another one--I can't believe I forgot it. I think I was trying to put it out of my skull. Of course it has to do with animals, again. BUT..

Surfing one nite I happened on the 20th Anniversary special of Nature on PBS. (Better television cannot be made.) They were giving synopses of some of their most memorable moments.
One of which happened to be about an elephant that was being moved from the zoo in which she lived for 20+ years. The story was about the bond of friendship between her and the guy that had been her keeper for most of those years and how he was all tore up that she was leaving but he know that it was best for her. Tearjerker! Plus she had been injured in the circus years before and had a bum foot.

THEN CAME THE DOUBLE WHAMMY! When she gets to the elephant sanctuary in middle TN (who knew there was an elephant santuary 45 min. from my house? Not me.)she is put in a holding area with another elephant they both start going crazy with excitement--rubbing against each other, exploring with their trunks, making excited elephant noises. It turns out they knew each other from the circus over 20 years before!

Waaahaahaa..I was weeping--sobbing--the "ugly cry" Oprah calls it.

This was heartwarming and heartbreaking but definitely a double sobfest. Only true stories can be so good.

Posted by: wsapnin at October 10, 2007 8:19 PM

Mine comes from an episode of the "The Wonder Years" that aired when I was about 9. The student's at Kevin's school are going to walk out to protest the Vietnam War. But the administration gets wind of the walk out and preemptively tells the students that they will be suspended if they participate. Now, keep in mind that I'm 9 and a little-goody-two-shoes. I love school. I'm good at school. And a suspension will go on my "Permanent Record." But Vietnam was wrong. And people need to stand up for their beliefs, especially when they are being ignored by TPTB.

My 9-year-old self bawled for an hour over this, despite my mother alternately trying to reassure me that 1-my permanent record wasn't worth not standing up for my beliefs and 2-enough other students would walk out, so the message would be heard.

I cry over television all the time, but nothing upset me more than that. Ever. My mother still brings it up. And I kinda love my 9 year-old-self for getting so worked up over a hypothetical situation.

Posted by: abijah at October 10, 2007 8:25 PM

oh my god wsapnin! I remember that elephant story. I was a wreck. Also, I never saw the dog episode of Futurama, but it reminds me of Greyfriar's Bobby - after his master died, he spent his days outside the bar his master frequented and his nights on his master's grave. For like, 14 years.....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh

Posted by: s. pisaster at October 10, 2007 8:29 PM

just as an aside...

how the f**k will they decide who wins the damn prize?!

Posted by: causaubon at October 10, 2007 8:32 PM

So I grew up with the Wonder Years. The show starts with Kevin going into 7th grade and I was in 4th at the time. There's this episode called "Square Dance" where Kevin gets paired up with Margaret Farquhar to learn square dancing.

And she's so geeky, and not in that ironic way, just really terribly socially awkward. She talks about her pet bat and doesn't know when to shut up, and shows up at Kevin's house, because she's so damn lonely. He even starts to sorta think she's cool, but then he chickens out and doesn't show up when she's expecting him at her house.

At school, when she calls him out, he tells her that they can be "secret friends". The look on her face; oh man it's awful. She doesn't really even get mad, she just accepts it, like she's used to doing.

The thing that got/gets me is that watching the episode totally made me realize I was that girl. I was the super geek with snails for pets who talked too much, and dressed in mismatched weird clothes because I didn't give a shit. I was the nerdy dweeb with glasses who was awful at sports and had her glasses knocked off and her eye blacked by the PE Teacher's poorly aimed softball pitch.

It was at that moment, seeing Margaret being dicked around by Kevin, that I knew that growing up was going to suck for me. Just like Margaret, I had already learned to quietly accept it when the Kevin Arnold's of the playground dicked you around. I realized that all those things that didn't matter to me did matter, and that even if I did grow up and become a Supreme Court Justice, people were always going to make fun of me, and probably never understand me.

It is a crushing thing to be in 5th grade and realize the person the kids are making fun of on television is you.

Oh and tip of the hat to all those mentioning Jurassic Bark, it gets me every time.

Posted by: missmle at October 10, 2007 8:37 PM

Mine is heartbreak-by-proxy. My daughter, Emma, is four years old and loves Winnie The Pooh. A couple months ago, I walked into the room while she was in the middle of watching "Piglet's Big Movie," which is, for the most part, a crappy repackaging of lousy Winnie The Pooh cartoons which involved Piglet. It's all tied together by the other characters in the movie as they ponder over the ways in which Piglet, who's missing for some reason, has made a big difference in their lives.

Okay, I walked into the room and there was my daughter with teary eyes. I asked her what was wrong, and she started sobbing. Piglet went away, she told me, and all his friends were thinking of him and worrying about him and they all loved him so much. By now she could hardly talk because she was crying so hard.

Well, you can imagine how I reacted to this. I cried my eyes out, too, over my sweet little girl who cares so much about the sadness and worries of a bunch of cartoon characters that she's reduced to a puddle of tears. And I cried over the fact that, like me, my mother, my grandmother, and who knows how many generations before me, she can be moved to tears by the plight of another. I felt a thread run from them, through me, to her, and I cried over that tie.

And then I deleted that blasted movie from the DVR for making my baby cry!

Posted by: Shannon at October 10, 2007 8:47 PM

Mine is heartbreak-by-proxy. My daughter, Emma, is four years old and loves Winnie The Pooh. A couple months ago, I walked into the room while she was in the middle of watching "Piglet's Big Movie," which is, for the most part, a crappy repackaging of lousy Winnie The Pooh cartoons which involved Piglet. It's all tied together by the other characters in the movie as they ponder over the ways in which Piglet, who's missing for some reason, has made a big difference in their lives.

Okay, I walked into the room and there was my daughter with teary eyes. I asked her what was wrong, and she started sobbing. Piglet went away, she told me, and all his friends were thinking of him and worrying about him and they all loved him so much. By now she could hardly talk because she was crying so hard.

Well, you can imagine how I reacted to this. I cried my eyes out, too, over my sweet little girl who cares so much about the sadness and worries of a bunch of cartoon characters that she's reduced to a puddle of tears. And I cried over the fact that, like me, my mother, my grandmother, and who knows how many generations before me, she can be moved to tears by the plight of another. I felt a thread run from them, through me, to her, and I cried over that tie.

And then I deleted that blasted movie from the DVR for making my baby cry!

Posted by: Shannon at October 10, 2007 8:47 PM

does korean tv count? does anyone here watch kdramas? because some of those are SOUL-crushing! everytime i watch the final episode of autumn in my heart (where the main girl character FINALLY succumbs to cancer in the arms of her true love/brother at the beach where they had their last childhood memory together) i die a little inside. and also, whats with all the tragic beach scenes korea?

Posted by: nick at October 10, 2007 8:48 PM

I think most all of my heartbreaking moments have already been mentioned numerous times already (Buffy, Angel, FNL, Arrested Development, Scrubs, Office, that damn Futurama episode). I don't cry a lot, and for some strange reason each of these shows has managed to illicit strange moisture accumulating in my eyes, but none so much as this one:

8 Simple Rules, the one after John Ritter died. Thinking of that even now brings me close to tears. Growing up I used to watch repeats of Three's Company every morning, and that man was honestly my first crush. I loved Jack Tripper, and when I was old enough to understand that television characters were actual people, that love carried over to John Ritter. No actor's death ever affected me the way his did, and the way they handled it on the show, just about broke me. For that matter, the episode of Scrubs "My Cake" that also dealt with his death... well, let's just say it was a very emotional television season for me.

Posted by: McGeek at October 10, 2007 8:52 PM

Arrested Development - this show spoiled me for low rated, high quality shows. It is the reason I was reluctant to watch Veronica Mars and Friday Night Lights. It broke me.

And yet Two and A Half Men lives.

Buffy's high school prom and her final dance with Angel to "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star. *sniffle*

The last episode of season one "The OC" with Seth going off alone in his boat to Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah". *sniff*

The last few minutes of the Smallville season finale where Papa Luthor shaves his head in prison and we see an explosion that might have killed Chloe. Johnny Cash's "Hurt" plays.

Maybe it was just the music.

Posted by: greer at October 10, 2007 8:57 PM

I'm too dango lazy to read all of these, so I'm probably posting repeats but here goes:

- The episode of 'Angel' where Buffy comes to visit him and he turns human thanks to that demon's venom but then he asks to be turned back because as a human he's not strong enough to protect her. So after the whole magical day together time turns back and she has no memory of what happened between them, but he does. OH. MY. GOD.

- Billy dies on Ally McBeal
- Dr. Green dies on ER

Posted by: jill at October 10, 2007 8:59 PM

Also not in it for the give-away, but I had to chip in. There are several back-to-back tear-jerking Scrubs episodes in Season 5: the one where the endearing Mrs. Wilks gets to finally leave the hospital, and then the one where she comes back and dies; the one where Carla finds out she's pregnant; the one (oddly) where the janitor wrestles with his personal value and is affirmed by a severely-paralytic patient. But the one that KILLS me is the one where a girl with severe depression tries to befriend JD, but he brushes her off only to find her in the hospital the next day in what appears to be an overdose. She dies, which he takes to heart and has to be talked out of his self-flagellating funk by Dr Cox because 'once you start blaming yourself for people's deaths, well, that's a slippery slope and it's ruined a lot of good doctors.' The girl's death is bad news for JD but good news for Dr Cox, because he can use her organs to revive three dying patients. Unfortunately, the reprieve offered these patients is temporary. The girl, it seems, died of rabies rather than a drug overdose. Each of the patients is infected and, one by one, dies off, for which Dr Cox takes total responsibility. The last scene has Dr Cox tearing up and fleeing the hospital as The Fray's 'How To Save A Life' plays in the background.
Gets me even now.

Posted by: raych at October 10, 2007 8:59 PM

I've got two:

The first is the episode of Dead Like Me when Daisy takes the soul of a pre-op transexual literally feet away from finally becoming a woman (He takes a high heel to the head). Daisy takes her soul to the church where she starts yelling at God for giving her the wrong body.

The second is Kristin Chenoweth's rendition of "Hopelessly Devoted To You" on Pushing Daisies (Hated Grease, Loved this song). They play it for laughes, but at the same time, there is that accessable feeling of heartache that the one person you love will only ever love someone else, and that the best thing you can do for them is let them go.

Posted by: Jeremy at October 10, 2007 9:03 PM

off the top of my head:

there's an episode of homicide: life on the street that gets me every time i see it. one of the detectives commits suicide (crosetti?), and because of this he is denied an honor guard for his funeral. for the entire episode the viewer is led to believe pembleton (andre braugher! the reason i fell in love with this show!) is not going to attend the funeral. at the end of the episode, as the funeral procession passes the police station, we see pembleton in his dress blues, saluting alone. i love that man.

life goes on, the "jesse episodes"...especially the series finale.


and there are quite a few moments in felicity that tear me up...i just can't remember specific ones at the moment!

Posted by: kelley at October 10, 2007 9:09 PM

It would have to be the season finale of VERONICA MARS SPOILERS

Veronica Mars, Season 2. When V is on the roof with Beaver and Logan comes up and sees her pointing a gun at Beaver. Veronica tells Logan everything Beaver has done (he killed a bus load of kids, killed her father [supposedly], and raped her.) Kristen Bell KILLS in that scene and the anguish in her voice brings me to tears. And you feel so bad for Beaver, who despite his evil tendencies, has really been a likable character up until that episode.

SERENITY SPOILERS AHEAD

Another one: Not a TV moment, but involving one of my favorite TV character's. In "Serenity" when Wash dies it just floored me and broke my heart. Wash was the most likable character anywhere on TV or in Film and he was snatched away in a second. And in a celebratory second. Too cruel, Joss. Too cruel.

Posted by: candace at October 10, 2007 9:10 PM

Rugrats. I swear. I was babysitting my nieces, there was this one Mother's Day episode, and one of the kids (Chuckie, I think) is the only one that doesn't have a mom to give a Mother's Day card because, apparently, she died when he was a baby. But he has a picture of her in his bedroom and says, very matter-of-factly, "I remember her sometimes, right before I fall asleep".

Posted by: courtney at October 10, 2007 9:13 PM

The one I forgot to mention:

The episode of Sex and the City where Miranda and Steve are finally getting married. Samantha has just learned that she has breast cancer. Carrie senses something is wrong and makes Samantha tell her. Then Charlotte finds out. And all of them try to keep it together long enough for Miranda to get married but they are all ready to burst into tears. It always makes me mist up. I have a friend who battled breast cancer a couple of years ago and swears a few of us to secrecy so that she will not burden other people with her problems and refuses to accept pity.

This episode made me want to hug Kim Cattrall!!

Posted by: greer at October 10, 2007 9:13 PM

Many of my heartbreaking television moments have already been mentioned, especially the cathartic Sex Feet Under series finale and the intensely moving finale of M*A*S*H. But two others are the season finale of The Wonder Years and the Christmas episode of My So Called Life. The end of the Wonder Years was perfect-- providing the happy ending all viewers desired, while also intertwining a bit of reality when the narrator reveals that Kevin and Winnie marry different people. At first, the news evoked sadness about the perfect couple's eventual demise, but as I grew older I appreciated the truthfulness of the conclusion. And the Christmas episode of My So Called Life! Rickie is homeless because his ass backwards father can't handle his gay son. It's hard to imagine a kid as thoughtful and charismatic as Rickie can't be loved in his own home. Also, I loved episodes in which Angela realized that her awkward existence was nowhere near as trying as her close friends' dysfunctional families. Plus, the mysterious homeless girl comes to Rickie's aid to ensure a moving Christmas episode.



Oh yes, and the episode where Kelly just says no to the joint from the actor visiting the school to film the anti-drug PSA. Saved by the Bell helped direct my moral compass.

Posted by: Ruthie at October 10, 2007 9:18 PM

The comments about The Message from Firefly and The Body are dead on. All this has got me thinking...Joss Whedon has given me a ton of sad moments. The fact that I'm thankful for them speaks to his genious (I hope, I may just be a sap).

Posted by: Lunchbox at October 10, 2007 9:19 PM

Back when I was a naive youngster circa the 8th grade, I used to hold stock in the theory that if two people loved each other enough, they could make it work regardless of any obstacle that crossed their path. I was (and still am) a huge Buffy fan and loved the Buffy/Angel romance. When they broke up at the end of Buffy Season Three I was (as any young fangirl would be) upset but hoped that they'd reunite. Up until the last scene of the Angel episode "I Will Remember You," my wish had come true. Then, Joss reminded me, along with the rest of the viewing public, that no matter how much two individuals want or try, love is not a form of superglue. If anything, it's the acid that eats away at the superglue and nothing anyone does has the power to stop the errosion process. Two people can, as Spike once wisely said, "love until it kills you both," but in the end, that's all love will do- kill one's optimism-drenched spirit. I've had my share of relationships but each and everyone has ended painfully, just as Angel and Buffy's last few moments of happiness painfully ended as they cried in each others' arms, yearning for more time to spend with each other. I'm no longer that bright-eyed "love conquers all" optimist that I was eons ago, but if any T.V. moment makes me heartbroken enough to wish that an episode would magically end a different way, that two people above the rest could make it work, it's the very end of "I Will Remember You."

Posted by: DistopianDreamGirl at October 10, 2007 9:21 PM

1. Gilmore Girls: When Rory calls Dean after their first night of passion and his wife answers.
2. Veronica Mars: When Veronica visits Logan the night after his "epic" speech, and he doesn't remember.
3. Buffy: When Willow finds Oz in the cage with Veruca.

Posted by: Tiffany at October 10, 2007 9:24 PM

I am terribly late. Please don't hold me after class.

This girl's not a weeper. However there have been a few moments on the small screen that brought a tear to my eye.

-ER is such a shameless puller of the heartstrings. Nearly every episode has to have some weeper of a subplot with a swelling operatic pop song that plays at the denouement. But dammit, they really got this jaded bitch with Dr. Green's farewell, dying-in-paradise episode. I fell all to pieces as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" sung by that big Hawaiian dude played.

-Farscape was my and Mr. Pink's favorite show. The deaths of both Zhaan and D'Argo were shocking and heartbreaking because we had come to love these characters so much.

-I hate to pull 9/11 out of the bag because it was so obviously a terrible moment caught on television. The actual towers going down was too overwhelming in the moment and at the time I was unable to have an emotional reaction except being stunned. I think I floated about for a few days afterwards completely numb.

Then I saw footage on the news of some guy, a young guy, with an American flag wrapped around his shoulders as he stood by one of the makeshift memorials/walls of missing posters that popped up around NYC. He was a big dude, burly and tough looking. And here he was keening, shouting, and openly weeping for all the world to see. Standing in my den, I covered my mouth with my hand and bawled my eyes out. It was the first tears I shed for all those people. For that horrible waste of life.

Posted by: Alabamapink at October 10, 2007 9:26 PM

Completely agree with the Illyria arc on Angel ("Would you like me to lie to you now?" and "Wesley, why can't I stay" *sobs*), but also have to chime in with "Lullaby" from Angel season 3: Connor's birth / Darla's death. That whole episode, start to finish, is wrenching, and was written of course by Tim Minear, who I feel always delivered the most poignant Angel moments. Darla's sudden, last ending, and Holtz's seeming moment of pity... I get chills just remembering it.

Also, have to add the Law & Order episode "Aftershock", which is perhaps the only L&O episode with pure character development. It deals with Jack, Claire, Lenny, Anita and Rey after the state execution of a rapist/murderer they convicted, and ends with Claire's shocking and unnecessary death. Brilliant and moving...this was another one that left my jaw hanging.

Posted by: Anna at October 10, 2007 9:32 PM

1)last episode of 6 feet under-- its scary,sad and yet seems to put everything in perspective somehow. it just made me feel all wierd inside thinking of me and my family and the prospect that eventually well see family members die and go away and that one day we too will not be here.

2) Alias- when her friend was killed and replaced with a clone-- fucking frightening

3)Maud Flanders' death- creepy

Posted by: sara at October 10, 2007 9:33 PM

With some serious prizeage at stake here, I gotta ask if there are any rules in this knife fight. The only one I see is that it's gotta be not sports related. OK. Here goes:

1. The assassination of JFK (1963). Together with the deaths of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr five years later (1968), it could have been a decade that signaled the end of hope. Fortunately, others kept the dream alive.

2. The Challenger explosion (1968). The death of a dream, after all.

3. The bombing of Baghdad (2003). Shock and awe, indeed. The beginning of the end of the world as we knew it.

Heartbreaking. Painful. Gut-wrenching. And real.

Posted by: Sanity Clause at October 10, 2007 9:37 PM

The death of Flower on Meerkat Manor was friggin' heartbreaking (that was one hardcore meerkat and to be taken down by a snake? Harsh.) but doesn't come close to trumping the pain felt in my chest when the writers of Prison Break punked out and put Sara Tancredi's head in a box.

The intelligent, strong, caring doctor who'd garrotte you in a second got the worst death in the history of television. They didn't even bring her back ('cause they didn't want to work something out with the actress who'd just given birth). Suddenly, the great female lead had been "kidnapped" and then- head in a box. HEAD IN A BOX. It's the only time I've ever covered my mouth with my hand, felt sick and stopped watching a tv show.

F' you Fox. F' you to hell.

Posted by: Sara at October 10, 2007 9:38 PM

There are two that I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet (or if they did, I missed them whilst scanning through all these entries).
First, the episode of Thirtysomething where we get blindsided by Gary's death just after we find out that Nancy's cancer operation was successful. The whole episode was crushing, but the thing I remember most is Melissa, who carried a big ol' torch for Gary, just sobbing uncontrollably in the aftermath.
Second, where's the love for China Beach? That show had some great moments, but the episode where McMurphy recalls the "boy in the pants" is among the best ever, in my opinion. She's caring for a badly wounded soldier wearing pressurized pants that are artificially keeping his blood pressure up, but there is no way to repair the damage he has suffered and as soon as they remove the pants everyone knows (including him, although no one tells him directly) he'll die. Dana Delaney is just amazing in that episode.

Posted by: Doug at October 10, 2007 9:42 PM

Alright, I'll agree with all the Buffy, especially the Body, but I'm a man. And I've grown up listening to the Cure. And boys don't cry. So I haven't really lost my shit for a while. Although I came pretty close in the Body.

Oh and the Angel season finale.

But what I can remember is a thing in my childhood that made me lose it crying. I was under 5 here just so everyone knows, but the episode of Mr. Bean when he ties the balloons to the kid's pram and it goes flying away in the sky.

When you're a kid who lives in a pram. And you see a pram go flying in the sky. You lose it. You dont know what to do. And then they have actual sombre music and the Mum's face. Oh god, that shit was hard.

For some reason the laugh track seemed to add insult to injury. Everyone else around you is laughing and in hysterics at this poor baby and it feels like they're laughing at you because you have a soul!

At least that was my 3 year old reasoning. Truely heartbreaking, of course I could watch it now and probably get a chuckle, but the scars are there.

Posted by: Caillan at October 10, 2007 9:49 PM

My tearjerker moment is from Wonder Years as well. Man, that show could kick you in the heart sometimes.

Kevin is taking piano lessons and hates it, but his ancient chain-smoking piano teacher tells him that he should keep practicing. She can tell that he has the soul for it, and that he has a passion for the music that is absent in her other students.

So Kevin practices, he gets better. He gains pride and confidence in his ability. The night of the student recital rolls around. Just before it begins, Kevin finds out that the goody-two-shoes perfectionist pupil is performing Pachelbel's Canon in D Major, the same piece that he has chosen.

The star student goes first, of course he plays it perfectly. Kevin is second. He sits down and he begins to play. He makes one mistake, then two, and then it's all downhill. He completely chokes in front of everyone. Ashamed and humiliated, he immediately leaves the recital.

Later, Kevin rides his bike back to his teacher's house. There is a student inside playing Pachelbel. Over the music, you hear Kevin's inner monologue. "After that," he says, I never played piano again. I can still remember every note that drifted out into the night. But I can't play it."

That episode tears me up. I think we've all had failures in our past that don't have direct influence on our current lives, but they stir up a profound sense of regret. The "if onlys" and "could have beens" can haunt you sometimes, and Kevin's sadness over what he's lost, always makes me cry.

Posted by: Melissa at October 10, 2007 10:07 PM

There's a episode of Six Feet Under, where Claire called Keith for help turning in Gabe, and she knows he's messed up and she has to do this, but it's killing her. David is there, and he can't understand why she's sobbing, and Keith gets it, and tells David it's because she loves him. Anyone who's ever had to cope with a loved one going off the rails completely loses it at this point.

Posted by: Wednesday at October 10, 2007 10:08 PM

"It was Arrested Development."

The Simpsons xmas episode when Bart steals a videogame and Marge is dissapointed at him...I have a weakness for that kind of stories.

Posted by: Radlum at October 10, 2007 10:11 PM

Judging Amy (good show, really kind of depressing all the time) when Maxine's fiance dies and she ends up cutting her long, silver hair off. It was a particularly heart-breaking moment because it was on top of everything that could possibly go wrong. Oh Maxine Grey, you're my hero.

Posted by: Chesnut at October 10, 2007 10:19 PM

1) Scrubs: mentioned before, but the episode that kills me every time is the one where Cox's sister visits for his son's baptism. The moment between them when he tells her that being around her brings up painful memories of their father makes me weep every time - plus, the musical cue 'in the sun' is so perfect it amazes me.

2) Veronica Mars: season 1 final episode, when Veronica's saying goodbye to Lily in her dream.. 'don't forget me'... never!

3) Felicity: Season 4 - I forget the episode number, but it's the scene where Felicity's walking the streets of NY and her VO talks about fearing the future.. remember, this is bang in the middle of her art-major crisis. Totally relate to that notion of being terrified of growing up and being responsible for the direction your life takes.

Posted by: Ash at October 10, 2007 10:29 PM

Ok, so you guys got the big ones-- Frys dog, Ben Dies on Scrubs, 'The body', Heny Blake bites it. And good call on the dead like me. But I cried after Veronica almost gets killed by the Fitzgeralds in that bar, and she is crying and breaking down. Also when she confronts her X about her Rape. Friggen gets me every time.

Try this: the Death of Mr.Hooper on Sesame Street, when they try to explain to Big Bird (who is like 4) why Mr. Hooper isn't here anymore....

Posted by: Maya at October 10, 2007 10:32 PM

It's been said, but I am a goddamn mess when I watch Becoming part 2, Buffy's season 2 finale. I've seen it half a dozen times and I cry every time. I can plausibly get through it until the moment that Angel comes back to himself, asks Buffy what's going on, and she stabs him in the chest anyway, fully knowing she could have it back, but it's too late for that. While Sarah Michelle Gellar has built much of her career on that pained and fragile look, she perfected it in this scene. I've taken to warning people ahead of time so they are not alarmed by me when we watch it.

Unfortunately, there is no other sadder scene I can cite on TV for my own original entry, because The Iron Giant is a film and "Suuu...per...maaan" ruined me for being heartbroken by any other media.

Posted by: Roni at October 10, 2007 10:33 PM

Watching the last episode of "Sports Night".
As small but triumphant smiles crossed Dan's and Casey's faces when Dana told them that the show was going to continue, I actually allowed myself to hope, for five minutes and against my better judgment, that the show might survive for another season. I still haven't forgiven ABC.

Posted by: eninnej at October 10, 2007 10:52 PM

I'm glad people are mentioning "Freaks and Geeks." I pretty much cried like a bitch when I found out it wasn't coming back. That show was helping my life make sense again. That show was like the wind.

I also cried like a bitch when I found out "Deadwood" wasn't coming back and of course when the Doc got sick. Brad Dourif is the man!

Posted by: awesome_awesomeness at October 10, 2007 10:56 PM

I'm glad people are mentioning "Freaks and Geeks." I pretty much cried like a bitch when I found out it wasn't coming back. That show was helping my life make sense again. That show was like the wind.

I also cried like a bitch when I found out "Deadwood" wasn't coming back and of course when the Doc got sick. Brad Dourif is the man!

Posted by: awesome_awesomeness at October 10, 2007 10:57 PM

Wow, my apologies for the double post. I'm having some issues over here.

Posted by: awesome_awesomeness at October 10, 2007 10:58 PM

Word, Ben.
Absolutely the finale of Six Feet Under. I felt like I was watching my own life or my own family die. I could not get control of my own sobbing, and it haunted me for weeks.

Posted by: Cindy at October 10, 2007 11:03 PM

Well, I think I can safely kiss any reputation of good taste out the window after I post this, but that is a sweet prize and deserves an effort.

Dark Angel: Season 1: ep. 17, "Pollo Loco". It starts off so simple, Max's brother Ben's turns up dead and we learn of how much he meant to her, and the rest of the kids, being something of a storyteller and spiritual leader, giving them hope and faith when they had none. Except it's not his body, but a victim of his he tattooed his barcode onto. Ben's been sadistically killing and mutilating people of faith in a twisted form of sacrifice to the "Blue Lady" he and the others kids prayed to for protection growing up. When Max finally stops him he's left crippled with the government closing in, and he begs Max to kill him. And then he loses it, he become a scared little kid again, and as she comforts him she asks him to tell the story again, the story of what they believed heaven to be.... and half way through you hear a crack, no more story, and Max is left sobbing.

It always gets me, always! It was may have also been the last time Ms. Alba tried to really act, which is sad in it's own right.

Posted by: BlackWolf at October 10, 2007 11:14 PM

Have any of you seen the British version of the Office?

When Dawn opens Tim's card in the taxi with Lee, I wept for the first time and only time because of a TV show. There is nothing as heartbreaking, then rewarding as Tim and Dawn. Its like in Romeo and Juliet, when she lets down her hair and he climbs up.

Posted by: Cleo at October 10, 2007 11:28 PM

I would have to say the end of Office Olympics from the Office where Michael is rewarded the gold yogourt lid for closing on his place and he just looks so happy and proud and you can see his eyes watering. I cry every time.

Posted by: Sarah at October 10, 2007 11:54 PM

Well, Alias is my show, and it hasn't been mentioned much, so here are a couple moments from that.

1) In the first, or maybe second season, Sloane, that evil bastard, finds out that his wife Emily (played to devastating perfection by Amy Irving) is dying of cancer. So he decides to tell her what he's really been doing all along, with the evil and everything. And instead of dialogue, they play Natalie Merchant's "My Skin," which is a gorgeous and haunting song all by itself. And you just watch Amy Irving's composure crumble as she realizes that her husband is not the man that she thought he was. And you watch Ron Rifkin lose it as he slowly reveals his betrayal of trust to the one person he truly loved. And seriously, I lose my shit every time.



2) At the beginning of Season 3, Sydney is having a bit of rough time. She comes back after being presumed dead for 2 years, with her dad in jail, no memory of said 2 years, Sloane pardoned by the government, and most of all, her beloved Vaughn married to another woman. Basically, her entire life has been turned upside down, and there is a scene where Vaughn comes up to her and asks her how she's doing, and she completely loses it on him. She tells him he's only asking to make sure that HE is fine, not her, and that truthfully, she is horrible. She caps it all off by telling him that she is horrible not because she lost him, but because if it had been her, she would have waited, and now she sees what an absolute waste that would have been. And Jennifer Garner has just the right amount of anger and bitterness, and her voice hitches and breaks just a little... And Vaughn has this look on his face, like he knows she's right, but he's still so hurt. It's just all rather heartbreaking.



Also, props to everyone who mentioned Jurassic Bark and the episode of the Office (US) where Pam is crying by herself and Dwight comes up and asks "Who did this to you?" and starts to look like he is about to start crying himself.

Posted by: *penny* at October 11, 2007 12:01 AM

I was wondering when someone would get to the latest Prison Break episode. I'm still too shocked for tears and I have considered spending my Mondays doing other things.

That isn't my heartbreaking moment though. West Wing was and still is a huge part of my life. The episode where they finally find Zoe. And the one where Donna tells Josh that she is scared right before going into surgery. Actually that show makes me cry out of frustration at how easy Aaron Sorkin makes it look to have an effective and decent executive.

Again, not my moment...I had watched Fraiser since it premiered in 1992, I was 5 and didn't understand it at ALL, but we watched it as a family. Eventually my sister grew out of it, so it was just my parents and me, then I stopped watching the last two or three seasons as I was in high school, etc. Anyway, I cried through most of the series finale because this show had been a part of my life from the time I was 5 until I was 16. I have almost every season on DVD and still watch them to cheer myself up.

Posted by: Anna at October 11, 2007 12:10 AM

The death of Wallace on The Wire. Seriously the death of that kid--at the hands of his friends Poot and Bodie no less--was so damn heartbreaking. Not only because Wallace was such a sweet, naïve and altruistic little kid, but also because you understood simultaneously why Poot and Bodie had to kill him. This moral predicament perfectly sums up the heart of the show: every character is trapped and rendered powerless by a system they have no control over. No matter what role someone plays in 'the game' each character is still a victim; there is no escape, only acceptance. Free will is just an illusion in a world where systems --the streets, the police, the school, the state--influence and infect every action, every decision. Nobody 'wins'--and nothing articulates that more than watching Wallace cry for his life and watching his friends take it away because they have no choice.

Posted by: Sara at October 11, 2007 12:28 AM

There will never, ever be a more long-lasting moment of unequivocable heartbreak and joy than in the very first episode of Little House on the Prarie. Let me give you the set-up:

The Ingalls, new to Walnut Grove, are understandably short on cash but rich with the dreams of prosperity and fellowship in their new home. Pa Ingalls takes on a number of hats, working two backbreaking jobs while trying to build his new home and plow his fields. Cut to the evil German boss who lets Pa with an advance relying on Pa's ability to stack grain by a deadline. The price of Pa's oxen (needed to plow the field) comes due to the evil German when Pa, crippled with a back injury, cannot finish during his deadline.

Broken and shivering with pain, Pa tries in vain to stack the grain alone, but then his two young daughters come in, crying, begging him to stop, laboring with their small hands to lift the heavy sacks themselves.

Cue music, cue friendly menfolk from the town, and cue tears as one and all join in to welcome Pa and his family by stacking the grain for him, all pitching in to make sure that his family is able to survive in the wilderness of the West. A plowing party is planned, and I am left an emotional wreck every blessed time I see it.

And that, my friends, is good television. No sex, no drugs, no rock and roll. Just human spirit and triumph.

Posted by: Shane at October 11, 2007 12:44 AM

As many have pointed out, Joss Whedon is a genius. Therefore his work occupies a lot of my moments, many of those coming from Buffy. Buffy's mom dying, Buffy dying, and the series finale were probably the highlights.

If I had watched Firefly when it was on I would probably say that being canceled was heartbreaking. But knowing its not on now is pretty sad.

Posted by: Dave at October 11, 2007 12:50 AM

Late to the party again, as usual.
My most heartbreaking moment comes from of all things a damn sports news magazine show. However, this is not a sports related heartbreak -I don't even like watching sporting events thus making my admission all the more ironic that I love a newsmagazine about sports.
Anyway, HBO's "Real Sports with Byrant Gumble" always manages to throw in one story that is guaranteed to make me bawl like a baby whose lost her favorite toy.
The worst examples are the stories concerning the deep love between families and what they will endure for one another: The father who runs marathons and does triathalons with his disabled son strapped to him so they both can compete and so his son feels "free" and unemcumbered by his severe disability. When the man was told that he would have had a fatal heart attack had he not been in great physical shape due to competing and Mary Carillo says "So you're here today because of your son," and the man breaks down crying because he knows that it is his disabled son who has given the gift of a longer life and so much more - OH LORD - why not just rip my arm off because I would hardly cry as much as I did during that story.
The other story, which just aired, was about a African boy (I forget which country) who was kidnapped from his family, escaped from a military prison, ran for miles to free himself from the pain that was forced on him, was adopted by an American family, became a world class runner and will compete in the Olympics in 2008. Sad but inspiring, right?
Well, he thought his parents were dead, they thought he was dead, and then they all find out everyone is alive and he goes back to his Africa to reunite with his parents and finds that he has two younger brothers that he didn't even know existed. OH. MY. GOD. When he was reunited with his mother - that was it. It was over. The tears came and I wailed like a caged puppy who never thought he'd be free ever again. Yes, it was that heartbreaking.
"Real Sports" making me cry - who'd a thunk it?
I still watch but I always have kleenex nearby.
Once again, baring my soul for free stuff. Yes, I am a whore and a cheap one at that.

Posted by: jen310 at October 11, 2007 1:13 AM

Cancellation of Firefly. Worst, most horrible, most heartbreaking moment of my life. Ok... that's an exxageration, but I did cry! I still get misty-eyed when I watch the DVDs. Especially during the episode "The Message" which is the last one they ever shot. The funeral scene at the end always feels like the funeral for the show. *sniffle*

Posted by: maddragonqueen at October 11, 2007 1:34 AM

The Firefly episode "Out of Gas". Mal dying alone on the Serenity floor? We're talking heaving, hiccuping runny-nosed sobbing. And that still happens every time I watch the episode, which is why I save it for times when I need a cathartic interlude.

Posted by: S at October 11, 2007 1:49 AM

The Firefly episode "Out of Gas". Mal dying alone on the Serenity floor? We're talking heaving, hiccuping runny-nosed sobbing. And that still happens every time I watch the episode, which is why I save it for times when I need a cathartic interlude.

Posted by: S at October 11, 2007 1:50 AM

Willow holding Tara's body.

Illyria, telling a dying Wesley what he needs Fred to tell him.

Crichton and Aeryn holding each other just as they are blasted to particles, and the viewer knows there will be no 5th season...

Posted by: Adam C at October 11, 2007 1:51 AM

Dammit--sorry about that.

Posted by: S at October 11, 2007 1:51 AM

The Shield last episode of season five. Lem is trying to do the right thing and not rat out his buddies and then Shane goes and blows him up. You knew something bad was coming, but damn.

Posted by: frank at October 11, 2007 1:59 AM

I feel it's important to say, that this moment occurred for me at a very youthful age, but I don't believe that should take away from the power it held for me.


During Season Two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I went from being something of a passive "if it's on, I'll watch it" to a downright die-hard fan. I became fully embroiled in the lives of the beloved citizens of Sunnydale, CA. I felt their pain, I celebrated their joys, and I hoped along with them for a chance to see real change made in their world of turmoil.

Buffy has always been a brilliant metaphor for life, and though mostly a general statement about the difficulties of teenaged life, certain elements stood out more for me than others.


In the finale of Season Two, "Becoming, Pt. 2", in the final moments, when the demon Acathla has been awakened, and it appears that the end really may be near for our hero, and she is about to be killed by the soul-less Angelus, he asks her what is left, when all else has failed her, and she replies, just before his death-blow "me."


That moment, and the heart wrenching ones that followed, will stay with me forever. When Angel's soul returns to him, and a teary-eyed Buffy does what she must, and kills him to save the world, something deeper than just my teenaged tear glands was impacted.


About a year before the episode aired, I lost my father to a long battle with alcohol addiction. I took his death exceptionally hard. He lost himself to his demons in much the same way that Angel was lost to his. And though my pain following his death was not identical to Buffy's, there was something in the statement she made, that when all is lost, we still have ourselves, that pulled me through a very trying time. I learned that we have the power to kill our own demons, even if they come in the form of something we once loved. We hold our heads high and carry on.


For me, then and now, that few minutes of television meant more to me than anything else ever could.

Posted by: Ashley MacLennan at October 11, 2007 2:01 AM

Mulder coming back to X Files, and waiting for it to get good again. I'm still waiting.

Posted by: seth at October 11, 2007 2:16 AM

Definately the final episode of Dawson's Creek. Never has a more manipulative piece of television ever been produced. For 90 minutes im in tears every time i watch it. The first time it even took me a couple of hours to compose myself afterwards.

Posted by: returnofthesmith at October 11, 2007 2:28 AM

Well, countless episodes of "ER" deserve mention (the Sally Field eps, Mark Greene's death, Carter and whatshername losing the baby, all of Carter and Abby).

But really, "The West Wing" gets me the most:

I cry my way through "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen (I & II)" every time I watch it. It is such a dynamic episode and highlights just how well Sorkin et al. could use flashbacks. And Josh!

The scene in "Shibboleth" when Jed gives Charlie his Paul Revere knife and Dule Hill's face is so shocked and full of respect is so wonderfully touching.

When CJ loses it to Nancy McNally in "The Women of Qumar" ("They're... beating... the women Nancy") and Nancy just turns away, I can only stare in awe of the emotions those actresses can stir in me.

In "Stirred," the Prez surprises Donna by having her former teacher on the phone and Donna just doesn't know what to say so Jed tells her to say where she is and Donna, barely holding it together says, "Mrs. Morello I'm standing in the Oval Office and it's because of you." And I dare anyone of any age to watch that scene and not think of an amazing teacher you'd like to say that to.

And Leo, oh Leo. I was utterly heartbroken when I'd heard that John Spencer had passed, and I absolutely could not hold it together during "Election Day, Part II," for oh so many reasons. This show had become such a fixture in my life. I watched it with my dad (and sometimes friends) every week, on the edge of my seat. It was like a really intense football game - my pulse would race when the credits rolled. I couldn't watch the seventh season with anyone, as I had moved to a new city. So there I was, alone on my couch sobbing for the end of a life, the end of a show, and missing the nights when watching TV with my dad was the single most important thing in my life.

Posted by: alissa at October 11, 2007 2:32 AM

2. The Challenger explosion (1968). The death of a dream, after all.

Dyslexic moment, eh? I believe you meant '86, not '68 for the Challenger explosion. I was in 5th grade at the time and remember it quite well... messed me up for a long time.

Posted by: tatonka at October 11, 2007 2:35 AM

I just have to second Christina's Futurama moment with Fry and his faithful dog.

So, so sad.

Posted by: Gabs at October 11, 2007 2:55 AM

There have been many references to the finale of Six Feet Under, but the episode that really really got me was from the first season.

I wasn't quite sold on the series yet; it was promising, and obviously breaking new ground, but I wasn't truly hooked. Then came the episode "Familia" 3rd or 4th I don't remember. The "guest death" was a gang banger named Paco. Paco's real family and his gang family are hanging around the house through the entire episode and I was CERTAIN (having seen enough TV dramas in my time) that there was going to be a shoot out at the Fisher's. Then at the end of the episode the gang leader asks Rico to have all the Fisher family come into the viewing room and I just KNOW that something bad is going to go down. But they just want to include the Fishers in their mourning and the gang leader, "Powerful" was his name, proceeds to give a heartwrenchingly honest and pure eulogy to Paco who stands to the side watching. I still get choked up thinking of it. I was blown away and completely hooked into the series.

Yes the finale was in my view one of the greatest series endings of all time, but that gang leader's speech is the one that kills me every time.

Posted by: joe at October 11, 2007 3:35 AM

I've seen a few of these (all of them?) mentioned before, but I'll give my own reasons anyway, to share in the heartbreak.

Scrubs-- The episode where Dr. Cox tries so hard to get the organs for three patients, and he does, only to find out that the donor had rabies, and all of the patients die. It's set to "How to Save a Life," before that song was overused to death.
I had never seen the show beyond the first season, and I bawled. "Wasn't about to die, was he, Newbie? He could have waited another couple of months...." I just lost it. Dr. Cox, just breaking down, unwilling to accept the last patient's death is inevitable, the look on his face when he gets the page... it was amazing, and in the worst and best ways possible.

Doctor Who-- This is actually a tie. I loved Nine. He was funny and awesome and it was the first time I was ever really into the show, so the episode in season one where him, Rose, Mickey, and Jack are in Cardiff, being friends, laughing, working together kills me every time, because they will Never Be That Happy Again. Rose leaves Mickey there, and the end of the season is the end of Nine, and Jack leaves, and by the time he comes back it's Ten and Martha, and oh god it kills me. The first time I saw it, I thought it was just a cute episode, with bonding. Now, I can't even watch half of it without crying.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer-- "I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead. It's stupid, it's mortal and stupid. Xander's crying and not talking and I was having fruit punch and I thought that Joyce would never have any more fruit punch and she'd never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever and no one will explain". I was in sixth or seventh grade when I first saw this episode. Words cannot describe how sad it made me. Just... In the beginning, when Buffy was imagining how she could have saved Joyce, something just broke in me. I had recently lost an aunt (not like, a distant relative, she basically helped raise me) and I just sat there and sobbed. The episode ended, and I kept crying. I'm sitting there, 12, 13 years old, shaking at Anya not being able to understand, because I don't myself, and it's just killing me.

Now, I'm drunk right now (woo, my school having homecoming this weekend), so maybe I'm overemotional. But I'm definitely tearing up thinking about these.

Oh, tv, why do you do this to me?

Posted by: Lizbeth at October 11, 2007 3:47 AM

Spoiler for 'Life on Mars' Season 2:

I'm not sure if many of you would have even heard of this show from England so I'll give you a brief introduction just so you can understand the heartbreaking moment at the end of the series. The show revolves around a policeman called Sam who is hit by a car in the present day and wakes up in the early 1970's. Throughout the series Sam is never sure whether he is dead and in the afterlife, in a coma or just plain crazy. He has moments throughout the series where he can hear voices from the future and suffers from misterious ailments. While adapting to the police force in the 70's he meets Annie, who tries to understand his predicament.

So cutting to the final 10 minutes of the last episode, Sam makes it back to the present day while leaving his workmates in the middle of a hostage situation in the 70's. Unable to forget his friends and upon discovering that he can no longer feel the touch of others, Sam decides that he must go back to rescue them. With Bowie's 'Life on Mars' playing in the background, we see Sam's final moments as he stares across Manchester while standing on the hospital roof. He takes a running leap off the building and the viewer sees him appear back in the 1970's. Sam manages to save his friends (and get the girl) but as they drive away from the scene, we can hear paramedics tending to the injured Sam in the present day.

It's heartbreaking to see a man take that leap, knowing the consequences. It is ultimately left to the viewer to decide if Sam has really died or whether he was dead along.

I can't watch this episode without crying. While I may not win that DVD, I hope that it encourages some people to track down the show on DVD. Even though you know the end, I promise you it will still hurt.

Posted by: Camilla at October 11, 2007 4:23 AM

Friday Night Lights. I've cried during almost every episode, but the one scene that really sticks out and still affects me is when Tyra was assaulted in an empty parking lot while the rest of the town was watching a football game. This episode has come on twice while I've been on the treadmill, and both times I had to leave the gym because I was about to start crying.

Thankfully I can't use FNL's cancellation as my most heartbreaking moment.

Posted by: Sabrina at October 11, 2007 5:14 AM

I have no idea if anyone's already referenced this, but I have faith that I'm not the first. I just can't read/skim through 200+ comments right now.

For me, it was the moment in the special for "The Office" when Dawn is in the cab with Lee and opens Tim's present, and it's the freakin' art supplies, and her sketch of him with the note. I was weeping quietly to myself, thinking of how beautiful the whole thing was, and how heartbreaking, and of how much I loved Tim and hated Lee.

Then all was rectified in the most brilliant ending of a TV series ever.

Posted by: Katie at October 11, 2007 7:05 AM

1) Cold feet - last episode. Rachel (Emily from friends) and Adam have just managed to get their house back after it was put up for auction. Adam phones Rachel to tell her the good news and a few seconds later a massive truck crashes into the side of her car (and she dies). It had me crying unashamedly - it was a perfect ending to the show but still so sad. If anyone wants to see it-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAtVKSga4-o (part1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfyazi1SXL8 (part2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMdlFVIUgLI (part3)

2)Blackadder goes Forth, again last episode, when all the men go running into enemy fire - makes my heart clench. The viewer knows that they're not going to make it, the characters know that they aren't going to make it. Seriously heart-wrenching.

3)Comic Relief documentary on Rwanda. I watched it for the first time in my Modern Studies classroom(we were studying African politics), I was 14 and had only the faintest idea about Rwnada. It was needless to say powerfully moving and I began to sob incontrollably, so much so, that the teacher had to stop the tape and comfort me. The worst part was when the rest of my class was angry that I'd ruined a easy period with my crying and we had to do written work instead. That documentary has changed me entire outlook on life.

Posted by: JC at October 11, 2007 7:33 AM

Three events:

I came to Veronica Mars very late. It never aired on a station available in Ireland.
I had a few months off, well was unemployed, when I first moved to Scotland and started watching it on a reccommendation.
You see as I came closer and closer to the end of the final season I knew it was over, I knew it would not be coming back and the creeping realisation that all the emotion and turmoil was just going to be left hanging just killed me. She just walks out of the voting booth and into the rain - never to let us know how she resolved the conflict over seeing her father commit a crime for her benefit. I was in bits for about a week. And what really just killed is that for a show this dark, this nasty, it really couldn't have been any more perfect.

BBC reporter Michael Burke's repotrs from Ethopia - will never leave me. This was real human tragedy documented for the world to see.

My Joss moment is more about human pathos than human tragedy. Xander to Dawn: "You're not special. You're extraordinary." When the magical and super-powered characters in Buffy experience grief they are brought back to human reality through this tragedy - Dawn and Xander live there all the time, this single line explaining their bond encompasses Joss' recurring theme's of our aloneness in the Universe, and our human struggles are what make us and break us. It just KILLS me.

Posted by: PyD at October 11, 2007 7:49 AM

Honestly? I still remember when my mother told me "The Six Million Dollar Man" was being canceled. I cried worse than I would've with a skinned knee.

(Shut UP! I was a sensitive kid, 'kay?)

Posted by: GreenLantern at October 11, 2007 8:34 AM

So I think mine are going to get me shunned a bit because they are shows that I know are not loved on this site, but I just can't help myself. So here goes:
Sex and the City when Charlette is getting married the first time and Carrie tells Aiden that she had an affair with Big. The part that really gets me is when he shows up after the wedding at the church to tell her that he can't be with her. It's heart breaking.
Also the last episode of the show where Carrie is explaining to "the Russian" that she is "someone who is looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love." That gets me everytime. I really relate to her there.
Also another show that you guys make fun of, Grey's Anatomy. The last episode of season 2 when Denny dies. Just about the whole second half of that episode has me in tears. An just when I think I won't cry anymore Alex comes in and picks Izzy up and holds her.
Also I cry when they have top put Doc, their dog, to sleep, but I will cry when any animal dies. I am a sucker for that stuff.

Posted by: Erin at October 11, 2007 9:05 AM

Buffy's high school prom and her final dance with Angel to "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star.

I thought they danced to "Wild Horses" by the Sundays? Or was that only in syndication?

*Runs away and hides face in shame*

Posted by: litelysalted at October 11, 2007 9:19 AM

On Buffy, when Oz left Willow. Broke. My. Heart. When Oz says, "My whole life, I've never loved anything else." And Willow is just standing there with tears welling up in her eyes. And you know that Oz doesn't want to leave, but be has to because he doesn't want to harm her with his werewolf ways. So good and I just about bawl every time.

And the series finale of Buffy when Anya dies and they are all getting on the bus and Xander asks where Anya is and Andrew says, "She died saving me." Heart wrenching. Basically the last 20 minutes or so of the series finale, I just cry the entire time. I just well up with a feeling of "girl power" because every girl around the world becomes a slayer at that moment. How could you not just lose it?

Posted by: Stacey at October 11, 2007 9:45 AM

My major t.v. heartbreak moment is definitely Wesley's death. Illyria asking "Would you like me to lie to you now?" and then pretending to be Fred, comforting him, telling him that now they'll be together forever and such. And knowing that it's just not true, that there is no Fred anymore, that Illyria is doing a bang-up job of connecting with humanity through Wesley... it just kills me every time. I have intentionally re-watched that scene when I needed to grieve personal loses but couldn't cry.

I'm still annoyed that Angel was cancelled, but at least it gave Wesley such a powerful death.

Okay, on a more lighthearted note: My first experience with t.v. heartbreak

I was four and had spent a few days sick, watching Elvis movies on t.v.. I just fell in love with him (I was four, gold lame' looked magical, okay? And the helicopter!).

Upon telling my older sister that I was going to marry him, she informed me that he died, "But first he got fat and old." I couldn't believe her, and I couldn't believe that the t.v. had betrayed me like this! How could it show me things that weren't real?! I still remember the disillusionment.

Posted by: brook at October 11, 2007 9:55 AM

When they shot the horse on Little House on the Prarie.

Posted by: anikitty at October 11, 2007 10:01 AM

I love the love for "Homicide" in the comments. The end of the tv movie/series wrap-up when Tim forces Frank to listen to his murder confession just kills me. The last episode of the series left it ambiguous as to whether or not Tim killed this criminal that got off on a technicality and because I loved Tim, I buried my head in the sand and refused to believe that he did it.
But when Tim tells Frank, his partner/brother/best friend/god/moral authority, it shatters both men. Tim, who the series always held up as the "innocent," the man that truly believed in the justice of his work, who was so completely wrecked by the Adena Watson case that *I* still remember her name, that he could murder a man, just tore up my heart. And then Tim can only confess to Frank and Frank doesn't want to hear it or believe it about his friend and former partner. While watching the scene, I was on my feet, begging Frank to forgive Tim, because that's all Tim wanted.
Those two actors were just amazing to watch because I didn't feel like I was watching two great actors, I was watching two men bonded by work and trust and love. I still think about it. In fact, whenever I see Kyle Secor in anything else, I cannot accept him as that character because he will always be Tim. And I always tell him that he's forgiven.

Posted by: abijah at October 11, 2007 10:09 AM

most of mine have already been mentioned, namely the west wing moments (thanks to whoever above reminded me of the scene with donna on the phone with her teacher, btw)... and i'm surprised only one person has mentioned the (original) office christmas special, as i think history will prove it to be what made the uk version superior.

the one that isn't on here and never fails to just kill me, however, is in the pilot episode of sports night, when dan gives the speech to casey after he admits that he's thinking of quitting the show. i dont care if you're six days or six months out of a relationship, you need that reminder every once and again that there are people out there who have your back and like you no matter what state you're in. granted, the scene goes into classic sorkin cheeseball territory after that with the south african runner and casey calling his son, but yeah... to get that kind of emotional impact from a pilot is an impressive feat to pull off (especially with that damn laugh track ABC insisted on)

Posted by: Leff at October 11, 2007 10:13 AM

TK - her name was Nandi.

As for mine, I'm still amazed and saddened and uplifted and shattered by Mr. Hooper's death on Sesame Street.

I don't know if I'll ever get over that.

Posted by: Kiku at October 11, 2007 10:27 AM

I can't believe no one has brought up the episode of Quantum Leap where Al danced with his wife. I know I was young, but that one wrecked me.

Posted by: MG at October 11, 2007 10:29 AM

1. My So-Called Life (any episode but the Christmas episode)
Angela, her parents, Brian, Rae-Ann, Jordan Catalano, and "I wanna be sedated". So sweet and human.

2. ER. The episode where Becca is killed, and the episode where Mark Greene's patient dies in labour (somewhere around season 1 or 2). Devastating.

3. Friday Night Lights. Every single episode.

4. Henry Blake's death on M*A*S*H.

This kind of TV makes me angry that all TV isn't this good.

Posted by: mdm1 at October 11, 2007 10:36 AM

Damn all of you to HELL!!!

I am of course, now a big blubbery mess, and thinking of my own most painful moments

1)some one has already mentioned this but, the end of Farscape as a TV show when Crichton and Aeryn have gotten engaged and she's preggo and it seems like finally they can take some sort of refuge from all the pain and the violence and the death and Chiana's blind and everyones at peace...then that SHIP turns up and blasts them into crystals and D'argo's screaming NOOOO and Chiana doesn't know whats happening and the whole crew's going NUTS and we KNOW there isnt going to be a new series...I was, no joke, banging the screen of my TV screaming 'You cant do this!' my parents thought I'd had a breakdown, I was hysterical, like, waking up the next day with puffy eyes bad. Damn it.

2) Life on Mars, two moments(British tv show fucking spectacular) The first is the season one finale so, major spoiler, when the main character Sam, played by the simply outstanding John Simm, having woken up in the past after being hit by a car, has stumbled across a case where his father, who in Sam's life left when he was four, is involved.
Now, time line wise it's a little complex, Sam's kid self is around, he's never quite seen him (he's four like I said) but he's aware that he's arrived in the period in his life when his father leaves. When he encounters his father on this case involving gangsters (whose rise to power Sam, by arresting their predecessor, is responsible for) he assumes that his father, who he believes to be innocent and involved just through bad luck, left because he was afraid of these gangsters.
He finds himself at the very wedding his father walked out of and after witnessing his parents dance romantically to Bowie's Life on Mars(which, I warn you, has even the strongest misty eyed) he follows his dad with the intention of begging him to stay. Only as he goes, he realises that his sort of lady love police woman friend is the 'woman in a red dress' he semi remembers (and has been doing since the day of the accident) being attacked in the same woods into which his father and now she, now run.
It builds to a climax until eventually he gives his father a gun and the bastard points it at him, meaning to kill him and run away. Sam's face at this, the genuine heart break is just...painful, in so many ways to witness and leaves me sobbing the entire time. Thinking about it there are a lot of life on mars moments that left me weeping, the hostage episode where Sam's about to be executed by a crazed janitor, he shares a look with his lady love, he's actually smiling, and his boss Gene Hunt swears unholy revenge as soon as Sam's hurt, just a beautiful, incredibly intense moment.
But aye, the entire season two finale when the truth about who Sam is seems to be revealed, the way its done enough to make Sam doubt his own sanity, his own belief that he's from the future(again, John Simm, just extraordinary) until that truly blissful moment in the 'Present' when he, t the tune of again, life on mars, he tosses himself off the roof and wakes up where he's happiest, in the past with Gene and the team...*weeping*

3) Everyones said ER when Mark dies, when carter reads the letter, for me those moments where sad but like, eh, what killed me was Romano reading the letter as its pinned to the notice board. He's sipping coffee, killing time, reads the letter, scoffing at the , frankly, hokiness of it all. Then he gets to Elizabeth's attachment. He genuinely takes pause, turns and stalks away, a bigger show of emotion from Romano we've seen only once, when he lost Lucy. God it broke me.

4)Third Watch. Vastly, deeply underrated show just, any way, but a show with so many moments of true, heart breaking sadness. The obvious one/two the episodes 'September Tenth' and 'September Twenty First'
. We never see anything of the attack its self, no stock footage, nothing on the TV, but we don't need to, because we know whats coming at the end. Its hard to watch, truly it is.
September Twenty First is, of course, ten days later, the characters trying to get on with lives, spending all their free time down at ground zero in the rescue/clean up effort. Everyone is utterly subdued, wrecked, exhausted, sick of being called heroes. An insight, truly, into just some of the after effects of the attacks.
Then there are the other moments on this show that laid me out, most of em I have to admit, Bosco based; His whole character arc after 9/11- culminating in his massively emotional break down in his partner Faith's arms. He's this strong, yes emotional but ANGRY guy who puts stock in appearing as such and he just shatters into a thousand pieces and weeps all over her and she is literally without words at this show of emotion. Weeping...
Then there's the season five moment when his brother has died and Lou, Davis and Sully are the ones to tell him. His reaction is a moment of genius from Jason Wiles, his utter disbelief as he tries to call his brother, who has been brutally tortured and murdered, his anger at them for saying something so cruel, dissolving into hysterical violent anger and heartbreak as his brother just doesn't pick up the damn phone..oh man...
And then season six. Well...all of season six was a rollercoaster of emotion, from the beginning; Gunmen attack the hospital where most of our major characters are gathered, Cruz, Davis, Faith and Bosco are amongst the first to be fired upon and Bosco tackles Faith to the ground after she freezes.
That's how series five ENDED, the bastards!! Series six opens with a replay of the same moment and continues into the gun men moving on giving out lot time to gather them selves.
Everyone is rising and asking if everyone else is okay and Faith moves, realising that Bosco's hand, clutching her leg, falls limply. She rolls him over and boy is shot all to hell. She loses her shit in a way we've not seen her do and this was including times when her daughter OD'd trapped in a blizzard and her husband had a heart attack trapped in a Power Cut-ed elevator in the middle of a riot.
Like, seriously, the woman is the human personification of hysteria over her friend being so badly hurt, beautiful acting from molly price and enough emotion and high possibility of death for a beloved character, that just shatters your heart and brings on the tears.
Then in progressive episodes...he wakes up*weep* he's communicating, talking*sniffle* then the day he leaves the hospital and Faith has half the precinct out in full dress uniform, she has their squad car, she has this whole living honour guard waiting for him. God I weep. I weep like a child.
And then that finale...oy vey. Their station house os bombed, burned out, Cruz dies(weep) and they're all reassigned...Sully describes each character's life after 'Camelot' and its just...*sigh* especially, again, Bosco 'Kickin ass and takin' names' , just...brilliant.

5)When Oz leaves. Twice. I just...I cant even talk about it.

6)Angel. Doyle. When I first saw the ep when he died I was hysterical, I'd never loved a character so much and he DIED. Then Glenn Quinn died. And they had a memorandum for him on the show. I haven't watched the first half of series one since he died for real.
Then the very last moment of Angel. That moment 'I don't know about you. But I want to slay the dragon'
I was already a little weepy, I hadn't been phased by Wesley and Illyara, having never been too invested in either character, but just knowing it was ending was doing me in. Then that. I wept with sadness but also sheer joy because it was incredible, what a way to end.

7) I'm mentioning Buffy, er, I don't know the name of the episode but when she kills her self to save Dawn. I cried for several reasons, the main one, tbh, being that she didn't just toss Dawn the fuck off the tower already!! But I personally never watched Buffy for Buffy, SMG irritated me. I do how ever remember running into the room where my sister was watching other TV and channelling Homer Simpsons in the ep where Lisa goes veggie, chasing the pig? 'its still good, its still good' ? I was like that but 'they could have a plan, they could have a plan!' cos of course we knew she was gonna die so I was running in every five minutes with my ideas of how it might not happen.
Then when I finally did break down and cry it was because of Spike's utter heartbreak when he saw her laying there dead, her speech, hokey, her perfectly undamaged body, gag, but Spike losing his shit? Holy crap.

8) Criminal Intent. The ep with Roy Schieder as a rapist and murder on death row and Goran's mum is dying and he basically figures out Schieder is his natural dad and at one point even raped Goran's mum but then both die, she of cancer, Schieder executed before either can one hundred percent confirm it and at the end of the episode, Goran sits alone in the dark in his mothers hospital room. Sobbing. Best episode the shows ever had, Vincent D'Onfrio is just...extraordinary.

9) Scrubs. You all know what episodes. The ones with the organ donors made my eleven year old brother cry!!Bastards!

10) Green Wing. Another brilliant piece of britishness, utterly surreal and mental for mentals sake but went out on a low high- Mac, the shows easily best character and perfect love match for Caroline, has returned after an absence, here to say his goodbyes after learning he's dying.(The moment when he does was...damn) The whole 'finale special' episode had me near tears but in simply one of the best moments of television in my lifetime of watching, Guy, the shows lovable twat and Mac are sitting in giggling hysterics over a couple of pints. Mac very casually says, between giggles, that he's dying, Guy slightly too giggly and drunk to just stop dead in shock. Both still laughing, Mac has to write down what he has since its too hard to pronounce(we never find out what) and Guy being Guy teases him for being such a loser as get ill. And then they get the giggles again and carry on drinking and the scene ends. Any one who loves the show died a little at that moment. I know I did.
And the wedding. I watched it through my fingers because they kept alluding that Mac might die before the wedding could take place....aw man, now I gotta go and cry and eat ice cream

Posted by: Nadine at October 11, 2007 11:05 AM

Coming so late to the party, all my teary moments from Buffy, Veronica Mars and The Office have already been mentioned. Still, I'll try:

The 5th season of Gilmore Girls. Emily and Richard are separated (if only by the pool) and Emily agrees to go out with a man from the club. They have what seems like a perfectly comfortable date, part amicably at the front door with some light flirtation. Then Emily steps into her foyer, closes the door, looks around and begins to weep.

It's a beautiful little scene at the end of the episode and Kelly Bishop couldn't draw more tears from me if she reached out of the TV to smother my puppy.

Posted by: Stephanie at October 11, 2007 11:12 AM

1-The Gift, Buffy season 5 finale. When she gets to the top and whispers to Dawn and the slo-mo run into the rift. The voice over with her telling Dawn how much she loves her. I start crying ten minutes before every time I watch it.

2. The fall seasons of ER in 98 and 99. Pregnant for both, with my husband gone for training in the military for BOTH, living with my in-laws, hormones running amok and all the dead/injured children/babies. The woman who dies but her unborn baby survives completely KILLED me.

Posted by: Tara at October 11, 2007 11:17 AM

Donna Martin graduates.

Posted by: Jordyn at October 11, 2007 11:28 AM

I second (third? fourth?) the callouts to the "Wonder Years" and "Buffy" finales. My most tearful moment, however, occurred in the unbelievably under-appreciated "Oz". The series kept getting better and better, the acting more and more believable. Their body movements conveyed more than most actors do when speaking. I became truly invested in caring about these mostly unlovable and troubled characters. The scene that got me the most was the execution of Cyril O'Reily. (O.k. Dustin, disqualify me right now because it involves a mentally retarded character.) The relationship between Cyril and his brother Ryan and their mother was so complicated and destructive but they really cared for each other and were shattered when Cyril was executed after having been spared previously. Rita Moreno's acting (as Sister Pete) has never been finer. The prisoners banging on their walls tore me apart.

Posted by: rudy at October 11, 2007 11:30 AM

"Sam Becket never returns home." the awkward postscript to the last ep of Quantum Leap.

The death of Dr. Green on ER.

Buffy Season 6: "Normal Again" at the end when Buffy both symbolically and literally stands up to fight for the first time in several increasingly depressing episodes. This is the one where she keeps imagining(?) herself in an insane asylum and everything in her life in Sunnydale is a delusion.

Also the last episode of Season 6 when Xander tells Willow if the world is ending there is no where else he would rather be then with his best friend. Killed me.

Posted by: Rob at October 11, 2007 11:50 AM

Litelysalted: you are correct, it was Wild Horses. I only know this because I've watched the episode 18 thousand times. Sadly, I am proud of this.

Posted by: Julie at October 11, 2007 11:51 AM

Deep Space 9: "Duet." Cardassian Gul Dar'heel, once the ruthless head of a Bajoran death camp, arrives on the station. Eventually, he is revealed not to be Dar'heel after all, but rather Dar'heel's aide-de-camp, Marritza, who is traumatized and guilt-ridden over the terrible events at the camp and is impersonating Dar'heel in a twisted attempt at atonement. The scene where he breaks down and says something like "No! I'm not Marritza. Marritza was a coward who hid under his bed so he wouldn't have to hear the Bajorans screaming..." and so on... just, wow.

Ballykissangel: British show from the 90s that plays on PBS here every now and again. Premise: Peter loves Assumpta, and Assumpta loves Peter. Small problem: Peter is a Catholic priest. He finally decides to leave the priesthood so that he and Assumpta can be together. Then Assumpta dies. Sad, but not what made me cry. The next episode, Peter's running around being all assy to everyone because he's so grief-stricken and confused. Finally, a memorial on a hilltop is arranged; when Peter arrives, all his friends are standing on top of the hill waiting for him, and when he gets to the top they all have a group hug. It sounds cheesy, but it is NOT. Oh, crap, I'm crying right now just thinking about it.

Posted by: Kate at October 11, 2007 11:54 AM

I have two that really stand out for me. The first one was that Buffy episode (I'm assuming it's "The Body," I have the DVDs and never really pay attention to the names) when Joyce died. I was with a group of friends watching the episode and they were sitting on the couch and I was on floor. When Anya started talking about all the things Joyce will never get to do, I heard some noises behind me, and I thought people were giggling, mainly cause Anya said the word "juice." (when did juice become a funny word?) Not sure how to feel, I looked back and saw everyone crying and it all just let loose. A few months later, one of my group of friends had a brain aneurysm and died before the season could finish. And then Buffy went and died. I still have issues watching the fifth season.

The other one, also a Joss Weadon moment, is in Firefly's the Messanger. I think that's the episode. The one with the guy that has too many organs. Right when the guy figures out that they were trying to save him, only that he fucked up and got himself shot. Then, during the burial, he has that speech about walking and crawling while he's sobbing. Fuckin' A, it still kills me. It doesn't help knowing that that was one of the last scenes they filmed.

Posted by: Rowen at October 11, 2007 12:05 PM

I am shocked at the relative lack of love for "My So-Called Life"! That show broke my heart at least once in practically every episode. I mean, the end of "Self-Esteem," the hallway scene and Buffalo Tom playing in the background...and then the next episode, when Angela decides not to have sex with Jordan Catalano...and then the episode when Angela finds out about Jordan and Rayanne...and then Angela finds out that Brian wrote the letter...and then the whole series was just OVER, with no resolution... As you can tell, I'm still not over it.

And yes, I admit that a few episodes of "Ally McBeal" really got to me...but the one with Billy's death wasn't the worst. No, for me, it was the episode when Larry Paul left--I bawled like a child. Oh, how I love Robert Downey, Jr.

I also cried at "Dawson's Creek" more times than I can count, but I was in college--I did lots of stupid things back then.

Posted by: Becca at October 11, 2007 12:27 PM

The episode of Buffy in which Angel gets his moment of true happiness, becomes Angelus, and then stands, bathed in moonlight and snaps the young up and comer Jenny Calendar's neck like a bunch of TGIFriday toothpicks. That was the moment in which I knew it was over for Buffy and Angel. The moment when I knew that Giles was badass... Besides, nothing can tear at your heartstrings then Giles, drunk with love, sniffing the roses leading to his room. And there lied out on the bed is his one true love. Come on "Sorry, Jenny. This is where you get off".... CRACK-dead love of your life.


And I was still reeling from Willow's fish.
They didn't even get to bond though...

Posted by: Brian Murnane at October 11, 2007 12:33 PM

I'll just start by agreeing that Buffy, Angel, and Scrubs, plus Gilmore Girls, Arrested Development, and a million other things, all left me in varying states of emotionally-charged dampness during their runs.

I think I'll list a few random heartbreaking moments:

On Doctor Who, "The Aliens of London" when the government guys kill the piggy in the spacesuit and the Doctor starts crying for the piggy.

On Family Ties when Alex's friend dies and he is stuck in his head (or something like that?) and it was just really sad for me, plus it was some late night Nick at Night thing.

This is bad, but on Lizzie Maguire when she was dating the paperboy and he broke up with her and she was so sad and her mom wanted to comfort her, but they were having a fight and she didn't want to crowd Lizzie.

On Freaks and Geeks, when Nick's dad took away his drums.

Finally, I must end with a Boy Meets World moment, although I was one of those who died a little every time Topanga and Cory broke up At the dance? Where he pretended to be Shawn and she pretended to be French? I was sobbing at the end where they ran back all, "Maybe we shouldn't do this" but then missed each other. It was a silly little show, but I've always loved it.

Posted by: Cait at October 11, 2007 12:33 PM

I've been working my way through Six Feet Under on DVD for the past year, and I just finally reached the series finale at 1 a.m. last night. I was fine until those last six minutes- honestly, throughout the rest of the episode I found myself tiring of every character breaking down and weeping, endlessly. And then Claire drove away, and the song started, and it was all over. I dissolved into a puddle on the couch. Of course, the episode has been mentioned here many times before, but it just happened to me less than twelve hours ago, and my eyes are still puffy.

Posted by: antoinette jeanine at October 11, 2007 12:41 PM

Such a sad, yet therapeutic, comment diversion! As so many have mentioned the two saddest moments I can remember ("The Body," SFU finale & pretty much every episode of Freaks & Geeks), I've decided to unload the first and last (latest?) blubbery TV moments I've experienced.

The first time I can remember having an emotional reaction to a television program was when I was a young kid watching an episode of She-Ra (Yes, She-Ra The Princess of Power. Which makes this answer two different kinds of "sad"). She-Ra's normal identity, Adora, had a crush on some sea pirate guy. They meet up on the beach and he says something to indicate that he was expecting to see She-Ra instead. Adora says "Oh," and turns away, clearly disappointed that he appeared to be into her super hero alter ego instead of her. For some reason, the sad. hurt tone in her voice instantly brought tears to me eyes. I remember being stunned at having this kind of uncontrollable reaction to a fictional event.

The most recent emotional outbreak occurred this past summer, while I was watching Season 1 of BSG for the first time. There's an episode where Starbuck crashes and the whole crew is risking a Cylon attack by sticking around and looking for her. When they finally decide to give up and leave, Apollo (who clearly has a myriad of daddy-issues) has a question for his father, Commander Adama: if Apollo had been the one to crash, would Adama have kept the fleet in danger this long to find him? Adama responds, "If it were you, we'd never leave." I was hit by this "out-of-the-blue" display of love by a father for his son, and I was surprised to find myself choking back the tears.

Gah!

Posted by: joshowa at October 11, 2007 12:44 PM

La Femme Nikita, Season 4, Final Episode.

Believing that this was to be the Series Finale (before a successful fan campaign got a wrap-up 8 episode fifth season), I can state without a doubt that I lost my shit during this episode. After 4 years of electric chemistry, on again, off again romance and general sexual head-fucking between the lead characters, the spy organization they work for determines Michael needs to be eliminated. After sending him on a certain death mission, Nikita disobeys orders and rescues Michael. Knowing that she must stay , Nikita orders Michael to run away and never come back. When she sees he won't leave without her, knowing that every minute could increase his chances of survival, Nikita coldly and convincingly tells Michael that she doesn't love him, and never did. The moment that disintegrated my heart? Silently, Michael looks back at her, opens his knife, and CUTS THE CORNER OF HIS EYE, producing a single blood tear, before disappearing into the woods.

People, this was, for all I knew, the conclusion to first LoVe, the first JAM, I had ever known and had been following for four years. I was a wreck for weeks.

Posted by: Amy at October 11, 2007 12:49 PM

The moment I discovered that Jason Dohring (Logan on _Veronica Mars_) is a scientologist was easily the most horrifying moment in television history.

Posted by: chris at October 11, 2007 12:51 PM

The moment I discovered that Jason Dohring (Logan on _Veronica Mars_) is a scientologist was easily the most horrifying moment in television history.

Posted by: chris at October 11, 2007 12:52 PM

Here are my entries.
Real-life tv alterning moment: Death of Phil Hartman. I was a teenager, but I knew then that no one could ever be that damned funny again. The Newsradio tribute to him was just heartbreaking. That show never recovered from his loss.

TV shows: Have to agree with many of the above entries, but here are mine.

Scrubs- " My Screwup" The death of Ben, Jordan's brother and Cox's best friend hurt more than anything else that I can remember. If you had watched the earlier episodes that had Ben in them, then the background of the relationship between the characters is so much more detailed. In one of the earlier ones, Ben is telling his sister that in the divorce, he had to choose Perry over her, even though she is his sister. The relationship between Cox and Ben is the best relationship in Cox's life and the least complicated. To see it end the way that it does is just soul crushing. I have watched this episode many times and I never catch the one subtle detail that gives Ben's death away. In the first part of the episode, Ben, who carries a camera everywhere to take candid photos because they are more real than a staged photo, tells Cox that he will have that camera with him until the day that he dies. In the second half of the episode, the camera is nowhere to be seen. Very subtle and very well done. Throughout the episode Ben keeps talking to Perry and you never realize that he is the only one who can see him. Finally, Cox and Ben are walking to what Cox thinks is his son Jack's first birthday. Cox asks where Ben's camera is to take photos of the crying babies with frosting and the happy people. Joshua Radin's Winter begins to play as JD walks up and asks Cox where he thinks he is. At this moment it becomes clear where they are. Winter continues to play as we see everyone arriving at Ben's funeral. JD voices over about how in the end it is the people that are there for you that matter the most. The episode that follows has a equally sad moment with Jordan and Cox sitting together in a darkened room with whiskey holding each other while talking about how much they miss Ben. A beautifully done episode and equally painful. Gets me every time.

Alias - series finale. How in the hell do you get off killing Spy Daddy? What was that all about? I am still bitter and sad about the death of Spy Daddy. Screw you ABC.

Sopranos - Long Term Parking. A mob show should never make you cry right? Wrong. Adrianna's death really bothered me. I knew it was coming, but throughout the episode I kept hoping that she could escape. When she is confessing to Chrissy and then create the plan to escape, I thought that she might make it. I kept hoping and wishing that she could. Then Chrissy had to sell her out and I kept screaming at the tv "Run Ade Run!". She packed up the red suitcase and then the phone rang. Silvio comes to get here and says that he is taking her to see Chrissy, who has supposedly overdosed. She starts daydreaming about an escape. Then Silvio pulls into the woods and Ade starts screaming and crying. I start crying because I know that it is the end. Silvio pulls her out of the car and Ade starts running/crawling through the woods trying to survive. Silvio pulls out his gun, puts the silencer on, and the screen fades up through the trees to the sky as we continue to hear Ade beg for her life and then two shots are fired and the crying stops. Poor Ade never had a damn chance. Her death was one of the saddest moments of the show for me.

Many, many others, but these are the top.

Posted by: Melody at October 11, 2007 12:54 PM

1. Seeing the second building of the WTC get hit by the plane, live, on (if I'm remembering correctly) Good Morning America, making it clear that the first one wasn't an accident. Then a little later, at work (most of us were watching in the break room), seeing that tower collapse, again, live. Had to leave the room, just couldn't watch anymore.
2. The episode where Buffy's mom dies. One of the best hours of TV I've ever seen.
3. The MASH episode where Hawkeye falls in love with the Vietnamese woman, then she has to leave.
4. The Homicide episode with Robin Williams. He and his family were tourists, and his wife was shot to death in a robbery. I think it's the best acting Williams has ever done in his life, before or since. The whole episode is kinda devastating, but one memorable part is when all the cops are making jokes about stupid tourists and Robin Williams overhears them, comes in and says some things that make them feel bad for joking about it.

Posted by: LL at October 11, 2007 12:56 PM

Seriously, I cried like a baby after seeing that Futurama episode ("Jurassic Bark"). That poor dog waiting outside for years, with that Connie Francis song playing in the background...man. I still get choked up. It has to be one of the saddest things I've ever seen on TV.

Jesus, I can't even read about that damn episode without tearing up.
What was Goreing thinking?
We watch each episode of Furturama with fear of this being the time "that episode" will show up.

Besides that shoe there is Dr. Who, 2nd ep of Family of Blood, when the Dr holds the watch with the Matron and he sees what his life would be like as a mortal. Damn, I've seen it 3 times now and I just bawl like a baby.

Posted by: Jules at October 11, 2007 1:08 PM

Listen, 24 is ridiculous now. You know it, I know it. But when Edgar dies in front of the whole office, and Chloe shows she's a human being, I lost it. Edgar was the only character on that show who I'd want to ever be friends with, the only redeemable thing about that craptastic downward spiral, and I cried like a little baby in my friend's living room. Oh, and then I stopped watching it forever.

Posted by: Rachel at October 11, 2007 1:09 PM

"...Tell Our Moms We Did Our Best", the finale to Space Above and Beyond. I was in high school, deeply in love with Rodney Rowland, and somehow the fact that this was IT for my favorite show at the time caught me completely unaware.

The episode was heartbreaking in every way to me- the way it propped up the hope of a peaceful ending to a bloody, frightening war between cultures that simply did not tolerate or try to understand each other and then just CRUSHED it. Coming off Part One of the finale, which gave us our first "human" glimpse of the "Chigs" my lovely Wild Cards had been relentlessly fighting against for so long made it even more horrific to me. All the elements that moved so quickly- the promise of Nathan's love returning to him, alive- the fear in Hawkes eyes when faced with the idea that, should the war really be over, he'd be returning to a "home" that hated everything he was, the friendships coming to a close- were there and they all tugged at my heartstrings. Then entered Chaos- a failed peace, a suicide bomb from the enemy, watching characters I had so loved DIE and realizing, as a viewer, that this show wasn't meant to come back from all this. I paused the VCR and just cried and cried and cried. I've always found the concept of war terrifying, and the reality of the Wild Cards, their interactions, fears and successes and failures were so vivid to me.

I bought the collection finally out on DVD and of course it's one of those things that loses a bit in the 12 years that have passed since I started watching it, but the message of war against those you don't understand and the fact that your government could be hiding things from you? Scary stuff, all too relevant.

Posted by: lilianna28 at October 11, 2007 1:30 PM

If I recall correctly, I've only cried six or seven times for a TV show. Yes, it's a bit sad that I've kept count, but I like to consider those moments somewhat special, that I was actually moved enough to cry since I usually am very based in reality when watching things, knowing it's fictional and such, but some things just really are so convincing and sweet and realistic and sad and surprising, that you really can't help but cry even if you don't want to. Well, the three that stood out for me were:



1) Futurama - "Luck of the Fryrish" I found the dog episode sad too, but I've never had a pet so I suppose I just never connected with it as much as other people did. However, I never had an older brother either, but Luck of the Fryrish, the last few minutes were just a pure punch to the gut. You just think the whole time that it's just going to be one of the pure-comedy episodes, they show a little of Fry's backstory in flashbacks and how his brother resented Fry for having a lucky seven-leaf clover and always copied him in things like breakdancing. So when Fry learns that someone that looks like his brother achieved all the things he wanted to do when he was younger, like travel in space and such, he's bitter because he thinks his brother took his clover and stole the life he wanted. However, in the last few minutes, you realize along with Fry that his brother did not in fact steal his life, but missed his younger brother so much (none of his family was aware he was frozen in time and lived in the future) that he named his son after him and modeled him after Fry and his ambitions. God, it just brought insight on what a family deals with when a member goes missing, an aspect I never really thought they'd bring to this laugh-out-loud show.



2) Doctor Who - I read some spoilers before watching the season 2 finale, so I thought Rose was going to die or something really terrible. No one died, but it was still extremely sad. Rose is taken to an alternate universe because it's too dangerous to stay with the Doctor to fight with the Daleks. She leaves behind her family and friends, because she's made her decision then and there that she's staying with the Doctor forever and that he's worth that. He's angry because she risking her life but at the same time, he wants her to stay because they love each other and she makes him not lonely. However, as the portal to empty space or whatever opens, Rose and the Doctor are holding onto these magna-clamps or whatever, but Rose loses her grip and is about to fall into space but then her dad teleports back in and teleports both of them out to the parallel world. Rose is alive, but the seal between worlds is closed and she can never be with him again.



3) The Office - Season 3 finale. Basically, I always enjoyed The Office but didn't love Jim as much as other people did. I thought he was a good, funny character but not much more than that. However, a lot of Season 3 was about Pam's growth and independence as a person, she broke off her engagement with her schlub fiance and realized her deeper feelings for Jim. He's dating someone else and she rejected him a year before, so she's accepted the fact that they won't be together, because she can be by herself and be okay. She's basically saying this in her talking head, she's regretful and sad but accepting and grown when Jim walks in after driving all the way from a job interview and asks her out and then she accepts and turns back into the camera with tears in her eyes. Not exactly sad but so so good.

Posted by: Sylvie at October 11, 2007 1:33 PM

Man I can't believe I forgot all of those moments from ER. That just shows how long its been since I've watched it and cared about it. Dr. Green was my favorite character and seeing him die was tough. That shot of Carter and Lucy on the floor looking at each other after they got stabbed was unbelievable. Damn this show has probably as many as Buffy.

Posted by: Dave at October 11, 2007 1:39 PM

Man I can't believe I forgot all of those moments from ER. That just shows how long its been since I've watched it and cared about it. Dr. Green was my favorite character and seeing him die was tough. That shot of Carter and Lucy on the floor looking at each other after they got stabbed was unbelievable. Damn this show has probably as many as Buffy.

Posted by: Dave at October 11, 2007 1:39 PM

Man I can't believe I forgot all of those moments from ER. That just shows how long its been since I've watched it and cared about it. Dr. Green was my favorite character and seeing him die was tough. That shot of Carter and Lucy on the floor looking at each other after they got stabbed was unbelievable. Damn this show has probably as many as Buffy.

Posted by: Dave at October 11, 2007 1:40 PM

So very late to the game, so I will at least agree with the Futurama/Scrubs/West Wing scenes that have been laid out.

One scene I find particularly poignant is in the UK "The Office" when David Brent is being told that he is being made redundant. When he gets choked up and promises to change and essentially begs to not be let go, it's pretty heartbreaking.

Posted by: Sh*t Sandwich at October 11, 2007 1:44 PM

BSG:
Exodus Part 2:The Pegasus blasts its way into the scene to save the Galactica.

Unfinished Business: When Lee and Starbuck, all bloodied and beaten, lean on each other and confess that they missed each other.

Buffy:
Lie To Me: The very end where Buffy asks Giles if life gets any easier and she tell him to lie to to her. Giles starts telling her how wonderful life gets.

Posted by: Chris Ramirez at October 11, 2007 2:22 PM

I did not read all of these, but I read quite a few of them. I don't admire y'all for the task of determining a winner.

However, if I might humbly nominate one from among the entries I did read, I thought that the Piglet story about empathizing with her daughter was very touching. It was unique among the entries I read in that it was about empathizing with someone else who empathized with the television, whereas all the other entries I read were about empathizing directly with the television.

Just one guy's opinion.

Posted by: Darth Corleone at October 11, 2007 2:25 PM

I don't think it's been mentioned:

The episode of Lost in the first season in which the flashbacks focus on Michael and his son. We learn that after having a son, Michael and his wife divorced, she remarried and had a fabulous career in Australia. Michael never saw his son growing up. Then Michael's ex-wife died suddenly. The second husband approached Michael and said that he never signed up to be a single dad. He asks Michael to take custody of his son after he signs it away. Michael was angry being asked for this by the guy who kept him out of his son's life until now, but he agrees.

Michael comes to Australia to pick up a son. His son doesn't understand why he can't keep living with the only dad he's ever known. "Doesn't he want me?" "Of course he wants you," Michael says. "But it's not his decision. It's mine."

He knew that his son would resent the hell out of him, but he also knew that his son had to keep believing he was loved and wanted. It was a beautiful moment.

Posted by: CopRock at October 11, 2007 2:43 PM

Dana: I have seen enough to know that I have SEEN EOUGH! And now I want something good to happen. I want something good to happen before the day is over, and I'll be judge of what's good. One good thing before the day is over, I swear that's all I want!


Isaac: Hey lady! Are you planning on getting my show on the air anytime soon?



The season 1 finale of "Sports Night". A series that started slow had just began to hit its midseason-stride when Robert Guillaume suffered a real-life stroke that was written into the show. In a time before SPOILERS were everywhere, Isaac/Robert's surprise return at the point of a near-breakdown by Dana. The first time I watched it a probably shed a tear for good reasons. Ever since, though, I do because it breaks my heart how such a great show could have had such a short run.

Ninth inning rally, indeed.

Posted by: Matt U at October 11, 2007 2:43 PM

My God....
Ben's post (towards the top of this list) re: Six Feet Under strikes home for me....

Wow. Just wow.

Posted by: courtney at October 11, 2007 2:51 PM

I have another FNL moment, and I'm just going to steal the summary from the TWOP recap because it describes it so wonderfully:

Tami immediately looks weepy but manages to hold it together. She restrains herself to remarking that they were supposed to have two weeks. Coach recounts what Carl said, "blah blah blah, passed the buck up onto the top." Tami now looks like a staring, wounded deer. Coach reminds her that this is what he does, basically saying they need to suck it up. Tami gets up and moves to the couch. Coach follows her and continues talking, while Tami continues staring into the middle distance. You can almost see the emergency wall she's building up around her heart. And that takes all your energy, so much that you can't talk, you can't communicate. Coach continues blathering, saying he can't do his job half-assed, and then faced with her continuing silence, he asks her to speak. Tami begins moving her mouth but nothing comes out. She tears up a bit when Coach isn't looking, and you know she is scrambling inside her own head, knowing she should talk but really just wanting him to leave so she can break down in private. Eric finally says "That it?" and then when she nods, he gets up, grabs the keys, and says he'll be back in a bit. He leaves and she just lets loose.

That... is pretty much exactly, exactly every fight I've had with my fiance. That scene just nailed it. (Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton are freaking amazing).

Posted by: roses at October 11, 2007 3:10 PM

I agree with everyone who mentioned The West Wing and The Wonder Years, however my most heartbreaking television moment is something I haven't seen mentioned here yet.

The series finale of Family Ties when Alex is about to go to college had not only me, but both of my parents in tears. My older brother had gone off to college for the first time the fall before the episode aired. My parents and I really missed him and seeing that episode about a family being seperated just resonated so strongly with us. Just thinking about it gets me a little choked up.

Posted by: Megan at October 11, 2007 3:19 PM

Okay, a lot of mine have been said, but here's another.

I watched Grey's Anatomy before it went from soapy but fun to wtf?, but none of the main characters ever made me cry.

There's this episode, though. "Into You Like A Train," I think it's called, and it's the usual heavy-handed metaphor because two people, a young woman and an older man, have been impaled on a pole and they can only save one of them. (Derek can only love Addison or Meredith! Oh no!)

They go with the older man, because he's got a better chance, and the thing is... the young woman and the older man are both conscious this whole time, and they're talking, and when the doctors tell them they're going to cut them out in a way that will maybe save the man, but not the girl, the man starts protesting and the girl just quietly, tears running down her face, asks if her fiance will be there before they do it.

Her fiance can't make it in time.

I'm already crying, and then... the next thing you see after her death is McDreamy, not thinking about himself for once, talking to the fiance and he says "she wanted to tell you- if love was enough, she would still be here with you."

I lost it. Because, well. Yeah. If love was enough, but there are times it's not, and I'd been through one of those times recently.

Grey's hasn't gotten a reaction that emotional from me since. Even my disgust now is apathetic in comparison.

Posted by: Sarah at October 11, 2007 3:20 PM

Kenny dying. On every single (with a few excpetions in the middle) of South Park. Oh the horror! Oh the devestation! Every. single. time.

Did I win????!!!

Posted by: staylor at October 11, 2007 3:42 PM

Okay, so, The Body is getting a crap ton of votes--but what about the episode at the end of Season 1 of Buffy? I forget the name of it, but Buffy finds out (through eavesdropping on Giles and Angel) that it's prophesied that she's going to die at the Master's hands and she loses it? She's all, I don't want to die, I'm only sixteen, okay fine I quit--and rips off the cross that Angel gave her and storms out? I lose my shit every time.

I've never cared for SMG. I think she was great as Buffy, but she's always been a bit snobby to me. However, that episode, as campy as Season 1 was-- gets me every time.

Also--Doyle dying on Angel. I have a weakness for the Irish. 'Cept David Bore-howveryouspellit's faux accent--that just hurt me.

Posted by: Scarlett at October 11, 2007 4:10 PM

....the Quantum Leap season finale was a big disappointment (a prime example of when a great show, in no small part due to NBC's ridiculous decision to cancel it with little warning to Bellisario and Co., is forced to wrap things up before its time, and then NBC spends the next f*cking decade and a half greenlighting pale imitations....The Pretender(?!) Journeyman (?!)).

But it does include one of the most gratifying television scenes of all time, when Sam leaps back to tell Beth (Al's first wife and one true love) that Al (a POW) is alive and will be coming back home.

...I'm getting teary-eyed now just thinking about it.

...a close second is the "Tales of the Gold Monkey" episode where Bon Chance Louie is put on trial for the murder of a fellow former French Legionnaire who deserted and collaborated with the Germans during WWI. ...If I remember correctly, Louie hangs himself in his cell with a croissant.

Posted by: Jimmy V at October 11, 2007 4:22 PM

1. Much as I rail on Claire Danes, the scene from "My So-Called Life" where she gets dragged into the rehearsal for "Our Town" opposite Rayanne is a KILLER. When she asks "Were you happy?" and her voice cracks? Rivulets down my face.

2. There are a few misty moments from "Sex and the City": the scene where Samantha catches Miranda's eye at her mother's funeral service and mouths "I'm sorry" and starts crying, the scene in the same episode when Carrie takes Miranda's arm as she walks, sobbing, down the aisle, and the scene where Miranda's nanny says "You love" to Miranda after Miranda tracks Steve's mother, who has dementia, down in the streets of Brooklyn. SO FRIGGING SAD.

3. When Bette Midler sang "One for my Baby" on the Johnny Carson finale and he got all misty.

4. 1972 Olympics: when Jim McKay on ABC Sports breaks it to watchers that the Israeli athletes were dead and he says "Our worst fears were realized tonight. They're all gone."

Posted by: Samantha T at October 11, 2007 4:28 PM

ohmygod how could i forget Oz?!

so SO many moments nearly did me in but the stand out ones where mostly the O'rielly moments, when the other prisoners beat on the glass to protest Cyrils execution i was weeping, that whole plot just did me in.
But what really got me, the one Oz moment that just had me by the throat, was when an old priest has come into the prison for some reason and he, being an old irish catholic, decides to 'win back' Ryan to the faith as it where. He does some asking around and eventually is able to confront Ryan with the cold hard truth he's learned...
He pushes and pushes at a reluctant to talk Ryan until Ryan snaps and punches him, then breaks down and falls to the floor in an exhausted, emotional, weeping heap. We learn later that the O'rielly's had a baby sister and Ryan witnessed their drunk bastard of a father shake the child to death when he couldn't make her stop crying.
It was seeing Ryan break down so completely, not his usual anger fuelled hysteria but genuine grieving hysteria that killed me.
And this in and of its self leads into another Dean Winters moment, in Law and Order SVU, when he decides to leave because he just cant handle the true awfulness of his job.
Cragen sends him on one last case to see how he copes and Dean, Cassidy, tells the story of the girl he's just spoken with. She was abused as a child by a father figure and hasn't been dealing with it so well into her teen years. It turns out that while out meeting her boyfriend, he and his 'boys' gang raped her and left her on a beach, then when a good Samaritan came along, he seemed to offer help only to rape her as well.
Dean Winters during this scene is just staggering, any one not crying by the end doesn't have a soul.
There are a couple of incidents on the obvious ones, like charity shows, but one always got me as a kid because they replayed it every year for a few years=It was...i forget which fundraiser but the clip they used so often was of a pair of kids in africa who at a young age had been seperated from their parents and raised in a refugee camp or adotive home. Thanks to the charities efforts their father had been located and was taken to go and see them for the first time since his children where very small.
Upon seeing him, the son runs and throws himself into his dads arms, his older daughter, now a teen, is more disbelieving but hysterically emotional, eventually building up the courage to approach and finally embrace her family. Like i say, this was something i watched from an early age and was 'realler' to me than the 'give africa money' adds we normally saw on TV. To this day it leaves me sobbing, at least...ten or fifteen years after i first saw it

Posted by: Nadine at October 11, 2007 4:37 PM

NADINE!

Green Wing = Genius.

Posted by: awesome_awesomeness at October 11, 2007 5:34 PM

The day Veronica died will always be one of my most sorrowful TV memories. I can barely look at Kristen Bell without my lip trembling a bit and whispering "....Veronica!"

BUT, having said that, I bawled like a little baby during and after the series finale of Everwood. Damn. I loved that show so much. I'm a weeping cheese-lover and there weren't enough tissues to stave off my tears when Ephram presented Amy with that ferris wheel. And while we're on the subject of EW and sob fests...I can't get through the episode "My Funny Valentine" either because of Treat's (er, Dr. Brown's) voice-over. I get chills everytime I think of him saying "Don't you see, my heart beats only for you?" while Edna sobs over Irv in the snow.

My other sad TV moment is really more of a prolonged aching everytime I watch My So-Called Life because I wish - oh, how I wish! - that there was more than one season. As you can see, I have a problem with kick ass shows that were canceled before their time.

Posted by: Jessica at October 11, 2007 5:48 PM

Already commented, but something else from Oz, I'm now onto Season 4, episode 4. Beecher getting the child's hand, and the scene where he's just wailing in the dark? God. This show is wrecking me and I'm only halfway through.

Posted by: 'Cuno at October 11, 2007 5:48 PM

THE WONDER YEARS: When Kevin is heartbroken over his break up with Winnie, his father, who was always such a surly man, gives him a comforting hug in the garage. I loved that rare moment of tenderness and understanding between them.

Posted by: PaperGirl at October 11, 2007 6:40 PM

Does "Band of Brothers" count as tv? It was a beautifully done 10 part miniseries on HBO a few years ago about the men of Easy Company, 101 Airborne during WWII. If so, my final entry is for the episode "Why we fight", Episode 8. In this part of the series, the men of Easy Company are rolling through the German countryside and come upon an abandoned concentration camp. Thinking that there are no people still housed there, the men go to check it out. They find hundreds of prisoners in varying states of illness. The prisioners tell the men about how the German soliders started killing people, but eventually gave up and left them to die. The men of Easy find inexplicable horror and awful atrocities. To help bury the dead, the commanders of Easy round up citizens of the nearby town, who say that they did not know about the camp, to help bury the dead prisioners.
The whole damned series has many moments that get me on a crying jag, but none as bad as this one. I cry for about 45 out of 60 minutes. It is even more heartbreaking when you know that this is the true story of the experiences of the real men of Easy Company, who appear at the beginning and at the end of each episode, talking about things that happened at that particular battle or moment in the war. Hearing grandfathers talk about the horrors of that camp and the things that they saw there is just, well I have no words. If you have not seen Band of Brothers and like war things, go rent it immediately. The best series, show, or orignal anything that HBO has ever, ever done.

Posted by: Melody at October 11, 2007 7:08 PM

I wasn't going to post since, 1. EVERYTHING makes me cry, and 2. I don't watch VM, so why would I want the 3rd season? (Please don't hurt me.) BUT, I read them all, and if you're still around, s. pisaster, did you see Spike's ultimate fate coming? I had no clue. I mean, I knew it wouldn't be a happy ending, but I just sat there with going "Huh?"

The Wolf's Rain finale (the real one, where the world really ends) was the saddest thing I ever saw on TV, though. I cried for about 3 hours solid, and my head hurt for days.

Posted by: pinkcheese at October 11, 2007 7:51 PM

I completely agree with SFU, MASH, Brian's song, Hill Street Blues, and Band of Brothers. I would add another excellent mini-series--Lonesome Dove and a very old episode of the Andy Griffith Show when Opie kills a mamma bird with his slingshot and has to care for the baby birds. For such a corny show, it was very poignant.

Posted by: Jean at October 11, 2007 7:54 PM

I think I'll have to nominate the first season finale of Joan of Arcadia, where Joan finds out that she's got Lyme disease, which might be causing her to have aural and visual hallucinations--basically, everybody's telling her that her visions of God were products of a fevered brain and not divine. Amber Tamblyn sells so well Joan's pain and sorrow at finding out that it might never have been real, and the complete devastation of losing God is absolutely heartbreaking. The worst is when she continues to believe despite what everybody is telling her, despite the fact that God is silent in this moment of profound confusion, and she tries to tell her boyfriend Adam, thinking that if he believes her then she can go on believing. But his words, "I believe that you believe it," just devastate her. Not everyone is religious, certainly, but even those who are agnostic can probably imagine what a deep loss it would be to believe so fervently in the existence of a God who loves you and wants what's best for you only to find out it might not have been real. The show later takes the position that this was just a crisis of faith for Joan, and that of course God still exists and returns to Joan in the second season, but at the moment when Joan abandons herself to the desolation of a world without God just tears me apart.

Posted by: Anna at October 11, 2007 7:57 PM

"My name is Saul Tigh. I'm an officer in the Colonial Fleet. Whatever else I am, whatever else it means, that's the man I want to be. And if I die today, that's the man I'll be."

He wasn't always a good man. He didn't always make the right choices. After everything he'd been through. After everything he had done (however wrong), for the sake of humanity, for the sake of the fight. Only to discover that he'd already betrayed everyone he ever loved, ever trusted simply by being what he was. But he could still make his choice. And, oh, did he make a good one this time.

Posted by: mandasarah at October 11, 2007 8:26 PM

1)The cancellation of Arrested Development.
2) Scrubs episode where Dr. Cox loses 3 patients, oh and the episode with Ben's death was heart-wrenching too.
But my MOST heartwrenching episode -
3) The final freakin episode of Sex and the City. Because the only way a woman is happy is if she is attached to a man. LAME! F*^# you S & C!

Posted by: Lisa at October 11, 2007 8:34 PM

The episode of "Good Times" when the Evans Family finds out that James has been killed. I was a little girl when I watched it and it tore me up! I loved that family!

Posted by: Melanie at October 11, 2007 8:43 PM

Honestly, its old, I know, but it still makes me cry ever single time I see it on re-runs. The episode of MASH when Henry Blake finally gets to go home -- and then Rader comes in with the news that his copter was shot down. Damn powerful episode.

And I swear to god, when I was 12, I saw the Vietnam Wall for the first time with my dad - and he stood there, realizing, I think, that one of his buddies had been killed in the copter flying out. They were taking down the copters of the departing troops. He stood there and sobbed. I was scared to death - I had never seen him really cry before.

And every single time I see the damn episode I sit there and watch it even though I know what is going to happen, I know I will cry, and I know I will ALWAYS end up thinking of my dad at the Wall, but I can't stop watching it.

Posted by: sammy at October 11, 2007 9:04 PM

Freaks and Geeks, when Neal, Bill and Sam are riding their bikes through town with the garage door opener Neal found in his dad's car. They knows it opens the garage of the woman Neal's dad is sleeping with, and they ride around clicking it at every garage in town hoping to find the one that opens. Bill and Sam say they have to go home, their parents are waiting, and Sam gives them a speech about loyalty. The last scene is of Neal, finally finding the right garage, seeing it slowly reveal his dad's car, and his two best friends aren't by his side.

Posted by: becca at October 11, 2007 10:22 PM

pinkcheese - I guess I kind of knew when Faye started to break down because she knows he's not coming back, but I was in deep denial. I really thought he'd made it - when he comes limping down the stairs after killing Vicious and all the gunmen lower their weapons and then he just drops and that beautiful depressing song plays.....It was so perfect, really the only way it could have ended. But soooooo sad. God that was such an awesome series.

Posted by: s. pisaster at October 11, 2007 10:43 PM

So Buffy's been mentioned a zillion times, this episode has been mentioned once, but this quote:


"I think horrible is still coming. Right now, it's worse. Right now, I'm just trying to keep from dying."


Even though it was specifically a breakup, the words speak of such pain from loss and SMG really knocked that line out of the park... there haven't been many times in my life when I felt like that, where feeling horrible would be the better alternative. But when I have, it was comforting to know that someone somewhere had enough of an idea of what I was feeling to put it into words.

Also, as mentioned before, the Body... but what specifically gets me is when she goes from saying "Mom" to "Mommy." You could be a superhero in this life, and all the strength in the world can't take the terror you feel out of a moment like that one. It's a moment where we all become children and want our moms to take care of us, and just the overwhelming pain of trying to deal with the fact that she can't.

Posted by: catherine at October 12, 2007 12:10 AM

The episode of Growing Pains where Carol's been dating this guy Sandy (Matthew Perry), and he gets into a drunken accident moments after dropping her off for the night. When her parents find out, they're really ticked off, but Carol explains to them that Sandy's gotten his second chance now and he's never going to do anything like that again. Carol, Maggie, and Jason return home from visiting Sandy at the hospital and are met by an unusually somber Mike. Sandy's roommate had just called from the hospital--Sandy died moments before from internal bleeding. Tracy Gold first raging at Mike and then sobbing, "What happened to his second chance?" gets me every time.

Posted by: Lucie at October 12, 2007 2:11 AM

The final moments of Season 3.

Cristina Yang realises her husband who has left her at the altar is finally gone. Her words are heartbreaking:

"I'm free. Damnit."

It's a credit to the acting of Sandra Oh that she makes the moment so rife with emotion and ambiguity. Does she want to be free from him? Is this a weight taken off her shoulders? Or has she just gotten her heart utterly and completely shattered. It's shocking to watch as she begins to wail and rip her wedding dress off of her, with the help of her friend as she just has a meltdown.

It's mesmerizing. And more importantly, heartbreaking.

Posted by: Brooke at October 12, 2007 3:24 AM

Damn you, time difference! I love these afternoon comment diversions, but living in the Netherlands, they come late at night for me. So I'm always late in the game. Well here goes:

- Jurassic Bark (I think we can all agree that it's one of the saddest moments in TV history)

- Final Episode of Blackadder goes Forth (Hit me like a hammer that a comedy series would end so serious)

- Not the final episode of MASH, but the last regular episode before that. When we see that Radar is not a young boy anymore.

Posted by: Doogs at October 12, 2007 5:10 AM

aww shit, I can't read any more of these comments - they're making me cry! And I'm at work, so that's not such a good idea.
All this just shows how many, many amazingly emotional moments tv has given us over the years.
I'm going to drop off some of my examples and run away before I overflow again....

The Body. It utterly devastated me when I first saw it. And since I lost my Dad, I can't watch it at all.

Buffy's season five death. I was ok until Spike broke down!

Mrs Landingham's death in the West Wing. You bastard, God!

Colonel Blake's death in MASH.

The ep of Scrubs when Ben dies. And the one where Cox loses all those patients.

Greys Anatomy - George helping to deliver Bailey's baby while her husband is seriously injured. Also the train crash ep, and Denny's death.

The SFU finale.

The Blackadder finale.

ER - too many to recall, in the early seasons. (But for some reason, Mark Greene's death didn't do it for me).

Doctor Who - the Doctor & Rose, parted for ever! *sob* even Billie Piper's excessive mascara couldn't ruin that one for me. Also, 'Father's Day', and the end of 'The Girl in the Fireplace'.

Supernatural - Sam has to kill the werewolf girl (what? Ackles & JPad sold it, IMO). And basically all the big moments in season 2, same reason.

That ep of Cold Case about the young transexual. CC is all about redemption and stuff, they do go for the tear ducts. But this is the only one which ever got to me, for some reason.

Why yes, I am easily reduced to a puddle!

Damn, the ducts are off again - leaving now....

Posted by: tarn at October 12, 2007 7:06 AM

Cuno, I envy you only just getting to season four of "Oz". It gets better and better. Almost impossible to realize just how fine TV drama can be when the writing, acting, and directing are uniformly superb. Toby Beecher breaks your heart now--just wait.

I encourage all Pajib[i]ans to Netflix "Oz". You will be mesmerized.

Posted by: rudy at October 12, 2007 9:44 AM

"My Screwup" is probably the most gut-wrenching thing I've seen on network TV since Henry Blake's chopper went down. John C. McGinley is simply amazing, especially the closeup of his face at the end of the episode. I usually have to look away to avoid shedding my own tears.

But for my money, and I agree with Melody, "Why We Fight" from Band of Brothers is, by far, the most heartbreaking television moment for me.

Posted by: JH at October 12, 2007 10:43 AM

So, Candace up there already stole my "fall down sobbing" moment not from a movie with VM second season finale. My second sad moment, which I will categorize as "sniff and hold it in" moment is, embarassingly, from Sex and the City when Samantha finds out she has cancer and goes to shave her head and her young, hot boyfriend comes in and starts shaving his head. It may be the only episode I've seen in the last season and it was even an edited to a half hour episode, but that was the fucking sweetest thing ever. Felt like an elephant on my chest. Now I will go attempt to regain my pride.

Oh, and Supernatural when Sam died. That was more of a "holy shit they did not just kill him" moment. I just realized it was kind of the same feeling I had when they killed off Wash. Still pissed about Wash.

Posted by: jen at October 12, 2007 12:23 PM

Mine is the X-files episode "unrube" when Scully gets kidnapped AGAIN and Mulder saves her. She tries to be all tough but then he lifts up her chin and she starts to cry and they hug. It's touchy and it kinda gets me horny. Mulder and Scully sex would be so hot and you know it!

Posted by: Starbuck at October 12, 2007 1:44 PM

Futurama -- Like so many others have said, um, OH MY GOD. I yelled at my boyfriend (albeit in a tear-choked voice) for sending me the youtube link to the dog bit. Dear Christ. Sometimes TV sad is a good sad, a "it's nice to feel this intensely once in a while and it's sort of cathartic" but that one was TOO TOO SAD. And yeah, the recent House episode killed me, too. Cannot handle the animal stuff.



And that brings me to another big one -- the Northern Exposure where Joel goes hunting, shoots a bird but doesn't kill it, and then brings it back to his office and tries to save it. When Maggie comes to see him he's all choked up (over the bird's dead body, if I recall correctly) and he says something along the lines of, "It wasn't the hunting/killing that I minded. It was the dying I couldn't handle."



Arrgh! I loved that show, and god knows there were many other teary moments, but that one really sticks with me the most vividly.



Um, god save me, but there are parts of the Luke & Laura saga that kinda get to me.



Any finale of any show I've loved. Arrested Development, for sure. (I about lost it when I watched the extra features and Will Arnett gets all choked up thanking the cast and crew for the great time. Ahh. Another finale that did me in was Family Ties. And of course, Cheers. Also, when Diane leaves to write her book. Poor Sam. And god, what a great show.



Last but not least, does related-to-real-life stuff count? Because (unsurprisingly) Jon Stewart's 9/11 speech on the Daily Show wrecked me. So did Letterman's, though not as much. With Letterman, it was really his show devoted to Warren Zevon -- as well as the show when he announced Warren had passed.

Posted by: no name slob at October 12, 2007 2:31 PM

Jen - the head-shaving in solidarity killed me, too. I loved it.

Posted by: Samantha T at October 12, 2007 2:31 PM

Sheesh, sorry about the overzealous spacing in my comment. Oops.

Posted by: no name slob at October 12, 2007 2:34 PM

I have to third, fourth, fifth whatever it is the SFU finale, particularly that final montage. I sobbed so hard I could barely see the screen, sobbed when I went to bed, woke up my husband and told him about it and made him hold me while I sobbed some more, then wrote a blog post about it the next day and cried at work, something I desperately hate to do. It was the hardest I've ever cried in my entire life, no joke. I was crying for those people on TV who'd come to seem like family but also because I would die one day and so would everyone I loved. Devastating.

I saved it on Tivo and when I watched it again a couple months later, sobbed again almost as hard.

Posted by: Kristin at October 12, 2007 4:35 PM

Oh, great moments, indeed. I'd like to join everybody who mentioned Mrs Landingham's death (The West Wing), Kellie Martin's, Omar Epps' and Dr. Green's-whole-episode deaths (ER), The Office's art exhibition, George from "Dead Like Me" not being recognized by her mom, "This was Arrested Development", the Wonder Years' finale (and the episode at the beach, when Kevin has to leave his summer love) and a few others.

I couldn't read thorugh the whole thing, and I won't even try to enter the contest at this point. Just for the sake of participation, did anyone mention 24's Chappelle being executed? I mean, he is helplessly in the hands of the bad guy, Bauer and the CTU crew spent the entire episode trying to find a way out, their boss grows more and more desperate... to no avail. Jack Bauer just has to shoot the man plain and simple, and the victim still has to agree it's for a greater benefit. He didn't do anything wrong and the freaking Counter-Terrorist Unit has to take orders from an international terrorist...

Not even NipTuck has shocked me like that. I didn't even like Chappelle, but I was so entangled in their struggle, my eyes got pretty wet right after that.

Posted by: gargumma at October 12, 2007 5:48 PM

1. The scene in China Beach (I think it's one of the flashbacks from the final season) where McMurphy and Richard - the Scully and Mulder of the Vietnam war - having finally acknowledged their long-simmering mutual lust and gotten engaged, ultimately decide to go their separate ways when their tour is up.

2. And speaking of the X-Files ('cause Colleen McMurphy is clearly the Dana Scully prototype)... Scully's wrenching howl, "This is not happening!" from the ep of the same name, in which Mulder's tortured, lifeless body is returned but the alien healer is gone, still rings in my ears.

3. In the Six Feet Under episode after Nate dies, Frances Conroy delivers the most exquisitely naunced and heartbreaking portrayal of grief I can recall in any medium.

Posted by: aud at October 12, 2007 6:01 PM

Yes the finale of Six Feet Under was sad and Joyce dying on Buffy makes me cry every time but for me the saddest moment on television is when Judith dies on All in the Family.

I grew up watching that show and even though by the time Judith died the show wasn't really that good I challenge anyone to watch Archie sob and clutch at Judith's slippers and not weep. Maybe it's because Archie reminded me of my own grandpa, they were both blue collar hardworking conservatives, or maybe it was because Carol O'Connor imbued that scene with so much real emotion but to see tough talking Archie Bunker break down over the death of someone he unconditionally loved is so heartbreaking. When he says "You had no right to leave me that way" what he means is that she had no right to leave him at all and his inability to cope with her loss is so true to life that it gets me every single time.

I just looked it up and that episode is called "Archie Alone."

I have to go cry now.

Posted by: gee at October 12, 2007 6:54 PM

Ok, I was really young when this show aired. (10 years old, I think) But I cried the first time I saw the episode of Family Ties titled "The Real Thing" in which Alex professes his love to Ellen and they play "At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters. I find it more touching considering the current physical condition of Michael J. Fox, which breaks my heart. I get teary eyed every time I hear that song. It is the ultimate "I just got dumped by the person I love because he/she loves someone else more and I want to wallow in my own self pity by listening to it over and over again while crying my eyes out and eating cookie dough ice cream directly out of the tub with a large wooden spoon" song. (This is the stage of break-up recover that precedes the sharpening of butcher knives while listening to "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morrisette) Don't worry. I am in therapy.

Posted by: Pudenda at October 12, 2007 7:30 PM

Flower died? Flower DIED?

Posted by: general rhubarb at October 12, 2007 8:14 PM

I am terrible - cry at everything, but two of the more upseting tv moments for me were:
1. Buffy - Once more with feeling - The look on the scooby gangs faces as Buffy tells them that she was in heaven before they bought her back.
2. Joan of Arcadia - Not sure of the eps name, but Joan has just visited her friend who was hospitalised after alcohol poisoning and when God appears to her (as a kind old lady) she falls apart sobbing that she doesnt want to make any more mistakes, that she's sorry and she'll be better.

Posted by: glory at October 12, 2007 10:03 PM

My So-Called Life-

1. When Angela asks Jordan out and he is supposed to come over and meet her parents and he never shows and she goes to her room and cries

OR

2. When Angela figures out that Rayanne slept with Jordan and they are reading the lines from Our Town in play rehersal.

Posted by: TWoP Fan at October 12, 2007 10:48 PM

Maybe I misinterpreted the task, but my mind did not immediately start searching for a favorite show's saddest storyline; rather, it automatically went to:

1. That Season 1 Gilmore Girls episode I accidentally recorded with no sound. I had to make up what was happening based solely on gesture and snappy outfits!

and

2. Countless episodes of My So-Called Life or Buffy or Veronica Mars where the tape had less than an hour on it and stopped, or there was a freak power outage.

What I'm saying is, my own ineptitude, a lack of TiVo funds, and having favorite t.v. shows in a time before internet episodes were available have broken my heart over and over again. Sigh.

Posted by: ewg at October 12, 2007 10:58 PM

When Angela and Jordan break up in the living room in My So-Called Life. Broke my damn heart.

Posted by: Rachel at October 13, 2007 3:06 AM

The TV moment that had me crying like a lost child was the episode "Goodbye" of 8 simple rules i.e. the episode dealing with the sudden death of Papa Hennessey, Paul following John Ritter's untimely death.

The individual reactions of all the characters to the tragedy of losing their Father/Husband had me in tears over and over again.

Posted by: Kira at October 13, 2007 6:51 AM

TwoP - I posted earlier about the "Our Town" scene from MSCL. Mistiness central. You can get it on YouTube, if you're interested. It's even sadder than I remember it because now I'm old enough to identify with the theatre teacher who has no idea what's going on between these two girls.

As to Six Feet Under, I think it's impossible to say who was the best actor on the show because it was uniformly excellent. That said, Frances Conroy. Jesus. She got some of the most heart-wrenching moments on the show. She's frigging amazing. She WAS Ruth.

Posted by: Samantha T at October 13, 2007 8:21 AM

It has to be the Arrested Development S.O.B.s (Save Our Bluths) episode. To see the cast of a brilliantly funny show openly fighting tooth and nail to save it from cancellation, and yet still manage to keep the show hilarious. This was such a heartbreaking moment, on so many levels, and also one of the most honest moments that I have ever seen on television. How could you not shed a tear, watching a worthy friend succumb in a ratings war with the likes of the O.C.?

Posted by: Ally at October 13, 2007 9:42 AM

Angel season one the episode I Will Remember You saddest Buffy/Angel moments ever.... sigh

Posted by: tess at October 13, 2007 11:22 AM

While, clearly, the episode with Radar announcing the death of Henry Blake is clearly the most heartbreaking moment in television (it is a generally funny episode, heartfelt, et cetera. You feel that happy kind of melancholy feeling and then BAM, they get you. They get you so good), the one that most affects me is the last episode of Northern Exposure when they play Iris Dement's "Our Town" over the shots of Sicily... I still start to tear up when I hear that damn song.

Posted by: Matt H at October 13, 2007 11:33 AM

By far, the saddest moment on TV was in an episode of CSI called "Homebodies". There was a rape victim who out of fear for her family (the rapist swore to kill them if she told) did not identify him in the lineup. She left with her family and the rapist went free. In the final moments of the episode, Sara (one of the CSI) gets a call for a dead body to process. She goes to the crime scene, and it is the rape victim, shot dead in her own driveway. She excuses herself and sits in the driver's seat in her car and starts crying her eyes out. Between the buildup of the episode, the haunting music playing in the background, and the fact that Sara Sidle never cries, I cannot help but blubber like a little baby whenever that episode comes on.

Posted by: Laura at October 13, 2007 12:42 PM

Oh man, I have been crying reading these. I have so many to add but don't think I can take it. I definitely agree with everyone who listed episodes of Buffy and Angel and Firefly, Futurama, etc.
One I thought of was in Buffy, when Dawn wants desperately to bring Joyce back from the dead, and Buffy races to stop her from casting the spell but at the last moment also desperately wants to see her mother again.
And yes the one where Buffy's classmates give her the beautiful parasol, with *Class Protector* written on it, I sob.
And when she herself dies. I had no idea that the show was coming back, and I thought that it had to be over and that that was the finale, and I was devastated!

Posted by: Loob at October 13, 2007 1:56 PM

So many absolutely brilliant moments here; the SFU finale, that Dark Angel one (I had completely forgotten that episode, but yes, it was horrifying and sad, in a way that DA occasionally hit that always gave me hope it could be more than it was), Veronica and Lilly saying goodbye, Emily slowly dying in Alias and the heartbreaking way she was finally killed, the Scrubs stuff (though my personal saddest Scrubs moment is Mrs. Wilkes catching an infection in "My Cabbage" as 'Fix You' plays in the background and she sits in her room looking sad, not even realising she's dying now) plus every Joss Whedon moment mentioned so far.

But although Brian Murnane came close to it, no one has yet mentioned the moment that absolutely kills me, that leaves me an emotional wreck and the only TV or movie moment to date to draw genuine tears from me (because mostly I'm a sensible human being and can tell myself that they're all fictional) - the aftermath of Jenny's death. It's bad enough watching Angel chase her through the school, watching her beat her way through every doorway, hurling the cart at him, sprinting up the stairs, waiting for Giles or Buffy to pop up with an axe and save her, and watching as they never do, as Angel catches her and brutally kills her. Then I have to see Giles finding her, the music in the background swelling as he climbs the stairs, the roses and the wine and the hope on Anthony Stewart Head's face as he gets to the top and finds Jenny lying on his bed, and the way it slowly changes to horror as he realises she's dead.

But then we have Angel, watching from outside the house as Buffy gets the phone call, and Buffy going completely numb, just sliding to the ground, not even able to take in what's just happened, what she's just let happen, and then Willow grabbing the phone and going completely the other way, freaking out and screaming and refusing to believe it and sobbing in Joyce's arms as Angel, still watching from outside, smiles. It's all just so overwhelming and, whatever about the Body later (which is just too much and overloads me emotionally so I can't feel too close to it), the grief in this episode feels so real to me, Alyson Hannigan's weeping is just so heartfelt and awful, that I feel every time like I've lost someone close to me, and I just want to curl up into a ball until it all goes away. So rant over - this is how Joss tears me apart inside, more than anything else I've ever seen or read.

Posted by: Shay at October 13, 2007 6:52 PM

not a moment really, but anyhow, the day I thought that saved by the bell was gonna be replaced by the power rangers (I grew up in italy) I start bolling like the love of my life just died. My parents still make fun og me, I was 12 but I think I still deserve it.

Posted by: rio at October 13, 2007 7:26 PM

My most heartbreaking TV moments are:

1) The X-Files: When Skinner tells Scully that he lost Mulder (Mulder was abducted by aliens, yo)... I just freaking lost it. Scully pain. Skinner pain. No Mulder. It's like a perfect storm of angst.

2) The X-Files: When Scully is on her deathbed in Redux II and Mulder visits her--and I mean both scenes, the one where she's awake for it, and the other where she's asleep. I was whimpering and snuffling the whole time.

3) Dallas: When Sue Ellen is torn about remarrying JR, and Dusty re-enters her life (again), and she realizes that she has no choice but to marry JR and make the best of it. Her sorrow ripples underneath the calm expression of her face, and it's just so, so, so sad.

4) The X-Files: Mulder's funeral. 'nuff said.

5) Freaks & Geeks: Bill's lonely television viewing. Good gravy, he's so alone and so happy with the TV, eating his lunch... it's tragical.

Those three shows have countless heartbreaking moments. I'm a suckah for the angst, and these shows bring it like no other.

Posted by: SecretAgentGirl at October 13, 2007 7:36 PM

This website is like crack, but I have to stop reading and get to work. I just keep thinking, in the words of my mother-in-law, "My people, my people." I feel for those M.A.S.H. lovers; I bawled uncontrollably for most of the last episode of SFU even though I had come to believe that most of the characters were deeply despicable (and I think I was most moved by Claire being reunited with the one decent guy who just loved her); and I am officially banned from watching all shows and episodes of shows in which some animal may suffer. Today, I am just so grateful for (excuse the parlance) so much exquisite sharing.

I just keep thinking it is going to be so hard to make the judgments about this because inevitably you end up judging people's psychic hot spots. (I know the good men and women at Pajiba will come up with a better solution, but as I've been reading I feel that I haven't.) Despite this, I want to jump in and throw mine on the table for display with the others.

Just recently, the season finale of Heroes. (I apologize if it's already been mentioned.) I cried here for the same reason I left the theatre after seeing Independence Day sobbing uncontrollably (if you can believe that). The scene:

Peter Petrelli is losing control of his body and it is absolutely confirmed that he is going to be responsible for the destruction of New York and changing the face of the world. Because he is out of control, he can do nothing the mitigate the damage he is about to do. Suddenly his brother, Nathan, shows up. He can mitigate the damage. He can save him, and New York. The only cost his life (this is what I believed at the time). So Nathan is redeemed in the act of saving his brother and New York and sacrificing his own life to do so. The dialogue is pretty boilerplate, as I recall. I believe "I love you"s are exchanged. What gets me -- even when I'm just thinking about it, no matter where it occurs whether it occurs in idiotic action movies, episodes of Oprah or as in this case overly hyped Milo Ventimiglia vehicles -- is this: this outrageously courageous act of love. What this moment was about, for me, is Nathan finally taking Peter in his arms (metaphorically as well as literally) and giving an unqualified I love you and I take on all that comes with that, including supporting your stupid dreams of being a hero and your not so stupid dream of not being the cause the deaths of millions of people. I love you so much that I will sacrifice myself in defense of those dreams.

Any time I can find this moment I break down. So when Randy Quaid's character from Independence Day -- a broken alcoholic who is failing his children -- uses his plane to blow up one alien ship, I see him doing it as one last tribute to his children as if to say, "I don't have much, but what I have is yours," and I have to weep.

These moments put my to-cool-for-school cynicism in its place and fill me with hope. They make me feel human -- small but not alone.

Posted by: Schreeke at October 14, 2007 10:00 AM

Yay no name slob! I was wondering if any mention of Northern Exposure was going to make it. I always remember the scene where Ed buys Ruth Ann a birthday present and it's a tiny piece of land at the top of cliff with an extraordinary view. It is so small because it is intended as a burial site. They decide to dance on the grave-to-be as the music swells and it's my favorite scene ever on TV.

Posted by: just me at October 14, 2007 6:05 PM

It might be a bit late in the day, but I feel that Cupid (an earlier Rob Thomas effort) deserves a mention too.

For those who missed it (nearly everyone I suspect, as it got cancelled after 15 episodes) Jeremy Piven plays Trevor, who may be a mental patient or may be the Greek god of love. Either way, he's trying to match up 100 couples, so he can get back to Olympus.

All 15 stories were great, but the episode entitled 'Heart of the Matter' has a third act that will completely knock the wind out of your sails.

Don't believe me? Head over to you tube and search for a user called ZiggyBecket.

Once you've enjoyed it on there, go on over to the SonyPictures TVonDVD site and vote for it in their poll, so more of Rob's work can get the DVD release it deserves.

As for the suggestions above mine - what a great list!

Posted by: Simon B at October 14, 2007 7:28 PM

Because pity is in the requirements, I might have this one!




I forget which season but in Highlander when Tessa dies and all the moments of her with Duncan are flashing on the screen with Queen's "who wants to live forever" playing. Balled like a baby....granted I was 12 but still remember it 13 years later!

Posted by: Erin B. at October 14, 2007 9:55 PM

Because pity is in the requirements, I might have this one!




I forget which season but in Highlander when Tessa dies and all the moments of her with Duncan are flashing on the screen with Queen's "who wants to live forever" playing. Balled like a baby....granted I was 12 but still remember it 13 years later!

Posted by: Erin B. at October 14, 2007 9:57 PM

Phil Hartman shot by his wife.

Posted by: jen at October 14, 2007 10:26 PM

This is late, but my most recent heartbreak was the S1 Doctor Who episode "The Parting of the Ways". I didn't see this first series in its original run, but I fell for CE's Doctor earlier this year when my public television station started airing Season One. I knew that Eccleston had only done the one season, but somewhere between episodes three and four I just sort of forgot about it. My first Doctor had been Tom Baker, and I never imagined anyone could take his place. By "Father's Day", though, Nine had completely stolen my heart and I was absolutely invested in him. So when the final minutes of "The Parting of the Ways" were ticking by, I was overwhelmed by a sense of loss and grief. It wasn't just that Rose was losing her Doctor -- I was losing mine. I would never see Christopher Eccleston's Doctor go on any new adventures, never again see that open hand stretched out toward me, inviting me to come along with him. He was Rose's Doctor, but Nine had been my beloved companion one night a week for three months...and now he was going away. I cried for twenty minutes, sobbing brokenly like a child whose puppy had run away. And I still cry each time I watch that last episode, the wound of loss rubbed raw again.

Posted by: S at October 15, 2007 1:24 AM

NCIS Season 3 Episode 1. Kate's just taken a bullet in the head, and everybody's trying to handle it with varying degrees of grief. And they all keep seeing her. Argh.
And, yeah, Dr Who season 2 finale. Enough has been said.

Posted by: Jen at October 15, 2007 9:54 AM

I second (or third or fourth or whatever) all of the mentions for Scrubs (Ben's death, especially) and the Wonder Years, as well as these:

The Scrubs episode, "My Way Home" with all of the Wizard of Oz references. When Dr. Kelso hands Turk the brain-dead patient's license and we see the organ donor sticker on the back, he says, "It looks like you had a heart all along." Does me in every time. And Ted's band sings a gorgeous version of "Over the Rainbow."

The Wonder Years episode with Kevin and Winnie's first kiss is overshadowed by her brother's death in Vietnam. So painful.

Posted by: heathpie at October 15, 2007 1:38 PM

ITA with those of you who have quoted all those Joss Whedon moments as tearjerkers extraordinaire. He really knows how to hurt us good. But there's one of his which made me cry buckets, and it was never even filmed!
It was this:
"While speaking at the Wizard World Chicago Convention in August 2004, Joss Whedon claimed that he had planned to bring Tara back from the dead at the end of Season Seven. According to Whedon, the episode would have centered around Buffy being granted one "life-altering" wish. Buffy would have spent the whole episode trying to decide what she wanted to do with the wish (including, possibly, restoring Angel's humanity). The episode would have ended with Buffy telling Willow that she'd just gotten a great new pair of shoes, and when Willow asked her if she used up her wish on new shoes, Buffy would have said, "No, silly!" and stepped aside to reveal Tara."
Waaahhh! And I'm gone...

On a more sober note, while reading these comments I remembered the first time something real on tv made me cry. It was the episode of 'The World At War' which dealt with the holocaust.
For the first time, listening to Laurence Olivier's voiceover and seeing that archive film, I fully understood what my grandfather and other concentration camp inmates and survivors had been through. And how terribly people could treat each other.

Posted by: tarn at October 15, 2007 5:00 PM

PaddyDog, you owe me an afternoon. After the "Flower's dead" post I lost it at work. At first I couldn't believe it, but Google proved you right.

My boss is never going to look at me the same way again. How do you explain tears over a meerkat.

Flower, you were a bad ass. R.I.P.

Posted by: general rhubarb at October 15, 2007 11:04 PM

In another Band of Brothers moment, when the real Winters is talking about a moment with his grandson, where said grandson asks if he is a war hero and he gets choked up and says something along the lines of "No, but i served with some".

Wow.

I had an undying respect for that man just listening to his interview clips and that made me lose it.

Posted by: Elon at October 16, 2007 2:57 PM

So many of these are repeated due to the dearth of comments...hope I don't do so...

I'm a diehard Gilmore fan. I loved Veronica. The Simpson and Futurama references speak to me too (altho I refuse to see the ep about the dog--read about it on here and I'd die if I watched it).

My favorite good-bye happened on Cheers. Diane is leaving to go finish her novel in a cabin somewhere and is supposed to be back in six months. Sam Malone looks at her and says, "Have a good life." She says something like oh, don't be silly, I'll see you in six months." Then they pan to her legs treading up the stairs and Sam half-whispers, "Have a good life."

Saw that as a kid and it still wrecks me. Most poignant good-bye I've seen.

Posted by: MadderHatter at October 16, 2007 10:19 PM

The last montage on the last episode of Six Feet Under. I haven't bawled so hard at moving images on a screen since my first traumatic cinema experience - the death of Bambi's mom.

Posted by: cinekat at October 17, 2007 10:26 AM

The last montage on the last episode of Six Feet Under. I haven't bawled so hard at moving images on a screen since my first traumatic cinema experience - the death of Bambi's mom.

Posted by: cinekat at October 17, 2007 10:27 AM

Ok, soooo late to this game, but whatever :)

Ditto all those who said the cancellation of VM as the most gut-wrenching. I'm still not over it.

But for me, the most sob-inducing moment of tv ever was back during either the 1st or 2nd season of Without a Trace. Now, the show itself is meh, not bad, but not great by any stretch. I don't watch it regularly, it's one of those, "if it's on I might watch it" things.

The episode that made me lose my shit was about a young boy (incidentally, played by the goofy younger brother from the Lizzie McCguire show of all people) who was an outcast in school, ostracized by his classmates, teased by the popular girls, you know, the typical youth outcast. He goes missing when a bunch of the popular girls trick him into thinking one of them liked him, lured him into a situation (not important) and proceeded to humiliate him by taking pictures of him in his underwear tied up.
He was so distraught that he ran away, and the final scene is the FBI agents finding him just as he's hung himself from a swingset in the backyard of the house that the girl he loved lived in. They come upon him as he's convulsing and hanging from the rope and one of the agents runs to him and lifts him up to stop the choking.

I was a giant puddle of pathetic by this point, and it was probably due to the fact that my cousin had committed suicide a couple of months prior. Colour me heartbroken.

Posted by: jennybean at October 17, 2007 12:51 PM

Okay, I know that while I am a fan, there are a million more intense fans out there who may beat me to the punch, but there are tons of heartbreaking scenes in Firefly. Shall we mention watching Mal lose his faith in God in the pilot? Shall we mention his devotion to and love of his crew that we see in Out of Gas? Inara breaking down in Heart of Gold when she sees that Mal has slept with Nandi? The music that plays when Mal and Zoe return Private Tracey to his family in The Message? There are tons...
However, there is one small moment that I didn't even catch the first time I watched the series through because to feel the heartbreak of it, one must love the characters and understand their interactions. It come in the pilot episode, when Kayli has been shot and Simon has forced the crew to run from the Alliance in exchange for him saving Kayli's life. We see him performing surgery, and then the shot cuts to the hallway where we see that Jane is crouching at the window, hidden from the crew, worrying over Kayli's fate.
That moment for me exemplifies the beautiful way that the gray areas of life were drawn on the show. Jane is not a good person, we know that almost from the go. But he has become a part of the crew, the family, that Mal cares so much about, and he loves them in his own way. Knowing him from watching the whole series and then seeing his care for Kayli is touching and simple and sad. He, like all the characters and situations, resides in a state of moral fluidity due to the precarious frontier nature of their lives on Serenity, and it makes me love him (and the whole series) all the more for its honesty.

Posted by: Martina Miles at October 17, 2007 4:41 PM

MadderHatter>> I always thought that end of season 5 Cheers moment was touching as well. I have found myself at various points on the verge of using that "have a good life" line and being very conscious of its implications from that scene. The other nice bittersweet element is that they segue from that goodbye into a look at what-might-have-been with an older Sam and an older Diane sharing a dance in their living room.

Posted by: Darth Corleone at October 17, 2007 5:26 PM

well, looks like this thread just keeps on keepin' on.... (Martina - all those Firefly moments? Seconded! I love that show to bits.)

So here's another one of mine:
The West Wing - Toby's twins. 'Babies come with hats!'
I loved Richard Schiff's performance in that one. He absolutely nailed it, and it reduced me to a tearful puddle.

Posted by: tarn at October 18, 2007 10:45 AM

At the end of the first Band of Brothers episode, Curahee, when the men are wearing war paint and staring into the camera right before the planes take off for Normandy.

Posted by: Cath at October 18, 2007 5:48 PM

"Dear Matthew, I am dead. No matter what I may have told you about my secret plan, do not get on an airplane and fly around the world searching for me. Also, be assured that this is not just a further ruse to throw everyone off the track of my secret plan. P.S. The crow flies at midnight."

I still remember the day my mom called me and dropped news of Phil Hartman's death casually into the conversation.

"So now your brother's grounded. I don't know what we're going to do with him. Honestly. Oh, honey. I almost forgot. That actor you liked died. Philip something?"
"Philip? I don't know any actor named Philip."
"The one from Saturday Night Live."
"Mom. There is no actor on Saturday Night Live named Philip."
"It was something crazy. His wife shot him. You know the one. He was on that other show. That one about the radio-"
"PHIL HARTMAN?!?"
"...station."

Anyway, I thought they handled his death well on Newsradio. It was the perfect blend of sad and funny and I kept tearing up when they were reading the letters. They were hilarious, but nobody was laughing and I just thought "Under different circumstances, I would say this is their best episode." And then I cried some more.

Posted by: Zooby at October 19, 2007 4:14 AM

okay, I am a Smallville addict, so of course I have to think of a scene from the sci-fi drama. The most heartbreaking scene to date for me is when the heartless hair challenged bastard that is Lex Luthor breaks the news to his sweet bride that their "baby" is dead. For anyone that had doubted Kristin Kreuks acting ability in the past was silenced by this. And me being the sap I am, cried along with Lana. It was so damn sad! The fact that Lex was tearing up just made the scene that much better because he has realized how evil he truly is, to put that much pain on a young girl that he supposedly loved. But anyway, I cried and i'm sure i'm not alone for lana fans out there. It was a powerful moment. And I'm going on the fact that you think that Smallville is an awful show so that you will pity me for having had it effect me so much.

p.s. I love veronica Mars so much. Everyday I think of how it sucks that it's still not on. It was easily one of the best shows out there, and now everytime I see The Reaper or Life is Wild I want to kill the man that made the choice to cancel VM. Honestly, could they have thought of a shitier concept for a show? Oh wait, sorry, I forgot about the Next Pussycat Doll. Fucking lame 50 something year old horny perverts.

Posted by: megan at October 19, 2007 2:12 PM

My god, I'm tearing up at work just reading all of these.

The weepiest moment in recent history was at the end of Doctor Who's "The Girl in the Fireplace." It was so sad to think that she spent her entire life waiting for the Doctor to return to her, and to him, it all happened in the blink of an eye. I got so mad at the Doctor in that episode - he already knew that time ticked along at a different pace when he stepped through the fireplace! He should have known that years would pass by in just a few of his minutes. Jerk Doctor.

And for all you old Who fans out there, the death of Adric in "Earthshock." So sad that Tegan couldn't have died instead.

Posted by: Stacey at October 19, 2007 8:24 PM

The PSA for the United Negro College Fund, where the teenage son and his parents are at the kitchen table, and they have to break it to him that they can't afford to send him to college this year. The camera cuts to the little brother, all of maybe 4 years old, who pulls a chair up to his closet door and pulls a big glass jar down from the shelf. As his big brother walks into the room and sits on the bed, the little boy goes to him, holding up the jar of pennies and says, "Jimmy, will this help?"

It broke my heart 25 years ago, and it broke my heart again when I saw it last week on YouTube.

Posted by: Jen at October 23, 2007 11:01 PM

Gotta be for me the xmas special of the christmas office. The whole sequence where Tim and Dawn get together really moves me. Something about the xmas setting really does it and the end where David Brent makes the whole office laugh with a frank spencer impression really makes you wonder about how much the documentary nature of it affected ur view of the characters. Whether David wasnt as much as a dick as you thought. Most of mine have also been mentioned already but I havent heard anyone mention Life on Mars yet. Maybe it hasnt aired yet in America but I was really really shook up by the final episode. Where he goes back to his own time and jumps off the building of his work to get back to the 1970s where he really wants to be. Any episode where the lead character can commit suicide (or was it?) to the sound of David Bowie and you are actually happy for him is impressive.

Posted by: Jim at October 28, 2007 7:21 PM

The last 5 minutes of the BBC show "Green Wing." You spend 2 seasons thinking this is a relatively light-hearted comedy, then BAM, in the last scenes it completely and utterly breaks your heart and you're left with this "WTF was that?" bad taste in your mouth. Bad end to a terrific show. At the same time, I like that they had the balls to end it that way.

Posted by: Barbara M. at October 28, 2007 8:01 PM

The final moments of The Office Christmas Special (the BBC version of The Office), when Dawn is riding in the taxi with her loutish husband after leaving the office christmas party in Slough, and she opens her secret Santa gift and it is obviously from Tim, the man she truly loves and who truly loves her. The gift is a box of oil paints and is accompanied by a note that says simply, "never give up". You would have to watch both seasons of the show and the christmas special to know why this scene is like a sledgehammer to the chest. It is played so concisely and starkly, no swelling music or bitter tears, just a scrawled note..."never give up". Holy shit...it's genius.

Posted by: Tony Menendez at November 5, 2007 6:59 PM





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