What is the saddest episode on a TV show that you've seen?

[goofinoff]

The saddest Oprah I've seen was the family that was coming back from a wedding in a limo and a drunk driver hit them head on. Their daughter was killed and her mother was holding on to her head on the side of the road. It was just awful.

UGH!!!! I remember that one too!!!! So sad!!

 

[CourtasanSatine]

I was watching behind the scenes for Torchwood on youtube and they even said the scenes from Exit Wounds were done in one take and the tears were real.

I wanted to hug Ianto through the screen...

 

[KATHINOWA]

I agree with

Mark Greene on ER
Amber on House

I was sobbing uncontrollably for those.

 

[KATHINOWA]

NYPD Blue thats another that got to me, poor Andy his son, wife and Bobby I would hate to know that guy!

I forgot about Andy on NYPD Blue. Those were all tearjerkers!

 

[ead79]

I agree with Dr. Greene & Lucy on ER and Denny on Grey's Anatomy.

Another one that comes to mind is The West Wing. In season 6 there is an episode where Leo has a heart attack. During the filming of season 7 John Spencer (who played Leo) died from a heart attack. I can no longer watch that scene in season 6 as it's just too heartbreaking.

Also, another West Wing episode that really got to me is the one where CJ's Secret Service Agent (played by Mark Harmon) is killed by a convenience store robber. That one had my crying for sure!

 

[snowwhite325]

ER- when Mark Greene died.

Doctor Who- when Rose was stuck in a parallel universe

Star Trek: Voyager- when The Doctor's daughter died

Those are the three that had me hiccuping in tears.

I totally agree with this one...I cry everytime I watch that episode

 

[CourtasanSatine]

Another from Doctor Who:

When Jenny (Ten's daughter) died

 

[snowwhite325]

There was an episode on DESIGNING WOMEN when Charlene went to the hospital to have her baby. Dolly Parton was a guest and part of a dream Charlene had. Julia and Mary Jo spent time talking with an elderly woman who was dying in the hospital and it became very emotional. The show had a "magical" feeling mixed with joy and sadness. I bawled over that particular episode!!! Apparently no one else remembers this?

I cry every time that episode is on

 

[CF'er]

ER... Mark Greene's death
West Wing.... after John Spencer's death
Flower's death on Meerkat manor
MASH final episode

many more just can't recall them

 

[snowwhite325]

I just remembered another one...the very last episode of Friends when Ross asks if they wanted to go for coffee and Chandler says "I think I know a place we can go" I cried so hard during the episode

 

[MomofKatie]

Oh, goodness, y'all have me in tears!! Just about every single show and episode mentioned here has made me cry. There are just one or two I haven't seen on here yet that I can think of:

* During the 1st season or ER, there was a man who was on a business trip, and he died of a heart ailment. The doctors were frantically trying to find a donor heart for him, and his family came to say goodbye to him. The guest star that played him was Alan Rosenberg. I believe that was the first ER episode I ever watched, and I remember sitting there, sobbing uncontrollably.

* There was an Oprah episode where they were talking about the worst moment of different people's lives- there were 2 women that just killed me. One was a woman whose ex-husband entered her home while she was out jogging one morning and killed her 3 children, then himself. She came home and found her 3 kids dead- they played her 911 recording, and her voice on that tape was the single most anguished, heartbroken thing I've ever heard.

A second woman had her car stolen (she left the engine running at a gas station and went inside to pay, with her child in the car), and her child was dragged to his death because the guy drove away with the child's clothing caught in the door. The mom told how she tried to grab the baby, and tried to get the carjacker to stop, the whole time she could see her child being dragged to death in front of her eyes.


Now I have to go find some Kleenex...

 

[Narnian_Princess]

Another from Doctor Who:

When Jenny (Ten's daughter) died

Oh my gosh, that was so sad.

 

[dinah439]

Futurama. The episode where Frye remembers his dog and how close they were and at the end Frye gets frozen but the dog doesn't know it and sits outside the pizza parlor waiting for him to return. He sits and waits through seasons and seasons until he dies. We absolutely can't watch that one here or we all start bawling.

I cried my eyes out the first time I saw that episode. The ending absolutely broke my heart. Now that I've lost two cats in six months, I can't even imagine what it would do to me now.

When Buffy jumps at the end of "The Gift" to save Dawn and you see the reactions of her friends.

The end of the season one finale of Desperate Housewives when Bree gets the call that Rex has died.

 

[koalababy]

Ok, I had NO idea that Edith died on AITF! I've seen the show of course, but never really watched it. How did she die? Was that the final episode?

Of course Mark's death on ER. We all knew they were going to kill him off and I "loved" how they told us. Just thrown in at the end of the episode where Carter was reading a letter from him and Elizabeth added a note. I thought that was so well done and quick and painless, so-to-speak. Then the next week they went back in time and actually showed his final days. I think that's what made it more sad for me, was that I thought I had gotten off easy.

Another was Jimmy Smits' death on NYPD Blue. I thought it was just dragged out for so long. It was just too sad.

Another one that hasn't been mentioned was the loss of Carter's baby on ER. I was pregnant at the time and was part of an internet group of women due at the same time--about how far along Carter's gf was too. One of our girls had just lost her baby like only a week or two before this. Her baby just died at around 7 months gestation and she still had to give birth her daughter that she knew was already dead. I can't even imagine. That was so hard to watch.

 

[Mickey & Minnie Mom]

I think the most difficult show I've seen is an episode of Rescue Me...

when Tommy's son, Connor Gavin dies. My DH & I both cried. As a parent, it just felt so real.

He was riding his bike and it hit by a drunk driver. It was almost done too well...felt like I was watching it happen as it does all to much in the real world.

I believe the episode was titled "Happy."

 

[sharlon]

Add me to the list of those that count MASH as having some of the biggest tearjerkers. Also the ER episodes already listed.
Others included for me the episodes of ER when Dr. Anspaugh's son is dying of cancer and befriends Jeannie. The episode with his funeral is heartwrenching.
West Wing when Mrs. Landingham dies and President Bartlett is distraught.

The last episode of MASH when Hawkeye takes off in the helicopter after refusing to say Goodbye to BJ and sees BJ has written Goodbye in rocks on the ground. It provided such a finality to the show. :-(

 

[racetrack18kb]

Doesn't anyone remember the "Love's Labor Lost" episode of ER, where Dr. Greene tried to save the pregnant woman and her baby? I was in full-on "ugly cry" with that one.

Oh, me too. I was pregnant with my first child when I saw this episode. I turned on the episode after it started and didn't really know what it was about. Scared my DH because I was crying so hard. I haven't watched it since that night but I will never forget it.

 

[shortbun]

I don't even know which character died in St. Elsewhere but his mother went into his room and was smelling his clothes and his pillow. It still gets me because smell is unique to each person and it would be the last sense of someone you might have. She sobbed and rolled around in his clothes on his bed. I could see myself doing just that. So sad.

 

[LVSWL]

OK, I know it's a soap opera, but when BJ died on General Hospital and then they transplanted her heart in her cousin Maxie and BJ's dad Tony listened to Maxie's chest to "hear BJ's heart" I just cried and cried.

 

[sha_lyn]

Add me to the list of those that count MASH as having some of the biggest tearjerkers. Also the ER episodes already listed.
Others included for me the episodes of ER when Dr. Anspaugh's son is dying of cancer and befriends Jeannie. The episode with his funeral is heartwrenching.
West Wing when Mrs. Landingham dies and President Bartlett is distraught.

The last episode of MASH when Hawkeye takes off in the helicopter after refusing to say Goodbye to BJ and sees BJ has written Goodbye in rocks on the ground. It provided such a finality to the show. :-(

Actually it awas BJ that refused to say good bye, but then said it at the end with the rocks.

Ok, I had NO idea that Edith died on AITF! I've seen the show of course, but never really watched it. How did she die? Was that the final episode?

It's been awaile since I've seen it. Best I remember it was a heart attack in her sleep.
Jean Stapleton wanted to leave the show. If I remember correctly it was decided to renew the show for another season after orgionally it was planned to end at the end of season 9, but Carol O'Connor signed on for season 10.
The show then continued for 4 seasons as Archie Bunker's Place and centered more around the bar and Archies friends. Sally Struthers had a short lived spin of her own called Gloria after Archie Bunkers Place ended.

ETA: Reading imdb has jarred my memory. Jean Stapleton was on the first season of Archie Bunkers Place in 5 episodes. I believe it was the first episode of season 2 that they "killed" edit.