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Sitcoms are supposed to make viewers laugh, but sometimes, they make us cry. Television can be a reflection of life, and therefore, sitcom deaths are an inevitability. Sometimes, showrunners eliminate characters because their story arc is complete; other times, an actor just wants to leave a series, or perhaps an actor passed away in real life. No matter the reason, these sad sitcom character deaths made viewers totally forget they were watching a comedy.Â
The losses affect the lives of the characters that loved them on the show, but these tragic storylines also affect audiences. Which character end had you sobbing the most? Vote up the saddest demises in sitcom history.Â
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In the Season 4 episode, "Jurassic Bark," Fry discovers a fossilized version of his beloved pet dog, Seymour. Prior to Fry's cryogenic freeze a 1,000 years before, he told his dog to wait for him outside of Panucci's Pizza.
The Professor agrees to clone Seymour at Fry's request. However, just before the process, Fry reconsiders because his dog passed at 15-years-old, which means he lived 12 years without Fry. He determines that Seymour must have moved on and decides to stop the cloning process.
Then, in an emotional sucker punch, the episode reveals through montage that Seymour actually waited for Fry to come back. The obedient dog sat outside of the pizzeria every day until his passing, anticipating a reunion that never occurred.
It's a tear-jerker of an episode for Futurama fans. Yes, it is okay to cry during an animated series if it's about the thought of poor Seymour just waiting and waiting for his owner to return until the day he dies.
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Even though Dr. Perry Cox (John C. McGinley) divorced Jordan Sullivan (Christa Miller), he remained close and friendly with her brother, Ben Sullivan (Brendan Fraser.) Dr. Cox and J.D. (Zach Braff) diagnose Ben with leukemia; however, both doctors believe that Ben has a chance to beat cancer.
In the Season 3 episode, "My Screw Up," Ben returns for his nephew Jack's first birthday party appearing cancer-free. However, he has failed to receive treatment for two years. The audience is aware that someone at Sacred Heart Hospital has passed away but are led to believe that it was J.D.'s patient who succumbed to a heart attack.
Ben accompanies Dr. Cox throughout the episode, and they go to Jack's birthday party together, even though Dr. Cox does not want to. It is then revealed that Ben is the person who passed, and Dr. Cox had been imagining him the whole time. The party is not a party at all, but it's actually Ben's funeral.
It's an emotional episode for all of the characters. We see the sarcastic, cut-throat Dr. Cox finally let himself become vulnerable in order to grieve.
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3Henry Blake From 'M*A*S*H'
McLean Stevenson, the actor who played commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake on M*A*S*H, wanted to leave the series. The writers decided to go about his exit from the show in a manner that had never been done before on television.
At the beginning of the Season 3 finale, “Abyssinia, Henry," Blake receives news that he is being sent home. He's totally ecstatic. His friends throw him a little going away party that night, and after addressing his troops in the morning, he climbs aboard a helicopter.
The next scene takes place in an operating room. Radar (Gary Burghoff), who looked up to Blake as a father-figure and close friend, informs everyone that the Lieutenant Colonel's plane was shot down. He adds, "there were no survivors."
Radar is clearly devastated. Pain, shock, and cries fill the operating room. The television audience was also left stunned, many spectators were even angry. It's one thing to have a character leave a show, but to off a character? It was a totally groundbreaking and heartbreaking episode of television.
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Marshall's (Jason Segel) father, Marvin Sr. (Bill Fagerbakke), was a recurring character on HIMYM. The father and son were especially close and talked every day. Marshall even admits that his dad was his best friend.
In Season 6 of the comedy series, Marvin dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. Adding to the emotion of Marvin's passing is that Marshall and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) find out that they're pregnant with their first child.
In the emotional episode, "Last Words," Marvin's loved ones attend the beloved man's funeral. Marshall is totally devastated by his father's passing. He finally brings himself to play a voicemail that was left by his dad, but then is disappointed when he discovers it was a butt dial. However, part-way through the call, Marvin realizes that he accidentally dialed his son. He tells him, "I love you."
Marvin's passing affects the whole group of friends. They each call their own fathers (Barney calls his mother) to let them know that they are thinking about them.
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The TV audience never gets more than a glimpse of Mrs. Wolowitz's (Carol Ann Susi) face, but she was an endearing and important supporting character on The Big Bang Theory. Mrs. Wolowitz was Howard's (Simon Helberg) mother. She was certainly overprotective and loud, but she was also caring and supportive.
Susi passed away from cancer at the age of 62. The writers at the comedy series were left to figure out how to handle her character's death.
In the Season 8 episode, "The Comic Book Store Regeneration," Howard finds out that his mother died in her sleep. He is shocked by the news. The show opted not to have a funeral episode. Showrunner Steve Molaro explains:
There will not be a funeral episode. This is so tricky for us and for the tone of the show to not let things get too dramatic and too sad. The way we handled it enabled us to deal with it and also jump over a funeral-type episode. But we will certainly continue to deal with - Wolowitz and Bernadette in particular - with the fallout of her passing away for a number of episodes down the line.
Mrs. Wolowitz was like a mother to all of Howard's friends. A pushy mother, but a mother nonetheless. Her death impacted the entire group. After her funeral, they honored her by saying how much she meant to them.
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Nick Colasanto's (Coach) passing from a heart attack at the age of 61 did not come as a total surprise to the cast and crew at Cheers. Over the course of the sitcom's third season, the actor was noticeably thinner and having problems remembering his lines. Colasanto's final appearance came in the Season 3 finale.
The dim-witted but kindhearted Coach was written out of the show without any real explanation or fanfare. During the Season 4 premiere, Sam (Ted Danson) informs Diane (Shelley Long) that Coach had passed.
With no time to mourn, the writers at Cheers quickly brought in a new character, Woody Boyd, played by Woody Harrelson. The small-town boy from Indiana was pen pals with Coach and came to Boston to see him. The crew at Cheers told Boyd of Coach's passing and offered him a job tending bar.
Although the show did not have a big memorial for the beloved Coach, his name would come up from time to time over the course of the show's 11-season run. His memory was always treated with great fondness.
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7Dan Conner From 'Roseanne'
Dan Conner's (John Goodman) demise was a major shock, and probably a disappointment, to long-time fans of the comedy series. In the plot-twisty Season 9 series finale, "Into That Good Night, Part 2," we find out that Dan succumbed to a heart attack at Darlene (Sara Gilbert) and David's (Johnny Galecki) wedding, which occurred the season before.
We also find out that the entire ninth season was Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) writing a book and much of it did not happen. She kept certain aspects that she liked about her life in the bio and tossed out what she didn't like. Dan's passing was too much for Roseanne to handle, so, in order to cope, she made up a narrative that he survived his heart attack.
The 2018 reboot erased the entire last season of the series.
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In 1998, Phil Hartman's wife, Brynn, fatally shot her husband while he was asleep in bed. Hartman was a cast member on the sitcom NewsRadio at the time.
During the Season 5 premiere, the WNYX crew returns to the office following Bill's funeral. There is mention that he passed of a heart attack while watching television.
The series is able to mix-in bits of comedy. Matthew (Andy Dick) will not accept Bill's passing. He thinks that he is "pulling an Elvis." Perhaps he has escaped off to some remote place in Asia?
It is a somber mood and the air is heavy. It's apparent that the actors are not just acting, as they are still trying to process the tragic and sudden passing of their friend.
The tears flow steadily as the NewsRadio crew read aloud letters written by Bill in the case of his death. There are moments of levity in the letters, but it's a total and complete sobfest.
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The writers at Jane the Virgin really took the whole "telenovela-inspired" show to heart when crafting Michael's (Brett Dier) storyline. Jane (Gina Rodriguez) and Michael were in love for years before finally getting married. Fans of the show were crushed when Michael, a police officer, died from a gunshot wound a year after being shot. Of course, Jane was devastated by her husband's passing as well.
However, the sitcom goes total soap opera in Season 5. Four years pass and Michael is actually alive. He was kidnapped by Rose (Bridget Regan), who gave him electroshock therapy, which resulted in amnesia. He becomes a Montana resident named Jason and a totally different man.
It's a complete emotional roller coaster for Jane, Micheal/Jason, Jane's boyfriend, Rafael (Justin Louis Baldoni ), and all of the fans of the series.
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In the Season 2 aptly named episode, "The One Where Heckles Dies," Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel's (Jennifer Aniston) grumpy old downstairs neighbor passes. Mr. Heckles (Larry Hankin) was always telling the group of friends to keep it down, even though they really weren't making much noise.
Mr. Heckles dies alone, and the group is shocked to learn that he left all of his belongings to Rachel and Monica. His death has the biggest effect on Chandler (Matthew Perry), who is always making up excuses to break up with girls because he has a fear of commitment. While Chandler is rummaging through Mr. Heckles's stuff, he realizes how much he is like the old man.
Chandler doesn't want to go alone and angry, so he decides to make a change. He will stop making dumb excuses to break up with perfectly nice girls. The emotional grip of the episode takes hold when Chandler finds Mr. Heckles's old yearbook and discovers he wasn't always bitter. He ends the episode by saying, "Goodbye, Mr. Heckles, we'll try to keep it down."
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One of Season 4's major narrative threads in Black-ish is the turmoil in Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross) and Dre's (Anthony Anderson) marriage. The couple decides that it's best to separate and live on their own in the season's penultimate episode.
In the Season 4 finale titled, "Dream Home," Bow's hippie and lovable father Paul (Beau Bridges) passes. After Bow hears the news in the middle of the night, she calls Dre.
Despite being separated, Dre is there for his wife. He stays at the house with her, even long after the funeral. Paul's death ultimately makes them realize how much they still love each other, and it leads the couple to get back together.
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Nick (Jake Johnson) always had a complicated relationship with his father, Walt (Dennis Farina), who was a master scam artist. Nick gets the news of Walt's fatal heart attack and is shocked. He goes back home to Chicago with his friends in tow for his dad's funeral.
His mother wants to leave the entire funeral planning and eulogy up to Nick, who doesn't know what to say about a dad whom he has conflicted feelings about. Plus, Nick is not known for being in touch with his emotions. He only knows that Walt wanted an Elvis-themed funeral. He attempts to pawn off eulogy duties to Jess (Zooey Deschanel), who hardly knew Walt at all.
Nick opts to get drunk and shove down his feelings. In true sitcom fashion, there is a funeral for Walt, but it's done with plenty of comedy. Jess dresses up like Hawaiian Elvis and everyone joins in singing, "In the Ghetto."
Nick is able to pull himself together to deliver his father's eulogy. It is heartfelt and emotional, but it is also honest to how Walt lived his life.
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