What Episode Of Your Favorite Show Has Brought You To Tears?

[ladyfoxfyre]

I just got finished watching the NYPD Blue episode in which Bobby dies, and it got me bawling. I've never cried at any other episode of ANY show, but this one struck me so deeply and personally, that I cried for a long long time after that.

So I'm wondering, what other episodes of any show have been so emotional that it has brought you to tears?

[evilhanz]

CNN's epic mini-series "Desert Storm".


Man, what a show...

[Kittie]

My favorite show is The Simpsons. I can honestly say I've never cried because of an episode. I feel so heartless...
~Kittie

[Ethilrist]

Last season's finale to Buffy. Specifically, when Anya loses it because nobody will tell her what she's supposed to do or feel after Joyce dies.

[Freudian Slit]

I was feeling guilty too, kittie. I really haven't ever cried.

But after the graduation episode of Boy Meets World I shed a couple of tears. And no, I didn't cry on the last episode ever because by then the show had started to suck. But seeing little Cory, Topanga, and Shawn all grown up. Even Minkus. From then on, it started to rot, but it was all good before.

[Elessar]

Originally posted by Ethilrist
Last season's finale to Buffy. Specifically, when Anya loses it because nobody will tell her what she's supposed to do or feel after Joyce dies.

I believe you are thinking of "The Body," rather than the season finale. That was one powerful episode. Damn I love me some Buffy.

[ADSimcik]

I've noticed that most people around here aren't too fond of ST: Voyager, but when they came through the wormhole thingy in the last episode and saw Federation ships, I was tearing up. Guess I'm just a big sap!

[ultrafilter]

I'll admit to shedding a few tears at the end of Babylon 5. Man, that was a great show.

[moggy]

The TV-movie that was supposed to wrap up "Homicide: Life on the Street", in which Al Giardello gets shot.

Thirtysomething- the episodes where Nancy & Elliot are having marital difficulties & then they split up, and how their son Ethan deals with it. It made me think about when I was a kid and my parents separated.

The X-Files episode "The Field Where I Died". David Duchovny finally gets a chance to emote, and does so quite well. Some other episodes made me tear up, but I don't know the names of them.

Some people I know got all teary-eyed during the last episode of Babylon 5.

[katie1341]

I cried during the last episode of "Sy. Elsewhere", but the last episode ended so badly that I think I was sad about that.

[obfusciatrist]

The final episode of MASH.

I was eight, though, and I think that may be the last time I ever cried without the aid of my mother applying a hairbrush to my butt.

[Munch]

I routinely tear up during the West Wing. I don't consider myself a patriotic person, but that show gets me about 1/2 the time.

[erislover]

Twin Peaks, the episode in which Laura Palmer's father has his "revelation" in the Sherrif's holding cell.

Very touching, and no matter how many times I see it it still drives me to tears.

The episode where Radar left the 4077 was a teary farewell, too.

Finally, in my weakest moment, I seem to remember getting misty over the Drew Carey show when he confessed his feelings for Kate while she overheard. We've all got our skeletons.

[whiterabbit]

I second the B5 finale. I just saw it for the second time yesterday evening, and I cried like a baby.

[Podkayne]

The finale of B5, every single damn time, I've seen it, but only while they destroy the station itself. Two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night.

Also, West Wing, when Mrs. Landingham died.

[ladybug]

"The Body" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I never cried so much at a TV show before. Anya's breakdown had me crying for hours.

The season finale of West Wing. I liked Mrs. Landingham. I also cried at the Christmas episode in the first season, when Mrs. Landingham was talking about her sons.

[Ross]

Edmund Blackadder died at the end of every series (except the third, when he got the Prince Regent to die for him), but the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth was really pretty moving. It started off as a normal show but gradually spiralled towards the inevitable: they were actually for real going to have to go over the top. The laughs dried up expertly as the characters got more and more frightened, and I think what made it for me was that Blackadder stayed pretty cool throughout. His last words: "Good luck everyone" showed him still in control. We waited for the big joke, of course, but it never came: a shot of them running into the exploding darkness of no-man's-land, and then a genuinely tasteful fade onto the poppyfields of Normandy today.

I cried as much as I ever do. It was pretty clever, because it was really the 14-18 war that finished off the lifestyles in which a Blackadder-Baldrick relationship could still commonly exist. People still have batmen and butlers and servants, but not like they did. It was fitting and appropriate to end there.
I haven't seen Blackadder Back and Forth, but I doubt it tried to genuinely return to form. It sounds like more of a special edition.

[Balance]

I've never actually been moved to tears by a TV show, but the show that came closest was "Sleeping in Light"--the B5 finale that several people have mentioned. Like Podkayne, it's the fate of the station itself that gets to me the most, although the gathering of friends is moving as well.

[ShibbOleth]

Originally posted by Kittie
My favorite show is The Simpsons. I can honestly say I've never cried because of an episode. I feel so heartless...
~Kittie

Hey, I get a little misty-eyed at the end of the episode where Homer explains to Bart and Lisa why there are no pictures of Maggie in the family album.

[Moe]
Awww, jeez, you're gettin' me all misty eyed here.
[/Moe]

[Lyllyan]

I 'll also thow my vote in for Buffy - both "The Body", and the one from a couple of seasons ago when Buffy had to kill Angel. And tehn of course, the "Angel" episode in which Doyle dies.

[Agrippina]

Originally posted by ShibbOleth
Hey, I get a little misty-eyed at the end of the episode where Homer explains to Bart and Lisa why there are no pictures of Maggie in the family album.

Yeah. Or the one where Maggie says, "Daddy" when Homer leaves the room.

When I was little, oh probably seven or eight, I would cry when Pee-Wee's Playhouse was over. Because it was over, see. I'm kind of embarassed by that, now, but it's true.

[dalovindj]

Quantum Leap: The Leap Home - 2 parter.

When he convinces his sister that he is from the future and that John Lennon dies tragically by playing "Imagine" on the guitar (a John Lennon song she never heard because it wasn't written yet). And the whole idea that he is spending his life helping people all over the world and all over time, and yet he can't even help his own family. I'm gonna cry just typing it. What a wonderful show Quantum Leap was. You rarely see science-fiction that is able to pull on the heartstrings, make you laugh, and be so cool at the same time.

4 words: Quantum Leap: The Movie

WTF. Get to it already.

DaLovin'Dj

[Eutychus]

Northern Exposure ... the episode where we go back in time and meet Cicely and Rosylyn and learn about the founding of the town. I've seen it a hundred times and the ending never fails to bring me to tears.

[kunilou]

ER -- "Love's Labor Lost" That's the one where the pregnancy and birth go sour and Greene loses the patient after something like a 5-hour battle. I choked up pretty badly over that one and physically had to help Mrs. Kunilou leave the room.

[MrAtoz]

I also teared up a little during "The Body" episode of Buffy. Not during Anya's speech, though it was good, but when Willow promised Tara she would be "strong like an Amazon."

Apart from that, sadness on TV doesn't often make me cry. But occasionally happiness does. I got a little misty in the episode of Friends where Ben was born. Specifically when Monica holds him for the first time.

And I'm man enough to admit it, dammit!

[Legomancer]

As much as I like Buffy, I didn't tear up at "The Body" because it was a little too over the top for me. Joss was trying a bit too hard for his Emmy, I thought. Anya's speech might have been powerful if it had made sense - she doesn't understand death? She was human, and when she was a demon, she killed people. What's to not understand? I liked when Willow was upset that all her clothes were stupid (they are, whoever dresses her on that show needs a little taste) but that was undercut when she put on one of her throw rugs before leaving.

I dunno, call me heartless or whatever, but it was all just too calculated for me.

[Biggirl]

ER got me twice. The episode were Dr. Benton's nephew was killed. When he walked out of the treatment room covered in blood and his sister looked at him and just. . . wailed. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it.

And when Lucy died. Dr. Romano lost it and I did too.

[Sir Rhosis]

Not cried, but I felt the strings being effectively pulled:

When Hawkeye sees that BJ has spelled out "Goodbye" with the stones.

When Sam says to Al's wife (who believes Al to be dead in Vietnam): "Al's coming home," and whoever that amazing actress was, she smiled and started to tear up at the same moment (a brief expression, but it wasn't dwelt on in a maudlin fashion), it definitely got me.

Sir Rhosis

[MrVisible]

Northern Exposure

The last episode with Joel. At the end.

The puppet show, where Shelly explains how she sees Holling.

The Christmas episode, where Chris explains to Maurice that prejudice is learned behavior.

And there was an episode of Outer Limits, a Christmas episode, starring, if I'm not mistaken, Rebecca DeMornay.

[peewee_RotA]

I've got a pretty good handle on my emotion.. I only ever cried for a movie once.. The 1st rugrats movie.. It was rather sad when the monkeys took Dil.. anyway that doesn't count

The only T.V. show that made me cry was that one episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway when they were doing the 3 headed broadway start with Drew... and drew accedentially sung a hole line instead of 1 verse..

Laughed so hard I cried and I was drinking Sprite at the time.. carbonation and nasal tisue does not mix!

[Katisha]

DS9's "The Visitor," when the future version of Jake dies. sniffle!

(BTW, I really want to see "Blackadder Goes Forth" but haven't had the chance yet...stupid BBC America!)

[ladyfoxfyre]

Laughed so hard I cried and I was drinking Sprite at the time.. carbonation and nasal tisue does not mix!

Uh, not exactly what I was going for.

[PunditLisa]

My husband has forbidden me from watching Animal Planet's Emergency Vet show. Said it was ruining his sex life cause it was on right before bed time.

Nightly Scenario

Hubby, entering bedroom: Dear God, Lisa, what's wrong?!

Me (bawling): Barney the beagle has cancer (gasping for breath), and it costs $3,000 for chemo (gasp) and now his mom has to put him to sleep!

[okielady]

Originally posted by peewee_RotA
I've got a pretty good handle on my emotion.. I only ever cried for a movie once.. The 1st rugrats movie.. It was rather sad when the monkeys took Dil.. anyway that doesn't count

The only T.V. show that made me cry was that one episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway when they were doing the 3 headed broadway start with Drew... and drew accedentially sung a hole line instead of 1 verse..

Laughed so hard I cried and I was drinking Sprite at the time.. carbonation and nasal tisue does not mix!

[hijack]
Okay, WLIIA has caused me to cry numerous times. I know this wasn't what the OP asked for, but I had to comment. Ryan Stiles was playing someone whose head kept getting stuck to things, and at one point, he pretended his head was getting stuck to the front of the desk that Drew sits behind. When he hit the desk with his head, he hit it pretty hard, and broke the little neon tube that goes around the front of the desk. I laughed so hard I fell off the couch.
[/hijack]

I didn't actually cry (ok, I MIGHT have) but I got teary-eyed when Rachel and Ross kissed for the first time on Friends, and also during the episode where they find the videotape of Monica and Rachel getting ready for the prom, when she kissed him again after viewing that tape. I got teary eyed when Monica and Chandler got engaged, and again when they got married (and crap, I don't even watch the show much anymore...usually the season opener and season finale is about it...) I DID cry when Phoebe had the triplets.

Gee, it sure takes a lot for me to get all emotional eh?

[strangecurrencies]

Man, I loved Northern Exposure. The episode that got to me was the one in which Ed, seeking to buy a unique present for Ruth Ann's 70-something birthday, bought her a grave plot on the side of the mountain. She was upset about it until he explained why: he had done it so she would have the opportunity to dance on her own grave! And, at the end of the show, they did......

[gorewonfla]

On the last episode of Cheers both me and the ex-Mrs. Gorewonfla were bawling our eyes out. She started sobbing, then I did too. To this day when I watch Jeopardy! I still say, "He's got it locked up unless he pulls a Cliff" or answer, "What is a guy that has never been in my pantry." That was the greatest sitcom of its era.

[teppei]

The Fresh Prince of Belair finale. Grew up watching that show, and seeing them leave an empty house really got to me for some odd reason.

That episode of Punky Brewster when Cherry was locked in the freezer. I was 8 at the time, but still, it was tremendously traumatizing.

[darian00]

The Christmas episode of Pinky and the Brain where, at the end, Pinky is traumatized because he couldn't give Santa his letter. Believe it or not, I got all misty at that. Poor Pinky. *sniff*

The series finale of M*A*S*H got me all choked up, where Hawkeye realized that the lady on the bus had choked her kid and not a chicken got me, as well as the episode shortly after Radar left where BJ got drunk and emotional because he wanted to go home too. Actually, several M*A*S*H episodes got me like that...the one where Henry got shot down on his way home...The Interview...the one where they had to look for a new place to put the 4077th (the one where Clinger had to give his wardrobe to the prostitutes).

[Kayeby]

I cried the season finale of Buffy too. Also the episode of Pokemon where Ash releases Butterfree, and the one where Pikachu almost left him.

[ambushed]

Like MrAtoz, I find I cry more often from moments of great happiness than grief or sadness. But what really gets me are the rare and sublime moments of profundity or deep recognition of emotional realities. Such moments really start the waterworks!

Regrettably, I can't seem to recall the details of most of these events. It must be premature brain death or something...

But one example of what I'm talking about was the speech delivered to Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks, about the time of the climactic revelation, by the FBI forensics expert played by Miguel Ferrer about doing whatever was necessary to find the killer of Laura Palmer. "Go and do your dance..."

Even more memorable was the incredible scene in Twin Peaks of father-son love between the rebellious Bobby and the reserved but profound Colonel Briggs about the elder man's dreams for his son! I'm crying right now as I recall it...

As for sadly moving scenes, one that hasn't been listed yet that springs to mind was the roll call announcement of the sudden death of the sergeant (Phil?) on Hill Street Blues required by the sudden death of the actor playing him. What an understated but affecting moment!

I seem to recall I've experienced similar moments from shows like Hill Street Blues, Picket Fences, Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, Homicide, West Wing, and - Bob help me -- Doogie Howser, M.D.!

As such, it occurs to me that American television isn't as hopeless as it is often made out to be...

[ambushed]

Originally posted by peewee_RotA
I've got a pretty good handle on my emotion..

Only one emotion? With all due respect, peewee_RotA, from your post I would imagine many psychologists would say your "emotion" has been crushed into oblivion!

Don't try to be so macho. Crying is necessary for emotional balance, so you might consider unclenching your buttocks someday and having yourself a good long cry. Loss of affect is a symptom of serious depression!

[Drastic]

Second-season Millenium (the third veered--or nosedived--into a different show entirely), episode "Luminary". Particularly back when it first aired, its theme of a spiritual awakening hit pretty damn hard.

[Skijumper]

Sesame Street - when Mr Hooper died. I was sitting on the living room floor, staring, mouth open, at the TV. I was 5 or 6 at the time but I just knew that he was never going to be back on the show. I felt a huge pain in my chest and I felt really sad - I remember that distinctly.

[Peta Tzunami]

M*A*S*H
Every time Colonel Henry Blake's chopper goes down over the sea of Japan and there are no survivor's.

And other eps I'm sure--especially when Hawkeye loses it, like in the finale when he finally has his break-through.

Buffy
Fool for Love: Spike's story of being made and when Buffy echos the words "Never with you, you're beneath me."

The Body: Kind of obvious (and nearly continuous).

Most of the season finales -- especially when Angel dies, Angel leaves for LA, and then when Buffy dies. Also, when Oz leaves Willow.

Angel
I Will Remember You: Buffy and Angel finally have all they dreamed of and Angel must once again sacrifice it 'to save the world' by having the powers reverse time with the oh-too-sad fact that Angel alone will remember that day and all they had together.

Hero: Wherein our favorite Irish half-man, half demon sacrifices himself for all (after finally kissing Cordelia).

Various episodes of China Beach.

Those are the one's that jump out at me for now.

[lolagranola]

In deference to another thread...

Warning - May Contain Spoilers for Bolded Shows

I never cry while watching tv or movies. I did get close to crying on several episodes of Buffy.

Becoming - Part 2. Buffy has to send Angel to hell just as he regains his soul. This reaches a crescendo as her mother reads her good-bye note. I get a little misty everytime.

The Body. Didn't seem calculated to me. My own mother died, and it really brought back some issues. During the whole episode, I felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach.

Note to Legomancer: I found Anya's speech to reflect the way I feel about death. I don't understand it either. Also, although she caused death as a demon, she never had to struggle with her own mortality, or the loss of ones close to her. She was impervious and above the fray of humanity.

The Gift. The last two minutes. The speech that Buffy gives about figuring it all out. Watching Spike and Willow as they cry.

Other shows that got me misty:

MASH. The previously mentioned chicken/baby story. Probably a few other episodes, but I don't watch it much anymore.

ER. I don't even watch this show every week, but I was watching the week that Lucy died. That last "thank you" really got me.

[Jophiel]

My mom always cries at the episode of the Simpsons when Homer's mother returns and has to leave again. It was on the other day and I thought about calling her to let her know it was on but then decided not to since she's just cry over it. Of course, the end of the episode, she calls me and says she just watched it.

[Rayne Man]

" I Am Hugh " episode of "Star Trek The Next Generation". The moment when a little piece of humanity starts to creep into the Borg's perception is very touching.

[Feynn]

All In The Family:

Archie is sitting on his bed after Edith's funeral and he finds her slippers underneath the bed. He completely breaks down, he speaks to the heavens and says he was supposed to the one to go first, not her. That was the way it was supposed to be. The scene closes with Archie sitting there with his head in his hands, completely devastated. We realize that despite his oftentimes poor treatment of her, he loved her more than all else.

Everyone in my house shed tears, even my hard as nails father.

If Archie Bunker could cry, we all should be able to.

I get misty just thinking of that scene.

[tavalla]

The final episode of MASH.

I'm a West Wing fan, and the capital punishment episode + Josh's breakdown got to me.

[SFCanadian]

SPOILER!

One of the first episodes of Six Feet Under.


In the first episode, the father is killed when his hearse is hit by a bus.

David, the Gay son deals with his father's death by NOT dealing with it.

In a later episode, Nate's girlfriend tells Nate and David to meet her at a certain corner of LA at a certain time.

The guys show up, not knowing why she wants them to meet her there. She meets them, then she has them grab a passing bus.

When the guys ask her why she had them meet her just to take a bus, she tells them "This is THE bus"..

When David realizes what she's talking about, he finally breaks down about his father's death.

Then the show faded. I think I was sobbing as much as the character.

SFCanadian