Like so?
Yes, exactly. 
Thanks, man.
That was Rosalind Shays, played by Diana Muldaur, and yes, it was great in that it was completely unexpected.
Funny because I’m watching TNG on DVD right now, and I’m about 2 discs in to season 2, and I keep waiting for her to fall down a turbolift shaft. I fear I’m going to continue to be disappointed. 
No worries. The expiration date for Sopranos spoilers ended a long time ago. I just haven’t had a long block of time to hold a Sopranothon yet.
That was my favorite send off as well.
Not a true death - but Alex Cabot’s faked death and leaving to go into the witness protection program on Law & Order: SVU. The play of emotions as Alex gets to see Olivia and Elliot one last time, letting them know she’s not really dead, is really gut-wrenching for all sides.
Mark Green on “ER”
Babylon 5
[spoiler]Marcus. Somehow, there was always this feeling that there wouldn’t be a happy ending for his ‘relationship’ with Susan, as much as I wanted to see one. Giving up his own life to save hers…I don’t think there could have been a more fitting end for him. And Susan’s reaction in the next episode really pushed it home–it’s rare to see such a strong reaction to a character’s death in TV, plus Susan is the type who rarely shows her emotions. It just shows how strong their relationship could have been if it had happened.
She really should’ve “boffed” him once too. At least he wouldn’t have died a virgin. :D[/spoiler]
Henry Blake.
Phil Esterhaus
These don’t technically count, but I’d like to nominate two moments from Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
I can’t remember the details of this one, so maddeningly vague details shall follow: there was an early episode, I believe it was in season 2, in which Cordelia, Xander, and Willow are all enmeshed in a huge bout of relationship angst that I remember mostly stemming from Xander’s dumbassery. In any event, for reasons I can’t precisely remember, the whole scoobie gang plus Cordelia end up in an old house. Stuff happens, and just as their adventure winds down, Cordelia falls through a rotting section of floor and impales herself on some conveniently placed sharp stuff. The audience, recognizing that angst + popular character often = dead character in Whedon’s shows, immediately goes “*Darn. She was just getting interesting as a character, too.” We fade out and back in to footage of a funeral, while Buffy and Willow converse, presumably offscreen. This persists for a good ten to fifteen seconds, before the camera pans down to show both girls walking past the funeral, at which point Willow goes “Cordelia will be ok, right?” to which Buffy replies something to the effect of “Yea, she’ll be out of the hospital in a couple of days”. :smack:
[spoiler]Luckily I remember my other nomination extremely well, as it was an exquisitely constructed prank on the part of the writers: early in season 4, after Spike has been implanted with his chip (and before we know what it does), he finds Buffy’s dormroom in the computer database and goes to her dorm to kill her. Buffy isn’t around but Willow is, as they share the room. Spike bursts in, turns the CD player on to cover the noise of the struggle, and the camera pans into the corner as we listen to the oddly disturbing mix of Indigo Girls music and Willow trying to fight off her assailant. The scene changes, and we assume that she’s been slaughtered until much later on in the episode, when we get to watch her assure Spike that he isn’t any less of a man for not being able to eat her.
The great thing about this scene is that I understand Whedon basically wrote it purely to mess with his fanbase. I remember listening to a director’s commentary Whedon recorded for this episode, and he said that when season 4 was being written there were rumors flying around the Buffy fandom that Willow was going to die in such-and-such an episode. Whedon said that he was extremely puzzled by this “rumor,” as he and the other writers had never considered killing her off as part of season four, but just for fun, after hearing these rumors he met with the other writers and said “Alright, we aren’t going to kill Willow this season, but let’s say we were. If we suddenly had need to get rid of the character in this episode, how would we do it?” From there, they wrote the whole thing as if Willow had actually been killed, and simply added the “Heh, just kidding” scene afterwords.[/spoiler]
Bill Moves On from Newsradio. Even though he was dead his personality came through so strongly in his letters that it was like he was there. I love that episode.
Not sure what I should and shouldn’t be spoilering…but…
Sopranos again. I just remembered the episode where Livia dies, that whole awkwardness about how to deal with the fact that this woman that they all loathed has now died. That scene after the funeral where Janice is making them all list things they remembered about her…ah…super awkward. Great episode.
Leo on “The West Wing.” As TV deaths go it wouldn’t have been nearly as heart wrenching had John Spencer not actually died just three or so months before it aired.
No wait, it would have still been wrenching. I liked the character of Leo and I really liked John Spencer.
And also from The Sopranos.…
When Tony S. puts Tony B. (Steve Buscemi) out of his misery before Phil can get ahold of him and torture him. Tony had so much guilt already about screwing over Tony B’s life by letting him go to prison instead of himself, that the way Tony had to deal with this was just heartbreaking to me. It was the right thing though (as right as murder can be I suppose…)
Also, as long as we’re nominating the best sendoffs…how about one of the worst… From Deadwood…
When Mr. Ellsworth gets shot at his tent with his dog there. It was so sudden and came out of nowhere, as a viewer you didn’t even have a second to prepare for the shock. It was well done and all, and fit w/ the show, but I felt the character deserved better.
Omi, your first example was from Season 3’s Lovers Walk, which also contains the classic
*Spike: I’m really glad I came here, you know? I’ve been all wrongheaded about this. Weeping, crawling, blaming everybody else. I want Dru back, I’ve just gotta be the man I was, the man she loved. I’m gonna do what I shoulda done in the first place: I’ll find her, wherever she is, tie her up, torture her until she likes me again. *
I don’t remember that one… Of course, I was a bit young at the time… Care to give details?
Chef on South Park
IIRC, it was a tribute episode that broke the 4th wall. Ah, Wiki to the rescue.