# Best TV Character Departures **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030 "2009-01-06T03:13:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/41 "2009-01-06T22:51:09Z")
One that stuck with me was on “NYPD Blue” when Sipowicz’s wife, the DA, was shot at the courthouse. He gets to her side moments after she’s hit. She looks at him, realizing she’s dying she says in an odd, almost chipper voice “Take care of the baby” and dies. At least that’s how I remember it, not having seen it since it originally aired. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/42 "2009-01-06T23:07:17Z")
Lost The Island ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/43 "2009-01-07T00:22:27Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > The exit of Brandon Fraser’s minor role character on Scrubs was my all time favorite sendoff. No matter how many times I see that episode, it always makes me cry. Definitely one of the top sendoffs. My first thought when I saw the thread title was Joyce Summers on BTVS. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/44 "2009-01-07T00:22:55Z")
Gary on “thirtysomething.” I was shell-shocked for days. (I loved Gary.) And both of Tony’s sister, Janice’s, lovers on “The Sopranos” got great write-offs. She ended up taking out the loathsome Richie April after he backslapped her. (You go, girl). And then we have Ralph’s departure. :eek: I’m glad that Wesley’s character on “Angel” was heroic. Great end to a full-circle character. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/45 "2009-01-07T00:53:34Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > And both of Tony’s sister, Janice’s, lovers on “The Sopranos” got great write-offs. She ended up taking out the loathsome Richie April after he backslapped her. (You go, girl). And then we have Ralph’s departure. :eek: A lot of Sopranos characters got good send offs. Big Pussy’s was really good, very sad, really well done. ---
**Author:** ![November](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6f9a4e/32.png) [@November](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/November)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/46 "2009-01-07T01:03:15Z")
> [@HelloNinja](#): > > Ok… I see that my example doesn’t really fit w/ the OP since he wasn’t really being written out of the show. > > Also from The Wire then, there was a producer that died who also played a detective. They had a full-blown wake for him on the show where you could tell that everyone was really feeling the loss in real life and their words were authentic. Detective Cole. Would you believe I was just coming in to mention him as well? Cole was a third-tier character who mostly just got on with stuff in the background at Homicide and once got screwed over by McNulty when working on one of Omar’s murders. And yet the episode after the actor died is structured to a really large part around the wake for the character. It’s a moving and classy moment in the show. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/47 "2009-01-07T20:12:14Z")
HBO’s **OZ** had many memorable sendoffs, the most surprising being Augustus Hill’s since he was (and remained) the narrator. Speaking from the other side gave him a good chance to bring back some of the other 400 people killed during the course of the series, though. (I always wondered how many hundreds of prisoners would have to die before “Em City” was ruled an unqualified failure.) Speaking of HBO, the Servila’s curse on Atia followed by her double suicide with her slave was quite the exit, which I believe Mark Antony actually said at the end of that scene. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/48 "2009-01-07T20:21:53Z")
While it wasn’t the character’s last-ever appearance on **St. Elsewhere** , Dr. Donald Westphall’s departure as a regular certainly was memorable … You can see the NSFW full moon [here](http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hmhqRpYCp3c). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/49 "2009-01-07T20:25:52Z")
> [@Skara\_Brae](#): > > The death of Mrs. Landingham on \*The West Wing \* And Leo, although it was of course expected. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/50 "2009-01-07T20:37:19Z")
The departure of Nurse Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) on **ER** was really touching. The end of the episode showed her reuniting with George Clooney, who returned for a suprise guest appearance. Too bad most of the other staff didn’t get such dignified sendoffs (helicopter crashing on Romano’s head). ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/51 "2009-01-07T20:47:21Z")
Buffy’s mother on _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_. It was sudden, but it followed logically from what had happened in the previous couple of episodes. And the following episode, in which the characters deal with her death, was in my opinion one of the best TV shows ever. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/52 "2009-01-07T20:52:12Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > (helicopter crashing on Romano’s head). Is he the only person, or at least the only non-military/non-aviator person, in the history of television (or the history of fiction, or in history) ever to have two (2) helicopters fall on him? ---
**Author:** ![4everkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/76d3ee/32.png) [@4everkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4everkid)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/53 "2009-01-07T20:56:33Z")
Lost: Nikki & Paolo - paralyzed by spiders , then buried alive. An apt death for 2 annoying and unwanted characters. > [@Icarus](#): > > Lost > > The Island That character isn’t dead yet… just lost. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/54 "2009-01-07T20:59:34Z")
Nate in Six Feet Under. That last dream was just how he would have wanted it to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/55 "2009-01-07T21:24:04Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > Huh? All in the Family mentioned twice but not Edith. > > I remember watching the episode in which Archie is sitting on the edge of the bed holding one slipper that had been missed when her stuff was taken to the salvation army. He was talking to her and telling about the morning she had died. I cried like a baby. That was a great episode. I remember there were all kinds of rumors floating around: she was going to be replaced with another actress, she was just never going to be seen again, she was going to be killed by a mugger, Archie was going to find out she had a huge life insurance policy and left it to a feminist charity, etc.. As it was it was much more realistic. The final scene of the final episode of ALL IN THE FAMILY dealt with Archie potentially losing Edith. In that episode Edith has an attack of phlebitis and has been ordered to bed by her doctor at the same time that Archie needed her to cook a huge order of corned beef/cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day, so she did the cooking instead and never told Archie the doctor said it could have dire consequences. When Archie finds out (after being chewed out by the doctor for his selfishness until the doctor learns Edith didn’t tell him) he becomes furious at and very hurt by Edith for risking her life and not telling him and tells her so while she’s in bed recuperating. During his spiel he breaks down and begins crying and in a very dramatic vulnerable moment tells her that he can’t ever lose her because “wid out you, I ain’t nuttin”. It was a very moving episode, and I wondered if it was intentionally a build up to her demise. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/56 "2009-01-07T21:41:40Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I’ll add to that Jadzia’s death in Deep Space Nine when she was killed by Gul Dukat, who was under the influence of a Pah-wraith. I hated that. Worf should have left her to die when they were trying to help the Cardassian Gul defect a few episodes earlier. Would have been more poignant. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/57 "2009-01-07T21:46:24Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Gary on “thirtysomething.” I was shell-shocked for days. (I loved Gary.) > > And both of Tony’s sister, Janice’s, lovers on “The Sopranos” got great write-offs. She ended up taking out the loathsome Richie April after he backslapped her. (You go, girl). And then we have Ralph’s departure. :eek: > > I’m glad that Wesley’s character on “Angel” was heroic. Great end to a full-circle character. I’m not sure you’re clear on what “full-circle” means. Wesley started as an categorical, peerless dweeb and ended up as the baddest mofo west of the Rockies. That’s a 180, not a circle. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/58 "2009-01-07T21:55:20Z")
> [@Drain\_Bead](#): > > Nate in Six Feet Under. That last dream was just how he would have wanted it to happen. Damn. Almost made it through the whole thread before you had to ruin mine. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/59 "2009-01-07T22:04:20Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Is he the only person, or at least the only non-military/non-aviator person, in the history of television (or the history of fiction, or in history) ever to have two (2) helicopters fall on him? Unless there’s a **third** helicopter that I’m forgetting, the first one didn’t fall on him. Rather, it chopped his arm off when he got too close to the tail rotor. (It was parked on the roof, blades spinning, and he stood up suddenly from a crouching position in the wrong place.) The second helicopter of course is the one that killed him, falling from several stories onto his hapless person while he stood in the parking lot. This is when I stopped watching ER. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030/60 "2009-01-07T22:07:12Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > Unless there’s a **third** helicopter that I’m forgetting, the first one didn’t fall on him. Rather, it chopped his arm off when he got too close to the tail rotor. (It was parked on the roof, blades spinning, and he stood up suddenly from a crouching position in the wrong place.) > > The second helicopter of course is the one that killed him, falling from several stories onto his hapless person while he stood in the parking lot. > > This is when I stopped watching ER. Thus missing the even more ridiculous airplane falling on a housing development, which was trumped by the shoot-out in the ER to kidnap Sam and her son, trumped in turn by Neela getting trampled at an anti-war rally, and finally by the exploding ambulance. County General: the only place in the multi-verse more dangerous than Gotham City. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-character-departures/480030.md?page=4)