Homicide: Life on the Streets’ finale was a TV movie, where Al “Gee” Giardello was shot and killed, gave Gee a great send-off. Who knew
the afterlife is a card game in the squad room with your old, already deceased cronies?
Magnum P.I. would’ve had a great send off for Magnum, if the series hadn’t unexpectantly been brought back for another year. In what was supposed to be the series finale, the final scene was supposed to be
Magnum, who’d been shot, walking towards the gates of Heaven, while John Denver’s song, Looking For Space played in the background.
Me too actually. Or maybe it was when they moved location to Africa, I can’t remember which came first chronologically. (Not that the crises in African refugee camps aren’t an important or worthy topic for a plotline, mind, but I watch ER for entertainment rather than an international civics lesson.)
I loved that episode, if for no other reason than the fact that it was completely unexpected. I don’t remember NBC spoiling the surprise in one of their previews either. (Rosalind Shays’ death in the elevator shaft on LA Law was another surprise event on an NBC show.)
Two of the most unexpected departures when I was a kid were semi-regular Grace Garvey and the infant child of Mary Ingalls on “a very special episode of” Little House on the Prairie. Since it’s been almost 30 years I don’t think it’s necessary to spoiler- they burned to death in a fire caused by Albert Ingalls smoking! It was one of those “damn, never saw that one coming!” moments.
Speaking of, Albert Ingalls was perhaps the most enigmatic “departure” for a long term TV character. The actor left the series when Michael Landon and Karen Grassle left but came back to Walnut Grove periodically, once to kick a Prairie Smack habit and the other time to get sick and find out he was terminally ill with only a few minutes to live. At the end of that episode he climbs a tall hill, clearly struggling every inch of the way for breath, but he does it, and it’s assumed he died then or very soon after. OTOH, in a much earlier episode Laura (narrating in flashback) said that he eventually became a doctor like Baker. The character was never seen or referred to in any of the LH sequel movies. LHOP fans still debate whether or not he died. (Unlike the girls, Albert was a completely fictional character invented for the series so there’s no answer from the real Ingalls family, though of course they bore next to no resemblance other than names to the TV show anyway).
Speaking of family shows from the 1970s, Grandpa Walton had a very moving sendoff. The actor, Will Geer, exceptionally popular with the audience, died while the show was on hiatus and the first episode dealt with the family’s adjustment to his death.
I lost two friend’s to auto accidents when I was in my early 30’s. I thought this episode was particularly realistic because this is usually how you lose someone when you’re a young adult – no sickness, no long goodbye, just a notice that someone had died, with the shocking realization that maybe you’re not immortal after all. One second they’re there and one second they’re not, and it makes absolutely no sense at all.
And before those were:
[ul]
[li] few other hostage situations[/li][li]A tank that an escaped mental patient stole showed up at their door.[/li][li]A different escaped mental patient stabbed Dr.Carter and Lucy, killing Lucy.[/li][li]Gun-nut patients walk in with not only a working grenade launcher (illegal by itself,) but one that’s loaded causing Jerry to accidentally blow up part of the entryway and an ambulance.[/li][/ul]
I don’t mind the mental patient killing Lucy Knight. Well, that’s not quite true–I don’t mean to wish death 'pon the winsome lass. But that was long ere the show’s descent into self-parody; it wasn’t nearly as silly as the tank (which clearly I had blocked thru hysterical amnesia.)
I really like the way they killed off Tony Soprano’s
water heater
Everybody watching the show knew that Nancy Marchand had died, and so when the FBI guys tailing the family members suddenly noticed everyone getting phone calls and rushing back home, it was only natural to assume that the news we were about to get was about Livia. Brilliant writing.
In hell. 