Thanks Fiver 
When that season is available on DVD I’m totally rewatching those episodes.
I think I remember on Sesame Street when Mr. Hooper died in real life and they talked about dying on the show.
Perhaps this is the place to get an answer to something that’s been bugging me.
My memory of the end of The Wonder Years aired in the UK was that the closing voice-over filling in the future said his father died of a heart attack a couple of years later and his older brother died in 'Nam. I thought at the time - ‘whoa - brave for US TV’. But I watched a Biography Channel retrospective and the same end scene featured a completely different, ‘mom and apple pie, everything turned out great’ voiceover.
Am I conflating two shows (don’t think so, the memory is very clear, but the mind’s a tricky thing) or was there 2 endings - one for the USA and one for the rest of us? I know it’s said US TV demands happy endings.
Twice 
And Only Fools and Horses was AFAIK the first one to show the actual funeral of a character onscreen…
Another early one: “Good Times.” Didn’t the father in the household die in a car accident or something?
Sounds suspiciously like the fate of Sam’s brother and father in Quantum Leap. Perhaps you’re conflating the two.
Back to the OP: Soap aired in 1977, and Elaine was listed as part of the cast as late as 1979. However, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman aired in 1976, and the death of the coach (who was a regular) happened early on. He had a cold and was curing it by drinking heavily, during which he fell asleep face first into a bowl of chicken soup and drowned. This was completely on camera, so Soap cannot be the first to show it.
The death of Elaine wasn’t even the first regular character to die on Soap. Robert Urich was found murdered in the first season, though I don’t know if his murder was shown on screen. (Soap, BTW, was pretty much a tamer version of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman).
Then, of course, there’s the mysterious death of Chuck Cunningham. Maybe one day the conspiracy will be revealed and the truth discovered! 
Todd from Suddenly Susan. The actor committed suicide.
The original mother on Eight is Enough.
John Ritter’s character and actor from 8 Simple Rules.
There was a traveling salesman who drops dead in the Conner kitchen in an early ep of Roseanne.
Also on Roseanne it was revealed in voiceover in the final episode that the entire last season was a fantasy story written by Roseanne Conner and Dan died of his heart attack.
The father on Gimme a Break was killed off when the actor who played him died between seasons.
Jeri Blank’s father was eaten by ravenous dogs in Strangers With Candy.
Back to Wonder Years – I haven’t seen the last episode in years, and I think I only saw it the one time, but I can absolutely confirm that in the final episode the Narrator said that his Dad died soon after, and that he (Kevin) and Winnie never married. I don’t remember exactly what happened to his brother.
No - absolutely not Quantum Leap. It was the wrap up episode of something but not QL. I remember that episode well. One of life’s little mysteries I suppose.
I thought that his brother, Wayne, took over the father’s factory job…
On Quantum Leap, Sam’s older brother had originally died in Vietnam, but Sam leaped into a buddy of his brother’s in Vietnam, and changed it.
It was the one where the female photographer still died. He couldn’t change that.
No, the dad had started a business (making furniture?) and the brother took it over when he died (two years later, as I recall).
I know that WKRP episode pretty well, and I didn’t get the sense that the little old lady (Peggy Sue) died – they were just talking about dying. She was still pretty sprightly and didn’t seem to be on her deathbed. Johnny, on the other hand . . .
Yes - that’s the ending I saw in the retrospective, which clashes with my memory of the original UK ending. I’m probably confusing it with something else but my thought was perhaps the series had a different ending for the non-US market, without the Nam death. It was a long time ago and it was only a TV show so I guess the most likely explanation is my memory is lying to me.
Just it wait til I get it home and then it will be sorry!
Actually, on Wonder Years, the father purchased an existing furniture making business, not started one. And yes, as I remember, the brother took over the business after the father’s death of a heart attack. Also, I think he said that his mother became a corporate executive.
On an episode of Maude, her husband was feeling depressed, so Maude brought in an old friend to visit. The friend dropped dead when he saw Maude’s husband. That’s the first on-camera sitcom death I can remember, although it wasn’t a regular character.
All In the Family killed off a tranvestite character named Beverly, but his/her death was off-camera, I think.
Of course, writing out a character off-camera is a long and honored tradition. The first one I remember was the first wife on the Danny Thomas Show – and that was 1956!
On an early episode of Roseanne a door-to-door salesman asks to come inside for some water. Roseanne allows him to, and he ends up dying at the kitchen table.
On an early episode of Seinfeld, Jerry’s great-aunt? dies after he makes a remark about how people who kept ponies as kids were stupid. Of course she had a pony and leaves the dinner table after his remark. Her husband insists it was natural causes, but Jerry still feels guilty and ends up going to her funeral instead of a major softball game.
And we can’t forget Susie on Seinfeld. Not Susan, George’s fiance, but Susie—the character created when a co-worker thinks Elaine’s name is Susie. She actually has a funeral, and there’s a weird bit where Peterman says he slept with her despite the fact that she was totally made up.
I’m sorry! I didn’t see your post!
There was an episode of Roseanne where her father dies and she and Jackie have conflicting feelings about it because their father used to beat them.
What?! You’re kidding! What shit!
Well if we’re including Susie, we have to include Captain Jonathan Tuttle from MAS*H, who died when he jumped out of a helicopter but forgot his parachute.
Elaine’s death on Soap had a tremendous impact on me. I even got a little teary when I saw the OP. I still think of her whenever I see Dinah Manoff.