Most depressing sitcom episode

[Dewey_Finn]

@Joey_P

IIRC, that episode is called ‘the countdown’. I saw the numbers, many of them really aren’t hidden at all and I remember being curious as to what they were counting down to. I guess I’ve just ignored that episode for so long I didn’t remember.

And for some extra trivia, all the scripts they rehearsed with had a different ending (Lily being pregnant maybe?). Right before shot it, they gave Lily the new script and told Marshall they changed it and he just needed to react to what she said.
Ugh, that episode gets to me every time, it’s even hard to type it out.

What’s odd is that for someone that was only on the show a handful of times (12 times in 200+ episodes), how hard it hits the viewers. I suppose it’s how likeable he was and how well him and Marshall got along. We certainly wouldn’t have felt the same way if it had been Robin’s dad or Ted’s dad or [del]Barney’s[/del] Bob Barker.

I did like the joke that Marshall was the runt of the family.

[KneadToKnow]

@Gatopescado

For me, it’s the episode where they try to keep a soldier from dying on Christmas, only to have him snuff it about 5 minutes before mid-night. Hawkeye moves the clock forward.

Shit. I was ready to pile on with “Jurassic Bark,” but the memory of this episode actually has me tearing up, so I’m with you.

[P-man]

I’m thinking the Good Times episode where the family found out James had been killed.

[Dendarii_Dame]

Another vote for “Jurassic Bark”.

[bibliophage]

@burpo_the_wonder_mutt

It’s been ages since I’ve seen it, but an episode of, “The Wonder Years,” had Kevin getting close to a teacher that was helping him with math, then the teacher dies, unexpectedly. More of a gut-punch than depressing, but Fred Savage really sold it.

The Wonder Years started off pretty grim, which is why I don’t think of it was an ordinary sitcom. In the pilot episode, we learn Winnie’s brother has just been killed in Vietnam.

[Noelq]

@Go_Arachnid_Laser

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air had the classic episode where Will’s father reappears.

This is what I came to post. This stays in my head, a lot. Cried my eyes out when it was on TV, and every time since then.

[Joey_P]

@Dewey_Finn

I did like the joke that Marshall was the runt of the family.

I liked it when they did a similar thing on Brooklyn 99 with Terry not liking his brother-in-law, Zeke because he made him feel small and called him “Tiny Terry”. Didn’t seem believable until you met Zeke, who’s big enough to toss Terry Crews around like a rag doll.

[Periwinkle]

The Taxi episode where Alex’s little dog Buddy dies. Makes me tear up every time I remember it.

- YouTube

[Rick_Kitchen]

@Bryan_Ekers

There was a Family Ties episode called " ‘A’ My Name Is Alex " which was “very special” and actually pretty bizarre as I recall. A friend of Alex Keaton (previously never seen or even mentioned, as far as I know) has died and Alex, in his mourning and introspection and existential angst, monologues as he moves from set to set on a darkened minimalist stage, making the whole thing look like a watered-down and somewhat mopey version of a Beckett play.

I only saw it the night it first aired back in 1987 and I didn’t know what the fuck was going on.

Another one was Tom Hanks as Alex’s alcoholic uncle.

[Mean_Mr.Mustard]

I take it you folks are not acquainted with Opie the Birdman?

In this episode of the Andy Griffith Show, young Opie accidentally kills a mother bird with his slingshot. Once Opie admits to his Pa 'twas him, Andy makes sure he is aware that there is a nest of baby birds without a mother to raise them.

Opie, feeling appropriately responsible, then cares for the birds himself.

Once they are of age to fly the coop, Opie has great difficulty saying goodbye and releasing them into the wild.

Opie: “That cage sure looks empty, Pa”.

Andy: “Yes, son, it sure does. But don’t the trees seem nice and full?”

[Sitnam]

Rick & Morty. Every episode is dark.

[zbuzz]

@Hermitian

The Office: Dinner Party.

What was depressing about it?

[psychobunny]

Nobody voting for Abyssinia, Henry from MASH? Damn, it still makes me cry.

[nightshadea]

@bibliophage

The Wonder Years started off pretty grim, which is why I don’t think of it was an ordinary sitcom. In the pilot episode, we learn Winnie’s brother has just been killed in Vietnam.

I always thought of the wonder years a “Dramedy” sort of like mash was

I remember that it was a season’s long-running storyline …they hated each other at first and through 3 or 4 seasons really liked each other
Another sad wonder years episode was when Kevin quit the hardware store he could of ended up owning for a crappy mall job he didnt even keep a month

Also the episode where his brother waynes best friend who joined the army with wayne as a joke in an earlier ep (they wrote some lame excuse for wayne to be 4f aka plot armor) comes back after a tour mentally messed up like so many did in real life …

[terentii]

Both depressing and upsetting: The episode(s) of Frasier where Niles unceremoniously dumps Mel for Daphne.

Yes, Mel may have been very off-putting to others, but she and Niles seemed happy with each other—happy enough to have gotten married just days before.

I can imagine how gut-wrenching that must have been for her, and don’t blame her at all for being bitter and vindictive.

At the same time, I thought it greatly undermined the character of Niles. I can’t say I ever felt sorry for him again when it came to his longing for Daphne (and she didn’t come off very well either, though Donny was quick to recover after being left at the altar).

[The_Stafford_Cripps]

@nightshadea

I always thought of the wonder years a “Dramedy” sort of like mash was

I remember that it was a season’s long-running storyline …they hated each other at first and through 3 or 4 seasons really liked each other
Another sad wonder years episode was when Kevin quit the hardware store he could of ended up owning for a crappy mall job he didnt even keep a month

Also the episode where his brother waynes best friend who joined the army with wayne as a joke in an earlier ep (they wrote some lame excuse for wayne to be 4f aka plot armor) comes back after a tour mentally messed up like so many did in real life …

We also found out in the very last 2 minutes of the Wonder Years that the dad dies 2 years after it ends.

[Rebo]

@Go_Arachnid_Laser

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air had the classic episode where Will’s father reappears.

Damn, why did I watch that? I’m at work, and having to control my tears.

[Andy_L]

@terentii

Both depressing and upsetting: The episode(s) of Frasier where Niles unceremoniously dumps Mel for Daphne.

Yes, Mel may have been very off-putting to others, but she and Niles seemed happy with each other—happy enough to have gotten married just days before.

I can imagine how gut-wrenching that must have been for her, and don’t blame her at all for being bitter and vindictive.

At the same time, I thought it greatly undermined the character of Niles. I can’t say I ever felt sorry for him again when it came to his longing for Daphne (and she didn’t come off very well either, though Donny was quick to recover after being left at the altar).

The episode of Frasier in which Rene Auberjonois plays his mentor and friend was pretty depressing. If I recall correctly, it ends with Frasier’s therapy session with Rene’ - and Frasier is left at the end of the session miserable and without any way to become less miserable.

[SciFiSam]

@Robot_Arm

There was another British comedy called One Foot in the Grave. In the last episode, the main character, Victor, has been killed by a hit-and-run driver. The episode focuses on his widow, Margaret, trying to cope with his death. At one point she confesses to her minister that the one thought that keeps her going is the chance to get revenge on the killer, although she does seem to find some solace with a friend she met in a support group, and who is also recently widowed.

At the end, Margaret discovers that her new friend is the killer. She was rushing to the hospital to see her husband one last time before he died, and she hit Victor by accident. The episode ends with Margaret driving away and we don’t know whether she has gotten her revenge or not.

It was brilliant.

There was another episode where Margaret is doing her old people visiting stuff, and encourages a housebound man to contact his son in Canada again. He ends up spending all his money on Christmas presents for them, and dies because he doesn’t have enough money for heating. At the end, when Margaret’s clearing out his stuff, a very brief card arrives in his letterbox, showing that the absent son didn’t even care about the gifts.

Mind you, it was a very dark comedy, so dark that I can’t even find this on the episode guide.

[TCMF-2L]

I know it’s not actually a comedy but I was surprised at an episode of the rebooted MacGyver I watched recently.

The show is “action/adventure” but usually very light hearted - MacGyver and his ex-army buddy are typically being attacked by machine gun fire, quipping wise cracks, no one gets even a scratch and MacGyver will save the day by making a pair of night vision goggles or a Geiger counter out of a mobile phone, a disposable camera and a paper clip. There is very little tension and you know they are not going to be harmed.

The episode I saw was a variation on the standard “MacGyver Saves The Day” in that the crisis had a boat of scientists sinking in an icy ocean thousands of miles away while MacGyver was back at base in the USA. So the plot variation was MacGyver was talking a nice young woman aboard the ship, via a video link, through the process of using random supplies (and paper clips) to save the day.

Spoiler Alert:

The episode ended with the nice young woman sacrificing herself to save everyone else. Time running out and MacGyver’s gadgets not quite working, she ends up having to deliberately trap herself in a sealed room of rising water. Still on video link to the end she slowly drowns as MacGuyver helplessly watches.

TCMF-2L