Was just reminded of a poignant moment in “The Office.” Pam’s art show isn’t going too well; hardly anyone from the office stops by, and almost everybody reacts negatively to her amateurish art. Then Michael stops by, and is genuinely proud of her, and buys her painting of the office. It’s just a sweet moment.
There was another MASH episode, done entirely from the point of view of a patient. In the first scene, he gets hit, and the rest of the episode, the camera is always pointing up from the stretcher or bed.
Also, the last scene of Colonel Potter’s first episode.
My favorite is how the UK Office resolved the Tim and Dawn arc. It helped that the frustration in their relationship was so real and life like that when they got together it was big relief and happy moment.
The Andy Griffith Show had a lot of them, particularly when Opie was featured in the episode.
The Mr McBeeVee episode
Opie the Birdman
Andy got mad when Opie didn’t contribute much to the charity drive, until he learned that Opie was saving up to buy his girlfriend a winter coat.
Dharma & Greg agree to adopt a single woman’s baby, take him home, and latwer the mother comes and takes him back.
A couple more from The Office (US version):
In the episode where Jim has to remain silent until he buys Pam a Coke (a game they play), they are sitting in the office kitchen across from each other and Pam is teasing him, trying to get him to talk. She playfully says (paraphrased): “Come on, Jim…you know you can tell me anything!” There’s a 3-second pause when they’re both quiet, with Pam having that playful look, gazing into Jim’s eyes, when she suddenly realizes there is ONE thing that Jim can’t tell Pam (Pam’s engaged to Roy at this time), and that sudden realization comes across her face. It gets me every time.
The other one, mentioned by others in a past The Office thread, was the one where Michael is helping Holly move to New Hampshire. They’re all riding along in the car, everyone putting the most cheerful face on possible, and in the space of about 15 seconds Holly goes from smiling/cheerful to crying as the reality of just how far away she’ll be really hits home. (apologies if I’ve goofed on any details…it’s been awhile since I’ve seen this episode)
There is one episode in the otherwise very cheerful Fresh Prince of Bel Air that always gets me. In this episoed Will’s dad shows up and they grow closer together (making plans for traveling during the summer) only for Will to be stood up at the last moment. The final scene with uncle Phil really hits home.
One of my favorites was when Michael J. Fox retired from Spin City. The scene at the bar was very touching - made more so because I believe that the tears from his co-stars were real.
One of my first and most memorable was the Wonder Years episode where Kevin’s math teacher dies. That actor will always be that math teacher to me. The final Wonder Years episode (mentioned above by kidneyfailure) was a kick in the gut too.
That episode of Family Guy where Brian falls in love with the woman of his dreams and they live out a “virtual life” right before she dies.
That moment always sticks with me. Also, the episode where Sam loses his “lucky bottlecap” that keeps him from going back to drinking.
All of the Charles-Burrows-Charles productions seemed pretty good dropping those poignant moments into the comedy…TRM
The last five minutes are barely comedy at all.
Another example was the fast show character Rowley Birkin QC - an amiable old drunk who told long, incomprehensible and hilarious stories by the fireside, usually ending: “I’m afraid I was very, very drunk at the time”.
Then, at the end of the series, they gave us this. You can actually hear the audience being stunned into silence.
I thought the last part of the last episode of *Roseanne *was pretty poignant. The whole season was a trainwreck–the show just completely went off the rails when the Conners won the lottery and ended up doing a whole lot of goofy things that went completely counter to all the previous seasons, to the point where I stopped watching the show. But the last ep, where it was revealed that all the absurdity was made up, they hadn’t won the lottery, and Dan had actually died a year ago…that worked, and tied up the series nicely.
MAS*H is full of these. The one I’ll mention is when Radar truly bonded with the new commander, Colonel Potter. One of the helicopter pilots had spotted a horse wandering loose near the front, and Radar had to go save her. Then he was stuck with the problem that horses are much harder and more expensive to keep than rabbits. He solved it in a very touching way: he gave her to Potter, who’d been in the horse cavalry in WWI. Made the commander tear up, in the best way.
I think you’re inaccurately generalizing here. I submit that “very special episodes” are generally about a specific type of topic, i.e. child molestation episode of Different Strokes, or the drug use episodes of Family Ties or Saved By The Bell.
The example the OP gave is not about those episodes. Henry Blake leaving MAS*H was not a “very special episode.” By the way, I’m not a fan of those types of shows either.
That being said; I’m surprised Scrubs hasn’t been mentioned. I think one of the things that make that show good is that it’s a comedy, but they kind of hit you with a dose of truth every so often.
That is a good one. I believe Kevin’s anxiety is over a test. He knows he failed it. (Or he cheated on it?) The teacher dies and they can’t find Kevin’s test so he has to retake it. The implication is the teacher threw out Kevin’s test because he wanted Kevin to do the work himself or study harder? It’s foggy but I remember the actor who played the teacher.
It’s rehashed here…the “5th best Wonder Years moment”.
It was a Scrubs episode, I think it was called My Lunch, where three patients need transplants and then a woman JD is avoiding dies and Dr. Cox uses her organs, only to kill all three patients because he didn’t test her for rabies.
Just saw this the other day for the first time, and yes it is.
Becker’s tribute to 9/11. Becker spends the episode being irritated by an old lady he meets on the subway who needs assistance to find where she is going only to discover that she is looking for the World Trade Center stop for a reason. Beautifully understated.