MASH* was way to moralist and simplistic for me, but there is one episode that I wish my father, a medical office during WWII, had lived to see – the one where a newspaper correspondent or the Chaplin talks about the surgeons warming their hand over the surgical incisions. It hit me as an unseemly injection of reality in an otherwise silly and superficial show.
Brilliant acting on the part of William Christopher.
I don’t care what you all say, I still love Jurrasic Bark. Luck of the Fryish is better though and my favorite will always be the episode where they show Leela’s parents watching over her as she grew up without her knowing.
There’s also an episode from the first season of Scrubs called “My Old Lady” where JD, Turk, and Eliot all had different patients (JD with the old lady who had to go on dialysis, Turk with the young surgery patient, and Eliot with the non-English speaking woman) and statistically one of them would die. In the end, all of them died and they had to deal with it and continue being doctors. Seeing old episodes like this makes me sad at what Scrubs has become.
The one that really got me was when Ed won a dinner at a nice restaurant and Eunice was trying to train them (as if she knew) in how to behave in a nice place. The family of course does what they do and end up in a big public argument and being thrown out, but as she leaves Eunice looks at the maitre’d and gives him a sweet smile.
When Eunice got gonged on the Gong Show I couldn’t help empathizing with how devastating it was for her, even after laughing uproariously a few seconds before.
Never mind this one. My comments weren’t timely enough. Nothing to see here.
The one where he goes to work with his dad was great. I love the scene at the end where Jack storms into the house, grumbles, undoes his tie, and walks off in a huff…followed shortly thereafter by Kevin who does the exact same thing. Great scene.
Even as a kid I thought that was one of the cheesiest damn things I had ever seen on TV. “I’M SO EXCITED!!! I’M SO…:::sobbing:::…SCARED!!!” One of the most cringe-worthy moments ever on SBTB (and there were many).
Other way around: Will takes a bullet for Carlton. Carlton later comes to the hospital and shows Will the gun he bought “for protection.”
One of my favorite things about Sanford & Son was that they didn’t have very special episodes- they were just there to be funny- but a couple of sad/poignant moments worked in nevertheless and both were effective. In one, Aunt Esther asks Fred to take in her (and thus also his wife’s) niece; Fred doesn’t want to until he sees her and she’s the image of his wife Elizabeth, for whom she was named, at which point he of course adores her. In another his fiancee Donna forces his hand about marrying her and he decides to propose, but only first asking Elizabeth’s blessing and assuring her that Donna will be “filling your space, not taking your place” and singing a song she liked. Both episodes were actually touching and made you realize how much the selfish, lazy, misanthropic old goat really had loved his wife.
One of the most touching moments on All in the Family, moreso than the episode of Archie Bunker’s Place when Edith’s death was addressed, was when Edith almost died from an attack of phlebitis. Unbeknownst to Archie she was in pain and her doctor had ordered her to stay in bed, but it was St. Patty’s Day and Archie needed her to make a ton of corned beef and cabbage for the bar, so without telling him what the doctor had said she did so and almost killed herself as a result. When Archie learns from the doctor he is furious at her that she didn’t tell him, then- one of the few times in the show- while yelling at her he broke down in tears and told her what losing her would do to him.
I remeber seeing this when it was on. It really was well-played:
I never saw the Futurama DVD movie in which, I understand, Fry returns to the 21st century in some manner. Is his dog in that one?
Just caught the end of an episode of All in the Family the other day while flipping through the channels…
Edith goes to a funeral and is the only person to show up. It tugs mildly at the heart strings with comedic moments interspersed until Archie eventually shows up and she embraces him and says something to effect of “Oh Archie, I don’t want to be alone at my funeral”… tears streaming down my cheeks…
I’m amazed nobody has mentioned the Futurama episode with the Harlem Globetrotters. It ends with Fry having literally moved the stars to spell out a message of love for Leela, only to have the entire message erased by a black hole device before she can see it.
Ooh, one more Futurama bit - the ending of the very last episode. The entire musical portion is hilarious, but they really get me with the very last bit, when Leela stays to watch Fry play the holophoner even though he no longer has the ability to play it well. It’s a wonderful (and surprisingly understated) depiction of love between two close friends who may be edging towards something more.
QFT.
Season 1 of Scrubs may have more successfully-executed sad/poignant sitcom moments than any show I’ve seen. They still manage a few good ones later on (“My Screw Up” and “My Lunch” being the best), but early in the show’s run, it was pulling them off at a rate of nearly one per episode. It’s almost depressing when you compare it to the last few seasons of the show, after it had devolved into the Wacky Insecurities of JD and Elliot Show.
Seconded. Jurassic Bark leaves me unmoved too. Dogs tend to (except in the general direction of ‘away from’).
And then there’s this:
*“Tell me,” he said, “who was the famous Gaspode you’re named after?”
“You never heard of him?”
“No.”
“He was dead famous.”
“He was a dog?”
“Yeah. It was years and years ago. There was this ole bloke in Ankh who snuffed it, and he belonged to one of them religions where they bury you after you’re dead, an’, they did, and he had this ole dog-”
“-called Gaspode-?”
“Yeah, and this ole dog had been his only companion and after they buried the man he lay down on his grave and howled and howled for a couple of weeks. Growled at everybody who came near. An’ then died.”
Victor paused in the act of throwing the stick again. “That’s very sad,” he said. He threw. Laddie tore along underneath it, and disappeared into a stand of scrubby trees on the hillside.
“Yeah. Everyone says it demonstrates a dog’s innocent and undyin’ love for ‘is master,” said Gaspode, spitting the words out as if they were ashes.
“You don’t believe that, then?”
“Not really. I b’lieve any bloody dog will stay still an’ howl when you’ve just lowered the gravestone on his tail,” said Gaspode.
-
- Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
Fry: I moved the stars themselves to write her a love note in the sky.
(Shortly thereafter. Leela and Bender come in from somwhere else in the ship.
Fry: Didja see it? Didja see it?
Leela: See what? The explosion?
Fry: Noo not the explosion! The other thing!
Leela: What other thing?
Fry:…nothing.
The way he says the word “nothing” with his hand on the window…simply tragic. The way Billy West voiced that final word is beautiful.
Ok, I’m sorry but…what is he talking about?
I get the overall jist of the story…but I can’t understand the details enough to get it.
My guess: did he drive drunk?
Something Youtube commenter said she died in the war
One of the most moving Cheers episodes was an early one that dealt with Carla. In the story, Carla has a one-night stand with a rich, successful colleague of Frasier’s. She gets pregnant and the academic proposes to her, promising to look after all her other kids as well as the one they were having together. It’s apparent that the guy isn’t just proposing out of obligation but does actually like Carla. It’s a perfect situation.
Carla turns him down. She tells him that she has an image in her mind of the man she wants to marry and goes into a monologue describing the ideal man she’s holding out for.
The monologue starts out sweetly, because for once the bitter, hostile Carla lets her guard down and shows her romantic side. But as she outlines her description, it gets sad because it’s obvious that her dream man is really Sam. Carla therefore chooses to remain in her demeaning, low-level waitress job in the desperate, futile hope that one day Sam will fall in love with her.
Even better, the episode (3rd one, I think), where there’s three patients, and in JD’s voice over he basically tells us, “Odds dictate one of these three people are going to die at this hospital.”
And all three do.
-Joe