Oooooh, good one, jinty. That was a classic scene indeed.
All of the Black Adder series end in death, but that one was the only one that made me get a tear in my eye. Good call.
Monster, that episode of Designing Women gets to me to! every time!
Especially when the old lady dies at the end on new years eve. They’re playing the song “Somewhere out there” and it just fits!
I cried like a little girl at the episode of Mad About You where they had had the baby already and were working on not rushing to hold her every time she cried. The whole episode was shot looking down the hallway at their bedroom door, and they were sitting in the hall outside, listening to the baby cry and cry and it was breaking their hearts not to go in and comfort her. It really got to me, especially when they talked about how it was just the first step in a whole lifetime of “letting go” and letting your children face things on their own so they’ll become independent.
::sniffle::
I got all choked up during the episode of Futurama where Fry thinks that his brother stole his lucky clover.
I must’ve been chopping onions or something…
There was also an episode of Laverne & Shirley where Laverne had found true love with that hunky fireman and he got killed in a fire the day of their wedding. That was the biggest downer ever.
Golden Girls:
Episode titled “Old Friends” where Sophia learns that her new friend is wasting away from Alzheimer’s.
Episode titled “Mrs. George Devereaux” where Blanche’s dead husband comes back into her life. The final scene where it’s revealed that the whole episode was a dream is a tear jerker.
The last episode, “One Flew Out of the Cuckoo’s Nest” where the trio breaks apart.
I came into this thinking of the last episode of The Wonder Years, already mentioned. Getting lumpy just remembering it now.
The Very Special Mad About You where Paul and Jamie are suddenly unsure of their love for each other was aired at a Very Special time in my life, so it was emotional to see. And at the end when they’re waiting around to see the EPT results, I found myself like Carolyn Burnham in American Beauty (whimper Stop it! Stop it! sob).
Maybe not exactly a sitcom, but more like a comedic sit-drama: when I was in high school and saw the St. Elsewhere where the William Daniels character has to deal with his father who’s sick with Alzheimers, I was overcome with dread of growing up.
That sounds like the one where Aunt Rose dies, and Grandpa Arnold, played by David Huddleston, comes to town.
The MASH reunion special was just on and I teared up several times. The speech that Shodan quoted was cited by them as the best piece of the entire show’s run. And it is a blistering piece of writing, made none the less emotional for the fact that it came from a real MASH doctor’s recollections. That show knew it was more than a sitcom, and however smug it got about it at times, the moments in which it all worked more than made up for the smarmy times.
The first episode of the season of NewsRadio just after Phil Hartman was murdered leaves me in tears every time. They wrote it into the show as Bill McNeal having a fatal heart attack. That episode is a masterful blend of comedy and grieving … down to the moment when each of the staff members read a note Bill had left for them. It’s obvious that the actors were struggling with that scene – that it was more than just the characters saying goodbye to Bill, it was the cast saying goodbye to Phil. 
Chokes me up every time I see it. And a pox on Lifetime for taking NewsRadio off its schedule. :mad:
“Once upon a time, there was a girl I knew who lived across the street. Brown hair, brown eyes. When she smiled, I smiled. When she cried, I cried. Every single thing that ever happened to me that mattered, in some way had to do with her.”
Kevin and Winnie making love in a barn! Kevin’s dad dying and his brother taking over the furniture shop! Mom - still the “maker of mashed potatoes”! Adult-Kevin waxing poetic about the suburbs! And the little boy saying, “hey Dad?” to Adult-Kevin!
I cry nonstop during that episode. Good stuff.
Also, the last episode of Mary Tyler Moore. When the crowd shuffles over to the tissue box and Mary makes her speech about the gang being her family. Then they leave, and we see Mary silhouetted against the newsroom windows as the final shot, and we know that she’s going to make it after all, indeed.
Did anyone else cry during Sex and the City when Carrie finds the record left by Big in his old apartment? I remembered all the times he fucked her over (going to Paris and getting married come to mind), and I still couldn’t help feeling like they should be together. Also, the scene where Miranda takes a chance on Steve the bartender just after Big shows up (when Carrie thought he was deserting her) is a tear-jerker - in season 2, I think.
The final episode of Cheers, when Sam wants to run off with Diane and tells the gang that the bar isn’t their life or their family, then comes back when he realizes it isn’t going to work with Diane, and the gang is still there for him, always makes me cry too.
Honestly, I cry during the opening credits of Family Ties, so maybe I’m not the best judge.
The episode of St. Elsewhere when Mark Craig visits his old mentor, Dr. David Domidian (sp?) and finds that he’s senile; his mind is totally gone.
I cried during the Friends engagement episode… you know, where you think Monica has left Chandler because he’s “not likely to take a wife”. The viewer gets a real downer, and then he goes into the apartment and there’s candles everywhere, and they both cry on their knees and hug…WHAAAAAAAAAAA!!! It’s so beautiful
Sports Night - after it was cancelled
Andy Richter
Seinfeld
I teared up a bit once during “Family Ties”, when Alex P. Keaton’s friend died in a car accident after Alex had begged off of going somewhere with the friend, and as a result Alex had to go to a psychologist who’d graduated from Grant College. That particular show was shamelessly manipulative and sentimental, but it was extraordinarily well done shameless sentimental manipulation.
Me too! Biggirl, if you feel foolish crying over fictional characters, it’s even worse when they’re animated.
I also get broken up when I see the episode of the Simpsons where Santa’s Little Helper needs surgery to repair his twisted stomach and he dies on the operating table. Seeing him run toward the doggy door on the pearly gates gets me every time.
Okay, here’s my two:
The Simpsons the episode where Homer and Marge reminisce about Maggie’s birth. Homer has to give up his dreams to return to his thankless job at the plant to provide for the new baby. Mr.Smithers has posted a note right in front of Homer’s cubicle – “Remember, you are here forever!”
And Homer has covered the note with Maggie’s baby pictures, so it now reads, “Do it for her.”
I wept for about fifteen minutes when I saw that.
Beast Wars the episode where the immortal psycho robot, Rampage, finds this strange, deformed 'bot that he adopts. The Good Guys think he’s using his new friend as a weapon, and try to liberate the little guy from Rampage, with disasterous consequences. You know it’s bad when you cry for a half-hour over a kiddie’s animated show.
.:Nichol:.
Okay, here’s my two:
The Simpsons the episode where Homer and Marge reminisce about Maggie’s birth. Homer has to give up his dreams to return to his thankless job at the plant to provide for the new baby. Mr. Smithers has posted a note right in front of Homer’s cubicle – “Remember, you are here forever!”
And Homer has covered the note with Maggie’s baby pictures, so it now reads, “Do it for her.”
I wept for about fifteen minutes when I saw that.
Beast Wars the episode where the immortal psycho robot, Rampage, finds this strange, deformed 'bot that he adopts. The Good Guys think he’s using his new friend as a weapon, and try to liberate the little guy from Rampage, with disasterous consequences. You know it’s bad when you cry for a half-hour over the death of an animated talking robot on a kiddie’s show.
.:Nichol:.
Ditto on the Futurama episode with Fry’s brother.
And for my own contribution, I’d have to say the episode of The Simpsons where Homer’s presumed-dead mother reunites with her family. It turns out she was on the run from the law after helping raid Mr. Burns’ germ warfare lab back in the 60s. After narrowly escaping a police raid on the Simpson house, Homer takes her to a rendezvous spot in the desert where she can escape into the hippie underground again. After a tearful goodbye, the camera goes to a wideshot of Homer sitting on the hood of his car, watching his mother driving away…which fades to a shot of Homer, still sitting on the same spot on the car, quietly watching the stars, as the credits roll, with some of the most melancholy music I’ve ever heard playing in the background.
My description can’t really do the scene justice, but trust me, it was beautiful.
Ranchoth
Ditto on the Futurama episode with Fry’s brother.
And for my own contribution, I’d have to say the episode of The Simpsons where Homer’s presumed-dead mother reunites with her family. It turns out she was on the run from the law after helping raid Mr. Burns’ germ warfare lab back in the 60s. After narrowly escaping a police raid on the Simpson house, Homer takes her to a rendezvous spot in the desert where she can escape into the hippie underground again. After a tearful goodbye, the camera goes to a wideshot of Homer sitting on the hood of his car, watching his mother driving away…which fades to a shot of Homer, still sitting on the same spot on the car, quietly watching the stars, as the credits roll, with some of the most melancholy music I’ve ever heard playing in the background.
My description can’t really do the scene justice, but trust me, it was beautiful.
Ranchoth