# Well, she's dead meat...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 3, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103 "2006-07-03T22:56:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/1 "2006-07-03T22:56:25Z")
Little Joe just got married again. And, even worse, I think she’s pregnant. :eek:
You know, it used to be automatic that when a male lead of a show fell in love, the girl always died. Bonanza, Starsky and Hutch, etc. Do they do this anymore? I hadn’t seen a romantic love interest tragically killed off via illness, crossfire of a gun battle, train accident, sewing mishap in forever…
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/2 "2006-07-03T23:00:49Z")
Harry Kim was the Kiss of Death on Voyager.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/3 "2006-07-03T23:21:00Z")
Ah, yes, the 45-minute love affair. Very big in the 50s and 60s, where you didn’t have ongoing plot lines: your hero would fall in love, but at the end of the episode, he would end up alone – either she was dead, or they decided to go their separate ways.
James T. Kirk had a few of these, most notably with Edith Keeler.
Is it still done? I think so, though usually the affair takes a long time. Consider Andy Sipowitz in **NYPD Blue** : he fell in love, married, and saw his wife die over the course of a few seasons. **NYPD Blue** also did this with Kim Delaney, who had Jimmy Smits die on her (whenever the writers of NYPD Blue were stuck, one of the main characters died; I would not want to be too close to Andy Sipowitz, who had one son, one (maybe two) wives, and a partner die on him).
Horatio Caine of **CSI: Miami** has his new wife killed this season, so the practice is alive and well. It’s just stretched out over a season instead of stuffed into one episode.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/4 "2006-07-03T23:38:15Z")
When Barbra Streisand started dating Dr. Kiley, I expected Consuelo to come in any minute bearing X-rays and ominius background music . . .
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/5 "2006-07-03T23:54:41Z")
Heh-heh.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/6 "2006-07-03T23:56:41Z")
And yes, I do know how “ominous” is spelled . . . It’s just my hands have been getting numb and tingly since I started going out with Dr. Jim Gannon . . .
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### Author:  [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2006, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/7 "2006-07-04T00:03:54Z")
In both the movie and the book On Her Majestys SS James Bond marries, a lady named Tracy, but Blofeld kills her right after the wedding. This sets up Blofeld as a baddie in a few movies and books therefater.
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/8 "2006-07-04T00:08:01Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> When Barbra Streisand started dating Dr. Kiley, I expected Consuelo to come in any minute bearing X-rays and ominius background music . . .
One of my highlights from law school was when I entered Steve Kiley on the seating chart in Torts, and the teacher kept calling on him, and got pissed that he never showed up for class.
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### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/9 "2006-07-04T00:49:39Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Is it still done? I think so, though usually the affair takes a long time. Consider Andy Sipowitz in **NYPD Blue** : he fell in love, married, and saw his wife die over the course of a few seasons. **NYPD Blue** also did this with Kim Delaney, who had Jimmy Smits die on her (whenever the writers of NYPD Blue were stuck, one of the main characters died; I would not want to be too close to Andy Sipowitz, who had one son, one (maybe two) wives, and a partner die on him).
>
> Horatio Caine of **CSI: Miami** has his new wife killed this season, so the practice is alive and well. It’s just stretched out over a season instead of stuffed into one episode.
Huh, maybe they’re trying to make it more “realistic” nowdays.
Thinking about it, there aren’t a lot of the traditional episodic type shows (the type of shows that need a “reset” back to the staus quo by the end of the episode) on the air right now, they all seem to more arcs. All I can think of is the Stargates and Smallville. Surely there must be more.
Well, just now, on Bonanza, Little Joe’s wife lived through an entire episode only to be promptly dispatched in the following by the evil loan sharks her brother owed money to. Unfortunately, these episodes were also directed by Michael Landon so there were a lot of overly arty shots of Little Joe looking anguished.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/10 "2006-07-04T00:50:36Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#):
>
> \*\*Well, she’s dead meat… \*\*
😕 [This is a **bad** thing?!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrophilia)
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/11 "2006-07-04T02:07:51Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#):
>
> Huh, maybe they’re trying to make it more “realistic” nowdays.
>
> Thinking about it, there aren’t a lot of the traditional episodic type shows (the type of shows that need a “reset” back to the staus quo by the end of the episode) on the air right now, they all seem to more arcs. All I can think of is the Stargates and Smallville. Surely there must be more.
**Monk** (there is an arc, supposedly, but they haven’t refered to it in about a season) and **Numb3rs** (though there is a bit of character development, it moves at a glacial pace).
But generally, you’re right" dramatic shows tend to have long story arcs, so a relationship develops over a more reasonable time frame.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2006, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-shes-dead-meat/363103/12 "2006-07-04T02:40:09Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> One of my highlights from law school was when I entered Steve Kiley on the seating chart in Torts, and the teacher kept calling on him, and got pissed that he never showed up for class.
“He must have fallen off his motorcycle.”
(And now a word from Betty Grable, for Geritol)