# What TV series had the biggest body count? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894 "2014-12-10T23:04:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ea924/32.png) [@zoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoog)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/1 "2014-12-10T23:04:03Z")
I was reflecting on last night’s series finale for Sons of Anarchy, and thinking back on how much over the top violence we saw in that show. And it got me wondering - which TV series had the highest body count of all time? I think SOA has to be in the running. If you want to count zombies, I guess that The Walking Dead would have to be way up there as well… I’m hard pressed to come up with any show I’ve watched that trumps SOA. I honestly can’t think of an episode that didn’t feature some poor soul meeting a violent end, and there were a bunch of scenes where they killed off 6 or 8 people at a time. I dunno, maybe Game of Thrones? I never got into that, but I get the sense that it has a pretty high rate of carnage. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/2 "2014-12-10T23:06:08Z")
The miniseries _The Day After._ ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/3 "2014-12-10T23:14:09Z")
The new Battlestar Galactica has got to be up there – it starts with millions (billions?) of people being killed in enormous genocidal terrorist attacks, tallies up thousands of “official” in-universe deaths afterwards, and has quite a few deaths of significant characters throughout the series. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/4 "2014-12-10T23:21:00Z")
The Borg and other Trek baddies wiped out billions … One guy removed an entire species from the timeline altogether. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/5 "2014-12-10T23:25:31Z")
\*Star Trek \*by far, for the reasons listed above. Entire solar systems regularly get destroyed/eaten/depopulated on _Trek_. Nothing else comes close. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/6 "2014-12-10T23:28:59Z")
Over the entire run of the series, or on a per-episode average? On a per-episode basis, _24_ has to be a contender, especially after they exploded the nuke outside L.A. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/7 "2014-12-10T23:34:28Z")
I think the OP should either clarify the question or start a new thread: there are multiple types of body counts–ranging from the SF shows where civilizations are destroyed to shows where there a lot of individuals with speaking parts who are killed individually. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/8 "2014-12-10T23:37:38Z")
i don’t know if it has THE highest body count, but the 80s medical drama **St. Elsewhere** was notorious in its first few years as virtually every patient who checked into the hospital died horrifically. A fair number of the doctors and nurses on staff met untimely ends too. **M_A_S_H_** is probably up there; every episode showed scenes of soldiers being triaged and a doctor saying “He’s too far gone…” or something. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/9 "2014-12-10T23:44:25Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > \*Star Trek \*by far, for the reasons listed above. Entire solar systems regularly get destroyed/eaten/depopulated on _Trek_. Nothing else comes close. Entire STAR systems, you mean. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/10 "2014-12-10T23:54:50Z")
The Walking Dead…dozens die every episode. Some get to die twice. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/11 "2014-12-10T23:56:24Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Entire STAR systems, you mean. That’s just the Americanism where we call adhesive bandages Band-Aids or photocopiers a Xerox. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/12 "2014-12-11T00:14:49Z")
Hotblack Desiato despised the star system. And now he BUYS star systems! ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/13 "2014-12-11T00:19:06Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > \*Star Trek \*by far, for the reasons listed above. Entire solar systems regularly get destroyed/eaten/depopulated on _Trek_. Nothing else comes close. **Futurama** did, too–and had more fun in the process. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/14 "2014-12-11T01:04:28Z")
If we’re ignoring SF deaths, I’m going to nominate _Gunsmoke_. It was a western made back in the era when the good guys would shoot and kill a bad guy. (They used to open each week’s episode with a [scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D74hB-18u4I) of Matt Dillon shooting a villain down in the street.) And _Gunsmoke_ had longevity - it ran for 635 episodes so the body count had decades to add up. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/15 "2014-12-11T01:45:47Z")
**Gunsmoke** has to be up there. Only one or two deaths per episode, but with over 600 episodes, it’s probably the biggest body count for any show that portrayed individual deaths. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/16 "2014-12-11T01:50:19Z")
Could it have been The Untouchables with Robert Stack? Just a wild guess. The World at War showed the effects of Area Bombing as well as the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. So, it would have to be pretty high as well. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/17 "2014-12-11T02:35:20Z")
I was thinking **The Untouchables** , as well. That was the Golden Age of (network) TV violence. Check out [this essay](http://www.933wodc.com/onair/mike-eiland-946/the-most-violent-television-episodeever-11946425/) about an episode of a series called **Bus Stop**. > [@](#): > > First, he hitches a ride from a woman but makes a 1961-style (implied) improper sexual advance on her. She throws him out of the car. He then robs, beats and kills an elderly grocer after first going after him with an axe. While that incident was being investigated by the sheriff’s department, he had already moved on to a bar, wielding a butterfly knife at a guy who picked a fight with him for talking to his girl. After being arrested for the murder of the grocer he is taken to jail where he burns the back of his hand with a cigarette to prove police brutality. At his trial he and his attorney successfully shame the woman with whom Freeman hitched a ride, making it look like it was she who made the sexual advance in the car, and that she picked him up for improper reasons. Her being an alcholic didn’t help her situation. That woman turned out to be the D.A.'s wife! His attorney craftily helps Freeman beat the murder charge and is set free. > > Broke, Freeman tries to borrow money from his attorney. When that doesn’t work out he robs and kills him. Near the end of the show the D.A.'s wife, whom Freeman shamed in court, acts like a real vamp this time and lures him into her car. With Freeman thinking he’s going to score, along with the woman’s embarassment about her alcoholism and humiliation in court, she takes him on a suicide crash. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/18 "2014-12-11T02:52:40Z")
Since there are lots of TV series that have millions, if not billions of implied deaths, I think it would be more fun to count only on screen deaths where you see either them die or the body of a victim. By that criteria I would guess maybe Law & Order where there is a dead body every episode. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/19 "2014-12-11T02:57:16Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Since there are lots of TV series that have millions, if not billions of implied deaths, I think it would be more fun to count only on screen deaths where you see either them die or the body of a victim. By that criteria I would guess maybe Law & Order where there is a dead body every episode. Sounds good. How about Rat Patrol? ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894/20 "2014-12-11T03:13:16Z")
Spartacus did pretty well on a “bad breath range” body count count per episode. It wasn’t a very long series and it didn’t have major cataclysms that were only loosely shown. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-series-had-the-biggest-body-count/706894.md?page=2)