# What TV shows have ended by killing off the lead?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 22, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822 "2005-12-22T17:36:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/1 "2005-12-22T17:36:20Z")
I think the title’s pretty clear: I’m looking for televison series in which the main character dies at the conclusion of the series. Off the top of my head i can only think of two: _Xena: Warrior Princess_ and Jay Mohr’s _Action_. Any others?
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/2 "2005-12-22T17:40:50Z")
> [@Fabulous Creature](#):
>
> I think the title’s pretty clear: I’m looking for televison series in which the main character dies at the conclusion of the series. Off the top of my head i can only think of two: _Xena: Warrior Princess_ and Jay Mohr’s _Action_. Any others?
Arguably, Angel.
Buffy (sort of). (OK, they switched networks and had two more iffy seasons).
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### Author:  [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/3 "2005-12-22T17:42:58Z")
Blake’s Seven UK tv series.
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/4 "2005-12-22T17:43:26Z")
> [@Fabulous Creature](#):
>
> I think the title’s pretty clear: I’m looking for televison series in which the main character dies at the conclusion of the series. Off the top of my head i can only think of two: _Xena: Warrior Princess_ and Jay Mohr’s _Action_. Any others?
Also, arguably, Rowan Atkinson in The Black Adder Goes Forth.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/5 "2005-12-22T17:49:42Z")
> [@Fabulous Creature](#):
>
> I think the title’s pretty clear: I’m looking for televison series in which the main character dies at the conclusion of the series. Off the top of my head i can only think of two: _Xena: Warrior Princess_ and Jay Mohr’s _Action_. Any others?
No, Jay did survive; they just didn’t air the later episodes, but they’ve been broadcast elsewhere.
> [@Finagle](#):
>
> Also, arguably, Rowan Atkinson in The Black Adder Goes Forth.
Not so arguably, he also died in \*\*The Black Adder \*\* and **Blackadder II**.
At the end of **Dinosaurs** , everyone in the show was about to become extinct. Very surprising ending for something considered a children’s show.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/6 "2005-12-22T17:51:36Z")
> [@Finagle](#):
>
> Arguably, Angel.
> Buffy (sort of). (OK, they switched networks and had two more iffy seasons).
I thought of Angel, but it’s not certain that the remaining Fang Gangsters died. Even if they did, they died AFTER the series ended.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/7 "2005-12-22T17:59:52Z")
Earth 2 ended their one and only season with the main character encased in a stasis tube because she had a fairly lethal neurological disorder they couldn’t, and wouldn’t ever be able to, cure.
Outside the TV box:
I always loved the ending to the book version of **The Spy who Loved Me,** because it ended with James Bond on the floor, writhing in pain as the lethal poison works its way through his system… and nobody notices… and no mention is made of it in the next book…
John D. MacDonald was rumored to have written a last Travis McGee novel, The Black Border of Death, in which McGee dies at the end; the story was that whenever he submitted a new novel (which was guaranteed to be a bestseller), if he didn’t get the money he wanted, he’d threaten to sell the Black Border novel to the next-highest bidder, and it’d be the last McGee novel ever.
Then there’s the Aliens trilogy…
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/8 "2005-12-22T18:03:45Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Not so arguably, he also died in \*\*The Black Adder \*\* and **Blackadder II**.
At least after the first three incarnations, Black Adder came back as his ancestor. Not so after the fourth series.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/9 "2005-12-22T18:05:36Z")
I haven’t seen the last episode, but I understand that the HBO series SIX FEET UNDER ended with lots of deaths.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/10 "2005-12-22T18:06:53Z")
Chief Inspector Morse.
(Or Morph Inspector Cheese, as my savant friend once spontaneously verbal-anagramized.)
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/11 "2005-12-22T18:07:19Z")
> [@Fabulous Creature](#):
>
> I thought of Angel, but it’s not certain that the remaining Fang Gangsters died. Even if they did, they died AFTER the series ended.
A) Angel was already dead.
B) Joss has said that Angel, Spike and Illyria all survived the battle. Gunn’s status is…indeterminiable.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/12 "2005-12-22T18:14:40Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> A) Angel was already dead.
> B) Joss has said that Angel, Spike and Illyria all survived the battle. Gunn’s status is…indeterminiable.
It always seems silly to call Bufyverse vampires dead. They eat human food as well as blood (though admittedly only for taste), they sleep, they bleed, they sorrow; when they’re dusted, people refer to them as having been killed. Theyre not dead, just differently metabolized.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/13 "2005-12-22T18:29:19Z")
Oh, duh.
Sherlock Holmes.
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### Author:  [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/14 "2005-12-22T18:34:32Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> Oh, duh.
>
> Sherlock Holmes.
But Holmes was brought back to life, and I don’t think Conan Doyle killed him again. Isn’t he officially still alive, in retirement somewhere, keeping bees?
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/15 "2005-12-22T18:35:27Z")
Soap. The last episode was a cliff hanger with just about everyone being shot.
Offhand, I remember Jessica was in front of a firing squad and Burt and Danny had just kicked down a door and met a hail of gunfire. Not sure about the rest of the cast – it was probably 20 years ago…
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### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/16 "2005-12-22T18:45:07Z")
I don’t know if it counts because it’s Anime, but Cowboy Bebop ended with Spike either dead or just about to die, after taking out half a building.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/17 "2005-12-22T18:46:37Z")
**Sledge Hammer**. The entire city was blown up by a thermonuclear device, including Sledge.
However, despite this, the series was renewed. The second season was billed “Sledge Hammer: The Early Years.”
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/18 "2005-12-22T18:47:54Z")
Unless the Astrobase GO! folks get off their butts and bring 'em back toot sweet, I’m going to regretfully nominate _The Venture Brothers_.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/19 "2005-12-22T18:48:11Z")
**Farscape** - Until they made the two-part movie.
**Bablyon 5**
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### Author:  [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/20 "2005-12-22T18:51:24Z")
> [@Fabulous Creature](#):
>
> It always seems silly to call Bufyverse vampires dead. They eat human food as well as blood (though admittedly only for taste), they sleep, they bleed, they sorrow; when they’re dusted, people refer to them as having been killed. Theyre not dead, just differently metabolized.
[hijack]
People are always forgetting that in the Buffyverse, the vampire is really just a human meatsack with a demon living inside. The demon has access to the memories and more or less the personality of the original person, but that person is dead, dead, dead; their soul is gone. Even some of the characters in Buffy seem to forget this. So, when you dust a vampire, you are killing the demon that inhabited the meat puppet.
For Angel, of course, the situation is terribly confused, since the vampire is cursed with Angel’s original human soul. If you kill Angel, you’d kill the human soul and the demon within. The whole curse of Angel is rather bizarre–it always seemed to me that Angel’s human soul sufferred far more than did the demon inside did while the soul was there, but it was the demon that massacred the gypsies . . .
[/hijack]
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