# 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:** 6
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/81 "2005-12-25T01:43:05Z")
Substantial, obviously. No Big Battle, no Hamilton, some actual reason for Lindsey being back, further exploration of Cyborg-Dad, etc.
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### Author:  [@AFAIKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AFAIKnow)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/82 "2005-12-25T02:28:02Z")
Does \*8 Simple Rules \* count?
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/83 "2005-12-25T05:07:36Z")
> [@AFAIKnow](#):
>
> Does \*8 Simple Rules \* count?
No, because it wasn’t the final episode.
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### Author:  [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/84 "2005-12-25T05:24:07Z")
On the subject of **Newhart** , Dick Louden was hit in the head by a golf ball and knocked unconscious - not necessarily dead. But when you wake from a dream, are the characters in that dream killed? This may be a hijack, and I apologize, but in 9th grade (1973), my English teacher postulated that we were all part of some alien being’s dream, and when that being awoke, we’d all disappear. I don’t really have a point, but I thought of it back on page one when the Newhart/BNS issue was brought up.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/85 "2005-12-25T06:05:18Z")
> [@anyrose](#):
>
> On the subject of **Newhart** , Dick Louden was hit in the head by a golf ball and knocked unconscious - not necessarily dead. But when you wake from a dream, are the characters in that dream killed? This may be a hijack, and I apologize, but in 9th grade (1973), my English teacher postulated that we were all part of some alien being’s dream, and when that being awoke, we’d all disappear. I don’t really have a point, but I thought of it back on page one when the Newhart/BNS issue was brought up.
I don’t know if the characters in a dream die when the dreamer wakes up. But consider what Bob’s words were to his wife when he awoke: surely something to the effect of “ **I** dreamed that **I** was living in Vermont, running an inn. All of **my** neighbors were crazy, and **I** was married to a hot blonde.”
Bob clearly considered himself identical to Dick Loudon–or, rather, considered Dick Loudon to be a subset of his own psyche. So Dick lives so long as Bob does.
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### Author:  [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-shows-have-ended-by-killing-off-the-lead/336822/86 "2005-12-25T14:33:12Z")
**One Foot In The Grave** ended with Victor’s being run down by a drunk driver.
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