These days, it’s almost impossible for a television show to have a surprise turn without it being telegraphed - f’rex, everyone knew that someone was going to die in the last episode of Walking Dead; the only surprise was who, and to a lesser extent, how and why.
Which got me thinking: was was the most shocking, unexpected, upsetting, game-changing, show-changing turn in a television series? What event (probably a death) completely gobsmacked the audience and the world of casual viewers?
It’s probably not THE the, but an example would be the death of Ed Coffey on* Hill Street Blues*. IIRC, it was almost a throwaway moment in the tag - the storyline was wrapped up, all was well, he tells Lucy he’s going to grab a pack of smokes… and walks in on a robbery, only to get blown backwards through the door. Roll credits. No clue, no setup, no hit in the (pre-internet) press that I recall… just a Steven Bochco punch in the face.
What tops that?
ETA: I’d exclude cliffhangers like the HSB story arc about Howard being suicidal, which went black on a terrifying moment, but was resolved. It has to be an actual event or happening that was unforeseen.
And from a historical perspective (so I’ve been told/read), Tony Soprano - the protagonist of the series The Sopranos - killing a man with his own two hands.
I liked that because it was completely unexpected. NBC usually gives away any big event in the commercials and previews but didn’t in that case. Another where they surprised me was the disarming of Dr Romano on ER (and then again his later death).
Yeah, that was something - especially in the reactions of Benton, Romano, and Weaver.
In the opening episode of “Twin Peaks” the death of Laura Palmer isn’t a shock, of course, but the reactions of the people in the town were shockingly raw - this isn’t just a death to give the detective something to investigate, it’s a violation that wreaks havoc in the lives of everyone around Laura
Lady Margery booking passage on the Titanic when she was going to visit her daughter, on Upstairs, Downstairs. That show usually used foreshadowing, and there was none here-- well, we were left to wonder whether Lady Margery would be among the survivors, but that it was the right year, and the HMS Titanic would be the obvious ship for her to take when she was planning her trip slipped viewers minds.
I actually don’t think that beats “Abyssinia, Henry,” but if we were making a list, it’d be in the top 10.
I’ll go with the final moments of the season 1 finale of Battlestar Galactica, which, even though it aired nearly ten years ago now, I’ll still put in spoiler tags;
[SPOILER] Boomer, who has come to suspect that she is a Cylon and unsuccessfully attempted suicide after coming to that conclusion, is sent on a mission to plant a nuke onboard a Cylon basestar and destroy it. While setting up the nuke, she encounters multiple copies of herself, proving her suspicions, but nonetheless carries out her duties and arms the nuke, fleeing as the basestar is destroyed. Upon returning to Galactica just after Adama executes a coup d’état and abolishes the civilian government of the fleet, she meets him in CIC, where he shakes her hand and congratulates her on executing her mission.
Then she draws her sidearm and shoots him in the heart.
[/SPOILER]
In the pilot episode of *The Shield *(from wikipedia):
Eighteen months into the “Farmington Project”, Detective Vic Mackey and his Strike Team prepare to take down a major drug dealer who has never before been caught with product. Meanwhile, following a homicide, Detectives Wyms and Wagenbach discover that a child is missing, sold to a pedophile by her drug-addicted father. Captain David Aceveda installs Detective Terry Crowley as a new member of the Strike Team in order to have an inside man to root out their corruption. The episode ends with Mackey taking the opportunity to kill Crowley during the high risk raid.
Bolded part. That told me this TV show was going to be different.
Two network shows recently did a good job of killing a cast member and keeping it secret until it actually aired.
Since their relatively recent and this thread isn’t about them specifically I’ll spoiler to be safe:
[spoiler]
Person of Interest killing Teraji P. Henson’s Detective Carter. They teased that “someone would die” but I don’t remember any serious chatter before hand that it would be her.
This season on Bones them killing Sweets came out of left field with no buildup at all.[/spoiler]
Wouldn’t call them the biggest of all time but with today’s modern ability to track things behind the scenes I was impressed both made it to air without being leaked.