What was the most shocking turn on series TV? [LOTS OF OPEN SPOILERS -- edited title]

[Dante]

Not a death, and not particularly game changing, but Ryan’s promotion at the end of season 3 of The Office caught me completely off guard. And was awesome.

[Leaffan]

@Amateur_Barbarian

It’s also just a bit of a myth. Yes, it was concealed from everyone. The script page was only given to “Radar” at the last moment. But what we saw on TV was… the second take. The first got screwed up by something. So the reactions were fresh, but not completely so.

Amateur Barbarian, that’s fascinating! I did not know that.

Actually, I just read that on Snopes. I really didn’t know that they did a second take, and Snopes mentions the main characters knew ahead of time, just not the rest of the cast.

Gary was unbelievably touching as he entered the busy O.R. and read the message to all the doctors and nurses. Extras in the scene, performers who had been with series since day one, reacted with a kind of heartfelt sincerity that was stunning — their performance was based on their real surprise and lingering shock, their awareness of how much Mac meant to them. The crew, hearing of Henry’s death for the first time as the cameras were rolling, stuck to their chores; they did all one could ask of them.

ETA:

Unhappily, there was some sort of technical glitch. Either the boom mike or a light or whatever could go wrong did, and we had to shoot it again. I was heartsick. Gary would never be able to do a second take as beautiful as he did the first. I still knew nothing about directing. He was better. And on the second go, a totally unexpected thing happened. After Gary finished reading his message, there was a hushed silence on the set as B.J.'s camera panned the stricken faces of the cast, and then someone off-camera accidentally let a surgical instrument drop to the floor. It was perfect, that clattering, hollow sound, filling a palpable void in a way that no words could. I could not have planned it better; I wish I had — whenever I happen to hear it again, I marvel at how perfectly it fit.

[Don_Draper]

St. Elsewhere was a show that was always good for mind-bending out-of-nowhere plot twists. Among a few of the craziest:

• Nurse Daniels shooting the suspected (and in a few cases, actual) rapist Dr. White in the morgue.

• The stoic, reserved and normally buttoned-down chief-of-staff Dr. Westphall being replaced with a yes-man after the public hospital got bought out by a corporation. His successor tries to scmooze him and offers an (oily) olive branch. “I’ll tell you what you can do with your offer” Dr. Westphall tells him, “You can kiss my ass!” Just saying that phrase would have been shocking enough on a network show in 1986. But it was followed by Dr. Westphall dropping his trousers and MOONING HIS REPLACEMENT! Not obscured at all - full behind.

• The final episode, which I’m sure everybody here knows about.

[notfrommensa]

Unhappily, there was some sort of technical glitch. Either the boom mike or a light or whatever could go wrong did, and we had to shoot it again. I was heartsick. Gary would never be able to do a second take as beautiful as he did the first. I still knew nothing about directing. He was better. And on the second go, a totally unexpected thing happened. After Gary finished reading his message, there was a hushed silence on the set as B.J.'s camera panned the stricken faces of the cast, and then someone off-camera accidentally let a surgical instrument drop to the floor. It was perfect, that clattering, hollow sound, filling a palpable void in a way that no words could. I could not have planned it better; I wish I had — whenever I happen to hear it again, I marvel at how perfectly it fit.

emphasis mine.

“B.J.'s camera”? As in B.J. Hunnicutt? He was not part of the cast yet.

or is B.J. part of the crew as a cameraman?

[Cartooniverse]

@Leaffan

If you read the back story on Henry Blake’s death, the actors didn’t even know it was coming. Radar was handed the script just before walking into surgery. The reactions from everyone were authentic.

Indeed. I have a DVD burn of my old VHS recording of this documentary. It is simply superb. Well shot, well edited, logical, generous with interviews and information. In this documentary, that episode is discussed. Larry Gelbart informs us that the entire cast had no idea. There was a separate single sheet of script. He told the cast there was one more short scene to shoot and distributed the script page.

They had to do two takes, for whatever reason.

The aftermath of having presented such a deep shock to the large fan base of a “comedy” is also gone into. Wonderful fascinating stuff.

Man I loved that show.

[River_Hippie]

@salinqmind

NYPD Blue - when Sylvia, Andy’s wife, was gunned down in the courthouse. She gasped, ‘take care of the baby’ and was gone. I didn’t see THAT coming!

Good one! That scene and her last words really stuck with me.

[Leaffan]

@notfrommensa

emphasis mine.

“B.J.'s camera”? As in B.J. Hunnicutt? He was not part of the cast yet.

or is B.J. part of the crew as a cameraman?

Billy Jurgensen, our cinematographer,…

[Cartooniverse]

@notfrommensa

emphasis mine.

“B.J.'s camera”? As in B.J. Hunnicutt? He was not part of the cast yet.

or is B.J. part of the crew as a cameraman?

Missed the edit window, sorry.

“BJ” is very likely the Director of Photography from 1972-1977, [William ( Bill ) Jurgensen](ETA: “BJ” was likely [url="William K. Jurgensen - IMDb). He was the Director of Photography for many years, and I believe was the DP during that episode. Unlike on feature films, it is not so uncommon for an episodic show ( especially one shot half on a stage and half on location as this one was ) for the D.P. to operate the A Camera. Back then, I do not know what the IATSE Contract required as far as an Operator on the call in addition to a D.P. But, since “BJ” could not have been a character and also a behind the scenes technician, my bet is on Mr. Jurgensen.

[The_Second_Stone]

@Andy_L

The elevator drop in “LA Law” was also a big shock for viewers…

Yet deeply (heh, heh) satisfying.

My contribution was the finale of MASH (was it the finale) where Hawkeye goes nuts from telling the lady to shut that damn chicken up so she kills it.

[Finagle]

@Smapti

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;

Actually, I find it even more shocking that it’s been nearly ten years since that aired. How is that even possible? I’d have guessed it to have been 3, maybe 4 years ago.

[Zsofia]

Gotta go with Buffy’s mom. “Mom? Mom? Mommy?”

[TBG]

I didn’t watch House, but I remember some sort of brouhaha over Kumar killing himself out of nowhere or something like that (like I said I didn’t watch so maybe the details are off).

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

@TBG

I didn’t watch House, but I remember some sort of brouhaha over Kumar killing himself out of nowhere or something like that (like I said I didn’t watch so maybe the details are off).

Nope. You’re right; Kal Penn left the show to take some high-up job in the Obama administration and they killed off his character.

[terentii]

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

Really? That’s exactly the sort of thing I’d expect in the pilot, when the producers are trying to hook the most eyeballs. I can’t remember ever seeing it again. Too expensive, is what I remember hearing.

Too expensive, too time consuming, and just too stupid all around, as has been discussed on this site more than once.

[terentii]

Almost 100 posts, and no one has mentioned Guy Icognito on the Simpsons? :dubious: It may not have been game-changing, but that was one gag I totally did not expect! A truly “WTF?!?” moment!

[Rick_Kitchen]

@John_Mace

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.

That was the scene that made me decide that I wasn’t interested in watching any more of the show.

“Revenge” killed Daniel last night.

[BurnMeUp]

@John_Mace

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.

Also, Shane’s ending in the final season.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

From my post as high judge of the OP, I think this thread really was answered in one, and only because I forgot that case.

A lot of the suggestions herein are good ones, but many come in dramas and in series noted for hard edges… and well into the era of “let’s completely mindfuck the audience.”

Killing off Henry Blake, a beloved and genial character, in the last line of the tag, on a fairly lightweight comedy, in an era before shows did unpredictable things… I think that’s an all-time winner. YMMV.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

Really? That’s exactly the sort of thing I’d expect in the pilot, when the producers are trying to hook the most eyeballs. I can’t remember ever seeing it again. Too expensive, is what I remember hearing.

They separated the hulls at least twice more: in the episode in which they were dealing with the aggressive arms dealer drones and Geordi was in command (he put the smack down on the uppity chief engineer by making him command the saucer section while he the battle section into, obviously, battle) and in the big Borg two-parter with Lieutenant Commander Blondie.

That always bugged me. There were tons of episodes in which you’d think the characters would say, “Okay, we’re at a starbase right now, and we’re about to go pick a fight with the Romulans/Cardassians/Borg/Cylons; let’s separate the hulls right now rather than drag Keiko & MOlly O’Brien and their ilk along with us.”

[terentii]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

That always bugged me. There were tons of episodes in which you’d think the characters would say, “Okay, we’re at a starbase right now, and we’re about to go pick a fight with the Romulans/Cardassians/Borg/Cylons; let’s separate the hulls right now rather than drag Keiko & MOlly O’Brien and their ilk along with us.”

Standard response: “Oh, it’s not a ship of war, it’s a ship of peace!” :rolleyes: *

*This new “roll eyes” thingie really doesn’t convey much in the way of disgust, does it?