If we’re mining Babylon 5, I think the biggest shock was “I am called Valen and we have much work ahead of us.”
The audience always knew that, as well as the main characters. It was her coworkers that didn’t know.
Wow, I hadn’t watched it since it aired the first time, I forgot that particular “twist” happened right away.
ER had a few twists, my favourite was the recurring character played by Omar Epps, Gantt, they’re being bullied by Benton who is the head of surgery. He storms off.
Later they take in a suicide from a train into ER. They’re saying “well, this is pointless, but got to try”, “let’s beep Gant”. Beeper goes off in the room. “Who’s is that?”, everyone is looking, and eventually find it’s the jumper’s beeper. Gant is on the table. Suddenly they’re REALLY trying. Fade to titles.
On some scifi twists, On Stargate SG-1 AND Stargate Atlantis
They kill the well liked doctor in both of these
With one of the greatest bad guys ever (Ron Rifkin as “Sloan”).
That show started off as nothing but surprise twists.
It was my (very small) kids’ favorite show. They got hooked by the first episode where the dad, who’s a boring business guy, squeals to a halt to save Sydney in a parking garage: “Sydney, get in the car!” “Daaaad??!?” My daughter said that line to me in that drawn out shocked tone, years later.
*Victor Garber, who’s set up as a hard-nosed, aloof father with one of my favorite scenes… The Phone Call.
This was the only thing I knew Victor Garber from at the time. He’s a great actor. He could not be more of a upbeat, song-and-dance man in real life. He is nothing like Jack Bristow. Nothing.
It was doubly shocking for me because I only knew Victor Garber as Jesus in Godspell… where, come to think of it, he was a song-and-dance man in an awesome duet:
I seem to remember another good twist on L.A. Law. Dann Florek played Dave Meyer, the king of direct-mail marketing; the most boring, milquetoast guy you can imagine. He dated Roxanne (Susan Ruttan) over the course of several episodes. Then he went on the lam and it was revealed that he had embezzeled a fortune.
It’s been ages since I’ve seen it; if anyone remembers the details better than I, please share.
Wait, what? That’s Garber? I had no idea. I know he can sing because I’ve seen his John Wilkes Booth in Assassins but even watching that clip now I don’t recognize him.
That’s the one that always stuck with me. The helicopter hijinks just seemed silly, but Gant’s suicide was a big shock to me.
All in the Family, Stretch Cunningham turning out to be Jewish.
“Stretch, Jewish? With a name like ‘Cunningham?’”
“Oh, well, Archie, what’s in a name?”
“A Jewish name ain’t supposed to have no ‘ham’ in it, Edith.”
Agents of SHIELD - when Ward revealed himself as HYDRA agent.
He’s a great example of “where do you originally know him from”. Watching him sing, dance, and do pretty much anything only makes it more impressive how serious and dour he played Sidney’s dad.