# When your favorite charater gets killed off a show (SPOILERS) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2013, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640 "2013-03-22T15:07:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/21 "2013-03-22T23:58:19Z")
Yeah I was pretty bummed when Derek died in the Sarah Conner Chronicles. It was so close to the end of the series though that it doesn’t really register. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/22 "2013-03-23T00:31:17Z")
I don’t know if Lady Marjorie Bellamy on “Upstairs, Downstairs” was my favorite character but I was shocked when she drowned on the Titanic. Her maid Miss Roberts, an unlikeable snoot, survived and was put out to pasture at Southwald. Good thing Mclean Stevenson had some great shows to fall back on when he left “MASH” and Henry Blake got killed off. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/23 "2013-03-23T00:49:33Z")
I was very surprised when Opie was murdered in prison on Sons of Anarchy ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/24 "2013-03-23T00:55:58Z")
Two characters on “Night Court”, Florence Halop and Selma Diamond and one on “Cheers”, Nicholas Colasanto all died-off on the show. Except they really, you know DIED :(. “Hill Street Blues” too, I think, and they had to re-write the shows to reflect that. Also Jack Soo on “Barney Miller”. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/25 "2013-03-23T01:40:37Z")
Nm dammit ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/26 "2013-03-23T02:38:24Z")
I love Kal Penn, both as the character Kumar and as Kutner on _House_. So of course I hated it when Kutner committed suicide. Or was it? House was still figuring it was maybe murder when I stopped watching the series. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/27 "2013-03-23T02:46:34Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > I was very surprised when Opie was murdered in prison on Sons of Anarchy It’s loosely based on Hamlet where every developed character except Horatio dies gruesomely. And it’s debatable whether Horatio is a developed character. Expect them all to die. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/28 "2013-03-23T03:19:43Z")
> [@James\_Otto\_Sweet\_Heart](#): > > ^^^ Not every character on the show has died, so why did one of my favorites have to be one that does? > God bless you always!!! > Holly Because they just wanted to piss you off :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![James\_Otto\_Sweet\_Heart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@James\_Otto\_Sweet\_Heart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Otto_Sweet_Heart)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/29 "2013-03-23T03:25:06Z")
^^^ If that had been their intention, I wasn’t the only person that they ticked off. God bless you always!!! Holly ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/30 "2013-03-23T04:42:52Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > Because they just wanted to piss you off :rolleyes: Woah…did someone piss in your Cheerios or something? Keep previous annoyances and grudges with **James Otto Sweet Heart** out of this. (Moderators, not to be confused with junior moderating. II am merely expressing my opinion about how **April R** should quit being so snarky to **James Otto Sweet Heart** just because she has a grudge with her.) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/31 "2013-03-23T13:23:21Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > Because they just wanted to piss you off :rolleyes: I choose to believe you’re intelligent enough to recognize a rhetorical question when you see one. Do not use the occasion of someone you dislike posing one to snark at that person. If you have a problem with another poster, take it to the Pit. **twickster** , Cafe Society moderator ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/32 "2013-03-23T17:01:20Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > I love Kal Penn, both as the character Kumar and as Kutner on _House_. So of course I hated it when Kutner committed suicide. Or was it? House was still figuring it was maybe murder when I stopped watching the series. That episode was done really well. House was trying to tackle it like a mystery because that was how he coped with the death of one of his ducklings. But there was no mystery to Kutner’s death, or if there was, it was too complex for a tidy diagnosis. Someone had spoilered it for me. Amber’s death was more shocking to me but I don’t know if I would have thought that if not for that spoiler. ---
**Author:** ![I-VI-ii-V](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c89c15/32.png) [@I-VI-ii-V](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I-VI-ii-V)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/33 "2013-03-25T21:17:18Z")
There were many on MI-5 (Spooks in England), but the one that bummed me out most was Jo Portman. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/34 "2013-03-25T22:03:05Z")
I suppose it may not technically qualify as being killed off, but I remember being supremely annoyed when Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor regenerated in “The Caves of Androzani.” Having no real idea of the length of his tenure on the show, I was totally surprised when this turned out to be the one predicament he wasn’t going to be able to think his way out of. I nonetheless look back quite fondly at the fact that I had the opportunity to be so surprised. If that episode had debuted today, I probably would have been aware for months that a change was in the offing, and maybe even an idea of the identity of the next actor to take the role. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/35 "2013-03-26T02:39:54Z")
On _China Beach_ way back in the 1980s, there was a character named “Cherry” who had volunteered to be a Red Cross “Donut Dolly” and was in Viet Nam to search for her brother. About half-way through the first season, I told my wife during a commercial that I absolutely loved the way her character was developing, from a wide-eyed, fresh-off-the-airplane, naive farm girl, to an older, wiser, woman, without totally losing her ideals. About 15 minutes later, she was gone. I think I was almost physically ill. IIRC, it was the first time I had seen someone I considered a “main character” get killed off. * * * Several years later, my daughter had reached the age where she was old enough to stay up and watch _Law & Order_. She really liked Jill Hennessy’s character, Claire Kincaid. I’m not sure she ever knew the character’s name; she always called her “Counselor”, which was her title in the show. One night, she was getting ready to go to a friend’s house and had asked us to tape the episode, so I was. I remember her walking down the stairs on her way out the door, and she stopped at the bottom of the stairs to wait for her friend. Right at that moment, Kincaid was in the accident that took her life. My daughter immediately burst into tears. It was probably 3 years before she watched another episode. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/36 "2013-03-26T12:16:18Z")
I echo the death of Lady Marjorie on the original _Upstairs, Downstairs_ as a shock to the system. The death of Ned on the first season of _Game of Thrones_ caused me to stop watching the series. He was the only likeable character in that universe, despite his flaws, and once he was killed, I had no interest in the fates of any of the others. (I had the same problem with _The Sopranos_, we lost interest because there was no likeable character.) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/37 "2013-03-26T12:51:55Z")
_NCIS_-Near the end of the episode, Kate sees the sees the shooter aiming at Gibbs and makes a dive to block the bullet. Shot goes off, Kate goes down, shooter taken out. Gibbs and Di Nozzo see her face down on the ground and roll her over…and her vest had stopped the bullet. As they pull her to her feet, she says “Wow!, I thought I’d die before I…” [Then this happens, and the episode ends.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4nY2pVArwg) ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/38 "2013-03-26T14:05:53Z")
Ripper Street: [SPOILER]Constable Hobbs - they built him quite nicely. Young lad, eager, takes on the telegraph, starting to learn forensics, gets to put on civvies and tail someone. You knew he would end up in trouble. But not that much trouble. Gone. I sniffled a bit.[/SPOILER] ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640/39 "2013-03-26T14:44:57Z")
I’m a HUGE fan of Steve Earle, so I loved his character, [Harley Watt](http://www.nola.com/treme-hbo/index.ssf/2011/06/today_in_treme_steve_earle_exi.html), on _Treme_. For him to be killed off in such an unexpectedly brutal pointless way was a shocker. I was sad for days after watching that episode. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-your-favorite-charater-gets-killed-off-a-show-spoilers/653640.md?page=1)