Most moving episodes of your favorite sitcom or series

Another one that practically ends me is the Christmas episode- “So-Called Angels” - of [italic]My So-Called Life[/italic].

The story, the performances, the music...perfection.

I’m watching MTM to get me through the misery of 2020. Pure gold. The characters are perfect and very real.

R2 I own the series and have watched it in its entirety about 5 times. I’m 38 but have been watching and seeking comfort in MTM since I was a 13/14 year old depressed and in the closet teen.

It makes me nostalgic for a time I wasn’t even alive to experience!

Another moving episode: “The Body” from [italic]Buffy the Vampire Slayer[/italic]:

I’m on a roll now. I’m watching all of these during the holidays.

“The Night of the Meek” from [italic]The Twilight Zone[/italic]:

“The Adoption” from [italic]The Honeymooners[/italic]. I remember this making me cry as a preteen.

It’s available for pay on YouTube.

Damn, you bitches can’t think of one moving episode?

Darlene reading her poem about being a lonely outsider in front of her class and Roseann wiping away a tear. Gets me every time.

R7 omg, yes! I forgot about that one. Thanks for reminding me. I’m compiling a list of these for Christmas and New Year’s Eve watching.

Also, another [italic]Twilight Zone[italic] episode, “The Big Tall Wish.”

Another [italic]Roseanne[/italic] episode, “Wait ‘til Your Father Gets Home.”

I know that the GG get a lot of love and hate on DL but "Ebbtide's Revenge" -- Dorothy's brother Phil the cross-dresser dies unexpectedly trying on knock-offs at Big Gals Pay Less -- is the most touching. I don't know how many times I've seen it, but it is a funny episode up until the end. The last two lines get to me every time.

Pam says goodbye to Michael.

"Lucy Wants to Move to the County"

Archie finds Edith's slipper.

"M*A*S*H" finale, duh.

And the one where Col. Henry Blake finally gets his discharge, only to die in the helicopter crash on his way home.

Late breaking...the finale(?) of the story of the Mandalorian and the Baby Yoda.

R14 omg. I forgot about that one! Thanks for the reminder!

The Dick Van Dyke Show - "Where You Been, Fassbinder?"

The 10th Doctor says goodbye to the Noble family for the last time.

R15 this makes me cry every time I see it

There was an episode of The Love Boat (I know, I know...hear me out) that I wish I could find today.

One of the plots involved an older man who was traveling with a much younger woman. All the crew members were making catty remarks about the age difference and speculating on the relationship. Was the older man cheating on his wife with the younger woman? Was the younger woman a hooker or a golddigger?

Eventually, Doc gets summoned to the older man's room and finds out he's gravely ill and dying. The young woman traveling with him was his daughter. He wanted to take her on a final cruise with him before he died. He dies on board the ship.

At the end of the episode, as the young woman leaves the ship alone, I remember Julie McCoy delivering a line that has stuck with me: "Why do we always think the worst of people?"

In an otherwise silly and fluffy TV show, this episode was jarring in its downbeat and somber ending.

Criminal Minds

Hotch's Wife Dies

The finale of [italic]Six Feet Under[/italic].

I cry my ass off.

Shelley Long’s last episode of Cheers is deeply moving. So poignant and beautifully handled.

R24 Another reminder. Thank you!

R24 The finale is good, too.

So many episodes of St. Elsewhere, but two stand-outs: The episode when Pete is brought back to Jack and he says, "Oh, Nina," and the episode where Lucy "walks" The Freedom Trail with the elderly man as he dies.

The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd where Molly tells he mother the wrong day for her sonogram, so she has to go to it alone. In her sadness she is visited by her dead father who sings a sweet song from Guys and Dolls to her.

R27 God, I love that show. Used to watch reruns of it with my mom in the mid-90s.

"My Motherboard, Myself" (Sex and the City) in which Carrie focuses more on the tragedy of her laptop dying than she does on Miranda's mother dying. It's a great episode--probably the only really great one in the entire series--about friendship and keeping your priorities straight.

Not an entire episode, but the one scene from Soap where Danny asks Elaine why she is always so mean to everyone, especially those who are kind to her, and she explains why. To this day, it's such a sad and moving scene (and, for some reason, very difficult to find online). Making things more emotional, a few episodes later, there is Elaine's death - after being shot, dragging herself to the Campbell's doorstep and collapsing in Danny's arms, saying something like "I finally made it home".

The two-parter of Roseanne where Jackie's boyfriend beats her. It easily could have been an awful 90s "very special episode" but it wasn't.

R32 I was going to post that!

This. Brought copious tears cascading down my face.

Homicide's episode called "Bop Gun."

It features Robin Williams and Jake Gylenhall. It is Williams best performance bar none.

The Facts of Life episode where Tootie loses her shot about not being able to see Jermaine Jackson. RAW.

R35

R31 Oh, my God, that episode! I was a teen gayling when that first aired. I was watching it with my family and we were all sobbing. I'll never forget Elaine dying in Danny's arms while the family stood around them.

That's what I loved about Soap. It could be hysterically funny, and then BAM - it would hit you with some incredibly sad and gut wrenching stuff.

Thanks R37, but I have the DVD. Unfortunately, I do not think the entire episode is streaming anywhere in a viewable format.

There are a lot of excerpts out there though.

(Or is there a trick to making your link more viewable?)

R39 On the rare occasion I watch episodes like that, I just zoom in, i.e. I don’t put the video on full screen and just zoom in with my fingers or I increase the zoom percentage.

Jack Tripper schemes to get RN Terri Alden to move out of the apartment, but his practical joke on her goes a step too far!!!

When Homer Simpson made me cry. The mother episode.

Rhoda’s Separation episode always moved me.

In fact, Rhoda always had a subtly melancholic feeling about it. MTM too. I think it was the lighting.

The shot of Mary and Grant walking the street at dusk always made wistful; at 9 y.o., mind you.

The shot was during the end credits.

"Iggy Builds a Castle."

Not an episode but barely a movie due to its short length. A tearjerker nonetheless.

The episode of All in the Family in which a man tries to rape Edith while Archie is next door at Mike and Gloria's. My mother (and father) are very much like Bostonian vetsions of the Bunkers so when I saw that episode in reruns, it hit me hard. But I cheered--through tears--when Edith burns the rapist's face, kicks him in the crotch, and flees the house to safety.

R47.

The Fonz weeping in Richie's hospital room, begging God to spare Richie's life. Masterful acting by Henry Winkler.

For r31

My pick: The Golden Girls. Not Another Monday

Futurama “Jurassic Bark”. I literally cannot watch it, the ending is too much.

“The Visitor” from Star Trek Deep Space Nine makes me ugly cry.

An episode of "The Rifleman" called "The Vision" in which Mark becomes gravely ill and may not survive while his father, Lucas, goes to pieces.

It was reportedly also Johnny Crawford's favorite episode of the series.

"Laverne & Shirley" had two I can think of:

* The episode when Mrs. Babish's daughter, who was mentally-challenged, came home to visit and Lenny fell for her;

* The episode when Shirley's mother came to visit and constantly criticized Shirley about every little thing to the point that Laverne had to intervene and put a stop to it.

Sopranos, "Whitecaps." Not just for the epic fight betw. Tony & Carmela. There was a character, attorney Sapinsly (Bruce Altman), who was the seller of the house (named Whitecaps) that Tony wanted to buy. When Tony tries to back out of the sale (b/c of the fight with Carmela), Sapinsly will not back down.

Jin and Sun's deaths on Lost.

Spoiler alert, dude!

[quote] Laverne & Shirley" had two I can think of:

There’s also the episode where the love of Laverne’s life, a hunky firefighter played by Ted Danson, is killed in a fire on the day he was going to propose to her.

M*A*S*H - The unit is getting used to the new boss, Col. Potter, whose birthday approaches. Frank/Hot Lips and Hawkeye/someone else spend $ on presents which turn out badly. Radar gives Col. Potter a horse he had been tending. Potter, who had been a cavalry officer, is thrilled.

The finale to The Wonder Years (summary: Kevin & Winnie lose their virginity to one another; the dad dies; Kevin lives happily ever after with someone other than Winnie)

A, My Name is Alex - Family Ties two part episode

two part episode where Alex meets Ellen.

HUGE MJ Fox fan here.

The ending to the original run of Roseanne. I never watched the reboot but I can't believe they brought Dan back from the dead.

Actually this is the Rosanne clip I meant to post

[quote]Sopranos, "Whitecaps." Not just for the epic fight betw. Tony & Carmela. There was a character, attorney Sapinsly (Bruce Altman), who was the seller of the house (named Whitecaps) that Tony wanted to buy. When Tony tries to back out of the sale (b/c of the fight with Carmela), Sapinsly will not back down.

The episode of My Mother The Car when her gas tank explodes.

Thanks for ruining it for me! I just got the box set!

The Knots Landing episode, Noises Everywhwere: Part 2

R67- you beat me to the punch!!! That was going to be my contribution. Laura’s videotaped goodbye to everyone... reading Good Night Moon to her baby... wrenching.

[quote]There’s also the episode where the love of Laverne’s life, a hunky firefighter played by Ted Danson, is killed in a fire on the day he was going to propose to her.

That's a great episode. And how Lenny and Squiggy had to break it to her and she didn't want to accept it. Classic episode.

There was a sweet episode where Laverne thought she was pregnant. Lenny goes to her and says me and Squiggy flipped a coin to see which of us would marry you.

Laverne: "Aw...and you lost, Len?"

Lenny: "No. I won."

I'll get hate for this but Friends when Chandler proposes to Monica.

In the "South Park" episode "The Hobbit," Wendy gets annoyed when the boys all think Kim Kardashian is hot. She photoshops a picture of Lisa, the ugliest girl in school, to make the point that Kim Kardashian's looks aren't real. But the point gets taken the wrong way and the boys all start thinking Lisa is hot. An exasperated Wendy keeps trying to make her point that Kim Kardashian actually looks like a hobbit, but gets shut down and labeled a hater as all the other girls photoshop their own pictures and the boys all buy it. In the episode's final scene, a tearful Wendy gives up and photoshops her own picture and sends it to everyone.

Andy Griffith show, episode "Opie the Birdman"

Opie accidentally kills a mother bird with his new slingshot, in the front yard.

After Andy makes Opie realize that the birds are now without a mother, Opie takes it upon himself to raise the orphaned baby birds.

After adopting them, he named them Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod.

Opie faces the difficult task of setting them free, but after a father-son talk, the birds are finally sent back into the wild.

Opie remarks that the cage seems empty and Andy quickly replies, "Yes, son, it sure does. But don't the trees seem nice and full."

This scene from Cheers between the Coach and his daughter always gets me.

Gimme a Break - Joey's Train. When the characters (and cast) mourn The Chief's (Doug Sweet) death. "Katie's Korner" when Nell is worried about Katie and reveals to her a painful experience when she was younger.

The All in the Family episode in which Beverly La Salle, one of the kindest, most interesting people Edith probably ever met, is beaten to death just after leaving the Bunker's house. I think it was a Christmas episode no less, and that added to Edith's ensuing depression and crisis of faith. Jean Stapleton was one hell of an actress.

Agree with R76. The Beverly LaSalle episodes were fantastic; I loved how naive, sheltered Edith simply loved and accepted Beverly. And her refusal to go back to church after Beverly was gay bashed is still, decades later, so damned moving.

I find every single episode of "The Golden Girls" to be deeply moving.

That's why I'm always watching whenever I'm on the toilet. I get about halfway through an episode, and voila - I've had a deep movement.

Bewitched- A Is For Aardvark

Honorable Mention- "Charlie Happer, Winner"

The last episode of "The Good Place"

"The Body" and "The Gift" from Buffy

"Sleeping in Light" and "Passing Through Gethsemane" from Babylon 5

"Duet" from Deep Space Nine

"The Inner Light" from ST:TNG

"The Angels Take Manhattan" from Doctor Who

Roseanne became a really good actress over the course of the original.

Watching those clips makes me weep for what Barr has become.

Too many from Lost to mention. Sun, Jin and Charlie in particular.

Doomsday, the Doctor Who episode in which Rose and the Doctor are separated forever.

The Cosby episode where he gives a young, female patient a pill to help her sleep and then...... oh wait, that was real life!

This...

R76 I own and have watched the entire series and don’t remember this! I’m going to watch it.

All in the Family has some deeply moving episodes.

The West Wing - Noel

The West Wing - Mrs Landingham's Exit (or whatever they called it)

And the West Wing - Lord John Marbury

I love that show, such a great show.

MASH, obvs, the last episode and the death of Henry Blake.

MTM, the finale and the Clown's Funeral episodes.

Johnny Carson's last Tonight Show.

R87 I struggle to get through half of the episodes of The West Wing without shedding a tear or two.

OMG...........when Leo died.............

Oh yeah, I forgot, the last episodes of Six Feet Under and The Good Place.

This one.

Yeah, if we are talking Lost, it's "Not Penny's Boat," brutha.

I found Lilith's goodbye to Frasier in her last appearance on "Frasier" very moving. She acknowledges their long and complicated history together and the fact that they will always be a part of each other's lives due to their son Frederick.

IIRC she says, "With one hand the past pushes us forward and with the other hand it holds us back. Goodbye, Frasier."

Given the arc of those characters on "Cheers" and then on "Frasier" I thought it was the perfect bittersweet goodbye scene and Bebe Neuwirth played it very well.

Thank you OP. I had no idea I’d be laying in bed watching the Mary Tyler Moore show and balling my eyes out before work this morning.

It did strike me that Ted Knight would have played a wonderful Donald Trump. He was close with the Ted Baxter character. So, I found this:

Desperate Houswives

For me, it will always be the Hershey bar episode of Mad Men. They could have ended the series after Don showed his children the house he grew up in, but there is a lot of great story left. Everything before built to this episode, and everything after was in response.

R93 You’re welcome! Did you watch the finale?

Also, crying is good for soul. I hope it was relieving and cathartic for you. ❤️

1) "Some of that Jazz" episode of Three's Company. Janet gets involved with some sleazy dance instructor who's just using her for sex. Jack tries to warn Janet, but she thinks Jack is being jealous and refuses to heed his warning. The sleazy dance guy finally shows his true colors leaving Janet heart-broken and ashamed. Jack witnesses the ugly scene and Janet thinks he's going to gloat and say "I told you so". Instead he sweetly asks her "May I have this dance?" Gets.Me.Every.Time.

2) "Pottery Will Get You Nowhere" episode of the Wonder Years. Kevin's parent have been viciously arguing for days because his mom started taking pottery classes. After a week of fighting, Kevin's mom accidentally burns her hand with the iron and starts crying. Instead of ignoring her hurt, Kevin's usually tough and emotionally-distant dad comforts her and they finally make up. Very poignant ending to an emotionally-fraught episode.

Eight is Enough - the first Christmas episode after the death of Diana Hyland.

Tommy is having a hard time coping, and toward the end of the episode, he finds a Christmas gift his dead mom for him that she had bought the year before and hidden in the house.

I just remember him reading the card that was attached to the gift and the whole family sobbing. Those tears were real.

Beverly Hills 90210 (I know, I know). Dylan's dad gets killed in a car explosion and then a few seasons later, Dylan's new wife gets shot to death in her car. Luke Perry (and Shannen) was the best actor on that show and gave the show its most moving scenes.

R94 The Desperate Housewives episode that made me cry was the post-tornado episode when Karen realized that her best friend Ida wasn't going to emerge from the wreckage.

R96 I did watch the whole episode this morning! It was an unexpected treat and you’ve likely set me off on another MTM marathon over the holidays. Looking forward to it!

"Three's Company" also did an episode (I don't remember the name of it) in which Chrissy hits her head and winds up in the hospital. Though it was mostly played for laughs, they did insert a rather dramatic middle section in which the doctor tells Jack and Janet it's possible her injury might take a bad turn, which was followed by a scene in which Jack and Janet express their fears that Chrissy might not survive. Moments like this can often feel forced in comedy series but since it was brief (and made sense in the context of the story), I thought it was effective.

Pen15 episode Anna Ishii-Peters has the most devastating scene of a kid being told by her parents that they are divorcing. The entire episode is just gutting. I wish I could find the clip.

I'll take some of that hate R71 and share another clip from Friends. This is when the annoying downstairs neighbor, Mr. Heckles, dies. The last scene is very nice.

The last episode of Dawson's Creek was wonderfully moving -- Jen is gone, Jack is raising her baby, and he and Officer Doug finally get together, sitting on the beach...

"Time's Arrow", the penultimate episode of the penultimate season of "Bojack Horseman" (a Netflix series that winds up on every "top 10" list but few DLers have ever watched, likely because it's on Netflix and not as accessible as "The Nanny" or similar DL faves)

It's about his mother's dementia and putting her in a nursing home but the animation (it's an animated series) allows for a portrayal of dementia that is truly heart-wrenching. The writers won a WGA Award for it.

The Christmas episode of Facts of Life where the girls and Mrs Garrett visit the prison. When Blair sings I'll be Home for Christmas to the inmates, it chokes me up every time.

I Love Lucy episode where she finally tells Ricky she's expecting, and he sings We're Having a Baby, My Baby and Me, and they are cheek to cheek and both with tears of joy in their eyes...

Betty White was in both the closing shots of MTM and GG . Basically the same moving group hugs and tears .

R101 I think I might throw all fucks to the wind and do the same.

On the Lawrence Welk show when Guy and Ralna sang "One toke over the line ."

The Twilight Zone; Walking Distance (1959)

One of the best episodes in the series. Have kleenex nearby. (And be ready to mute the atrocious ads).

On the Carol Burnett show, there was a "Mama" skit where Eunice got an appearance on The Gong Show. She was sure it was going to be her ticket out of hicktown and her miserable life. Mama and Ed kept telling her not to do it and that she would make a fool of herself, but she didn't listen.

She goes on the show to sing "Feelings," and with the first note out of her mouth, she gets gonged. The skit ends with Eunice looking completely dejected and hopeless. The screen freezes on her face, and it shrinks away to nothing as a buzzer is heard in the background.

It was so sad and depressing.

^ Here's the skit.

R97 reminded me of an episode from "The Wonder Years" in which Kevin snaps at his mom at one point and says something about not being a cold anymore. His mom's very hurt by his attitude and the rest of the episode deals with how something in their relationship changed permanently from that point onwards

It ends with a poignant montage of childhood scenes with Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game" on the soundtrack.

R115 I always found “Heart of Darkness” to be such a sad, tragic, and moving episode. I know, not a traditional moving episode, but it was to me.

“Bad boy” Gary Cosay, played by a wise-beyond-his-years Brecklin Meyer, is a seemingly noxious douchebag whose disreputable reputation belies his tragic and lonely state.

The Wonder Years had some great episodes that could knock you on your ass so surprisingly.

My Do-Called Life (still in my top 10 shows), too.

God, this short series ([italic]My So-Called Life[/italic]) was brimming with such wisdom, heartache, and hope.

The ending sequence below from “The Zit” still makes me tear up.

American Horror Story season 4. The episode Orphans breaks my heart. Pepper is wrongly accused of killing her nephew by her sister and brother-in-law. Is committed to the insane asylum. Given the job of stacking magazines by a nun. She finds a magazine with Jessica Lange on the cover. The only woman to never show her love.

R118 Lange and Grossman are sublime in that. And it is heartbreaking.

This ending guts me.

Masterful work by Lange.

E.R. - the episode where Susan gives up the baby she’s been raising to her sister.

The final regular appearance of Mike and Gloria on AITF. Beautifully written and performed.

Mike: You were like a father to me Archie: You were like a son to me. You never did anything I ever told you.

Later, Mike tells him that Archie always thought he hated him but he loved him and he embraces Archie. Archie's look of helplessness was phenomenal acting by O'Connor.

R76 and R77 Speaking of Edith being pure and full of love, I remember watching an episode that made me fall in love with her character.

She was going to her high school reunion, and her high school boyfriend was going to be there. Edith described him as a beautiful star athlete with a gorgeous body and face and flowing blonde hair, and she had been smitten with him, which made Archie very jealous.

When they get to the reunion, Archie finds the guy, and he's fat and bald. Archie is gloating and can't wait to bring him over and show him to Edith. When he does, Edith turns around and looks at him and is just as smitten when she sees him as she was in high school.

That's when Archie realized that Edith saw people's souls, not their physical appearances. It was such a beautiful and moving moment.

R123-----Gaaaaaahd he was beyooti-ful!

I love this scene on Knots Landing with Kevin Dobson. Beautifully acted.

Agree with R73. Another such episode of the show is the first episode of the series. Aunt Bee arrives to replace Opie's beloved former housekeeper, but the two have failed to bond as Aunt Bee can't fish, hunt or play baseball. As Bee is about to leave without saying goodbye to Opie, Opie wakes up, sees what's happening, & comes running outside to stop the planned exit, doing a 180 about Bee. She needs us, Opie cries, because if she can't fish, hunt, or play baseball she's "helpless."

(R126) such a good show. I just watched the Christmas episode today.

The Xmas episode most certainly deserves recognition here.

The Office episode where Pam and Michael Scott say goodbye to each other in the airport and there is no dialogue.

R129, see R12

Another "South Park" is when the Japanese girls all start making yaoi porn of Tweek and Craig and everyone starts assuming that Tweek and Craig are a gay couple. The parents all get super stoked because they're impressed that their town is now progressive enough to have a gay couple, and only weeks after the town got a Whole Foods. So everyone in the town starts shipping Tweek and Craig together, and Tweek and Craig plan to stage a believable breakup so everyone will stop shipping them. But they do too good a job of faking a breakup and end up making the entire town sad and there is a sad montage. The first time I saw it I actually started crying when the Mayor was mourning her husband, lol. But it has a happy ending and they actually get back together at the end of the episode.

"8 Simple Rules" -- the family coping with the sudden death of the dad, Paul. Of course, it's also the cast members displaying very real emotions over the sudden death of the beloved star John Ritter. That final zoom-in to the picture of young John absolutely kills me.

I'll also have r71's back. That moment always gets to me too, and it's nice to have a reminder of a moving scene that's happy and not sad.

Though admittedly, when I thought of Friends, the first scene that came to mind was the one at the end of the episode with the fertility test, where Chandler takes the call from the doctor's office, and then has to tell Monica they'll probably never be able to conceive. Knowing all of Courtney Cox's real life fertility issues, it always seemed kind of mean to make her play that (though of course she finally got pregnant later that year in real life with her daughter).

And it's been alluded to...

Valerie Cherish leaving the Emmys when she heard Mickey was in the hospital, standing in the pouring rain desperately trying to figure out how to use her Uber app. Lisa Kudrow's performance was stunning!

^^Oh, sorry. The Comeback.

In back-to-back episodes of "Grey's Anatomy," ("It's the End of the World As We Know It," "And I Feel Fine") Kyle Chandler plays a bomb squad expert named Dylan Young. A trauma victim is brought in by the paramedics; one of them, Hannah (played by guest star Christina Ricci), has her hand inside the victim's chest cavity to stop the bleeding. As Alex soon discovers, though, Hannah's hand is not the only thing inside of this patient; after firing a homemade bazooka, he's also got a piece of unexploded ammunition inside of him. Hannah loses her nerve and has a nervous breakdown. She removes her hand from the victim's chest and Meredith quickly subs her own hand. With the hospital evacuated under a Code Black, Meredith and Dylan have a long conversation about the odds of both surviving this operation. At the end of the concluding episode ("And I Feel Fine"), Dylan is able to remove the explosive in the hopes of safely destroying it. He walks out of the operating room, and ever so carefully walks down the hall. Cut to Meredith breathing a sigh of relief. Suddenly, the building shudders. Meredith knows immediately that Dylan has been vaporized by the bomb. A soul-crushing moment.

The best scene with Don Knotts

R122, the moment when Archie tells Gloria "You're not good enough for him [Michael']," is still one of the most shocking things I ever saw on television.

R139 I don’t remember that! On that final episode? (Or are you pulling my leg)

r140, It's in the hour-long episode in Season 9 where Archie and Edith visit Mike and Gloria in California, after it comes out that they're separated because Gloria had an affair. Technically the line (to Mike) is "Meathead, I never thought I'd be saying this, but YOU'RE too good for HER!" The episode is "California, Here We Are."

(Their last appearance was the next season in "Archie Bunker's Place" in "Thanksgiving Reunion.")

It was not the final episode of All in the Family.

It was one where Archie and Edith visit Gloria and Mike in California. They discover that they are separated and why.

I got the line wrong. Archie says to Mike, "You're too good for her."

[quote] and balling my eyes out

Oh, DEAR!

The only thing moving about [italic]Friends[/italic] is the fucking bowels that created this bowel movement of a show.

I agree about the ending of The Comeback, with Valerie in the back of the cab, realizing she may be losing Mark and Mickey and her phone is locked up.

R142 ahhh got it thanks for the clarification!

This isn’t a series, but it’s a “television moment” and I still get sad watching it.

Thanks for sharing these guys. I look forward to watching some of these epis.

The wedding episode of [italic]Silver Spoons[/italic] made me cry. Specifically, it made me cry, “goddammit, why wasn’t it Dexter and Eddie who got married? This is an Embassy show just like [italic]The Jeffersons[/italic] and you missed the chance for TVs first interracial gay couple, you fucking neoliberal hypocrites!”

This Big Bang Theory Xmas episode gets me every time.

The Will and Grace where Mira Sorvino plays Leo's ex - and the only woman who Will slept with. It was more funny than moving, but I found it oddly poignant just how pissed Grace seemed to be not that Leo fucked Mira, but that Will had. The only time Deb Mess actually seemed to able to convey a real feeling.

Bump

Mark Greene's death on ER.

He died?!

Jesus, spoiler alert, dude!

Really R153 the show has been over more than a decade and Mark Greene died in 2002. If you haven't caught up on ER, then thats on you. LOL.

Bless your heart, r154.

Really, just, well just bless it.

ER had more main characters die than The Walking Dead! By the end, I thought that hospital in Port Charles was more believable.

On Good Times everyone goes straight to the Damn ,Damn, Damn but the Thanksgiving episode James father, who he just reunited with the previous, came to visit. After he hugged all the kids he hugs Florida and she whispers to him "Oh Henry I miss him so much". It was quite poignant.

MTM, the best ever.

I can't even fathom how someone can go on living with himself after doing that to his child. Yikes.

What show is that, r159?

"Nothing in the Dark"

from The Twilight Zone

Wrong thread R159.

A couple episodes of the Jeffersons come to mind. One where George finds Louise's long lost sister who is living in Paris and brings her to NY for Louise's birthday. Everyone thinks Louise would be happy to see her but she wasn't. She told George she resented her sister running away to Paris and she had to quit school and take care of her mother. Turns out the sister got pregnant and left for Paris. The other episode where Louise visits her old tenement where she grew up before it's torn down. She takes the doorknobs from her bedroom because she they looked like diamonds when she was little. I believe this was the episode that won Isabel Sanford an Emmy. Norman Lear sitcoms were always great with details and always had great backstories on characters. Also, the episode where the Jeffersons remember the assassination of Martin Luther King.

r163, you're right. "And the Doorknobs Shined Like Diamonds" was the episode that won Isabel Sanford her Emmy.

You reminded me of another episode, one of the Christmas episodes "984 W. 124th Street, Apt. 5C". Louise finds out George is leaving money in an apartment building in Harlem and suspects he's having an affair. It turns out that's the apartment where he grew up, and when he was a kid he vowed no family living there would ever go without Christmas again, so he's been secretly leaving money for the family living there, even though they don't know who it's from.

The episode of Northern Exposure that shows how the town was founded by lesbians. It might have been the first time I thought I might be gay.

This brief scene on All In The Family where Edith and Louise say goodbye to each other.

The special episode of "Sex and the City" where Carrie admits to Big she has always known she is a hatchet-faced puppet of consumerist culture.

I loved the "Stranded" episode of Designing Women. Suzanne is traveling with Anthony during a blizzard and they get stuck not only sharing a room in a hotel, but the bed as well. Anthony discovers that Suzanne isn't as shallow and racist as we'd all been led to believe. Aside from being fairly moving, it was funny as hell. And one of Delta Burke's first really great episodes.

[italic]Webster[/italic] when he realizes his parents are never coming back.

Which show is r43 talking about? MTM or Rhoda?

Mary and Grant Tinker are shown walking?

R171, MTM during end credits. See r44

The episode of Batman when Egghead and King Tut make passionate love. I cried when Egghead(Vincent Price) was suffocated when Tut(Victor Buono) sat his ass on Eggy's face. Truly a very special episode.

R31/R38 you’re both so right about SOAP. Incredible writing for the time.

I only caught the show decades later in reruns (I’m way too young to have seen it air), but I remember being moved by some of Jodie’s stories—for example the one where he almost gets a sex-change but then has that sick old man talk him out of it, or the one where the CPS try to take his baby daughter Wendy away from him because he’s gay. Such a daring show, now and then.

Millennial edition: DRAKE & JOSH S04E11, ‘Josh Is Done’.

A homoromantic ode to heartbreak. First saw it when I was ten, and it hurts to even think about it. It’s also the first time it occurred to me that Drake & Josh’s relationship is really not platonic.

That very special episode of "Borgia" where Marcantonio kindly repays Cesare for cutting off Marcantonio's index finger by putting some oatmeal on his ass and vigorously (and very enjoyably) raping him.

Futurama ‘Jurassic Bark’. The closing montage of the dog spending its life waiting for Fry to come back just breaks my heart.

The 2000s cartoon AS TOLD BY GINGER had melancholy slightly-depressing slice-of-life episodes as its stock-in-trade, but the worst for me was near the end of the episode 'Mommie Nearest', in which spoiled-sweet and vain rich-ditz middleschooler Courtney Gripling has to openly beg her own mother to stay home and spend some bonding time with her instead of swanning off abroad to show off her new facelift to the jetset society and meet her husband who is travelling on business. A few scenes prior, we see the preteen Courtney quietly crying alone in her cavernous opulent bedroom in the family estate house, and realise the situation is dire. It's excellent writing that can evoke deep horrified sympathy for the stereotypical shallow tritagonist character.

The whole episode is quite tense, sad and dark, dealing with the jealousy and resentment that the main character Ginger feels when Courtney temporarily stays with the lower-middle-class single-parent Foutley family (I don't recall why, maybe the Gripling staff were on leave?), and somehow charms then becomes close to Ginger's doting warm-hearted nurse mother. Most animated shows for tweens don't delve into such thorny and delicate emotional subtext, but you could always count on ATBG to go there.

One interesting sidenote: the character Courtney was originally written as a closeted lesbian, who would quietly come out at the end of the series by revealing her tender feelings to an oblivious and straight but flattered Ginger. The Nickelodeon/Paramount/Viacom network executives nixed this idea, of course, but it’s nice to imagine what could have been. If you watch the series closely and keeping the assumption that Courtney and possibly her ‘best friend’ mean-girl Miranda are babydykes, you can still find quite funny and obvious anvils dropped to suggest sapphic dynamics, so it’s clear that the writers tried to preserve their original idea by slipping in hints under the radar.

Other tragic and moving ATBG episodes of note include the one where Ginger enter a poetry competition with an angsty emo poem and everyone wrongly assumes she's suicidally depressed, and the one where it's revealed that Ginger's nerdy sheltered immature friend Macie has twisted neglectful child-therapist parents who literally infantilise her, and the one where Ginger's long-absent father Jonas actually shows up to see his kids for a change...only out of a sense of selfish narcisstic guilt he feels when he gets word that Ginger is gravely ill in hospital (there’s a tearjerking song in that one which gets me ugly-crying every time).

When Charo muff dived Miss Joan Collins in the Ambassador Room and Charo sprained her tongue. Very touching. Broke my heart.

I thought this whole plot line was kind of ridiculous, but the scene where Roseanne confronts Jackie over her boyfriend's abuse was really piercing

The toilet episode of [italic]Married With Children[/italic].