- 2 days ago
Sometimes TV episodes take on a whole new meaning because of real-world events. Join us as we explore television moments that became unintentionally tragic or ironic due to what happened after they aired. From untimely deaths to eerie coincidences, these once-innocent scenes now carry a much darker weight.
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00:00Yes, this is Brenda. Hi, Dr. Donner.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at TV show episodes that have come to evoke darker feelings
00:10due to real-world tragedies that occurred after the initial airing.
00:13Hello?
00:14I'm in the bathroom. Can you come in here? I think there's something wrong.
00:19Yes, No. Glee.
00:21For three seasons of Glee, Finn Hudson believed his father was killed in military combat.
00:25Everything changes when the episode, Yes, No, reveals he actually died of an overdose while self-medicating PTSD.
00:32Oh my god. I see everything that was good in him. I see it all in you.
00:39Why did you lie to me? Why?
00:42Because your dad was so much more than the last few months of his life.
00:46This twist came in the wake of revelations about Cory Monte's struggles with substance use disorder.
00:51The hope was that Finn would show how to rise above such tragic cycles.
00:54You know, if I can, through my experience, shed light on the way out of a difficult situation
01:01that I know many kids are experiencing, you know, just like I did when I was a teenager.
01:05I mean, it's, that's, that's huge.
01:08But one year later, Monteith experienced a recurrence of symptoms and died of an overdose at age 31.
01:14The 2013 episode, The Quarterback, reflected on his and Finn's deaths,
01:18with Naya Rivera covering the band Perry's If I Die Young.
01:21She herself drowned in 2020, age 33.
01:25Oh, if I die young, bury me in satin, lay me down on a bed of roses.
01:33So what should have been two particularly life-affirming glee arcs have become the most heartbreaking.
01:38Fred has the big one, Sanford.
01:40Edgy comedian Red Foxx charmed audiences with the running gag of fake heart attacks on the hit sitcom,
01:46Sanford and Son.
01:47Oh, this is the biggest one I ever had.
01:50You hear that, Elizabeth?
01:52I'm coming to join you, honey.
01:54With an invitation to a Puerto Rican wedding.
01:57As often as Fred Sanford got out of situations by feigning the big one,
02:01the episode by that name on the spinoff, Sanford,
02:04was about nobody believing when he suffers the real deal.
02:06If I'm going to stay here, you can't keep faking the big one.
02:10Yeah, but when I have the big one, it really feels like I'm having the big one.
02:14Four or five times a day?
02:16As much as this affected an already dark joke,
02:19Foxx would die in 1991 of a heart attack on the set of The Royal Family.
02:24Some of his colleagues did indeed think that it was a put-on.
02:26Grandpa, I love you, and I'm glad you're here.
02:31I hope you live to be a hundred.
02:33This ironic end to an iconic career spoils one of its most popular bits,
02:38especially the time it wasn't a joke for Fred Sanford.
02:41The Sopranos.
02:42The Sopranos.
02:43They said it was a panic attack.
02:45Of course, all the blood work and the neurological work came back negative.
02:51And they sent me here.
02:53You don't agree that you had a panic attack?
02:55The tone of the central character arc on The Sopranos
02:58is set when Tony Sopranos suffers a panic attack
03:00that's initially believed to be cardiac distress
03:02With the eerie similarities and symptoms,
03:05the similarities with after James Gandolfini's death are hard to ignore.
03:09In 2013, he succumbed to a heart attack while on holiday in Italy.
03:13How's Italy?
03:14Gotta be honest with you.
03:15It's pretty friggin' good.
03:17We'll have to come back here.
03:19Yeah, right.
03:20Since then, Tony's regular panic attacks
03:22and apparent respiratory strains have hit harder.
03:25So, too, have offhand lines like one in the episode Strong Silent Type
03:29in which Christopher Moltisanti remarks that his mentor will have a heart attack by age 50.
03:34Well, you f***ing are you going to have a heart attack by the time you're 50?
03:36Tony, sit down.
03:37You're talking to the boss here.
03:39Gandolfini was 51 when he died, leaving behind a legendary body of work
03:43and a solemn undertone to it.
03:46A, My Name is Alex.
03:47Family Ties.
03:48Look, I mean, what's the use of busting my tail to try and build a future for myself?
03:55I mean, maybe I don't have a future.
03:56The wholesome humor and themes of Family Ties were cut in a special two-part episode in Season 5.
04:02A, My Name is Alex follows intellectual teen Alex P. Keaton's existential crisis
04:07following the death of a friend.
04:09The episode becomes one of the most acclaimed in the series,
04:11particularly for Michael J. Fox's dramatic performance.
04:14Don't go.
04:15Don't go.
04:16Don't go.
04:17Don't.
04:19It's not fair.
04:22It's not fair.
04:23Four years later, his own existential crisis began with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.
04:29After he formally announced his condition in 1998,
04:32audiences watched Alex's contemplations on aging and mortality very differently.
04:36Fox has since led a long and incredible life,
04:39but has been very open about his struggles along the way.
04:41I've interviewed you for hours and hours and hours.
04:44You've never told me once, I'm in pain.
04:49I'm in pain.
04:50I mean, it's intense pain.
04:53This demonstrates exactly what A, My Name is Alex says about how quickly life can change.
04:59Home is where the heart attack is.
05:01The Fresh Prince of Belair.
05:02Generally speaking, recurring jokes about Philip Banks' weight on The Fresh Prince of Belair haven't aged well.
05:08Oh, you know what?
05:09I heard the doctor say he thinks Uncle Phil might have Dunlap Syndrome.
05:12Dunlap Syndrome?
05:14What's that?
05:15Me and his belly Dunlap'd over his belt.
05:17Woo!
05:20Never mind the season four episode or the real tragedy years later.
05:24Home is where the heart attack is finds Phil taking his health more seriously when he has a cardiac episode during a diet.
05:31Unfortunately, Will didn't take it seriously enough to ease up on the jokes afterward.
05:35Well, hey, Mom, listen, you should probably make sure that Uncle Phil sleeps on the bottom bunk.
05:39Because if he can get up on the top bunk, well, you know gravity ain't no joke.
05:44You know what I'm saying?
05:44I'm gonna go get a vagina.
05:46Fans have felt differently since December 31st, 2013, when actor James Avery died from complications following open heart surgery.
05:54Fresh Prince may have occasionally respected his character's heart condition, but even the most reverent episode of the matter has lost much of its charm to tragedy.
06:01Look, I don't want to see my father on tubes up his nose, okay?
06:06Carlton, there's gonna come a time when all he has is tubes up his nose.
06:08Not my father!
06:09Everybody's father!
06:11She's Having My Baby, Married with Children.
06:13It's common for sitcom storylines to accommodate actresses' pregnancies.
06:18Katie Seagal's going into the sixth season of Married with Children opened great opportunities for domestic satire with the Bundy family.
06:24Oh, Al, isn't it a dream?
06:26It better be.
06:29The two-episode premiere, She's Having My Baby, further raised comedic tensions by having neighbor Marcy Darcy get pregnant at the same time as Peg.
06:37But there would be no satire about dealing with a newborn.
06:40Halfway through the season, Seagal's baby was stillborn prematurely.
06:43Thus, Peggy and Marcy's pregnancies were written off as a dream by Al Bundy the whole time.
06:48What?
06:50Al, you're making happy noises in your sleep.
06:54But there might be something wrong.
06:56Seagal went on to have three children, including actor Jackson White.
06:59Still, the unhappy end to that first pregnancy hangs over the humor in Peggy's.
07:04Come on, Al.
07:05Let me laugh with the baby.
07:07I don't wanna.
07:09Besides, I don't even think you're pregnant.
07:10I think that's a 10-gallon can of ice cream down there.
07:13Come on, Peg.
07:17Laugh with the ulcer.
07:20Pilot.
07:21The Lone Gunman.
07:22This spin-off of The X-Files aimed to cover more grounded cases that still seemed far-fetched.
07:28Though The Lone Gunman was cancelled after one season, it's notorious for a pilot episode that was terribly realistic after all.
07:34The corner of Liberty and Washington.
07:37Lower Manhattan.
07:38The World Trade Center.
07:40I'm gonna crash the plane into the World Trade Center.
07:42The gunman must unravel a conspiracy to spark the arms industry by flying a commercial airplane into the World Trade Center.
07:49Just six months after this episode aired, the unthinkable happened.
07:53At this time, we've been on the air for the last 10 hours as the country has endured, or is trying to get through, as one official here in New York said, this horrendous attack on the United States today.
08:04The 9-11 terrorist attack left a lasting impact on American culture, to say nothing of the forgotten series that predicted it.
08:11Some have even subscribed to the disputed theory that it was a war profiteering conspiracy.
08:16Certainly, The Lone Gunman now resonates all too much from his first case.
08:20We can't do it, we don't have the proof.
08:22And then we don't have a lead story for this week's issue.
08:24Yeah, we do.
08:32The one where Chandler takes a bath.
08:35Friends.
08:35One of the most beloved Chandler Bing-focused episodes of Friends is about him de-stressing with luxurious baths.
08:42Before long, he becomes obsessed with them.
08:44Do I smell essential oils?
08:47Yeah, I'm gonna take a bath.
08:48I was just gonna get a magazine.
08:49Okay.
08:50This was a little awkward, even in 2002, when Matthew Perry's substance use disorder was already infamous.
08:56Years later, the actor became hooked on the antidepressant ketamine after it was deliberately over-prescribed by unscrupulous physicians.
09:03On October 23rd, 2023, Perry lost consciousness in a hot tub and drowned.
09:08We talked to a few toxicologists, here's how somebody put it.
09:11They said simply, the ketamine isn't likely what killed him, but made it rather possible for him to drown.
09:18So really sad.
09:19Friends fans may especially point to the one with Rachel's other sister for Chandler's throwaway line.
09:24Well, what do you know, I guess I'll be the one who dies first.
09:27But the whole of the one where Chandler takes a bath has become a stressful watch.
09:32It's only a test.
09:33Beverly Hills, 90210.
09:35One out of nine American women will get breast cancer, and out of those, one out of four will die.
09:41How awful.
09:44My aunt died of cancer.
09:46With her family's history of cancer, Brenda Walsh readily consults a doctor about a lump in her breast, in the first season of Beverly Hills 90210.
09:54The episode, It's Only a Test, ends with the good news that the tumor is benign.
09:58It is?
10:00Oh, thank God.
10:01It's fibroadenoma, just like she thought.
10:04Actress Shannon Doherty did not receive that news in 2015.
10:08After nine years of battling metastatic breast cancer, she passed away at age 53.
10:13Doherty was notably very public about the painful process throughout.
10:16I also think what an incredible disservice to everybody else going through this if I put forth something completely false.
10:26Like, I'm not okay.
10:28That's the truth.
10:29This has made Brenda's coming of age in the 90210 franchise difficult for fans to relive.
10:35Never mind a medical scare very early on that wound up being prophetic.
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10:55Mork meets Robin Williams, Mork and Mindy
10:58All of Earth fell in love with Robin Williams on Mork and Mindy.
11:02His quirky extraterrestrial was himself eager to interview the comedian and actor to better understand celebrities.
11:07After a while, I realized that, well, people found these characters kind of funny and outrageous,
11:11and then I got to the point where I realized that the characters could say and do things that I was afraid to do myself.
11:16And, after a little while, here I am.
11:19The meta episode solemnly ends on Williams discussing the pressures of stardom
11:22and suggesting that his art is a way to cope with his mental health.
11:26Mork later reports to his leader that this lifestyle may be too much for some to handle.
11:30I thought all stars were rich, live in mansions, and drive big eggs.
11:34I know, sir, that's the common misconception.
11:36But, you see, to get that, you have to pay a very heavy price.
11:39You have responsibilities, anxieties, and, well, to be honest, sir, some of them can't take it.
11:4333 years later, Williams took his own life.
11:46While this was attributed to a diagnosis of neurogenerative diseases,
11:50the revered funny man was open about his struggles throughout his career.
11:53This is from Williams' representative.
11:54He released a statement just a moment ago saying, quote,
11:57Robin Williams passed away this morning.
11:59He had been battling severe depression of late.
12:02This is a tragic and sudden loss.
12:04This makes it even more important to appreciate an artist's contribution in life.
12:09Still, it's hard when the lightest fiction interacts with the darkest realities.
12:14What are some other TV shows that have taken on a different tone
12:16under unfortunate circumstances in real life?
12:19Open up in the comments.
12:20Good night, everybody.
12:21Good night, folks.
12:22Good night, folks.
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