Was musing about death being an unusual topic for a sitcom TV show, but then recalled some classic examples and how memorable they can be.

On Seinfeld, George's fiance, Susan, is poisoned from the toxic glue on the cheap wedding invitation envelopes he bought.  Her death is off camera, but for a few more episodes, George has to deal with the consequences of her decease.  I seem to recall some controversy at the time that the Jerry, George and Elaine characters reaction to the death were not appropriate for a sitcom.

In the British comedy, Fawlty Towers, The Dead Guest is a classic episode.  A guest expires during the night, and the proprietor of the hotel fails to notice he has died, and goes ahead and leaves him breakfast in bed.  As the episode goes on, the dead guest is a terrible inconvenience, and at some point as I recall, he was placed in the dirty laundry hamper and hauled away.

Another British comedy (rarely seen in the US) The Brittas Empire did not shy away from killing people.  In the opening show, a member of the public was electrocuted (off camera as I recall) and throughout the series, people were killed in usually ridiculous accidents, or maimed and injured.

Even in animation, death can appear.  The Simpsons knock off a character every year.

I suppose the 'classic' sitcom death would be Chuckles the Clown, dressed as Mr. Peanut, being shelled to death by a circus elephant on the Mary Tyler Moore show.

I'm sure there are more examples forthcoming.

British comedy without people dying from time to time is hard to imagine...

If you cant laugh about death, you take yourself too seriously. Their still is a huge difference between reality in the moment, an poking fun of something nobody can escape.

In The Big Bang Theory, an old TV science show idol, Professor Proton, dies and the guys, especially Sheldon, mourn him. Recently, the actress doing Howard Wolowitz' mother's voice died, and they let her character die. In neither case is the death comedic (except that Professor Proton returns to Sheldon as a kind of Jedi apparition). But then again, The Big Bang Theory since the third season or so, seems to be more about therapy for Chuck Lorre than about being funny anyways.

Brian, the dog on the show The Family Guy, died and was dead for a few episodes.  Yes, they brought him back but his death is listed as #1 for saddest TV deaths of all time.

Go figure.



Top 10 list

Weekend at Bernies? Didn't really like it but they made a sequel.

Python? Come on. Now that's the way death should be viewed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFbHFTBwem0

(November 22, 2015 at 3:38 pm)Quantum Wrote: British comedy without people dying from time to time is hard to imagine...

In Red Dwarf they killed off all but one member of the crew in the first episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shs7VQhVvxA

The Last of the Summer Wine (one of the longest lasting British sitcoms) had an episode that put me on an emotional rollercoaster. Crying one minute, laughing the next, then crying again. It was after one of the main characters died. (Of course the actor died in real life, so it made it all the more sad)

Scrubs did it the best, IMO

"My Old Lady" was one of the best episodes ever.

https://youtu.be/He9tyk_1IAw

(November 22, 2015 at 4:37 pm)Quantum Wrote: In The Big Bang Theory, an old TV science show idol, Professor Proton, dies and the guys, especially Sheldon, mourn him. Recently, the actress doing Howard Wolowitz' mother's voice died, and they let her character die. In neither case is the death comedic (except that Professor Proton returns to Sheldon as a kind of Jedi apparition). But then again, The Big Bang Theory since the third season or so, seems to be more about therapy for Chuck Lorre than about being funny anyways.

I love the one episode, cant remember why Sheldon's mom called but you could only hear his side of the conversation and he said something like "Prayer doesn't work because of........(went into a slew of wordy reasons)". FUCKING AWESOME!