Sad moments in sitcoms
Jan. 29th, 2007 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
philmophlegmFollowing on from my thread about funniest moments in sitcoms, it occurred to me that some of my favourite moments in sitcoms are actually sad and moving rather than funny.
I've been watching a lot of M*A*S*H recently. This has long been one of my favourite shows, especially the later series. It's probably somewhat unusual for a long running sitcom to actually get better as it goes on. Shame that Last of the Summer Wine couldn't.
Anyway, my first three favourite sad sitcom moments are all from M*A*S*H. In no particular order.
Spoilers here...
1. Henry Blake. Henry gets notice that he's served his required time in the Army and that he will get discharged. The episode is a silly, happy one. There is a big farewell for Henry in his civvies as he catches the helicopter to leave.
Back to normal sometime later in the operating theatre. Radar walks in and calmly reads out a telegram saying that "Lt Colonel Henry Blake's plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. There were no survivors." Stunned looks on everyone's faces (partly because none of the actors knew about this in advance). End of episode.
2. From the last episode. Major Winchester (the snooty one from Boston) has been teaching a group of Chinese POWs how to play proper classical music. Casualties arrive. Winchester is shocked to see that they include the (now dead) musicians. He tries listening to the same piece of music he was teaching them, but can't bear it and destroys the record. Later, after the war has ended, everyone is in the mess tent saying what they will do next. Winchester says something about life as normal and his next job, but that one thing has changed: "For me, music has always been a refuge from this miserable experience... now it will always be a reminder."
3. I really won't go into detail about 3. If you've seen the last episode, you'll know what I mean when I refer to the Korean woman on the bus with the chicken. Some things are just too good (or too sad) to spoiler.
I've been watching a lot of M*A*S*H recently. This has long been one of my favourite shows, especially the later series. It's probably somewhat unusual for a long running sitcom to actually get better as it goes on. Shame that Last of the Summer Wine couldn't.
Anyway, my first three favourite sad sitcom moments are all from M*A*S*H. In no particular order.
Spoilers here...
1. Henry Blake. Henry gets notice that he's served his required time in the Army and that he will get discharged. The episode is a silly, happy one. There is a big farewell for Henry in his civvies as he catches the helicopter to leave.
Back to normal sometime later in the operating theatre. Radar walks in and calmly reads out a telegram saying that "Lt Colonel Henry Blake's plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. There were no survivors." Stunned looks on everyone's faces (partly because none of the actors knew about this in advance). End of episode.
2. From the last episode. Major Winchester (the snooty one from Boston) has been teaching a group of Chinese POWs how to play proper classical music. Casualties arrive. Winchester is shocked to see that they include the (now dead) musicians. He tries listening to the same piece of music he was teaching them, but can't bear it and destroys the record. Later, after the war has ended, everyone is in the mess tent saying what they will do next. Winchester says something about life as normal and his next job, but that one thing has changed: "For me, music has always been a refuge from this miserable experience... now it will always be a reminder."
3. I really won't go into detail about 3. If you've seen the last episode, you'll know what I mean when I refer to the Korean woman on the bus with the chicken. Some things are just too good (or too sad) to spoiler.
