You'll Never Recover from These Seriously Devastating TV Character Deaths

The days of good guys winning and bad guys meeting their grisly demise have long since passed. As it turns out, TV writers are no longer afraid to destroy your soul. Killing off a beloved character is a bold decision—sometimes it's necessary for the plot, sometimes it has to do with what's happening off-screen. Either way, when a good guy dies, you can't help but clutch your pearls and mourn their passing. Here is your official SPOILER WARNING—read on at your own risk.

Are your favorites six feet under?

Derek Shepherd in Grey’s Anatomy

Fans of Grey’s Anatomy prepared as best they could for McDreamy’s departure from the show, but no one was ready to witness the painfully tragic death of Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey). The finale of Season 11 was tense with dread—audiences held their breath as they watched Shepherd rescue the victims of a fiery car crash just before suffering his own fatal accident. Worse yet, the only staff available at the nearest hospital was trainees. Shepherd narrated his own demise in a crushing voice-over until Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) decided to take the doctor off life support. In typical fashion, Grey’s Anatomy never fails to devastate.

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The More You Know

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the first TV show to ever use "Google" as a verb.
  • Breaking Bad: When you combine the titles of Season 2's first, fourth, tenth, and thirteenth episodes you get "Seven Thirty-Seven, Down, Over, ABQ," which is a foreshadowing of the plane crash at the end of the season.
  • Cheers: Ted Danson actually went to two weeks of bartending school to prepare for his role as Sam.
  • Arguably the most culturally influential American sit-com ever created, Seinfeld ran from 1989 to 1998 and is still making money for its creators and stars.
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