Let's be honest, sitcoms are more emotional than dramas. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the times when sitcoms stopped being funny for a second and broke our hearts.
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00:00We found each other before hundreds of times, we can do it again.
00:05Welcome to MsMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the times when sitcoms
00:10stopped being funny for a second and broke our hearts.
00:13For this list, we're not including animated series.
00:16Also, this list is full of spoilers, so beware.
00:20I'll never forget him, but he forgot me a long, long time ago.
00:26Number 10. Chandler and Monica's fertility results.
00:30Friends. In the aptly named episode, The One with the Fertility Test,
00:34Chandler and Monica are given some devastating news.
00:37Their chances of having biological children are slim.
00:40So, what is it? Is there a problem? Is there a problem with me or with you?
00:45While the hospital scene with Janice gives us some laughs,
00:48the moment Chandler answers the phone, we know things aren't going to be good.
00:52Watching him relay the news to Monica is even worse.
00:55It means that we can keep trying, but there's a good chance this may never happen for us.
01:01Knowing how badly these two want to be parents, this major setback hurt.
01:06It's a reminder that after so many seasons on the air,
01:09some characters can start to feel like our own friends.
01:12Well, we're going to figure this out.
01:20I know.
01:21Number 9. Phil's last day with his dad. Modern family.
01:25The late Fred Willard made several appearances as Phil Dunphy's dad over the show's 11 seasons,
01:30but his last was devastating.
01:33I wanted to ask you...
01:34Oh boy, no serious talk, okay? Yes, I'm taking all my million pills.
01:39You can come over and press my stomach. I'm starting to feel like a beanbag chair.
01:43After getting a concerning call about his dad,
01:46Phil heads down to Florida to visit him and make sure he's alright.
01:50They spend a day together, and Phil gets closure on some long-simmering questions he's held.
01:55Well, you did take over the family business, didn't you?
01:57Keeping life light, making it fun for everybody.
02:03I learned from the best.
02:04It's soon after this special moment that we get the gut-punch reveal.
02:08It's beautifully written and performed,
02:10and Phil's wise takeaway about appreciating the people we love while they're still here is all too true.
02:16Don't miss a chance to let the people you appreciate know that.
02:25The fourth season of this beloved Norman Lear sitcom opened with a tragic two-part episode.
02:30The reason your father went down to Mississippi is to make a new and better life for his family.
02:35Now, I know how important Luann is, but your father wants us in Mississippi.
02:42After actor John Amos' unceremonious firing from the show,
02:46the writers decided to kill the character off in as sudden and heartbreaking a way as possible.
02:52The Evans family patriarch, James Sr., doesn't appear at all.
02:56He's gone ahead to prepare for the family's move to Mississippi.
02:59During their going-away party, they receive a letter informing them that James was killed in a car accident.
03:04We regret to inform you that your husband, James Evans, was...
03:12killed in an automobile accident.
03:14The news comes as a major shock.
03:16The way the family deals with the grief culminating in Florida Evans' breakdown at the end of the next episode
03:22was a hard watch, but a profoundly moving one too.
03:25Damn, damn, damn!
03:32What started as a sitcom about a sports writer with very particular, hilarious guidelines for dating his daughters
03:38made a severe turn in its second season.
03:40And that's fine with me.
03:41Sweet.
03:42As long as it's okay with my daughter.
03:44Otherwise, you will continue to date her and no one but her until she is finished with you.
03:48Because if you make her cry, I will make you cry.
03:51Paul Hennessy's sudden death made for an incredibly sad two-part episode.
03:55It took on an extra layer of emotion given what happened behind the scenes.
03:59Beloved sitcom veteran John Ritter had completed just three episodes for the second season of
04:05Eight Simple Rules when he passed away suddenly.
04:08Katie, Katie, I'm so sorry, sweetheart.
04:11You were such a good man, a good husband, good father.
04:14Oh, he was. He was.
04:16The episode's ending sees Paul's widow Kate and their three children reading his last article.
04:21His words about the strength and love of his family is a touching tribute from beyond the grave
04:26and they seem to serve as a goodbye not just to the character, but to Ritter himself.
04:31That whenever they insult me, whether it's a you're an idiot, what a geek, or an I hate you,
04:39and I love you isn't far behind.
04:46Is Edith at home?
04:48No.
04:49Oh, she knew I was coming by today.
04:52Yeah, well, uh, yeah, she's gone.
04:54The Bunkers didn't have anything close to a perfect marriage.
04:58They gave new meaning to the phrase opposites attract.
05:01But after nearly a decade, all in the family viewers had watched Archie Bunker
05:05reveal just how much he loved his sweet-natured wife.
05:09You never could say no to nobody.
05:15You never could turn nobody away.
05:17When she passed away between seasons on the show's sequel series,
05:20we got to see Archie at his most raw and vulnerable.
05:24Spending most of the episode denying his grief,
05:26he finally crumbles in the final scene when he finds Edith Slipper under their bed.
05:31You had no right to leave me that way,
05:38without giving me just one more chance to say I love you.
05:45For the first time maybe ever, we see Archie Bunker break down in tears.
05:49Number 5. Marshall's Dad Dies
05:51How I Met Your Mother
05:53Between stories of dates gone awry and friends coupling up,
05:56reality had a way of crashing in on Ted Mosby and his friends.
06:00In one of the show's most heartbreaking twists, Marshall Erickson loses his dad.
06:04Hey, um, can I borrow your phone? I want to call my dad.
06:07Yeah, go ahead.
06:08It's a rollercoaster of emotions as Marshall has been expecting to hear bad news
06:12about his fertility, only to find out the opposite is true.
06:15And then, when everyone's guard is down, we're hit with the horrible reveal.
06:19Something's happened. Um, your father, he had a heart attack.
06:27He didn't make it.
06:29Actor Jason Segel processes the shocking information beat by beat,
06:33registering Marshall's confusion, disbelief, and grief,
06:36making the loss feel all too real.
06:39I'm not ready for this.
06:41Number 4. The Trenches – Blackadder
06:43In the last moments of this historical BBC series,
06:46protagonist Edmund Blackadder and his pals find themselves in a World War I trench.
06:51So, what do you want? Spit it out, man.
06:54It's the big push today, and I'm not all that keen to go over the top.
06:59Despite always managing to pull laughs, even in the most troubling historical moments,
07:04the reality of the Great War hangs over the last season
07:07before closing in on the beloved characters.
07:10I'm the last of the tiddly-winking leapfroggers from the golden summer of 1914.
07:15I don't want to die. Really, I'm not over-keen on dying at all, sir.
07:20Even with their efforts to keep up some humour,
07:22those final exchanges take on a different, somber note,
07:26as the crew seems to have accepted their chances of survival are slim.
07:30The guns have stopped because we're about to attack.
07:33Not even our generals are mad enough to shell their own men.
07:36They think it's far more sporting to let the Germans do it.
07:39The uncharacteristically solemn series finale ends with Blackadder and his friends
07:44charging into the battlefield, presumably to their deaths.
07:483. Chidi's Memory is Wiped – The Good Place
07:51With every new season, this comedy set in the afterlife reinvented itself
07:55and rewrote its own rules.
07:57Guys, I've thought about this from every angle.
08:00If we don't wipe my memory, I will, one way or the other, ruin the experiment.
08:06In Season 3, we see the gang return to the mortal world,
08:09and in order to prove that humans are capable of improvement and being morally good,
08:13yet another experiment is launched.
08:15When one of the subjects happens to be Chidi's old fling from their time on Earth, though,
08:20he volunteers to have his memory wiped so that he won't put the experiment at stake.
08:24Sorry to interrupt.
08:26I wanted to give both of you something before we do this.
08:30Think of it as a going-away present.
08:33The big problem, of course, is that this means he won't remember Eleanor
08:37and the love he has for her.
08:38As a parting gift, Michael plays the two a supercut of their greatest moments together.
08:422. Where do you think we are? Scrubs
08:55Dr. Cox is the steely and demanding mentor to the interns at Sacred Heart Hospital.
09:00When Scrubs really hits us in the heart, it does it through him.
09:04Losing three patients in one day was taxing enough,
09:07but losing his good friend, Ben, to leukemia has to be the most harrowing moment in the show's run.
09:13You have to forgive yourself for everything that went down the other day.
09:16You are so annoying.
09:19Okay.
09:23The show brilliantly lampshades the plot twist of the patient's identity so brilliantly
09:27that we don't suspect a thing until Chidi's big question.
09:31Where do you think we are?
09:35Watching it back, there are a few hints if you play close enough attention,
09:38like Ben not carrying his camera with him.
09:40It gets us every time.
09:42How painful it may be.
09:47With the help of those around you, you'll get through this too.
09:53Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
09:56Mateo's deportation.
09:58Superstorm.
09:59All of Cloud Nine watches as their beloved co-worker is arrested by ICE agents.
10:14Pam's gallery show, The Office.
10:16Michael offers Pam some much-needed kindness after her art show.
10:21I'm really proud of you.
10:30Sheldon's Nobel Prize party.
10:32Young Sheldon.
10:33Sheldon thinks he's alone in the world, but he has no idea his future friends are out there.
10:38Thankfully, I was wrong.
10:41The real story, MASH, the source of Hawkeye's trauma, is revealed in the series finale.
10:46I just wanted to be quiet.
10:49Sophia weeps over her son's death, the Golden Girls,
10:52after suppressing so much the oldest Golden Girl succumbs to her grief.
10:57I always wondered what I did, what I said.
11:01When was the day that I did whatever I did to make him the way he was?
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11:23Number 1. Will's dad leaves again.
11:25The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
11:27Will's absent father blows into his life again after years away.
11:31Even though his uncle Phil and Aunt Viv are skeptical about his intentions,
11:35Will believes they might start to build a real relationship.
11:38Wake up, Will!
11:39This is the same guy who didn't think enough of you, but pick up the damn phone!
11:44He made a mistake.
11:47His father even promises to take him on a trip.
11:49Then, just as quickly as he came, he leaves again without much in the way of a real apology.
11:54Years of pent-up resentment and abandonment issues well up in Will,
11:58leading to an explosion of anger and a heartbreaking question for his uncle.
12:02I learned how to drive, I learned how to shave, I learned how to fight without him.
12:05I had 14 great birthdays without him.
12:08He never even sent me a damn car.
12:10To hell with him!
12:12While Will Smith was great at playing the jester,
12:14it's a scene that showed how well he could do drama too.
12:18How come you don't want me, man?
12:24Which heartbreaking sitcom moment did you expect to see here?
12:27Tell us in the comments.
12:29We went to wake up a boy.
12:33Michelle, he died in his sleep last night.
12:36Do you agree with our picks?
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12:48You