History DroppedABridgeOnHim / LiveActionTV

** ''TheBill'''s makers decided not to renew Jeff Stewart's contract as Reg Hollis, a move that may have resulted in his attempting suicide on set. Hollis, a highly popular character with more than 20 years in the show, gets written out off-screen with comments that he's resigned due to the death of PC Emma Keane. Not only has Hollis been around for every death in the show's history, he's been directly involved in the discovery that Des Taviner was responsible for the Sun Hill Fire ''and'' the loss of his girlfriend just as he was to propose to her. A move like that is completely out of character for him.

* ''LALaw'': The character Roz steps into an elevator. The elevator isn't there and she falls down the shaft to her death. The end.

** Another example is the death of [[HandsomeLech Kemal]] [[ TemporaryLoveInterest Pamuk]], who suddenly dies after spending the night with Mary. There is no explanation as to why he died or any foreshadowing (not even the IncurableCoughOfDeath) and he even seemed to be very healthy man (he went out hunting the day before he died!)

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Ros started out as {{The Scrappy}}, a {{Canon Foreigner}} who was only put in the show as a blatant {{Ms Fanservice}} and occasionally {{The Watson}}. But then season 2 saw her {{Rescued From The Scrappy Heap}} and develop an actual storyline of her own. Then after only a couple appearances in season 3, she's abruptly killed offscreen, making her entire development a waste.

* ''Series/{{Mash}}'': The death of [[McLeaned Lt. Colonel Henry Blake]]. After getting to go home, the last line of the episode announces that his plane has been shot down, with no survivors.

** ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' has ADA Kim Greyleck, who went on a business trip to Washington and [[LongBusTrip never came back.]] She was abysmal, and they brought back Alex Cabot, so no-one gave a damn.

** Total inversion with Claire Kincaid, in an episode without any investigation, but following the actions of the four leads after having witnessed an execution, Kincaid offers a ride home to a very drunk Detective Brisco (Jerry Orbach). On the way there, her car is struck by a drunk driver and she's killed. Brisco survives, and the shock of the event is enough to get him sober and in AA.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'': Anson Fullerton is introduced as the series ManBehindTheMan to every previous villain on the show. In his introductory appearance, he arranges the death of Larry Sizemore, perhaps the series' most popular recurring villain. He frames Fiona for murder and has her sent to prison. He's revealed to be the man who murdered Michael's father. And to top it all off, he's the only MythArc villain to get through a season finale alive and free. This guy is the biggest, baddest...wait, just when he is about to be captured, we hear a shot and then see his dead body. The importance of his death is entirely ignored in favor of that of Michael's brother Nate, who was collateral damage in the crime. This is undoubtedly do to the audience's affection for Nate and the loss of the character.

* ''ChoujinSentaiJetman'': Gai Yuuki/Black Condor survived the whole ordeal against the Vyram and made it out of the final battle. Then 3 years later, he's stabbed by a mugger, managed to attend his friend's wedding enough to give them his blessings, then dies. No one, not even his friends, seemed to notice. Many Sentai fans argued how his death's handled, some say it's a refreshing change of how Toku heroes can die out of normal circumstances; some say it's badly handled for the sake of tributing [[Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman Joe the Condor]] (who also dies in his series).

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Near miss: The show is known for changing its lead actor every few seasons by having an experience that would otherwise be fatal trigger a regeneration, resulting in a new body and changed personality. In most cases, this is due to the lead actor voluntarily choosing to leave the series, usually providing the production staff with sufficient notice to craft a story around the regeneration. In one case (the transition from Colin Baker to Sylvester [=McCoy=]), the lead actor was fired, and so without warning an episode began with the Doctor regenerating [[DeathByFallingOver for a trivial reason]], with [=McCoy=] playing the Before version (lying face-down and wearing an obvious wig) as well as the After version (briefly becoming TheOtherDarrin). Although the character didn't exactly die, a bridge was definitely dropped.

* ''GameOfThrones'': Ros started out as {{The Scrappy}}, a {{Canon Foreigner}} who was only put in the show as a blatant {{Ms Fanservice}} and occasionally {{The Watson}}. But then season 2 saw her {{Rescued From The Scrappy Heap}} and develop an actual storyline of her own. Then after only a couple appearances in season 3, she's abruptly killed offscreen, making her entire development a waste.

* ''TheSarahConnorChronicles'': Derek Reese is randomly killed by a newly arrived Terminator early in an episode, with the show's return for a third season questionable. We even get a couple nice closeups of the bullet hole right in the middle of his forehead to make it clear he's KilledOffForReal.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'': Anson Fullerton is introduced as the series' BiggerBad, TheManBehindTheMan to every previous BigBad on the show. In his introductory appearance, he arranges the death of Larry Sizemore, perhaps the series' most popular recurring villain. He frames Fiona for murder and has her sent to prison. He's revealed to be the man who murdered Michael's father. And to top it all off, he's the only MythArc villain to get through a season finale alive and free. This guy is the biggest, baddest...wait, just when he is about to be captured, we hear a shot and then see his dead body. The importance of his death is entirely ignored in favor of that of Michael's brother Nate, who was collateral damage in the crime. This is undoubtedly do to the audience's affection for Nate and the loss of the character.

* ''EarthFinalConflict'': Several regulars get this. First, you have William Boone, the main character of the first season, who is seriously wounded in his fight with Ha'gel. He is supposed to recover using the Taelon equivalent of a [[StarWars bacta tank]] but gets blown to atoms by Zo'or, who did it only to spite Da'an. Then you have Jonathan Doors, killed by a rogue AI entity in front of Doors Jr. Lily Marquette gets sent to Jaridia, comes back pregnant with a half-Jaridian child, goes back to Jaridia, and is later mentioned to have died ''along with the planet'' (this also counts for the Jaridian species). Zo'or dies in the final episode of Season 4, but is brought back for a few episodes in Season 5, only to be KilledOffForReal. Da'an's fate is to be merged with a Jaridian in order to become a savage Atavus... and never reappear again. Then you have Liam Kincaid, who disappears along with the Taelons and is forgotten until he suddenly reappears in the GrandFinale. Also, Boone is brought back (he was only mostly dead) as a LoveInterest to Renée... and is mentioned to have been killed off-screen.

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': D.L. Hawkins. At first we are lead to believe he died in a HeroicSacrifice. However, in a flashback episode, it turns out he made a full recovery from the sacrifice, only to get killed by some random guy in a bar. To make matters worse, he could phase himself through bullets, so this falls under IdiotBall as well.
** Caitlin got it even worse, having gone to the future and not making it back. At best, she was simply wiped from existence when that future was averted. At worst, she's stuck in a future where small pockets of humanity live in quarantine from a horrible disease. And all before she got half a clue about the weirdness going on. (The writers intended to follow up on this, but the writer's strike made it an AbortedArc).
** In season 3, Adam is brought out of the coffin he was trapped in. The next episode, he gets a bridge dropped on him-Arthur touches him, he ages 400 years, crumbles into dust, and is just suddenly dead...all before the main titles. This death served the vital task of adding ''the fifth'' [[TangledFamilyTree Petrelli]] to the cast.
** When you think about it, ''Heroes'' seems unable to kill off characters in any way OTHER than this trope. With the notable exceptions of Isaac and [[TearJerker Daphne]], virtually every character death has been some sort of "bridge drop".
** Elle. She was killed by Sylar ''hours'' after he sacrificed himself so that she could escape from Noah. The only reason for her death was that KristenBell was at the end of her contract. And to make things worse, she hardly whimpers while Sylar cuts her head open, whereas the last time he tried to kill her she ''discharged an electrical arc that knocked him unconscious and took power out for an entire building. Without even trying.'' At the very least she could have tried to defend herself instead of letting herself be murdered which is impossible anyway.
** In ''Dual'', the level 5 villains. They all get offed by Sylar off-screen (except for Doyle, who ends up not dying). The most notable example is Echo [=DeMille=], who got his own set of webisodes dedicated to him prior to the start of the season, disappeared until ''Dual'', and was killed off before he ever said a word. Also worthy of note is Scott, the SuperSoldier Marine all set up to be an AscendedExtra. Instead, he gets his neck snapped by Knox, who incidently, is killed later that same episode as well, also in an anti-climactic way.
** Volume 4 finale, An Invisible Thread. After saving the world repeatedly, and during a phase where he's trying his hardest to atone for the dickery of the entire season, Nathan Petrelli gets killed. [[RunningGag As he does.]] But instead of the dramatic, epic deaths that were given to him previously, he dies alone, frightened and bleeding out in an armchair in an empty room after getting his throat cut by Sylar. FridgeLogic sets in on just HOW horrible the death is after the credits roll. And let's not even start on the [[AssPull plan]] of mind-wiping Sylar and using him to [[ReplacementGoldfish replace Nathan]].
** Early in Volume 5, Danko, a ruthless special-hunting soldier who was the BigBad of Volume 4, is unceremoniously gutted in his own home by a KnifeNut FragileSpeedster to [[VoodooShark obtain a plot MacGuffin that was somehow in his abdomen.]]

* ''{{Primeval}}'': In the finale of season 1, Claudia Brown is erased from history, replaced in season 2 by the [[IdenticalStranger identical Jenny Lewis]].
** Then you have the main character of the whole series, Nick Cutter, who is unceremoniously shot by his wife, whom he was trying to find for years. All because she believes that he will result in humankind's destruction. Then she tries to kill off all of humanity. Umm, ok.
** This appears to be the case with Danny Quinn, who goes to the past and gets stuck there, after Nick's wife has a Raptor Dropped On Her. He does come back for a single episode later, only to disappear again.
** Sarah Page is introduced in Season 3 and becomes a regular, even traveling to Medieval England to chat up the locals. In Season 4, it's briefly implied that she's dead. A webisode ''probably'' confirms this, although it's never explicitly stated or shown that she's dead. Regardless, she never shows up again.

* ''{{Spooks}}'': Adam Carter's death in the 7th season premiere. Despite being one of the country's best spies, he performs a useless handbrake turn in a bomb-rigged car which cost him precious seconds.
** Not to mention he loses more precious seconds at the start, when he stops to put on his seatbelt.
** Earlier, Zafar was initially thought to have been killed by being shot, then set on fire, only later for the team to find out he'd actually been sold off to a foreign power, tortured for information, then killed. On the one hand this does show how dangerous the life of a spy can be, but offing likable characters in such a manner still comes across as needlessly cruel. Maybe that's the point.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'': Anson Fullerton is introduced as the series' BiggerBad, TheManBehindTheMan to every previous BigBad on the show. In his introductory appearance, he arranges the death of Larry Sizemore, perhaps the series' most popular recurring villain. He frames Fiona for murder and has her sent to prison. He's revealed to be the man who murdered Michael's father. And to top it all off, he's the only MythArc villain to get through a season finale alive and free. This guy is the biggest, baddest...wait, he just got shot offscreen. And the importance of his death is entirely ignored in favor of that of Michael's brother Nate, who was collateral damage in the crime. Never mind, then.

** There's also Max Greevey, who died ''offscreen'' in the cold opening for the 2nd season premiere after George Dzundza left the show.

** ''LawAndOrder'': In the opening of the second season, George Dzundza's character is killed off screen in the opening stinger. Adding insult to injury, it wasn't even Dzundza we see fall - it was a body double.
* ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': In the Season 7 finale, Det. Robert Goren's mentor [[BrokenPedestal Declan Gage]] collaborates with ArchEnemy [[DepravedBisexual Nicole Wallace]] to kill Det. Goren's brother [[BusCrash Frank]]. After that's been done, he kills Nicole as well. Both deaths occur offscreen, and Nicole's identity is confirmed through DNA testing.

* ''{{Friends}}'': Offers an in-story example: Joey brags in an interview about how he writes his own lines for his character, Dr. Drake Remoray, in the show ''Days of Our Lives''. This irritates the writers, who have his character walk into an open elevator shaft, giving him brain damage that ''only his character'' could have repaired.

** Widely noted by the press at the time as Diana Muldaur, the actress playing Roz, "getting the shaft". Perhaps a {{Lampshading}}?

** But then by season 3, the show does it for real with [[spoiler: Starburns.]]
*** [[spoiler: Surprisingly subverted in the season finale, the character turned out to be studying Faking Death 101.]]
* ''CSIMiami'': Rory Cochrane's character, Tim Speedle, also died nastily after Cochrane asked to be written out of the show. The writers really did a number on him, making Speed out to be careless with cleaning his weapon, which subsequently jammed during a shootout and resulted in his untimely death. Considering his status as a much-loved character, this quite literal character assassination might drive some to accuse the writers of dropping a bridge on the fans instead of their intended target.
** Making this all the more implausible was that in a previous episode, he had almost been killed when he gun jammed for EXACTLY THE SAME REASON - wouldn't he have learned his lesson?
* ''CSIMiami'': Jesse Cardoza only lasted 25 episodes before being the lone casualty of the gas attack against the lab.

** In Season 5 of ''DesperateHousewives'', Edie Britt drove her car into a pole, but survives just long enough to be electrocuted just to be certain she was gone for real this time, not just PutOnABus.

** And then there was the ''galaxy-scale'' bridge dropped on the Time Lords (including Romana, presumably) before the new series.
*** It doesn't stop them from returning in ''The End of Time''. Then a bridge is dropped again. Sort of. Or it's the same bridge that they're sent to. [[TimeyWimeyBall Wibbly wobby... timey wimey.]].

* ''{{ER}}'': Romano. After getting his lower arm sliced off by the tail rotor of a helicopter in the previous season, the character dies when ''another'' helicopter goes out-of-control, explodes in midair, and lands on him. Ladies and gents, this is overkill at work.
** Could be a writer's interpretation of karma or an ironic twist. Also somewhat lampshaded by Pratt suggesting that he must've done something awful to a helicopter in a previous life.

* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': Charlie Francis was killed off in the season 2 premiere in a rather insultingly anti-climactic fashion - especially when one considers an entire season 1 episode was devoted to saving his life. As usual, ExecutiveMeddling is to blame.
** Bioterrorist mastermind David Robert Jones is killed off in an absurdly anti-climatic PortalCut in the last episode of the first series ("There's More Than One of Everything"). It's even worse that he was physically displaying his immunity to bullets in his showdown with Olivia at the portal only a few seconds ago.
*** Though that one's later reversed by a handy timeline change.
* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': Between seasons 1 and 2 on , Charlie is killed only to be replaced by a shapeshifting imposter.

* ''LawAndOrder'': In the opening of the second season, George Dzundza's character is killed off screen in the opening stinger.
** Adding insult to injury, it wasn't even Dzundza we see fall - it was a body double.

** Making this even more notable is that it was just one episode after minor recurring character Charlie Dixon got to go out as a hero, sacrificing himself to buy John time to escape some assassins. In contrast, Derek is just hit rounding a corner, in a moment shot exactly the same way as the RedShirt death a couple minutes earlier. Quite a few fans have compared it to Omar's death in ''TheWire'' mentioned above, as it's clearly meant to give the same message: sometimes even heroes die due to random quirks of fate.
** Of course, it's hard to take Derek's death close to heart, given that John and Catherine Weever (T-1001 fighting [=SkyNet=]) travel to the AfterTheEnd future shortly after that, and John meets Derek there (it's an alternate future without John Connor to lead the resistance, so Derek was never sent back).

** And who could forget the episode "Endgame," which killed off the (much beloved) Amazon regent Ephiny two minutes into the opening teaser. Still at least Ephiny died on screen; the following season Amarice, who had been Xena and Gabrielle's companion for a good run of episodes earlier that season, was unceremoniously killed offscreen during the teaser for the episode "Lifeblood" (by then the actress, Jennifer Sky, was starring in ''Cleopatra 2525'', but Amarice's character arc ended with her being happily left with a tribe of Amazons, so mentioning her again [[BusCrash just to say she was dead]] seemed, well, kind of mean and pointless).

* ''TwoPintsOfLagerAndAPacketOfCrisps'': Jonny is killed off-screen by being eaten by a shark in Hawaii, after trying to jump it (in an entire episode that parodies the concept of "[[JumpTheShark jumping the shark]]"). This was due to Ralf Little wanting to leave the show to concentrate on his movie career.
** A similar stunt was pulled in an earlier season, when Flo is killed off-screen when she gets hit by a truck. Again, this was due to Beverley Callard having to leave the show to return to her role in ''CoronationStreet''.



* ''TwoAndAHalfMen'': Charlie's death certainly qualifies as he was killed by a girlfriend pushing him into an on-coming train. It was done between seasons and off-camera. The character's actor was going through a breakdown at the time, and it could be said that he had to leave the show and have his contract terminated on poor terms.

* ''GossipGirl'': Bart Bass is hit by a car offscreen. To add insult to injury, he was on his way to try and reconcile with his wife, Lily.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': If Carson Beckett's untimely demise doesn't count then nothing does. Some random Alien device that causes anyone affected by it to grow a rather malignant exploding tumor was found and activated by two unfortunate no-names. He died ''after'' removing and passing it to someone else, mostly because he couldn't walk away fast enough.
** Something similar happened to Janet Fraiser in ''Series/StargateSG1'', but it was meant to be a subversion. That season was supposed to be the last one, the writers thought they were writing her out of 2 episodes (the 2-part season finale) and giving the character a respectful death, instead of 3 seasons and 2 episodes and a seemingly insignificant death. Also even though the death seems random it was actually a HeroicSacrifice in order to save the life of a wounded airmen; the episode was even called "Heroes".
** Maybe the writers just don't like doctors? (Although the Bridginess-factor was somewhat mitigated (both times) by excellent building of tension throughout the episode, so that the character deaths were more of a punch to a gut than a let-down.)
** Then Carson (actually, his clone) is brought back, and the explosion incident is almost never mentioned again. Also, this Carson is somehow better at using the control chair than the original (he's engaged in a space battle in the series finale between Atlantis and a super-hive).
** What about Lord Yu from ''SG-1''? He was quite possibly the most interesting Goa'uld System Lord, and he gets killed off by the Replicators in the first five minutes of one episode.

* When Bret Harrison, who was intended to appear in the last season of ''That70sShow'' resigned due to his commitment to ''Reaper'', his character Charlie fell off the Point Place water tower and, unlike every other character who ever did that on the show, died. He obviously was quickly forgotten: in the finale, twenty-one episodes after seeing the death of a new friend, Kelso doesn't hesitate to jump from the water tower again.
** It's lampshaded during the credits of the episode by having the Donna, Fez, and Kelso sitting on the water tower lamenting over Charlie's death. It is mentioned how many times Kelso fell off and what could have happened to him. Kelso responds by saying that they think they're invincible but they really can get hurt. Kelso then falls of the water tower yet again and remarks off screen "Screw that, I'm invincible."
* ''Series/TheITCrowd'': Parodied a couple of episodes into the latest series, on a non-returning character: "Whatever happened to Richmond?" "He... got... scurvy."
** Played straight when [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Denholm Reynholm]] tosses himself out the window in the first scene of a season 2 episode when the police come to talk to him about "irregularities in the pension fund."
* ''TheSarahConnorChronicles'': Derek Reese is randomly killed by a newly arrived Terminator early in an episode, with the show's return for a third season questionable. We even get a couple nice closeups of the bullet hole right in the middle of his forehead to make it clear he's KilledOffForReal.
** Making this even more notable is that it was just one episode after minor recurring character Charlie Dixon got to go out as a hero, sacrificing himself to buy John time to escape some assassins. In contrast, Derek is just hit rounding a corner, in a moment shot exactly the same way as the RedShirt death a couple minutes earlier. Quite a few fans have compared it to Omar's death in ''TheWire'' mentioned above, as it's clearly meant to give the same message: sometimes even heroes die due to random quirks of fate.
** Of course, it's hard to take Derek's death close to heart, given that John and Catherine Weever (T-1001 fighting [=SkyNet=]) travel to the AfterTheEnd future shortly after that, and John meets Derek there (it's an alternate future without John Connor to lead the resistance, so Derek was never sent back).
* ''Series/{{House}}'': Kutner was found KilledOffForReal because Kal Penn joined the White House staff and asked to quit the show. While the characters death is presumed to be suicide, House has [[NeverSuicide his doubts]] and the producers are planning to craft a StoryArc out of this until the end of season 5.
** Later in the season, House starts having hallucinations of Amber. In the season finale, he hallucinates Kutner as well.
** Somewhat averted (or at least not as bad as it could have been). Executive Producer David Shore said, "this was the story that allowed us to really have the greatest impact on House in particular.... If Penn had come to us and said, "I've been offered this great part on 'CSI' ... then it would have been autoerotic asphyxiation or something like that."
* ''{{Satisfaction}}'': Similarly, Tippi was KilledOffForReal as the actor was going overseas to pursue other opportunities. This is not the first time this character had faced death; she was nearly killed by a tranquilizer administered by a mortician with a fetish for dead people.
* ''{{Reno 911}}'': They play this for laughs. The deputies are riding on the side of a police car that has been converted into a float, but they are late and speeding so they crash into a building. On the next season opener, Deputies Johnson, Garcia, and Kimball apparently died as a result from "burning up in the fire," but none of the other characters have a scratch on them and Dangle can't even remember their names.
* ''GreysAnatomy'': Guess it seemed like having George PutOnABus wasn't enough for the showrunners, so they decided to throw him under it as well. Literally. Didn't see that one coming.
** And how about poor Lexie. Getting crushed by plane debris, in the middle of a forest, ''right after Mark confesses his undying love for her''. [[SarcasmMode Real nice, Shonda]].
* ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined'': The death of Galactica mechanic Jammer. After several episodes of development, Jammer becomes a Cylon sympathizer during their occupation of New Caprica. He is one of the few people to survive a suicide bomber's explosion in the third season premiere, and later tells Cally to escape when a number of civilians are sent to be executed by firing squad. Despite this, he is cruelly airlocked by Starbuck and several other Galactica crew members while begging for his life in the teaser for the episode "Collaborators", and never mentioned again. Worst of all, Cally[[note]] who should have known it was Jammer who saved her life, seeing as how he worked with her for a long time and she knew his voice[[/note]] conveniently forgets about the person who saved her life.
** Also the death of gunnery sargeant Erin Matthias due to an accidental ignition in a Heavy Raider's fuel system. Starbuck gives a speech afterwards about how death is meaningless, stupid, and random.
* ''{{Lexx}}'': Zev. In the second episode of the second season, the lone female on the Lexx spacecraft is caught on a medical station when her friend and captain, Stanley, has to go for an operation. She is tortured for the majority of the episode by a doctor who is trying to steal the Lexx's activation key from her, but she escapes and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices herself]] seconds later to save the life of the undead assassin, Kai, with whom she is deeply in love. She ends up as a pile of goo, and [[TheNthDoctor eventually reforms into Xev (played by Xenia Seeberg)]]. Eva Habermann (who played Zev) wanted out of the show due to wishing to persue other projects, but her death scene was a particularly mean-spirited way to go.
* ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': In the Season 7 finale, Det. Robert Goren's mentor [[BrokenPedestal Declan Gage]] collaborates with ArchEnemy [[DepravedBisexual Nicole Wallace]] to kill Det. Goren's brother [[BusCrash Frank]]. After that's been done, he kills Nicole as well. Both deaths occur offscreen, and Nicole's identity is confirmed through DNA testing.
* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': Charlie Francis was killed off in the season 2 premiere in a rather insultingly anti-climactic fashion - especially when one considers an entire season 1 episode was devoted to saving his life. As usual, ExecutiveMeddling is to blame.
** Bioterrorist mastermind David Robert Jones is killed off in an absurdly anti-climatic PortalCut in the last episode of the first series ("There's More Than One of Everything"). It's even worse that he was physically displaying his immunity to bullets in his showdown with Olivia at the portal only a few seconds ago.
*** Though that one's later reversed by a handy timeline change.

* ''Series/ThePrisoner'': The remake had a little girl and Number Six's love interest fall down bottomless pits.
* ''HancocksHalfHour'': Parodied in the episode 'The Bowmans'. Tony Hancock's character, Joshua Merryweather, has been written out of the eponymous soap but overwhelming public reaction forces the producers to bring him back. Tony Hancock accepts only if given full script approval; and the next episode features every other character walking across a field and falling down an abandoned mine shaft.
* ''ChoujinSentaiJetman'': Gai Yuuki/Black Condor survived the whole ordeal against the Vyram and made it out of the final battle. Then 3 years later, he's stabbed by a mugger, managed to attend his friend's wedding enough to give them his blessings, then dies. No one, not even his friends, seemed to notice. Many Sentai fans argued how his death's handled, some say it's a refreshing change of how Toku heroes can die out of normal circumstances; some say it's badly handled for the sake of tributing [[Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman Joe the Condor]] (who also dies in his series).
* ''DesperateHousewives'': After Karl Mayer was killed by a crashing plane the next episode had Susan ''and'' Bree have 'what if he lived fantasies' in which he ended cheating on each of them without remorse. As if to make sure the got across the message that it was a good thing he died the show avoided showing his presumably devastated daughter reacting to his death by having her make only a blink and you'll miss it appearance at the end of the episode.
** In Season 5 of ''DesperateHousewives'', Edie Britt drove her car into a pole, but survives just long enough to be electrocuted just to be certain she was gone for real this time, not just PutOnABus.
* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}: Children of Earth: Day Four'', a bridge is dropped on Ianto Jones. He and Jack enact the plan of marching into the alien's base, demanding it surrenders with no bargaining tool, then shooting at bullet-proof glass. The alien then releases a toxic gas that kills everyone in the building (Jack comes back to life in the aftermath).
* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': At the end of Season 3 ("All Hell Breaks Loose"), the eldest sister Prue is KilledOffForReal by a MonsterOfTheWeek. Prue had somehow lived through two deaths and bigger bads before, but this is what seemed to trump her in a quick one second death that could have been easily avoided.
** It is rumored to be a backlash of McLeaned, as the actress who played Prue, Shannen Doherty, did not get along with the rest of the cast.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'': Subverted hilariously in Episode 13 of season 1, "Investigative Journalism", as the first Spanish class of the new semester features a memorial for Señor Chang and a new teacher explaining he had [[BusCrash an unfortunate moped accident during the break]]. Señor Chang then enters the room, dismisses the teacher, saying she was a professional actress to teach the class that [[PlotArmor "[he] can never die"]].
** But then by season 3, the show does it for real with [[spoiler: Starburns.]]
*** [[spoiler: Surprisingly subverted in the season finale, the character turned out to be studying Faking Death 101.]]
* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': Emmett the Buy More assistant manager in the Season 3 opener being shot in the head at point blank range despite being no threat at all to the enemy agent. An AssholeVictim for sure, and there are many who would quickly say that he deserved what he got, but others think it was a bit shocking given that, by and large, the Buy More crew was a separate world from the the Spy world and any danger to them was usually done for slapstick. The flippant way Casey covered it up while pressing the Reset Button was a bit callous, even for him.
* ''Series/SwampThing'': The TV series had a cross between this and PutOnABusToHell. As said in TheOtherWiki:
-->"The series also introduced characters like the Kipp family, as well as a completely new incarnation of Anton Arcane played by Mark Lindsay Chapman. A young boy named Jim Kipp, played by Jess Ziegler, was intended to appeal to the young audience. However, after the first 12 episodes, a decision was made to return the series back to a darker theme seen in the original Swamp Thing film. Consequently, the story had Kipp abducted by a South American child stealing ring and never appear again."
* ''FreshPrinceOfBelAir'': A sort of inverse. In this case a character was killed off after he '''dropped off a bridge'''. Hilary's anchorman boyfriend Trevor decides to propose to her while bungee jumping on live television. Unfortunately his bungee cord was a little '''too''' long.
* ''HighlanderTheSeries'': Duncan rescues Tessa from the renegade watcher Pallin Wolf. [[NotQuiteSavedEnough Immediately after that]], she's shot by a mugger and dies.
** Even more awkward is the handling of Richie Ryan's death in the fifth season finale 'Archangel'. Richie had spent the past season or so [[TookALevelInBadass Taking A Level In BadAss]] after a close call when a temporarily-insane Duncan nearly took his head. He is shown to triumph over a few Immortals, and is said to have slain a number of other enemy Immortals off-screen. And he tells Duncan that he's prepared just in case Duncan were to go crazy again. However, all this is forgotten in 'Archangel', where Duncan, being tricked into seeing images of his old enemies by a [[AssPull Zoroastrian demon not previously known to exist in the Highlander universe]] accidentally takes Richie's head when Richie (who KNOWS something's not right and something's causing Duncan to see things that aren't there) just [[IdiotBall walks in on the scene]] and gets his head cut off. This was considered the show's JumpTheShark moment by a number of fans.
* ''Series/{{Skins}}'': Near the end of Series 4, Freddie is suddenly beaten to death with a baseball bat by Effy's [[StalkerWithaCrush crazed psychiatrist]], who was introduced in the same episode. Chris's death in the earlier series was actually believing and heartfelt, while Freddie's felt abrupt and mean-spirited. Not to mention that the series ends just after Cooke discovers his death, with no chance to see the others' reactions.
* ''{{Cheers}}'': Eddie [=LeBec=], one of Carla's most recurring love interests then husband. Though never being a cast regular, he was permanently written off the show when he (offscreen, of course), was run over ''by a Zamboni'' trying to push a fellow cast member of the ice show he worked at out of the way. On the ''very same episode'', it was revealed he had a mistress whom he also got pregnant and married (despite already being married to Carla obviously), leading an enraged Carla to reuse the name Tortelli. The producers of the show explained this turn of events at the time as [[ExecutiveMeddling test audiences not liking]] [[StatusQuoIsGod Carla being married]], until almost two decades later, both Jay Thomas (who played Eddie) and [[http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2006/07/kiss-of-death-for-eddie-lebec.html one of the writers]] revealed this was actually the result of the former being fired due to making an insulting remark about Rhea Perlman (who played Carla) on live radio (while Rhea happened to be listening, no less).
* ''CSIMiami'': Jesse Cardoza only lasted 25 episodes before being the lone casualty of the gas attack against the lab.
* ''{{Neighbours}}'': The three members of the Bishop family were the '''only''' casualties of a crashed plane, which they only boarded at the last minute. Their family and friends took about three days to get over the loss.
** Also Connor, who was either killed by Paul Robinson's [[EvilTwin crazy son]] or went on a LongBusTrip overseas. (He eventually turned up for a four week guest stint six years later where the question of why he abruptly disappeared without contacting anyone was given an appropriate {{Handwave}}.)
** Bridget Parker's death fills the 'awkward' part of this trope: She died as the result of a mysterious rampaging white horse running out in front of her car and causing it to crash. The horse is never seen, heard of or mentioned again. (Considering her family were in the car, you'd think they would have looked into that; possibly even sue the owner of the horse for negligence causing death?)
*** Speaking of horses, they killed off Libby Kennedy's husband Drew Kirk by having him fall off a horse shortly after her marriage. They also had Toadie's first wife Drew Bliss die in a car crash shortly after their marriage - Neighbours writers don't seen to like people living happily ever after...
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Although they didn't actually die, this could easily apply to Lucifer and Michael themselves. After fully two seasons of Apocalyptic build-up, they both get dropped in a hole and left to rot. They never even got to throw a punch at each other, much less have their epic world-ending battle.
** One episode features a whole bunch of immensely powerful pagan gods who are pretty savagely slaughtered by Lucifer. Most of them didn't even die onscreen. And while Gabriel's death was a little more dramatic, it was still pretty anti-climatic, all things considered. As with the finale, he didn't even get to throw a punch before Lucifer skewered him.
** Avoided in the season 5 finale. Lucifer explodes Castiel with a click of his fingers and then breaks Bobby's neck, but they were resurrected. For a moment though, it looks like the show has just killed off two of its most popular characters in the blink of an eye.
** Season 7 has seen this trope rather brutally applied to Castiel - after his big AGodAmI moment in the Season 6 finale seemed to set him up as the BigBad for Season 7, he spends one single episode going kill crazy, starts to worry about his own rapidly deteriorating mental state, releases all the extra power he absorbed, and just when you think he's going to be okay, he promptly gets possessed by the actual BigBad who then informs Sam and Dean that Castiel is dead. And since this happened, his name has barely come up, despite the fact that he was pretty much the closest and most loyal friend the Winchesters had after Bobby. Of course, fans [[HesJustHiding are adamantly clinging to the belief that he's not really gone]] and since he's died twice in the past and got better the possibility is there.
*** Spoilers for the remainder of Season 7: [[BackFromTheDead He got better (again)]].
* ''HoratioHornblower'': Lieutenant Bracegirdle in the series. A fairly major character in Series 1, disappears for Series 2 but is reintroduced as an important character for the third series ... only to have the boat he was in get hit with an exploding shell and kill everyone on board.
* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': Between seasons 1 and 2 on , Charlie is killed only to be replaced by a shapeshifting imposter.
* ''{{Primeval}}'': In the finale of season 1, Claudia Brown is erased from history, replaced in season 2 by the [[IdenticalStranger identical Jenny Lewis]].
** Then you have the main character of the whole series, Nick Cutter, who is unceremoniously shot by his wife, whom he was trying to find for years. All because she believes that he will result in humankind's destruction. Then she tries to kill off all of humanity. Umm, ok.
** This appears to be the case with Danny Quinn, who goes to the past and gets stuck there, after Nick's wife has a Raptor Dropped On Her. He does come back for a single episode later, only to disappear again.
** Sarah Page is introduced in Season 3 and becomes a regular, even traveling to Medieval England to chat up the locals. In Season 4, it's briefly implied that she's dead. A webisode ''probably'' confirms this, although it's never explicitly stated or shown that she's dead. Regardless, she never shows up again.
* ''Series/RobinHood'': The death of Marian on the BBC's show not only led to so many complaints that the BBC had to resort to automated emails of apology, but also the show's imminent cancellation (despite in-show attempts to set up for a fourth season). In the climax of the second season Marian puts herself between an injured and helpless King Richard and Guy of Gisborne and, after he insists that he will take her by force rather than take her alternative of killing the Sheriff and having her by her consent, begins to shout "I love Robin Hood! I'm going to marry Robin Hood!" Guy, who has been going through significant CharacterDevelopment for love of her, responds by impaling her on his sword. To make matters worse, to ''get'' Marian to this point, the writers first make her act wildly OutOfCharacter by having her attempt to assassinate the sheriff, deprive her of a weapon to defend herself with, and conveniently remove Robin from the scene despite the fact he was right on her tail only a few seconds ago. And why did this happen? According to creators Foz Allen and Dominic Mingella: shock value. Yes, Maid freaking Marian herself was killed off for nothing more than '''cheap shock value.'''
** You also have Carter, who only showed up in a few episodes but was still a favorite character. He is a master swordsman and archer, rivaling even Robin himself and has been fighting in the Holy Land for awhile. Then he gets stabbed by the Sheriff because he blindly ran into a building without looking first. He ''literally'' runs into the Sheriff's sword. He's not mentioned again.
* ''TwoAndAHalfMen'': Charlie's death certainly qualifies as he was killed by a girlfriend pushing him into an on-coming train. It was done between seasons and off-camera.
* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': Poor Lancelot. At first the writers gave him a pretty great death: he [[HeroicSacrifice willingly sacrifices himself]] by stepping into the spirit world in order to save Merlin's life and fulfil his vow to Guinevere to keep Arthur safe from harm. Arthur subsequently has a memorial service in which he is remembered as the best and noblest knight of Camelot. Unfortunately, the writers couldn't leave well enough alone, and Lancelot is resurrected by Morgana in order to stir up trouble between Arthur and Guinevere in the lead-up to their wedding. This Zombie!Lancelot is a slave to Morgana's will who exists only to do her bidding, and after [[MindRape Mind Raping]] Guinevere with an enchanted bracelet, he ensures that Arthur catches them making out, leading to the dissolution of their relationship and Gwen's exile from Camelot. He is then ordered by Morgana to kill himself, and does so in the grimy prison cell into which he's been thrown, to be remembered not as a hero but as a traitor, whose last act on earth was to destroy the life of the woman he adored, and who died not out of love for his friends, but because Morgana told him to. For a man who was characterized as the epitome of honour and self-sacrifice, it's probably the worst imaginable way they could have killed him off.
** Lancelot is a deliberate case. Even ''Morgana'', the instigator of the whole affair, notes at one point that she feels almost sad to be doing this to him. Made all the more worse by the fact that only Merlin attends his funeral, where it's hinted that he was aware of what he was doing and was powerless to stop it. ''Ouch.''
** Agravaine is a non-deliberate case. His death scene is a dramatically staged moment that was a important point in Merlin's character development... but he was killed off without anyone ever learning why he was a villain in the first place and his death scene wasn't so much about him dying as Merlin realizing just how strong he is.

* ''HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'': When Jon Polito's character Steve Crosetti was written out of the show [[ExecutiveMeddling at the behest of the network]], who wanted another female character in the show, the producers promised him that they would write the character back in later in the season. Not believing them, Polito went to the newspapers and slagged off the production crew for bending to the network's wishes. As a result, his character committed suicide offscreen - the one thing he had asked the producers not to do. However, he mended his bridges and returned as an afterlife spirit in the ''Homicide'' TV movie that wrapped up the series.
* ''Series/{{Millennium}}'': The fates of Catherine Black and Lara Means, who were written out as part of a [[{{Retool}} Retooling]] of the series, although the latter was a matter of GoMadFromTheRevelation rather than death.
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Poor Pearl. She was such a cool character it's a shame she died like this.
* ''TheXFiles'': In a show notorious for killing off characters, all three Lone Gunmen (Byers, Langley and Frohike) made it all the way from the first year of the show until four episodes from the last, when they were killed off trying to stop the spread of a deadly contagion. The failure of the ''[[TheLoneGunmen Lone Gunmen]]'' [[TheLoneGunmen spin-off series]] perhaps motivated the writers to kill off the characters for good, but the fact that they were Mulder's closest allies throughout the whole show makes this one a bit mean-spirited. (Of course, the episode was called "[[JumpingTheShark Jump The Shark]]"...)
** Agent Pendrell of seasons 3 and 4 was killed off in a particularly undramatic fashion, and jarring (if you liked the character). Drunk (out of character), carrying over beers for Scully to celebrate her birthday a night late, he gets shot from behind about one minute after he appears in the episode.
* ''{{Sliders}}'': Perhaps the most unpleasant example: in a season opener, we find out that the character Wade Wells has been abducted by ugly alternate-dimension aliens... for breeding purposes.
** Another unpleasant ''Sliders'' example was Professor Arturo; over the course of one episode he had his brains partially sucked out, was then shot dead, and was then left on an Earth which was destroyed by radioactive pulsars. And all this ''after'' the character came down with a terminal disease leaving him with months left to live anyway.
** Fans insist that the deceased Arturo was in fact his "evil" twin due to the AmbiguousCloneEnding of a previous season's episode in which two versions of Arturo fight and we don't know which one was left stranded and which one ended up travelling with the group. Wade Wells, meanwhile, was written out by being abducted by the evil alien Kromaggs, and eventually [[BackForTheDead returned long enough]] to be {{Mercy Kill}}ed.
** Don't forget the Mallory brothers. Thanks to an experiment by a MadScientist, Quinn gets merged with another version of him (played by a different actor), while Collin gets "unstuck" and is forced to travel between worlds for the rest of his life. Throughout the season, there are attempts at separating the Quinns. In the penultimate episode, the same mad scientist tries but reveals that too much time has passed. Only one may survive, so the group reluctantly chooses the new guy.

* ''{{ER}}'': Romano. After getting his lower arm sliced off by the tail rotor of a helicopter in the previous season, the character dies when ''another'' helicopter goes out-of-control, explodes in midair, and lands on him. Ladies and gents, this is overkill at work.
** Could be a writer's interpretation of karma or an ironic twist. Also somewhat lampshaded by Pratt suggesting that he must've done something awful to a helicopter in a previous life.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Did this when they unceremoniously killed off Tasha Yar in the episode "Skin of Evil". Denise Crosby had asked to be written out. She came back as Tasha in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise", which [[TakeThatUs mentioned that Tasha had died a senseless death]], and gave the character a chance to [[HeroicSacrifice exit with more dignity.]]
** Though it's of note that Tasha's death was an attempt by the writers to actually ''subvert'' a trope... the one that says that it's always the nameless redshirts that are killed as an example of the evil alien's power. Unfortunately, Tasha's death came off as far ''too'' senseless (not to mention stuck in a really bad episode) and the fan outcry was such that it had to be revisited.
** And later, we learn that Tasha's "do-over" death didn't take; instead she was captured by the Romulans and used as a sex slave for years before finally dying another quite ignominous death. And bizarrely, this was actually the idea of her own actress, who wanted to come back on the show and invented a way that she could play Tasha's [[IdenticalGrandson Identical Daughter]].
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': Trip kills himself in the series finale to rid the ship of 3 dim-witted space pirates, despite a full squad of [=MACOs=] being on board.
** Retconned in the novels: The entire incident was staged by Section 31, and has not been declassified yet. Oh, the holodeck introduces many, many plot holes.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Jadzia Dax is randomly killed by Gul Dukat in mid-prayer without getting a shot at self-defense.
** What kind of self-defense could she put up when she's taken by surprise by a sociopath with energy-projection powers?
*** This may have been more of a TakeThat to Terry Farrell, she asked to be downgraded to a recurring character for the last season and the writers killed her off.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Creator/JMichaelStraczynski dropped a bridge on ''every single'' cute kid and robot that appeared. He seemed to have a rather {{Anvilicious}} interest in them not ruining the show's "serious" tone.
** That's because Creator/JMichaelStraczynski hates cute in general. To give you an idea, one episode of ''Babylon 5'' had a teddy bear with the initials "JS" on its shirt that got a bridge dropped on it. That bear was given to him as a prank. His putting it into the episode like that was his counter prank.

* ''{{Teachers}}'': The end of the third season saw the departure of the last two members of the original cast, who also happened to play fan favourites. As a rather bitter revenge, the fourth season opens on the graves of their characters being pissed on by the school's headmaster.

* ''Valerie Harper'': She lost her self-titled sitcom when she asked for a salary increase after the first season. The producers responded by firing her, having her Valerie Hogan character die in a car crash, and then having her sitcom family mourn off-screen before Aunt Sandy Duncan took over the motherly duties under the new title ''Valerie's Family'' (eventually renamed ''TheHoganFamily''). Three episodes into the new season, all signs of Valerie Hogan literally went up in flames as the Hogan house caught on fire. Harper would later get a [[TakeThat sizable settlement]] from Lorimar and the producers for their handling of the situation.

* ''Series/ForeverKnight'' (1989-1996): The characters of both police Cpt. Amanda Cohen and police detective Don Schanke in this Canadian TV series were unceremoniously killed off off-screen in a plane crash, in the first episode of the series' last season, despite the fact that Schanke had been a long-time friend and colleague of protagonist Nicholas "Nick" Knight, the titular vampire police detective (night shift). Schanke was replaced by a new (female) partner for Nick, and the department's captain replaced with an African-American male actor. The same year, Nick's vampiric lover Janette also left Toronto without explanation, ''came back'' as a human, was shot and turned into a vampire '''again'', only to leave the show forever. Actually, all but one of the main characters (the villainous [=LaCroix=])may or may not die at the end of the series, including possibly Nick himself.
* ''{{Dollhouse}}'': Has this happen to Bennett. Then later to Paul Ballard. Big ouchies on ''both'' of those, as neither of them had any warning or buildup.

* ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'': Actor Ryan Cooley, who played student J.T., wanted to leave the show to attend post-secondary education, so the character was written out. He was stabbed by a student from a fellow school, at the end of an episode revolving around a drunken house party, with no buildup whatsoever. Not only that, but his best friend, Toby, makes a move on the girl he used to date. Everyone [[LampshadeHanging pointed out]] how senseless it was. Compare to Rick Murray, the school sociopath whose death was simply epic.
* ''XenaWarriorPrincess'': When Xena, prophesied to spell the end of the Greek gods' reign, gains the power to kill gods, a group of them led by Athena attacks, and the whole group (except Athena herself, given a decent battle), some of whom were recurring allies or villains throughout ''years'' of the show as well as its parent series ''HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys,'' gets taken out more casually and anticlimactically than any ''Franchise/StarTrek'' {{Redshirt}}, one after another after another.
** And who could forget the episode "Endgame," which killed off the (much beloved) Amazon regent Ephiny two minutes into the opening teaser. Still at least Ephiny died on screen; the following season Amarice, who had been Xena and Gabrielle's companion for a good run of episodes earlier that season, was unceremoniously killed offscreen during the teaser for the episode "Lifeblood" (by then the actress, Jennifer Sky, was starring in ''Cleopatra 2525'', but Amarice's character arc ended with her being happily left with a tribe of Amazons, so mentioning her again [[BusCrash just to say she was dead]] seemed, well, kind of mean and pointless).
* ''TheWire'': A show that had otherwise made a point of giving every major character it killed off a satisfying (if heartbreaking) death, Omar was killed when a ten-year-old kid shot him in the head from behind in a random and anticlimactic scene. His death contrasted jarringly in its randomness and pointlessness with the respect the show gave to the other characters. Notable in that contrary to most bridge-droppings, it was done deliberately to make a thematic point, and it was planned well in advance.
** ''TheBill'''s makers decided not to renew Jeff Stewart's contract as Reg Hollis, a move that may have resulted in his attempting suicide on set. Hollis, a highly popular character with more than 20 years in the show, gets written out off-screen with comments that he's resigned due to the death of PC Emma Keane. Not only has Hollis been around for every death in the show's history, he's been directly involved in the discovery that Des Taviner was responsible for the Sun Hill Fire ''and'' the loss of his girlfriend just as he was to propose to her. A move like that is completely out of character for him.
* ''{{Heartbeat}}'': Pick an Aidensfield GP. Any Aidensfield GP. One drowned after wandering into a river to retrieve a fishing rod. One burnt to death after running into a burning building to save a boy who'd already been rescued by someone else. One fell off a horse she was trying to save from rustlers who'd have been arrested anyway if she'd just stood there and done nothing. One was blown up by a schoolboy who was upset because [[DisproportionateRetribution his dog had been run over]]. Only Kate Rowan's failed battle with leukaemia managed to be a genuine TearJerker. (There was another one who bucked the trend by staying alive long enough to be PutOnABus.)
* ''WakingTheDead'': When the show had to write out DS Mel Silver, arguably the show's EnsembleDarkHorse, they chose to kill her off in the stupidest way possible, murdered on a whim not by [[BigBad anyone important]] but by a ''{{Mook}}'' [[MinionWithAnFInEvil with an F in Evil]]. Who promptly committed suicide. (Just to add insult to injury, the ManipulativeBastard who set the whole thing up apparently [[KarmaHoudini escapes justice]] at the end.)
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': D.L. Hawkins. At first we are lead to believe he died in a HeroicSacrifice. However, in a flashback episode, it turns out he made a full recovery from the sacrifice, only to get killed by some random guy in a bar. To make matters worse, he could phase himself through bullets, so this falls under IdiotBall as well.
** Caitlin got it even worse, having gone to the future and not making it back. At best, she was simply wiped from existence when that future was averted. At worst, she's stuck in a future where small pockets of humanity live in quarantine from a horrible disease. And all before she got half a clue about the weirdness going on. (The writers intended to follow up on this, but the writer's strike made it an AbortedArc).
** In season 3, Adam is brought out of the coffin he was trapped in. The next episode, he gets a bridge dropped on him-Arthur touches him, he ages 400 years, crumbles into dust, and is just suddenly dead...all before the main titles. This death served the vital task of adding ''the fifth'' [[TangledFamilyTree Petrelli]] to the cast.
** When you think about it, ''Heroes'' seems unable to kill off characters in any way OTHER than this trope. With the notable exceptions of Isaac and [[TearJerker Daphne]], virtually every character death has been some sort of "bridge drop".
** Elle. She was killed by Sylar ''hours'' after he sacrificed himself so that she could escape from Noah. The only reason for her death was that KristenBell was at the end of her contract. And to make things worse, she hardly whimpers while Sylar cuts her head open, whereas the last time he tried to kill her she ''discharged an electrical arc that knocked him unconscious and took power out for an entire building. Without even trying.'' At the very least she could have tried to defend herself instead of letting herself be murdered which is impossible anyway.
** In ''Dual'', the level 5 villains. They all get offed by Sylar off-screen (except for Doyle, who ends up not dying). The most notable example is Echo [=DeMille=], who got his own set of webisodes dedicated to him prior to the start of the season, disappeared until ''Dual'', and was killed off before he ever said a word. Also worthy of note is Scott, the SuperSoldier Marine all set up to be an AscendedExtra. Instead, he gets his neck snapped by Knox, who incidently, is killed later that same episode as well, also in an anti-climactic way.
** Volume 4 finale, An Invisible Thread. After saving the world repeatedly, and during a phase where he's trying his hardest to atone for the dickery of the entire season, Nathan Petrelli gets killed. [[RunningGag As he does.]] But instead of the dramatic, epic deaths that were given to him previously, he dies alone, frightened and bleeding out in an armchair in an empty room after getting his throat cut by Sylar. FridgeLogic sets in on just HOW horrible the death is after the credits roll. And let's not even start on the [[AssPull plan]] of mind-wiping Sylar and using him to [[ReplacementGoldfish replace Nathan]].
** Early in Volume 5, Danko, a ruthless special-hunting soldier who was the BigBad of Volume 4, is unceremoniously gutted in his own home by a KnifeNut FragileSpeedster to [[VoodooShark obtain a plot MacGuffin that was somehow in his abdomen.]]
* ''Series/LawAndOrder'': Alexandra Borgia's death reeks of this trope. Her character was kidnapped, beaten, and stuffed in a car trunk and abandoned in the woods, where she choked on her own vomit. Her brutal murder drives the last half of that episode, and then she hasn't been mentioned since (two seasons and counting). The trope is counts double, if one believes the rumors that her unusually brutal death was a result of Borgia's actress (Annie Parisse) spurning the romantic advances of the show's head writer.
** Annie Parisse left to pursue a movie career. Apparently, Dick Wolf told her, "Oh, thank you for coming in early. You don't mind if we kill you, do you?"
** There's also Max Greevey, who died ''offscreen'' in the cold opening for the 2nd season premiere after George Dzundza left the show.
** Total inversion with Claire Kincaid, in an episode without any investigation, but following the actions of the four leads after having witnessed an execution, Kincaid offers a ride home to a very drunk Detective Brisco (Jerry Orbach). On the way there, her car is struck by a drunk driver and she's killed. Brisco survives, and the shock of the event is enough to get him sober and in AA.
** ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' has ADA Kim Greyleck, who went on a business trip to Washington and [[LongBusTrip never came back.]] She was abysmal, and they brought back Alex Cabot, so no-one gave a damn.
* ''Series/LasVegas'' (NBC): Had a tendency to kill off the Montecito's owners at a rate of about one per season, but none quite so bizarrely as when Monica Mancuso was carried off of the roof of the casino by a strong gust of wind.
* ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'': A literal bridge dropping happens to Shane. While a bridge fell on Kirk, Shane falls off of it while tripping on LSD. Shane survives but is brain-damaged, his parents pull him from the school, and the kid who gave him the drugs (and watched him fall off the bridge, doing nothing) [[KarmaHoudini suffers no consequences]]. Shane is basically ignored and forgotten by the rest of the cast, and the show implies that this is poetic justice for how he (mostly) ignored and forgot a girl who he got pregnant. In ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'', his daughter tracks him down, and it turns out that he spent the rest of his life in a wretched [[BedlamHouse sanitarium for the mentally retarded]], abandoned by his family, and weeping over the girlfriend and child he never did enough for and never got to see.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Killed regular character Cally out of shot in an explosion during the opening seconds of the fourth season, with only a dubbed-in scream reused from an earlier episode to indicate it. This was reportedly because the actor had left it until after the previous season had been completed to announce that she wanted to leave. (Although that was mainly because the BBC waited until after the previous season had been completed before announcing they wanted another one.)
* ''Series/{{Mash}}'': The death of [[McLeaned Lt. Colonel Henry Blake]]. After getting to go home, the last line of the episode announces that his plane has been shot down, with no survivors.
** However, this is a total subversion of the trope: even though it was a senseless death, it was perfectly in line with everything that the show was meant for, i.e., war is hell, and people die indiscriminately, regardless of whether they are important people or not. So his death, though anti-climactic in theory, was not inappropriate or unsatisfying, but very appropriate, well-done, and respected by viewers. Of course, it wasn't respected by viewers in the '70s when it actually ''happened'', but that was because it is the UrExample of this trope in TV comedies.

* ''LawAndOrder'': In the opening of the second season, George Dzundza's character is killed off screen in the opening stinger.
** Adding insult to injury, it wasn't even Dzundza we see fall - it was a body double.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': [[spoiler:Dale]] was given a rather unceremonious exit after the actor requested to leave.
** [[spoiler: Oscar]] dies an even more anticlimactic death. Just a few episodes after the group accepts him, he gets shot dead by one of the Governor's mooks, apparently just to give the incident a body count including a named character.
* ''EarthFinalConflict'': Several regulars get this. First, you have William Boone, the main character of the first season, who is seriously wounded in his fight with Ha'gel. He is supposed to recover using the Taelon equivalent of a [[StarWars bacta tank]] but gets blown to atoms by Zo'or, who did it only to spite Da'an. Then you have Jonathan Doors, killed by a rogue AI entity in front of Doors Jr. Lily Marquette gets sent to Jaridia, comes back pregnant with a half-Jaridian child, goes back to Jaridia, and is later mentioned to have died ''along with the planet'' (this also counts for the Jaridian species). Zo'or dies in the final episode of Season 4, but is brought back for a few episodes in Season 5, only to be KilledOffForReal. Da'an's fate is to be merged with a Jaridian in order to become a savage Atavus... and never reappear again. Then you have Liam Kincaid, who disappears along with the Taelons and is forgotten until he suddenly reappears in the GrandFinale. Also, Boone is brought back (he was only mostly dead) as a LoveInterest to Renée... and is mentioned to have been killed off-screen.
* ''BladeTheSeries'': Agent Ray Collins, a recurring secondary character who is slowly discovering the world of the vampires. Finally, in a late-season episode, he is paired up with Blade to hunt a pureblood vampire... and gets bitten by her when he lets his guard down. Blade is forced to stake him.
* ''Series/BurnNotice'': Anson Fullerton is introduced as the series' BiggerBad, TheManBehindTheMan to every previous BigBad on the show. In his introductory appearance, he arranges the death of Larry Sizemore, perhaps the series' most popular recurring villain. He frames Fiona for murder and has her sent to prison. He's revealed to be the man who murdered Michael's father. And to top it all off, he's the only MythArc villain to get through a season finale alive and free. This guy is the biggest, baddest...wait, he just got shot offscreen. And the importance of his death is entirely ignored in favor of that of Michael's brother Nate, who was collateral damage in the crime. Never mind, then.
* ''Series/TwentyFour'':
** As beloved as the fifth season is, it's generally agreed on that the series royally screwed up by killing Michelle and Tony over the course of the season. Tony's exit in particular was given a lot of criticism due to him being arguably the second most important character next to Jack and even being on the show since the beginning but going out with virtually no fanfare whatsoever. This got so bad that the writers had to eventually retcon his death for season 7... though his treatment there has a particular BrokenBase, with some fans ''actually wishing he'd stayed dead''.
** The deaths of Curtis Manning and Renee Walker in seasons 6 and 8 respectively have also have generated a lot of controversy (especially Curtis). Curtis was a character that many fans felt as a worthy equal to Jack Bauer when it came to working in the field, and were none too happy in the much maligned-sixth season where he suddenly gave up all his principles to try and settle an old score forcing Jack to kill him less than a quarter in. In Renee's case, a lot of fans feel that her death was specifically done as shock value just to make Jack miserable again. However, at the same time, a lot of them also wind up appreciating [[spoiler: the FallenHero RoaringRampageOfRevenge storyline]] it gave Jack as a result of her death.
* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Maggie is briefly taken hostage by some random crazy dude who shows up from nowhere, gets accidentally stabbed ''in the leg'', and then she bleeds to death.
* ''SonsOfAnarchy'': In Season 4, recurring character Kozik had just enough time to say "Shit!" before LandMineGoesClick and he winds up in about a hundred different places at once.
* ''EastEnders'': Den Watts had a dramatic death in 1989, then came BackFromTheDead in 2003. Amid complaints from fans that his return was unbelievable, the actor was involved in an internet sex scandal, and so Den's estranged wife walloped him over the head with a doorstop, the end.
* ''DowntonAbbey'': They dropped a bridge, I mean a car, on poor Matthew. This was a case of {{Real Life Writes The Plot}}, as his actor wanted to leave the show, and since he'd already married his {{Will They Or Wont They}} partner Mary, the only choices were to break them up or kill him. Fans would never accept the former after they went through so much to be together, so the latter it was.

* When Jon Polito's ''HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' character Steve Crosetti was written out of the show [[ExecutiveMeddling at the behest of the network]], who wanted another female character in the show, the producers promised him that they would write the character back in later in the season. Not believing them, Polito went to the newspapers and slagged off the production crew for bending to the network's wishes. As a result, his character committed suicide offscreen - the one thing he had asked the producers not to do. However, he mended his bridges and returned as an afterlife spirit in the ''Homicide'' TV movie that wrapped up the series.
* The fates of Catherine Black and Lara Means on ''Series/{{Millennium}}'', who were written out as part of a [[{{Retool}} Retooling]] of the series, although the latter was a matter of GoMadFromTheRevelation rather than death.
* Poor Pearl from ''Series/TheVampireDiaries''. She was such a cool character it's a shame she died like this.
* In a show notorious for killing off characters, all three of ''TheXFiles'' Lone Gunmen (Byers, Langley and Frohike) made it all the way from the first year of the show until four episodes from the last, when they were killed off trying to stop the spread of a deadly contagion. The failure of the ''[[TheLoneGunmen Lone Gunmen]]'' [[TheLoneGunmen spin-off series]] perhaps motivated the writers to kill off the characters for good, but the fact that they were Mulder's closest allies throughout the whole show makes this one a bit mean-spirited. (Of course, the episode was called "[[JumpingTheShark Jump The Shark]]"...)

* Perhaps the most unpleasant example: in a season opener of ''{{Sliders}}'', we find out that the character Wade Wells has been abducted by ugly alternate-dimension aliens... for breeding purposes.

* Rory Cochrane's character on ''CSIMiami'', Tim Speedle, also died nastily after Cochrane asked to be written out of the show. The writers really did a number on him, making Speed out to be careless with cleaning his weapon, which subsequently jammed during a shootout and resulted in his untimely death. Considering his status as a much-loved character, this quite literal character assassination might drive some to accuse the writers of dropping a bridge on the fans instead of their intended target.

* Romano on ''{{ER}}''. After getting his lower arm sliced off by the tail rotor of a helicopter in the previous season, the character dies when ''another'' helicopter goes out-of-control, explodes in midair, and lands on him. Ladies and gents, this is overkill at work.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' did this when they unceremoniously killed off Tasha Yar in the episode "Skin of Evil". Denise Crosby had asked to be written out. She came back as Tasha in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise", which [[TakeThatUs mentioned that Tasha had died a senseless death]], and gave the character a chance to [[HeroicSacrifice exit with more dignity.]]

* On ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', Trip kills himself in the series finale to rid the ship of 3 dim-witted space pirates, despite a full squad of [=MACOs=] being on board.

* Jadzia Dax of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is randomly killed by Gul Dukat in mid-prayer without getting a shot at self-defense.

* Near miss: ''Series/DoctorWho'' is known for changing its lead actor every few seasons by having an experience that would otherwise be fatal trigger a regeneration, resulting in a new body and changed personality. In most cases, this is due to the lead actor voluntarily choosing to leave the series, usually providing the production staff with sufficient notice to craft a story around the regeneration. In one case (the transition from Colin Baker to Sylvester [=McCoy=]), the lead actor was fired, and so without warning an episode began with the Doctor regenerating [[DeathByFallingOver for a trivial reason]], with [=McCoy=] playing the Before version (lying face-down and wearing an obvious wig) as well as the After version (briefly becoming TheOtherDarrin). Although the character didn't exactly die, a bridge was definitely dropped.

* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski dropped a bridge on ''every single'' cute kid and robot that appeared in ''Series/BabylonFive''. He seemed to have a rather {{Anvilicious}} interest in them not ruining the show's "serious" tone.

* ''{{Friends}}'' offers an in-story example: Joey brags in an interview about how he writes his own lines for his character, Dr. Drake Remoray, in the show ''Days of Our Lives''. This irritates the writers, who have his character walk into an open elevator shaft, giving him brain damage that ''only his character'' could have repaired.

* The end of the third season of ''{{Teachers}}'' saw the departure of the last two members of the original cast, who also happened to play fan favourites. As a rather bitter revenge, the fourth season opens on the graves of their characters being pissed on by the school's headmaster.
* On ''LALaw'', the character Roz steps into an elevator. The elevator isn't there and she falls down the shaft to her death. The end.

* Valerie Harper lost her self-titled sitcom when she asked for a salary increase after the first season. The producers responded by firing her, having her Valerie Hogan character die in a car crash, and then having her sitcom family mourn off-screen before Aunt Sandy Duncan took over the motherly duties under the new title ''Valerie's Family'' (eventually renamed ''TheHoganFamily''). Three episodes into the new season, all signs of Valerie Hogan literally went up in flames as the Hogan house caught on fire. Harper would later get a [[TakeThat sizable settlement]] from Lorimar and the producers for their handling of the situation.
* Ana Lucia, Libby and Mr. Eko on ''Series/{{Lost}}''. In the latter's case, they actually ''Dropped The Smoke Monster On Him''.

* The characters of both police Cpt. Amanda Cohen and police detective Don Schanke in the Canadian TV series ''Series/ForeverKnight'' (1989-1996) were unceremoniously killed off off-screen in a plane crash, in the first episode of the series' last season, despite the fact that Schanke had been a long-time friend and colleague of protagonist Nicholas "Nick" Knight, the titular vampire police detective (night shift). Schanke was replaced by a new (female) partner for Nick, and the department's captain replaced with an African-American male actor. The same year, Nick's vampiric lover Janette also left Toronto without explanation, ''came back'' as a human, was shot and turned into a vampire '''again'', only to leave the show forever. Actually, all but one of the main characters (the villainous [=LaCroix=])may or may not die at the end of the series, including possibly Nick himself.
* ''{{Dollhouse}}'' has this happen to Bennett. Then later to Paul Ballard. Big ouchies on ''both'' of those, as neither of them had any warning or buildup.
* After Susan Saint James left ''McMillanAndWife'', it was continued for one season as ''[=McMillan=]'' with the explanation that Sally had died in a plane crash, along with their infant son (who was himself mostly a plot device to explain Saint James' pregnancy a season earlier, and never seen). Aside from one or two dialogue swipes at recovering from grief and getting back into the dating game, Mac didn't seem too shook up about the whole 'lost the True Love that propelled the entire series' thing.
* Actor Ryan Cooley, who played student J.T. on ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'', wanted to leave the show to attend post-secondary education, so the character was written out. He was stabbed by a student from a fellow school, at the end of an episode revolving around a drunken house party, with no buildup whatsoever. Not only that, but his best friend, Toby, makes a move on the girl he used to date. Everyone [[LampshadeHanging pointed out]] how senseless it was. Compare to Rick Murray, the school sociopath whose death was simply epic.
* In ''XenaWarriorPrincess,'' when Xena, prophesied to spell the end of the Greek gods' reign, gains the power to kill gods, a group of them led by Athena attacks, and the whole group (except Athena herself, given a decent battle), some of whom were recurring allies or villains throughout ''years'' of the show as well as its parent series ''HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys,'' gets taken out more casually and anticlimactically than any ''Franchise/StarTrek'' {{Redshirt}}, one after another after another.

* On ''TheWire'', a show that had otherwise made a point of giving every major character it killed off a satisfying (if heartbreaking) death, Omar was killed when a ten-year-old kid shot him in the head from behind in a random and anticlimactic scene. His death contrasted jarringly in its randomness and pointlessness with the respect the show gave to the other characters. Notable in that contrary to most bridge-droppings, it was done deliberately to make a thematic point, and it was planned well in advance.

* When ''WakingTheDead'' had to write out DS Mel Silver, arguably the show's EnsembleDarkHorse, they chose to kill her off in the stupidest way possible, murdered on a whim not by [[BigBad anyone important]] but by a ''{{Mook}}'' [[MinionWithAnFInEvil with an F in Evil]]. Who promptly committed suicide. (Just to add insult to injury, the ManipulativeBastard who set the whole thing up apparently [[KarmaHoudini escapes justice]] at the end.)
* D.L. Hawkins from ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. At first we are lead to believe he died in a HeroicSacrifice. However, in a flashback episode, it turns out he made a full recovery from the sacrifice, only to get killed by some random guy in a bar. To make matters worse, he could phase himself through bullets, so this falls under IdiotBall as well.

* Alexandra Borgia's death on ''Series/LawAndOrder'' reeks of this trope. Her character was kidnapped, beaten, and stuffed in a car trunk and abandoned in the woods, where she choked on her own vomit. Her brutal murder drives the last half of that episode, and then she hasn't been mentioned since (two seasons and counting). The trope is counts double, if one believes the rumors that her unusually brutal death was a result of Borgia's actress (Annie Parisse) spurning the romantic advances of the show's head writer.

* NBC's ''Series/LasVegas'' had a tendency to kill off the Montecito's owners at a rate of about one per season, but none quite so bizarrely as when Monica Mancuso was carried off of the roof of the casino by a strong gust of wind.
* A literal bridge dropping happens to Shane in ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'' - while a bridge fell on Kirk, Shane falls off of it while tripping on LSD. Shane survives but is brain-damaged, his parents pull him from the school, and the kid who gave him the drugs (and watched him fall off the bridge, doing nothing) [[KarmaHoudini suffers no consequences]]. Shane is basically ignored and forgotten by the rest of the cast, and the show implies that this is poetic justice for how he (mostly) ignored and forgot a girl who he got pregnant. In ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'', his daughter tracks him down, and it turns out that he spent the rest of his life in a wretched [[BedlamHouse sanitarium for the mentally retarded]], abandoned by his family, and weeping over the girlfriend and child he never did enough for and never got to see.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'' killed regular character Cally out of shot in an explosion during the opening seconds of the fourth season, with only a dubbed-in scream reused from an earlier episode to indicate it. This was reportedly because the actor had left it until after the previous season had been completed to announce that she wanted to leave. (Although that was mainly because the BBC waited until after the previous season had been completed before announcing they wanted another one.)
* The death of [[McLeaned Lt. Colonel Henry Blake]] in ''Series/{{Mash}}''. After getting to go home, the last line of the episode announces that his plane has been shot down, with no survivors.

* James Wistler in ''PrisonBreak'', who got killed ''out of nowhere'', just so the PostScriptSeason plot could be extended even further. Granted, it does give some cool impression of AnyoneCanDie, but still...
* In the opening of the second season of ''LawAndOrder'', George Dzundza's character is killed off screen in the opening stinger.

* Adam Carter's death in the 7th season premiere of ''{{Spooks}}''. Despite being one of the country's best spies, he performs a useless handbrake turn in a bomb-rigged car which cost him precious seconds.

* Bart Bass on ''GossipGirl'' is hit by a car offscreen. To add insult to injury, he was on his way to try and reconcile with his wife, Lily.

* In ''TwoPintsOfLagerAndAPacketOfCrisps'', Jonny is killed off-screen by being eaten by a shark in Hawaii, after trying to jump it (in an entire episode that parodies the concept of "[[JumpTheShark jumping the shark]]"). This was due to Ralf Little wanting to leave the show to concentrate on his movie career.

* Parodied a couple of episodes into the latest series of ''Series/TheITCrowd'', on a non-returning character: "Whatever happened to Richmond?" "He... got... scurvy."

* Derek Reese in ''TheSarahConnorChronicles'', randomly killed by a newly arrived Terminator early in an episode, with the show's return for a third season questionable. We even get a couple nice closeups of the bullet hole right in the middle of his forehead to make it clear he's KilledOffForReal.

* On ''Series/{{House}}'' Kutner was found KilledOffForReal because Kal Penn joined the White House staff and asked to quit the show. While the characters death is presumed to be suicide, House has [[NeverSuicide his doubts]] and the producers are planning to craft a StoryArc out of this until the end of season 5.

* Similarly, Tippi was KilledOffForReal in ''{{Satisfaction}}'' as the actor was going overseas to pursue other opportunities. This is not the first time this character had faced death; she was nearly killed by a tranquilizer administered by a mortician with a fetish for dead people.
* On ''{{Reno 911}}'', they play this for laughs. The deputies are riding on the side of a police car that has been converted into a float, but they are late and speeding so they crash into a building. On the next season opener, Deputies Johnson, Garcia, and Kimball apparently died as a result from "burning up in the fire," but none of the other characters have a scratch on them and Dangle can't even remember their names.

* The death of Galactica mechanic Jammer in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''. After several episodes of development, Jammer becomes a Cylon sympathizer during their occupation of New Caprica. He is one of the few people to survive a suicide bomber's explosion in the third season premiere, and later tells Cally to escape when a number of civilians are sent to be executed by firing squad. Despite this, he is cruelly airlocked by Starbuck and several other Galactica crew members while begging for his life in the teaser for the episode "Collaborators", and never mentioned again. Worst of all, Cally[[note]] who should have known it was Jammer who saved her life, seeing as how he worked with her for a long time and she knew his voice[[/note]] conveniently forgets about the person who saved her life.

* Zev from ''{{Lexx}}''. In the second episode of the second season, the lone female on the Lexx spacecraft is caught on a medical station when her friend and captain, Stanley, has to go for an operation. She is tortured for the majority of the episode by a doctor who is trying to steal the Lexx's activation key from her, but she escapes and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices herself]] seconds later to save the life of the undead assassin, Kai, with whom she is deeply in love. She ends up as a pile of goo, and [[TheNthDoctor eventually reforms into Xev (played by Xenia Seeberg)]]. Eva Habermann (who played Zev) wanted out of the show due to wishing to persue other projects, but her death scene was a particularly mean-spirited way to go.
* On the ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' Season 7 finale, Det. Robert Goren's mentor [[BrokenPedestal Declan Gage]] collaborates with ArchEnemy [[DepravedBisexual Nicole Wallace]] to kill Det. Goren's brother [[BusCrash Frank]]. After that's been done, he kills Nicole as well. Both deaths occur offscreen, and Nicole's identity is confirmed through DNA testing.
* Charlie Francis was killed off in the season 2 premiere of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' in a rather insultingly anti-climactic fashion - especially when one considers an entire season 1 episode was devoted to saving his life. As usual, ExecutiveMeddling is to blame.

* The remake of ''Series/ThePrisoner'' had a little girl and Number Six's love interest fall down bottomless pits.
* Parodied in the ''HancocksHalfHour'' episode 'The Bowmans'. Tony Hancock's character, Joshua Merryweather, has been written out of the eponymous soap but overwhelming public reaction forces the producers to bring him back. Tony Hancock accepts only if given full script approval; and the next episode features every other character walking across a field and falling down an abandoned mine shaft.
* ''ChoujinSentaiJetman''. Gai Yuuki/Black Condor survived the whole ordeal against the Vyram and made it out of the final battle. Then 3 years later, he's stabbed by a mugger, managed to attend his friend's wedding enough to give them his blessings, then dies. No one, not even his friends, seemed to notice. Many Sentai fans argued how his death's handled, some say it's a refreshing change of how Toku heroes can die out of normal circumstances; some say it's badly handled for the sake of tributing [[Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman Joe the Condor]] (who also dies in his series).
* After Karl Mayer in ''DesperateHousewives'' was killed by a crashing plane the next episode had Susan ''and'' Bree have 'what if he lived fantasies' in which he ended cheating on each of them without remorse. As if to make sure the got across the message that it was a good thing he died the show avoided showing his presumably devastated daughter reacting to his death by having her make only a blink and you'll miss it appearance at the end of the episode.
* In Season 5 of ''DesperateHousewives'', Edie Britt drove her car into a pole, but survives just long enough to be electrocuted just to be certain she was gone for real this time, not just PutOnABus
* In ''Series/{{Torchwood}}: Children of Earth: Day Four'', a bridge is dropped on Ianto Jones. He and Jack enact the plan of marching into the alien's base, demanding it surrenders with no bargaining tool, then shooting at bullet-proof glass. The alien then releases a toxic gas that kills everyone in the building (Jack comes back to life in the aftermath).
* In ''Series/{{Charmed}}'', at the end of Season 3 ("All Hell Breaks Loose"), the eldest sister Prue is KilledOffForReal by a MonsterOfTheWeek. Prue had somehow lived through two deaths and bigger bads before, but this is what seemed to trump her in a quick one second death that could have been easily avoided.

* Subverted hilariously in Episode 13 of season 1 of ''Series/{{Community}}'', "Investigative Journalism", as the first Spanish class of the new semester features a memorial for Señor Chang and a new teacher explaining he had [[BusCrash an unfortunate moped accident during the break]]. Señor Chang then enters the room, dismisses the teacher, saying she was a professional actress to teach the class that [[PlotArmor "[he] can never die"]].

* The ''Series/SwampThing'' TV series had a cross between this and PutOnABusToHell. As said in TheOtherWiki:

* A sort of inverse on ''FreshPrinceOfBelAir''. In this case a character was killed off after he '''dropped off a bridge'''. Hilary's anchorman boyfriend Trevor decides to propose to her while bungee jumping on live television. Unfortunately his bungee cord was a little '''too''' long.
* In ''HighlanderTheSeries'', Duncan rescues Tessa from the renegade watcher Pallin Wolf. [[NotQuiteSavedEnough Immediately after that]], she's shot by a mugger and dies.

* Near the end of Series 4 of ''Series/{{Skins}}'', Freddie is suddenly beaten to death with a baseball bat by Effy's [[StalkerWithaCrush crazed psychiatrist]], who was introduced in the same episode. Chris's death in the earlier series was actually believing and heartfelt, while Freddie's felt abrupt and mean-spirited. Not to mention that the series ends just after Cooke discovers his death, with no chance to see the others' reactions.
* Eddie [=LeBec=] from ''{{Cheers}}'', one of Carla's most recurring love interests then husband. Though never being a cast regular, he was permanently written off the show when he (offscreen, of course), was run over ''by a Zamboni'' trying to push a fellow cast member of the ice show he worked at out of the way. On the ''very same episode'', it was revealed he had a mistress whom he also got pregnant and married (despite already being married to Carla obviously), leading an enraged Carla to reuse the name Tortelli. The producers of the show explained this turn of events at the time as [[ExecutiveMeddling test audiences not liking]] [[StatusQuoIsGod Carla being married]], until almost two decades later, both Jay Thomas (who played Eddie) and [[http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2006/07/kiss-of-death-for-eddie-lebec.html one of the writers]] revealed this was actually the result of the former being fired due to making an insulting remark about Rhea Perlman (who played Carla) on live radio (while Rhea happened to be listening, no less).
* Jesse Cardoza on ''CSIMiami'' only lasted 25 episodes before being the lone casualty of the gas attack against the lab.
* On ''{{Neighbours}}'' the three members of the Bishop family were the '''only''' casualties of a crashed plane, which they only boarded at the last minute. Their family and friends took about three days to get over the loss.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. Although they didn't actually die, this could easily apply to Lucifer and Michael themselves. After fully two seasons of Apocalyptic build-up, they both get dropped in a hole and left to rot. They never even got to throw a punch at each other, much less have their epic world-ending battle.

* Lieutenant Bracegirdle in the ''HoratioHornblower'' series. A fairly major character in Series 1, disappears for Series 2 but is reintroduced as an important character for the third series ... only to have the boat he was in get hit with an exploding shell and kill everyone on board.
* Between seasons 1 and 2 on ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', Charlie is killed only to be replaced by a shapeshifting imposter.
* In the finale of season 1 of ''{{Primeval}}'', Claudia Brown is erased from history, replaced in season 2 by the [[IdenticalStranger identical Jenny Lewis]].

* The death of Marian on the BBC's ''Series/RobinHood'' not only led to so many complaints that the BBC had to resort to automated emails of apology, but also the show's imminent cancellation (despite in-show attempts to set up for a fourth season). In the climax of the second season Marian puts herself between an injured and helpless King Richard and Guy of Gisborne and, after he insists that he will take her by force rather than take her alternative of killing the Sheriff and having her by her consent, begins to shout "I love Robin Hood! I'm going to marry Robin Hood!" Guy, who has been going through significant CharacterDevelopment for love of her, responds by impaling her on his sword. To make matters worse, to ''get'' Marian to this point, the writers first make her act wildly OutOfCharacter by having her attempt to assassinate the sheriff, deprive her of a weapon to defend herself with, and conveniently remove Robin from the scene despite the fact he was right on her tail only a few seconds ago. And why did this happen? According to creators Foz Allen and Dominic Mingella: shock value. Yes, Maid freaking Marian herself was killed off for nothing more than '''cheap shock value.'''

* Charlie's death on ''TwoAndAHalfMen'' certainly qualifies as he was killed by a girlfriend pushing him into an on-coming train. It was done between seasons and off-camera.
* Poor Lancelot of ''Series/{{Merlin}}''. At first the writers gave him a pretty great death: he [[HeroicSacrifice willingly sacrifices himself]] by stepping into the spirit world in order to save Merlin's life and fulfil his vow to Guinevere to keep Arthur safe from harm. Arthur subsequently has a memorial service in which he is remembered as the best and noblest knight of Camelot. Unfortunately, the writers couldn't leave well enough alone, and Lancelot is resurrected by Morgana in order to stir up trouble between Arthur and Guinevere in the lead-up to their wedding. This Zombie!Lancelot is a slave to Morgana's will who exists only to do her bidding, and after [[MindRape Mind Raping]] Guinevere with an enchanted bracelet, he ensures that Arthur catches them making out, leading to the dissolution of their relationship and Gwen's exile from Camelot. He is then ordered by Morgana to kill himself, and does so in the grimy prison cell into which he's been thrown, to be remembered not as a hero but as a traitor, whose last act on earth was to destroy the life of the woman he adored, and who died not out of love for his friends, but because Morgana told him to. For a man who was characterized as the epitome of honour and self-sacrifice, it's probably the worst imaginable way they could have killed him off.

* [[spoiler:Dale]] on ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' was given a rather unceremonious exit after the actor requested to leave.

* Several regulars in ''EarthFinalConflict'' get this. First, you have William Boone, the main character of the first season, who is seriously wounded in his fight with Ha'gel. He is supposed to recover using the Taelon equivalent of a [[StarWars bacta tank]] but gets blown to atoms by Zo'or, who did it only to spite Da'an. Then you have Jonathan Doors, killed by a rogue AI entity in front of Doors Jr. Lily Marquette gets sent to Jaridia, comes back pregnant with a half-Jaridian child, goes back to Jaridia, and is later mentioned to have died ''along with the planet'' (this also counts for the Jaridian species). Zo'or dies in the final episode of Season 4, but is brought back for a few episodes in Season 5, only to be KilledOffForReal. Da'an's fate is to be merged with a Jaridian in order to become a savage Atavus... and never reappear again. Then you have Liam Kincaid, who disappears along with the Taelons and is forgotten until he suddenly reappears in the GrandFinale. Also, Boone is brought back (he was only mostly dead) as a LoveInterest to Renée... and is mentioned to have been killed off-screen.
* Agent Ray Collins in ''BladeTheSeries'', a recurring secondary character who is slowly discovering the world of the vampires. Finally, in a late-season episode, he is paired up with Blade to hunt a pureblood vampire... and gets bitten by her when he lets his guard down. Blade is forced to stake him.
* On ''Series/BurnNotice'', Anson Fullerton is introduced as the series' BiggerBad, TheManBehindTheMan to every previous BigBad on the show. In his introductory appearance, he arranges the death of Larry Sizemore, perhaps the series' most popular recurring villain. He frames Fiona for murder and has her sent to prison. He's revealed to be the man who murdered Michael's father. And to top it all off, he's the only MythArc villain to get through a season finale alive and free. This guy is the biggest, baddest...wait, he just got shot offscreen. And the importance of his death is entirely ignored in favor of that of Michael's brother Nate, who was collateral damage in the crime. Never mind, then.

* Den Watts in ''EastEnders'' had a dramatic death in 1989, then came BackFromTheDead in 2003. Amid complaints from fans that his return was unbelievable, the actor was involved in an internet sex scandal, and so Den's estranged wife walloped him over the head with a doorstop, the end.
* They dropped a bridge, I mean a car, on poor [[DowntonAbbey Matthew]]. This was a case of {{Real Life Writes The Plot}}, as his actor wanted to leave the show, and since he'd already married his {{Will They Or Wont They}} partner Mary, the only choices were to break them up or kill him. Fans would never accept the former after they went through so much to be together, so the latter it was.