History DroppedABridgeOnHim / LiveActionTv

** The character of Romana underwent a surprise regeneration in ''Destiny of the Daleks'', as actress Creator/MaryTamm quit the series at the end of the previous season, and was replaced by Creator/LallaWard. Tamm had offered to return for ''Destiny of the Daleks'' in order to film a regeneration; she wasn't invited back and so Ward was introduced in a wacky sequence that remains a thorn in the side of some fans 30 years later.

** The insectoid crime boss N'Grath appeared in a few first season episodes, but then dropped out of sight. A fifth season episode mentioned that he'd been "taken down" (leaving it ambiguous whether N'Grath died, got arrested, or fled).

** Talia Winters was a major character during the first two seasons before being PutOnABus with hints that she'd return either as a villain or to be restored to normal. Later, it's implied she'd been dissected by PsiCorps. However, that may have been a lie to anger the main characters to make reading their minds easier. She's never heard from again.

** There's 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).

** The character of Romana underwent a surprise regeneration in ''Destiny of the Daleks'', as actress Mary Tamm quit the series at the end of the previous season, and was replaced by Lalla Ward. Tamm had offered to return for ''Destiny of the Daleks'' in order to film a regeneration; she wasn't invited back and so Ward was introduced in a wacky sequence that remains a thorn in the side of some fans 30 years later.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': Minor recurring character DK dies unceremoniously midway through Season 4 when the VillainOfTheWeek tortures and kills him offscreen. It's particularly noticeable since he was the only recurring human character outside of Crichton's father and established as Crichton's best friend.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': Minor recurring character DK dies unceremoniously midway through Season 4 at the hands of the Skreeth, after having been one of the few human characters to appear more than once outside of [[TheHero Crichton]] and his father.

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* ''Film/Utoya22Juli'' : [[spoiler: Kaja. ]] In a film where random characters have lengthy death scenes with lots of last words (wounded girl) or a long corpse scene to signify the horror of their death (little boy), [[spoiler: Kaja ]] gets neither. She is suddenly shot just before she can answer a silly line by Magnus, she appears OK at first, then keels over without as much as a sound. She gets NO last words, not even a ReallyDeadMontage. Worse, ''the camera itself'' betrays her - rather than stay with her in her last moments, it switches immediately to Magnus (who before that had, like 10 minutes of screen time) and concentrates on his escape, showing no more consideration for [[spoiler: Kaja.]]
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* ''{{Series/Vikings}}'': [[spoiler: King Æthelwulf]] suffers a fatal anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead''

** [[spoiler: Ziva David]] is killed in an off-screen mortar attack ''two'' years after leaving the show, setting up [[spoiler: Tony's]] final story arc. Prior to leaving, [[spoiler: Creator/CoteDePablo]] had dragged out contract negotiations and left mere weeks before production of a new season had to begin and the cast and crew weren't very happy with the abrupt exit and how the first half of that season had to be retooled to accommodate the exit of a major character and the subsequent introduction of a new regular.

** [[spoiler:Beta]]. Compared to the nigh-unstoppable killing machine from episodes such as "Chokepoint" and "Stalker", he is rather suddenly and unceremoniously taken out by Daryl in "A Certain Doom". Justified in three ways: one, he was so hell-bent on killing Negan that he let his guard down and gave Daryl the opportunity to sneak up on him; two, he was such a formidable opponent that getting the drop on him likely ''would'' have been the only way to kill him (something Daryl probably took to heart after his last, more direct, fight with [[spoiler:Beta]); and three, they were in the middle of the horde and an all-out brawl probably wouldn't have been possible without the interference of the walkers, thus warranting a quick demise.

* ''Series/ChicagoPD'': Sheldon Jin, Nadia Decottis, Justin Voight, and Lexi and Alvin Olinski all suffer this.

** [[spoiler:Beta]]. Compared to the nigh-unstoppable killing machine from episodes such as "Chokepoint" and "Stalker", he is rather suddenly and unceremoniously taken out by Daryl in "A Certain Doom". Justified in three ways: one, he was so hell-bent on killing Negan that he let his guard down and gave Daryl the opportunity to sneak up on him; two, he was such a formidable opponent that getting the drop on him likely would be the only way to kill him (something Daryl probably took to heart after his last, more direct, fight with Beta); and three, they were in the middle of the horde and an all-out brawl probably wouldn't have been possible without the interference of the walkers, thus warranting a quick demise.

** [[spoiler:Beta.]] Compared to the nigh-unstoppable killing machine from episodes such as "Chokepoint" and "Stalker", he is rather suddenly and unceremoniously taken out by Daryl in "A Certain Doom". Justified in three ways: one, he was so hell-bent on killing Negan that he let his guard down and gave Daryl the opportunity to sneak up on him; two, he was such a formidable opponent that getting the drop on him likely would be the only way to kill him (something Daryl probably took to heart after his last, more direct, fight with Beta); and three, they were in the middle of the horde and an all-out brawl probably wouldn't have been possible without the interference of the walkers, thus warranting a quick demise.

** Also [[spoiler: T-Dog]], who was a somewhat important character right from the beginning, is bitten by a random walker due to circumstances caused by a character with no other plot significance. His death is completely ignored since a more important character dies in the same episode.
** [[spoiler: Beth]]'s death was very sudden and random at the midway point of season 5.
** [[spoiler:Tyreese]] dies in late Season 5 after becoming momentarily distracted and being bitten, while [[spoiler:Noah]] goes out in early Season 6 when another character panics and essentially throws him to the zombie hoard to save himself. While both deaths were given some meaningful context, they were both the result of the actors requesting to be written out so that they could move on to other projects, and so received some criticism for being fairly abrupt and less satisfying than character deaths that were planned in advance.

* ''Series/TheMentalist'' did this to recurring antagonist Bret Stiles. After multiple seasons of establishing a complex dynamic between him and Jane and cultivating an air of mystery and danger around Stiles (and his cult Visualize) in general, Stiles is unceremoniously killed in an explosion just after Jane had eliminated him as a Red John suspect.[[note]]Fun fact: Stiles was played by Creator/MalcolmMcDowell, who also played the character that literally {{Dropped A Bridge On|Him}} [[spoiler:Kirk]] in the TropeNamer.[[/note]]

** ''Series/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 Briscoe (Creator/JerryOrbach). On the way there, her car is struck by a drunk driver and she's killed. Briscoe is clearly devastated, and McCoy's arc for the subsequent season is driven by this loss.

** There's also Max Greevey, who died ''offscreen'' in the cold opening for the 2nd season premiere after Creator/GeorgeDzundza left the show. Adding insult to injury, it wasn't even Dzundza we see fall - it was a body double.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' had Jadzia Dax randomly killed by Gul Dukat in mid-prayer without getting a shot at self-defense. 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/TheWire'', which otherwise made a point of giving every major character it killed off a satisfying (if heartbreaking) death, killed Omar 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.

** The trope happens again in season 4, this time to Sara's sister, Laurel, who took up her mantle as the (Black) Canary. She got StuffedInTheFridge, being stabbed by the season's BigBad, after the doctors said she'd be fine no less. Given the importance of Black Canary in DC comics in general, and in Green Arrow in particular, fans were '''''extremely''''' pissed. Once again, [[PanderingToTheBase the power of fan demand]] eventually led the creators to bring her back, though not directly: the original Laurel stayed dead, while her doppelganger from an alternate universe was introduced in the sister show ''Series/TheFlash2014'' as a MonsterOfTheWeek, before transferring to ''Arrow'' as a recurring villain who eventually gained a HeelFaceTurn.

** 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 (Colin Baker, understandably had absolutely no interest in returning to film a regeneration scene), and so without warning an episode began with the Doctor regenerating for an unknown reason (at least until we learned the why and where behind the regeneration a '''long''' time later), 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.

* ''Series/ForeverKnight'' unceremoniously killed both police Cpt. Amanda Cohen and police detective Don Schanke 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.
* ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' had 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.

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': [[spoiler: '''The eponymous Mother''' dies from an unspecified illness in the last five minutes of the finale]].

** 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.

** Maid Marian, which 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.'''

* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'':
** The second episode has 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 a very healthy man (he went out hunting the day before he died!)
** The third season dropped a bridge, or rather a car, on poor Matthew. This was a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot, as his actor wanted to leave the show, and since he'd already married his WillTheyOrWontThey 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.

** The character of General Hague made a few appearances in Season 2 and was intended to be a major factor in the upcoming Earth Civil War arc. When the actor took a job as a recurring character on Deep Space Nine, Hague was killed off off-camera in the first Earth-ship-versus-Earth-ship engagement.
*** This did provide a very funny "no hard feelings" blooper when the actor who is announcing Hague's death to the other characters, a solemn moment in the script, says, "General Hague...is doing ''Deep Space Nine''. His agent double-booked him, there was nothing we could do."