History HarsherInHindsight / LiveActionTV

* The image of Kate in a body bag with a bullet hole in her forehead in Gibbs' dream in the first season finale of ''{{NCIS}}'' (written before anyone knew Sasha Alexander was leaving the show) was jarring when it first aired, but it was even more jarring when she died the exact same way in the finale of the following season.

-->'''Lucas:''' I can sympathize with that.

* The ''{{iCarly}}'' special, iPsycho, shows a depressed Gibby saying that he has nothing better to do than to watch reruns. This episode aired the same week [[DiffrentStrokes Gary Coleman]] passed away. Considering the "Awww" that came from the canned laughter, it may be possible that they added it at the last minute to pay tribute to him.

*** Related to this, there is a HORRIBLE moment on the commentary for "Not Fade Away" where the director mentions jokingly that Andy Hallet was suffering a tooth abcess while shooting and is practically propped up in the shot. This is the tooth abbcess that would lead to Andy Hallet's heart disease and death.

* For ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', the speech to Cordelia about wanting to live in the world for a moment, in spite of her duty, at the time? Sad. Given everything Cordelia goes through over the course of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' for ''her'' duty? Oh dear God. * sobs*

* Early in ''TwentyFour'''s third season, Jack is occasionally seen wrapping a belt around his arm in preparation for shooting up heroin. This becomes even more horrifying in the season finale, when he's [[spoiler:wrapping it around Chase's arm in order to cut his hand off.]]

** Shock Therapy is widely misrepresented in fiction and isn't nearly as horrible as portrayed.

* In a season two episode of ''HowIMetYourMother'', first aired in 2007, Marshall mentions that he's had a song from ''DirtyDancing'', starring Patrick Swayze, stuck in his head for the last couple of days. He looks upwards and says "Damn you, Swayze!", which is less funny since Swayze's death from pancreatic cancer.

* In the Season 2 Pride episode of ''QueerAsFolk'', Vic tells Emmett that a mutual friend of theirs had just died from AIDS. When Emmett is shocked at the suddenness of it, Vic tells him, "Sometimes it happens very quickly. That can be a blessing." A few years later, Vic dies extremely suddenly due to side effects of his HIV medication.
* In an episode of ''{{CSI}}'', Hodges and Simms are at a sci-fi convention when a body is found. Essentially, a crime happened at a convention. The day after someone was stabbed near the eye with a pen at the San Diego Comic Convention 2010 (The event was on a Saturday), this episode reran on SpikeTV. This trope couldn't help be feel like this was odd to have this running so soon after the guy was hurt.

* Hearing Captain Phil say during the 6th season of ''DeadliestCatch'' that he hopes "my dumb ass will be around for a while" when talking about his kids is a bit of a stab in the heart considering what happened to him.

** This year's ''After The Catch'' is/was in NewOrleans, where that area's fishermen are experiencing some very bad times due to the Gulf Coast oil spill. This is addressed a few episodes later when the captains see the effects of the spill up close; having lived through the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill Exxon Valdez oil spill]] themselves the Gulf spill is especially disturbing. It's also noted that all the fishing-related activities they did have since been shut down indefinitely.
** In the home video of a crew not associated with the show, one man jokingly said that his friends ought to be on ''Deadliest Catch''. The video aired as part of a special episode after the ship sank with either one or no survivors.
* ''BurnNotice'': S1, Episode 9, "Wanted Man". The Libyan spy that Michael is cultivating comments, "The security forces of my country are not known for being gentle." This has been dramatically proven; as of the day of this edit, the 2011 Libyan Uprising riots are being suppressed--with gunship strafing.

** To rub salt in on the wound, Estelle Getty, who played Sophia, the oldest character on the show, nonchalantly replies that she'll be able to take care of herself at that point. Getty would die first of the four, despite being younger than Co-Stars Betty White and Bea Arthur.

* On ''TheGleeProject'' two contestants had to sing the song "Valerie" as covered by Amy Winehouse to avoid elimination. The judges made a couple goodhearted jokes at Ms. Winehouse's expense. Amy Winehouse died less than a week later and the episode did not air online until three days after her death.
* The image of Kate in a body bag with a bullet hole in her forehead in Gibbs' dream in the first season finale of ''{{NCIS}}'' (written before anyone knew Sasha Alexander was leaving the show) was jarring when it first aired, but it was even more jarring when she died the exact same way in the finale of the following season.
* In a later season episode of ''BoyMeetsWorld'', newly-married Cory and Topanga try to buy a starter home so they can leave their ramshackle apartment despite barely having any money. The realter draws up a special mortgage plan for them so they can buy the house but the plan requires signatures from the parents, and Mr. and Mrs. Matthews refuse to sign it because thy don't think Cory and Topanga will be able to make the payments. The [[AnAesop moral]] of the episode is that you need to work to earn what you buy and not rely on others for help. This episode aired in 1999, many years before the late 2000s economic recession which was caused in part by this kind of financial behavior: young couples buying homes they couldn't afford through subprime mortgage payments.

* The last episode of the third and last season of the Irish sitcom ''{{Father Ted}}'' was supposed to end with the airplane on which the main character was finally flying to America falling and, presumably, the character dying. As on the day after the last day of filming actor Dermot Morgan, who played Father Ted in the series, died of a heart attack, the ending was rewritten with Ted changing his mind at the last moment and deciding to remain in Ireland.

* ''{{Smallville}}'': In the first season, one episode has Lex meet with his former nanny. She obviously cares a lot about him, tells him that she wanted to see what kind of person he'd grown to be before she died, and that she loved him "like her own." Cut to season ten, when we find out that "her own" ended up [[ParentalAbandonment being]] [[spoiler: [[BrokenAce Tess]] [[BrokenBird Mercer]]]], and the episode suddenly has a much harsher tone to it.

* The last episode of ''StElsewhere'', released in 1988, had a LogoJoke where throughout the credits, Mimsie, the cat from the MTM logo, was seen on a hospital bed as the beeps of a life monitor played in the background. When the credits ended, Mimsie flatlined. Mimsie died for real that exact same year.

* Episode 9 of Mick Molloy's short-lived ''The Nation'' (2007) featured a segment in which a bunch of celebrities congratulated Mick for having made it to 9 episodes. This was a reference to the fact that ''The Mick Molloy Show'' (1999) only last 8 episodes, which was actually quite sad at the time for Molloy, as friends of his had quit their jobs to work on the show. After having laughed at the misfortune on the new show, he went through it again just 5 episodes later when ''The Nation'' was canceled.

* Assuming that given the nature of this trope, we have a tiny bit of leeway with spoilers here, it's worth noting that in Game of Thrones, there's the following Jaime Lannister quote: "Even if the boy lives, he'll be a cripple, a grotesque. Give me a good clean death any day." Oh, dear.

** A flippant line from House to Wilson early in season 5 sounds prescient as of Season 8 Episode 18: [[spoiler: "Holding things in can give you cancer!"]]

** ''LawAndOrderUK: An episode in which the detectives are investigating the shooting death of an officer has DS Matt Devlin musing to partner Ronnie Brooks that it must be tough to lose a partner, then immediately cringing as he remembers that Ronnie ''has'' lost a partner to violence. Another episode that also involved the shooting death of an officer had Ronnie stating, "God forbid Matty here got himself shot, I'd be out there straightaway trying to find who did it and string him up myself"
*** [[spoiler: Approximately a year later, Matt was killed in a drive-by shooting]]

* In the series finale of ''DesperateHousewives'', Karen [=McCluskey=] succumbs to cancer. What made it sadder was that Kathryn Joosten, the actress portraying her, died from the same disease twenty days after the episode premiere.

** A flippant line from House to Wilson early in season 5 sounds prescient as of Season 8 Episode 18: [[spoiler: "Holding things in can give you cancer!]]

* In the series finale of ''DesperateHousewives'', Karen [=McCluskey=] succumbs to cancer. What made it sadder was tha Kathryn Joosten, the actress portraying her, died from the same disease twenty days after the episode premiere.

* {{The West Wing}} season six episode "The Birnam Wood" sees Leo [=McGarry=] suffer a massive, near-fatal heart attack. Although not exactly pleasant viewing in the first place it becomes even more poignant due to John Spencer, the actor who played Leo, suffering a fatal heart attack just over a year after the episode aired, while The West Wing was still on air.

* The West Wing season six episode "The Birnam Wood" sees Leo McGarry suffer a massive, near-fatal heart attack. Although not exactly pleasant viewing in the first place it becomes even more poignant due to John Spencer, the actor who played Leo, suffering a fatal heart attack just over a year after the episode aired, while The West Wing was still on air.

* ''SesameStreet'' has the story arc where Big Bird's nest is blown away in a hurricane, and everyone else trying to help him build a new one.

* There's a season 3 ''{{Highlander}}'' episode where Richie asks Duncan if they'll ever have to fight each other. Guess what happens in season 5, that leads to Richie's death?

* In ''{{Kamen Rider Den-O}}'', Yuuto [=Sakurai/Kamen=] Rider Zeronos' SuperMode is powered by special cards that [[spoiler:erase the memories of his younger self]]. While it was a fairly ominous idea then, it becomes more depressing knowing that Yuuto's actor, Yuichi Nakamura, has all but disappeared since late 2010 due to a GameBreakingInjury.

* In the ''[[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek TOS]]'' episode "Assignment: Earth", Spock mentions that one of the events that occurred during the Enterprise's visit to Earth in 1968 was an assassination. The episode was first aired on March 29, 1968. Six days later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered. Robert F. Kennedy was killed that year as well.

* ''The Siege of AR-558'', an already very bleak and tragic episode of StarTrekDS9, is turned into ShaggyDogStory / ShootTheShaggyDog in a later episode when [[spoiler: the system for which the protagonists fought so hard, and many [[RedShirt Red Shirts]] lost their lives fighting, is effortlessly recaptured by the enemy thanks to a new superweapon.]]

* This troper caught a promo for ''TwoAndAHalfMen'' that played the following scene---Berta: "You ever gonna stop drinking?" Charlie: "No, I'll just stop waking up." Meant as a joke, but with Sheen's lifestyle hopefully it won't be a line that haunts that show.
** It is: According to recent press releases, because of both TwoAndAHalfMen still airing and Charlie Sheen being fired due to the aforementioned lifestyle choices of his, Charlie Harper ends up killed off, with the season starter having a funeral for him with his family and his various girlfriends attending.

** Pretty much every interaction the Doctor had with the Face of Boe once it's revealed that he's actually [[spoiler: Jack Harkness]]. The Face of Boe watched the Earth get destroyed, while a snooty woman with too much plastic surgery proudly proclaimed herself the last of the humans, and then his goodbye to the Doctor where he states that he's also the LastOfHisKind.

** The [[QuentinTarantino Tarantino]]-directed season 5 finale had the team desperately try to find their colleague Nick, who'd been buried alive and who began to suffer delusions from oxygen deprivation and being eaten by ants. The episode was put back from its original showing in the UK because of the London 7/7 bombings.

* It's longevity has made LawAndOrder and its numerous versions teem with examples of this:

** In-universe example: the final scene of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E10Blink Blink]]", which implied that every statue could be a Weeping Angel, was already [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel/DoctorWho horrific]] enough." "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E04TheTimeOfAngels The Time of Angels]]" [[spoiler:turned that concept into reality]]. [[SarcasmMode Have sweet dreams.]]

* The theme tune to ''My Sister Sam'' contained the lines "Everything starts like a knock at the door, you don't know what it is but you know who it's for ..." Just over a year after the show left the air, main cast member Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered on her doorstep by a stalker.

* ''The Siege of AR-775'', an already very bleak and tragic episode of StarTrekDS9, is turned into ShaggyDogStory / ShootTheShaggyDog in a later episode when [[spoiler: the system for which the protagonists fought so hard, and many [[RedShirt Red Shirts]] lost their lives fighting, is effortlessly recaptured by the enemy thanks to a new superweapon.]]

* The theme tune to ''My Sister Sam'' contained the lines "Everything starts like a knock at the door, you don't know who it is but you know who it's for ..." Just over a year after the show left the air, main cast member Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered on her doorstep by a stalker.

* The opening credits to ''SaturdayNightLive'' during Phil Hartman's time there include a clip of him sitting in a booth with a blonde woman... his wife, who was to end both their lives in a murder-suicide. Later when he returned to the show as guest host, he says in his monolouge that "Oh, boy, but I'll tell you, I'm a lucky man but I'd be nothing without my lovely wife, Brynn. Our anniversary's coming up and I want to buy her a diamond necklace, just to show her what's important to me: family, friends, good times..."