Heartwarming / Tales from the Darkside

• The episode "The Tear Collector" ends with Prudence happily walking off with the cab driver she met after running out of Ambrose's house with her tear bottle, which she dropped and smashed due to the cab.
  • The episode in general counts. They don't use the word, but Prudence is clearly suffering from clinical depression. Ambrose's desire to collect tears is even implied to be his way of wanting to find a cure for depression.
    Ambrose: Prudence! There's too much sadness in the world already! Please let go!
• The ending of "Word Processor of the Gods": Right before the titular device finally breaks down, Richard manages to rewrite reality so that his nephew (who had died at the start of the story) is now his alive son, and he's married to his sister-in-law. After putting up with an ungrateful Gold Digger of a wife, a spoiled and lazy son, and the haunting memory of him failing to propose to his sister-in-law for years, Richard finally got the life he wanted.
• The ending to "The Spirit Photographer": Algernon is 100% okay with the fact that he's died, and moves on with a smile on his face.
• "Ring Around The Redhead". Billy is about to be executed for a murder he didn't commit. Before the execution, he is interviewed by a journalist named Adele. He tells a strange tale about finding a metallic ring that acted as an inter-dimensional portal, and then caring for a beautiful alien woman named Keena who came through it. Eventually, Keena's people took her and the portal back by force and tried to stop Billy's friend from exploiting the portal for profit, which got him killed in the process. Adele dismisses this as nonsense. Billy is strapped to the electric chair and the switch is flipped, but Keena appears and freezes time. She explains that she told her people that she loved him and convinced them to let her save him. They teleport back to her home world. As time unfreezes, everyone is baffled that Billy vanished, but Adele smiles and realizes he was telling the truth all along. She calls her superior, who asks how the execution went, and she says, "I've got a better story. It's a love story..."
• The ending of "Do Not Open This Box". Ruth's soul is taken instead of Charlie's, and Charlie's invention is useful to the mailman (thus fulfilling his dream of inventing something helpful). Although it's somewhat bittersweet that the mailman, the only friend Charlie's ever made in 35 years, has to leave, something better comes along. Clarissa Sanderson, who Ruth has a one-sided rivalry with, visits Charlie. It's implied that she and Charlie begin a relationship after their visit. All in all, after years of humbly putting up with Ruth's verbal abuse, Charlie earns one big happy ending.
  • Generally, Charlie is one big moment of heartwarming. He never internalizes Ruth's cruelty towards him, not because he's "weak" or a "loser" like she keeps saying, but because he's merciful and generally doesn't care about what she says so much as he does his inventing passion. And when he puts his invention to use to keep Ruth's soul from escaping the box, he does so in a non-malicious way. Guess the demon mailman was right when he chose Ruth's soul.
• In a somewhat twisted way, "Family Reunion" ends on the sweet note of mother and son reuniting for the first time since their Ireland hunting accident (implied to be when they gained their lycanthropy). Despite losing their humanity, their being werewolves doesn't change how happy they are to be back together again. Guess the mother was genuine when she said she and her son shared a special bond.
• The ending to "Distant Signals". Even if the show was unpopular on Earth, "Max Paradise" is beloved and popular on a distant planet, where they'll be happy to know the series has been given a proper conclusion. In fact, the last shot of the episode is of Van and the show's director discussing the prospect of it all. Van recognizes the reason Smith and his people love the show very much is because, as inhabitants of a constantly orbiting planet, they understand what it's like to be wanderers like Max Paradise. And they treasure that more than anything.
  • At one point, Van's alcoholism gets the worse of him, making him decide to abandon the revival. Smith, in turn, heads over to his apartment and actually removes his alcoholism, giving him the clear head needed to continue.
• The ending of "Trick or Treat". Billy, whose father doesn't want him to put him through the cruel Halloween game that will pay off their debts, goes anyway without his parents knowing. Since Mr. Hackles is out of the way at this point, the Witch answers the door instead. What she does next is surprisingly nice on her part. For his good karma, she gives Billy his father's IOUs, the whole town's IOUs, and then the entirety of Mr. Hackles' treasury before flying off on her broom. Billy smiles at seeing a live witch, and a generous one at that. If there ever were such thing as a Halloween Miracle, this was it.
  • Even better, everyone who's ever been in debt and owes Mr. Hackles is free from him. Now, they don't have to force their children to visit his haunted house, or live with their family's past generations of debt.
• "My Ghostwriter— the Vampire" has a good ending. Not only does Count Draco get back at Peter for stiffing him any royalties and trying to kill him, but Jayne (who has more passion in vampire lore) offers a mutually beneficial partnership where the two will generously share the royalties together: Not only does he get the credit he so deserved, but Jayne gets to write about vampires like she always wanted. Count Draco rewards her with a benign kiss on the neck.
• "The Shrine" has Christine try to convince her mother not to follow the demon girl, giving her a rousing speech that although Christine isn't perfect, they can start over and simply love each other as mother and daughter. Seemingly, this doesn't work and the demon girl taunts Christine. But even she realizes the mother is having second thoughts. Ultimately, Christine's mother stays and (after a Disney Death) share a loving hug.
• "The Serpent's Tooth" has Pearl's "from your mouth to God's ears" comment. Although Played for Laughs, it's notably one of the few hyberboles she made come true that wasn't malicious.
• "Basher Malone". While the episode itself is a rather comedic and campy satire of the pro-wrestling craze of the 80's, the title character himself is far from it. It's made abundantly clear from the very start of the episode that Basher has an honest-to-God heart of gold, using his skills in the ring to rid the wrestling world of fighters who play dirty, and using his post-match interview to remind any children watching to do good deeds, hoping to be a good role-model for them to look up to.
  • The only person who could even rival Basher's purity is his mother, Ma Malone, a sweet and kindly old lady who shows nothing but endless support towards her son. She even brings homemade cookies and lemonade to every one of Basher's matches, which she shares with the officials, the rival fighters, and even the audience. If that isn't enough, she even comes to Basher's aid during the climactic battle, where she disintegrates demonic floozy Ursula with a pitcher of milk.
  • The episode itself ends on an unambiguously happy note. With Tippy and Trog defeated and banished to the Underworld, Basher grabs some sodas from the vending machine that served as Trog's gateway, then offers to treat his mother to a steak dinner. The last shot of the episode, and by extension the series, has the two of them triumphantly walking away, hand in hand.

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