Reports Of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated / Live-Action TV

Note: As a Death Trope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.

Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated in Live-Action TV series.

---

• Often a component of the Back from the Dead storylines that are frequently seen on soap operas. Sometimes the person resurfacing is as much a shock to the viewer as it is to the characters, but occasionally, the audience is fully aware that the person is alive:
  • All My Children's Tad Martin was blown from a bridge. The viewer saw that he survived, but wandered off with amnesia while his loved ones mourned and didn't return until two years later, still with no memory of his past.
  • Reporter/novelist Edmund Grey was believed killed when an adversary blew up his car. Grey walked into the middle of his own funeral service on his family grounds at the Wildwind estate to the shock of everyone present.
  • One Life to Live's Todd Manning was shot multiple times and thrown over a cliff. The last viewers saw of him until the following year was him lying on a beach with his eyes slowly opening, while his wife was left to mourn.
    • Examples where the character remained onscreen:
  • As the World Turns's Jack was presumed dead in a car accident and woke up in a hospital with no memory of his past life. However, he didn't disappear—viewers actually saw scenes of him being nursed back to health interspersed with scenes of his wife and children mourning him that lasted for several months until the two ran into each other and he snapped out of it.
  • A nearly identical situation when General Hospital's Luke was presumed dead in an avalanche.
  • And when The Young and the Restless' Victor also supposedly died in a car accident but was rescued by a blind woman who cared for him on her farm and even educated him about who he'd been before. In another instance, he was actually being held prisoner after a plane crash.
    • Deliberate Soap Opera examples:
  • The Young and the Restless' Victor again, who was so fed up with his bickering family that he allowed them to believe he was dead.
  • General Hospital's Luke and Laura faked her death in an explosion in order to flee the evil Cassadines who had recently returned to town. And Damian Smith did the same thing to frame his ex-girlfriend for his supposed murder.
• Archie Bunker was misreported as dead by the Veterans Administration for one episode of All in the Family.
• Annika (2021): In episode 2.4, a body is found frozen in a block of ice at the bottom of the Sound of Islay, and a woman believes it's her domestic partner who absconded with half her money to return to his toxic ex, who runs an ice factory. That turns out to be a Red Herring when Harper mentions said partner's name to the employee leading her around the factory, and he identifies himself as the man they thought was in the ice block.
• Babylon 5:
  • John Sheridan was thought to be dead. "I was. I got better." He spends a long time cleaning up the consequences of this.
  • Earlier in the series, Sheridan exploits the fact that Mr. Morden is officially deceased to hold him prisoner without legal justification (Garibaldi calls him on it) and interrogate him about what happened to the expedition where Sheridan's wife disappeared.
• Barney Miller: Dietrich is thought to have been killed when a stress analyzer he was wearing for a scientific study flatlines. His apparent "death" is milked for a dramatic ad break cliffhanger. As it turns out the analyzer shorted out when he was hit with fire extinguisher spray.
• Blake's 7. Lampshaded at the end of "Rumours of Death", in which Avon discovers his Lost Lenore wasn't tortured to death as he believed, but was actually a Double Agent for the Secret Police.
  Avon: Servalan was planning on sending you [my] corpse, but the rumours of my death—
  Tarrant: —have been greatly exaggerated.
  Avon: (to himself) Well, slightly exaggerated, anyway.
• Happens twice on The Brittas Empire:
  • In "Back from the Dead", Brittas is presumed to be dead. In reality, he had spent about a week in a chicken coop in Bulgaria, with the mix-up being because someone had stolen his possessions and were wearing them when they were flattened.
  • Later on in "Gavin Featherly R.I.P", Gavin is also believed to be dead after he is lost at sea. In reality, he was captured by Ruthless Modern Pirates.
• Brotherhood: In the pilot, when one of Michael's associates said he heard he was six feet under, Michael responds, "Me? No, I was at the library...There are a lot of good books in the library."
• The Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Doppelgangland", in which meeting Vamp Willow causes Angel to report that Willow is dead. He then says hi to human Willow who is standing right behind him.
• Cheers: A season 7 episode has Rebecca Howe mistaken for dead due to a mix-up with an obituary for another Rebecca Howe. Her superiors at the Lillian Corporation send a wreath to Cheers, complete with a card saying "at last her suffering is over."
• In Coronation Street, Jerry's father puts his own obituary in the newspaper. He had a questionable past, and doing so was a way to make it easier for his granddaughter to join the police.
• The Devil Judge: Yo-han, twice. The first time he's reported murdered in prison. The second time it's assumed he died in the courtroom explosion. Both times he survives.
• Happens on more than one occasion in Doctor Who:
  • The Series 2 two-part finale "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday" begins with a voiceover from Rose telling the viewer "this is the story of how I died." At the conclusion, it's revealed that she's actually alive and stuck in a parallel universe, but she's been declared legally dead in our universe.
  • In the Series 5 finale "The Big Bang", the Doctor, Amy, and Rory meet a mortally wounded version of the Doctor from 12 minutes into the future and watch him die. Turns out he was only faking it to allow the trio to create a diversion for 12 minutes, allowing the future-Doctor to use those 12 minutes to wire up the Pandorica.
• Jonathan Doors is shot by a sniper in the pilot of Earth: Final Conflict, protecting the Taelon ambassador Da'an. Turns out, it was all a setup. The sniper was working for Doors and was shooting blanks, as was the doctor who confirmed his death. The goal was to set up La Résistance to figure out the real reason the Taelons came to Earth. A few episodes later, Doors publicly outs himself, using a similar line to this trope.
• In Engine Sentai Go-onger's 10 Years Grand Prix movie, Hiroto gets propelled to Junk World in an explosion (caused by BearRV crash-landing to Earth) and then can't get back, due to the new Prime Minister Noizumi putting up an "isolation barrier" which prevents access to Earth from other dimensions. Everyone else thinks Hiroto was killed in a suicide-bombing attempt to assassinate Noizumi, and when the other Go-ongers end up on Junk World and reunite with him, they initially think he's a ghost.
• Frasier: In "The Late Dr. Crane" a case of mistaken identity at a hospital leads to a news report declaring that Frasier has died, much to confusion of Frasier and his family watching at home. Frasier gets the station to run a retraction but seeing his premature eulogy prompts him to start making some changes to his life. Meanwhile, his father is getting a lot of mileage out of his friends offering their sympathies via free drinks and gift baskets.
• Fries With That?: Ben Shaw files himself as dead to get out of being beaten up. His friends quickly take advantage of this by pointing out that they don't pay dead people.
• Game of Thrones.
  Lord Tywin: I see that the rumors of your demise were unfounded.
  Tyrion: Sorry to disappoint you, Father. No need to leap up and embrace me, I wouldn't want you to strain yourself.
• General and I:
  • Chu Bei Jie is believed dead. Turns out he's alive. But Bai Ping Ting doesn't learn this until she's given a rival army information that could help them defeat him.
  • Later, Bai Ping Ting is believed dead. Yang Feng and Ze Yin have a funeral and a memorial made for her. Unknown to them or Chu Bei Jie, she's still alive.
• There's an episode of The Golden Girls in which Blanche's spurned boyfriend, an obituary editor, runs her obituary to get back at her. Blanche is more upset that he claimed she was 68 than she is about being presumed dead.
• Happy!: After the Final Battle of Season 1, Nick's various injuries and a heart attack cause him to be rendered clinically dead for eight minutes before being resuscitated. This leads to rumors on the street that he actually died permanently.
• Highlander had an episode involving an Immortal who did a lot of charity work, who was shot in a mugging and died on Anne's operating table. As Anne broke the news to his followers, he came walking down the hall.
• In one Horrible Histories sketch, as per history, a distinctly premature obituary is Alfred Nobel's inspiration for establishing his eponymous prizes (as it revealed that otherwise he would be remembered solely as the 'Merchant of Death', i.e. the inventor of dynamite). "And I will call them... Prize-amite!"
• In iCarly, Spencer is thought to be dead in an episode due to a misleading newspaper article which never explains why they presumed that. It results in Spencer's artwork being worth a lot more money, which causes him to continue the illusion.
• Not quite a running gag, but it happens a few times on Kaamelott.
  • In one of the pilot episodes, "Les Funérailles d'Ulfin", Arthur is attending the funeral of an elderly noble... only to have the "dead guy" waking up (just as the pyre is being lighted) and asking what's going on. When he makes an unfortunate comment, Arthur is very tempted to put him back in the grave.
  • In Livre I, "La Mort le Roy Artu", Father Blaise endeavors to have tourists visiting Kaamelott to bring some money to the coffers. The visit of the castle ends up with... the tomb of King Arthur. Because it's solemn. Arthur is rather bothered by this; Blaise thus changes it to... visiting the tomb of Queen Guenièvre.
    Lancelot: Perceval, what are you doing here?
    Perceval: I'm taking the tour.
    Arthur: What tour? You live here, you complete moron!
    Perceval: Yeah, but they take you places I've never seen! Apparently we can visit your tomb, that's got to be worth looking at.
  • Episode "Always" of Livre II is all about the characters reacting (and getting all philosophical) over the report of Perceval's death. Turns out he just has been very sick and shows up at the end.
    Arthur: But you're not dead, you bastard?!
  • A bard once announces the funeral of King Loth. As it happens, you shouldn't listen to everything bards sing.
  • Léodagan and Séli are once believed to be dead by their kingdom of Carmélide, And There Was Much Rejoicing. When Léodagan learns that it was caused by Yvain's latest poor choice of a moniker (he was going for "the Elephant of Cameliard", but got it mixed up with "Orphan"), he is not amused.
  • Lancelot makes his reappearance in a rather sinister fashion:
    Guenièvre: I thought you were dead?
    Lancelot: Not yet, not quite.
• One episode of Lateline has Raji really upset as the news program goes to air. He then reveals that he had just heard Buddy Hackett had died. They agree to make a quick mention on the air. When the guests respond to the quick mention by discussing their memories of Hackett, they end up turning the episode into an hour-long dedication. The next episode of the news program starts with the revelation that Hackett is still alive an apology for the mistake. (The episode of the sitcom aired in 1998, five years before Buddy Hackett died for real.)
• Life With Lucy: When Lucy buys a computer for the store, she accidentally makes the bank think Curtis died.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Adar confesses to Galadriel how and why he killed Sauron, while Sauron disguised as Halbrand, casually waits somewhere outside the barn. After being left alone with Halbrand, Adar seems to realize his great mistake of assuming that Sauron is dead, after asking Halbrand who is he and getting no answer to his question.
• In the M*A*S*H episode "The Late Captain Pierce", the U.S. Army mistakenly declares Hawkeye dead. The 4077th knows it's a mistake, but Hawkeye's father, who was notified in keeping with official policy, does not, and due to some exceptionally poor timing, it takes Hawkeye several days to reach him and set the record straight.
• My Family: Ben Harper gets listed in the obituary by accident.
• Max Headroom: In the pilot, Network 23 president Grossberg attempts to have Edison Carter killed to cover up the death of a viewer caused by one of Network 23's Blipverts. The episode ends with Carter storming Grossberg's office with his camera in hand, just as Grossberg has finished announcing his death.
  "This is Edison Carter, coming to you very much live and direct from Network 23."
• In the Murder, She Wrote episode "Who Killed J.B. Fletcher?" the Victim of the Week is a fan of Jessica's work who uses her name when engaged in her own amateur sleuthing. When she gets killed and the investigators find her fake J.B. Fletcher ID, Jessica has to juggle solving the crime, keeping an eye on the other members of the fan club in case they fo something similar, and making sure her friends and family all know she's actually fine.
• One My Two Dads episode has a typo in an obituary causing everyone to think Joey was dead. He goes along with it for a while to sell art, because Dead Artists Are Better.
• NCIS:
  • Tony DiNozzo is presumed dead in "Bury Your Dead" when the car he was assigned for his undercover mission against La Grenouille suddenly blows up, leaving a charred corpse matching his physical details along with his personal effects. Ducky later realises during the autopsy that the corpse's lungs have mild scarring whereas Tony's would've been heavily scarred from the Y. Pestis incident. He shows up later, furious that he was almost murdered and explains that the dead guy in his car was one of La Grenouille's assistants.
  • After her family farmhouse was mortar bombed, it's presumed Ziva David was killed in the attack and her remains were incinerated by the blast, but her and Tony's daughter Tali survived unharmed. It's later revealed that she survived and went underground for years.
• Obi-Wan Kenobi: In Part I, it's revealed that Obi-Wan, Owen and Bail initially believed that Anakin Skywalker had died after the events of Revenge of the Sith. In Part II, The Third Sister informs Obi-Wan that Lord Vader is looking for him. Obi-Wan panics and she senses it.
  Third Sister: You didn't know? He's alive, Obi-Wan. Anakin Skywalker is alive.
• October Faction: Samuel Allen's death was faked by Presidio.
• In ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?, an obituary for a woman whose name is the same as grandmother Adela's goes out, and two of her friends come to the house to pay their respects. Adela then finds out about the obituary and nearly passes out. On top of that, the more annoying of the two friends ends up dying while Adela is off making coffee in the kitchen.
• In the Red Dwarf special The Promised Land, Rimmer flies through a window with a bomb that was about to blow up the ship. The bomb explodes a short distance away, leaving Lister and the Cat to believe he sacrificed himself, until he turns up in the corridor behind them.
• Rome. Lucius Vorenus returns to Rome after eight years campaigning in Gaul to find that due to an error, his pay had ceased being sent to his wife Niobe, so she assumed he'd been killed in battle. Unfortunately she then had a child with another man, which she has to keep secret because Vorenus can legally kill both her and the child under Roman law.
• In The Sarah Jane Adventures episode "The Death of the Doctor"... well, you can guess.
  The Doctor: Have you been telling people I'm dead?
• Subverted in this Saturday Night Live segment from 2001 in which Lou Reed appeared on "Weekend Update" to confront rumors that he was dead. Reed confirmed that yes, he really was dead.
  • Played straight in a memorable 1993 skit in which Paul McCartney, appearing on "The Chris Farley Show'', confirmed that the Paul Is Dead hoax (see Real Life below) was in fact a hoax.
    Paul: I wasn't really dead.
  • In the 40th anniversary special, many jokes were made at the expense of Jon Lovitz that listed him as a beloved cast member that was no longer with us, only to cut to him, sitting in the Live Studio Audience, reacting as if this was news to him. Culminated with him being listed at the end of a montage of all the deceased cast and crew, with the slow-motion of his WTH expression from earlier and somber music.
  • Inverted with Generalissimo Fransisco Franco, who has been correctly reported as still dead... but Weekend Update still maintains reporters on the scene in the event that his condition changes. ^note  The Original Gag was spoofing the media reports over-reporting his failing health in an attempt to avoid this trope.
  • Parodied in a sketch skewering Natalie Cole's duet with her deceased father, Nat King Cole, showing Natalie (Ellen Cleghorne) singing with other deceased singers, e.g. Sammy Davis Jr. (Tim Meadows). However, Natalie sings "Stand By Your Man" with Tammy Wynette, who was actually alive at the time, with Tammy (Melanie Hutsell) furiously interjecting.
    Tammy Wynette: (shouting) Hey, I am NOT dead!
    Natalie Cole: (still singing) I am not dead...
    Tammy: This is how rumors gets started!
    Natalie: This is how rumors get started...
    Tammy: Cut it out, bitch!
    Natalie: Cut it out, bitch...
• Schitt's Creek: Rumors of Moira's death circulate online. Moira is at first horrified, then begins to bask in the attention and praise being dead garners her. She plots her resurrection press conference carefully, but she takes too long and her death is overshadowed by the death of a celebrity kitten.
• In the Seinfeld episode "The Caddy," this happens to George Costanza when he goes on an unauthorized vacation while his car is parked at his job with the keys locked in it, taking advantage of everyone's belief that he must be at work if his car is there. He remembers too late that a local restaurant regularly leaves fliers on the windshields of all the cars in the lot and sends Jerry to remove the evidence. Finding the car additionally covered in seagull droppings, Jerry and Kramer pick the lock and take the car to a car wash, but get in an accident on the way back. George's coworkers find the car with the door broken off and blood in the driver's seat and instantly assume the worst. Hilarity Ensues.
• Sleepy Hollow gives us a subversion with Brooks, who actually was dead, but was resurrected by the Big Bad to continue doing his dirty work:
  Brooks: Reports of my death were... pretty much true.
• Smallville: In a bit of a subversion, Earth-1's Lionel Luthor really does die in season 7. A few years later, in season 10, his Earth-2 counterpart comes to Earth-1 and pretends to be the original, saying the trope name almost word-for-word.
• The eventually-oft-killed Daniel Jackson had this happen to him in an early episode of Stargate SG-1- they hold a eulogy for him and start going through his stuff before they realize they've just been tricked into thinking he's dead. And at the beginning of season 7, he reclaims a good many items which Jonas Quinn was using... "You weren't using them" was Jonas' (understandable) explanation. He differs from most of these examples in that most of the time he actually was dead. Later on, though, his teammates get wise about it, and O'Neill outright refuses to hold a memorial service one of the latter times he gets killed, noting that he'll probably be back any time now.
• Star Trek
  • Star Trek: The Original Series:
    • In "Amok Time" Kirk and Spock are forced to fight to the death in some kind of Vulcan mating ritual. Spock seemingly kills Kirk (which snaps him out of a mating frenzy, don't know what that says about their relationship) and returns to the Enterprise devastated and ready to resign from Starfleet. Cue Kirk coming up behind him and asking "Don't you think you had better check with me first?". Cue Spock grabbing him and spinning him around with the biggest, goofiest smile on his face. Turns out McCoy had injected Kirk with something during a time-out that he said was to help the human Kirk compensate for Vulcan's climate, but was really to make it look like Kirk had died so Spock would win the fight without actually killing him.
    • In "Patterns of Force" Kirk and Spock hear an Ekosian propaganda announcement claiming that an "enemy spaceship" (the Enterprise) has been "utterly destroyed". Kirk drily remarks that Spock is looking well for someone who has been utterly destroyed.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • In "Duet", the Cardassian war criminal Gul Darhe'el gets apprehended by the crew, only for Gul Dukat to inform them that the real Darhe'el has been dead for several years. Darhe'el initially falls back on this trope before finally breaking down and admitting the truth — he's one of Darhe'el's former assistants who was so horrified by what he witnessed that he's impersonating Darhe'el in an attempt to force Cardassia into owning up to the atrocities they inflicted upon the Bajorans.
    • Invoked for the purpose of humor in the series finale. When Jake asks after the welfare of Kasidy (pregnant and struggling with Morning Sickness), she quips, "Reports of my death have been exaggerated... but not by much."
• Supernatural: Dean's "demise was exaggerated" after a shapeshifter who assumed his form was killed.

---