History TearJerker / TheTwilightZone1959

** Rod Serling's intent was that [[AuthorTract he got what he deserved for not being normal.]] Just about everyone didn't see it that way and instead thought it was [[YankTheDogsChain needlessly cruel]], however.

* Captain Riker leaving behind his wedding ring and baby pictures after being told by his best friend that he's doomed to die in "The Purple Testament" as well as said friends forlorn DeathSeeker attitude afterwards.

* "The Changing of the Guard" has Professor Ellis Fowler [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness being forced into retirement after 50 years of devoting his life to teaching.]] Heartbroken and feeling everything he tried to do for his students was all for naught, he decides to kill himself. Before he is able to, he goes back into his classroom and his reunited with his late students who all died honorably ([[DyingMomentOfAwesome in war saving others and while trying to find a cure for cancer]]) and thanked him for the lessons and bravery he taught them. Doubling as heartwarming ultimately, it's certainly relatable to people of all ages (particularly adults) who question their worth and place in the world and wonder what, if any, legacy they will leave behind.

* "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E30AStopAtWilloughby A Stop at Willoughby]]". While the DownerEnding is enough (Gart is a depressed executive who is LongingForFictionland and is basically DrivenToSuicide), the RealitySubtext makes it worse. Creator/RodSerling at the time of the episode also felt depressed and was stressed out by work, and the train stops in the episode are real Northwest Corridor stops on Amtrak.

* From "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E58LongDistanceCall Long Distance Call]]": The father's plea to his dead mother, through the [[PhoneCallFromTheDead toy telephone]] she has supposedly been talking to his son through, after convincing the child to drown himself so they can be TogetherInDeath, pleading with her to let his son (who paramedics are trying to resuscitate downstairs) live.

* It's a blink and you'll miss it type of moment, but Jason Foster gets one in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E145TheMasks The Masks]]". At about ten to midnight all his family has to say is about how unbearable their masks are. He asks "is there nothing else you have to say to me?" in a tone of disappointment and he just gets more complaining while being called crazy. From his tone of voice, it sounded as if Jason still had at least one small hope that his family could show ''some'' kindness, but instead all they give him is incessant pettiness and cruelty.

* "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E27TheBigTallWish The Big Tall Wish]]". A washed up boxer is able to win his comeback match thanks to the wish his girlfriend's son made. The boxer discovers this and feels that something like a wish is an impossible explanation, and despite the boy's heartbreaking pleas to believe in it he just can't, and ultimately the wish is undone. On top of that, the failure of his wish causes the boy to [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsforKids finally give up his belief in miracles]].
* "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E47TheNightOfTheMeek Night of the Meek]]" is a brutal combination of this and Heartwarming.

* Watch "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough at Last]]" and try not to feel your heart die when you see the tragic fate of poor innocent Henry Bemis.

* "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E106HesAlive He's Alive]]". From the realization that neo-Nazi Peter Vollmer is nothing more than a sad child wanting love, to Ernst's constant reminders that Peter's ideas are not as new as he claims.
* TheReveal at the end of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E79FiveCharactersInSearchOfAnExit Five Characters In Search of An Exit]]" - The characters are simple toys, and that's all they ever were. It does include a RayOfHopeEnding at the end where Serling reveals that the toys will be loved and cared for by children.
* "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E127TheOldManInTheCave The Old Man In The Cave]]". Poor Mr. Goldsmith, left as the last man alive in the ruins of his town, after trying his damndest to save everyone from radiation poisoning that they could have easily avoided if they just listened to him.
* Poor, poor, poor [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E109JessBelle Jess-Belle]].

* "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E10JudgementNight Judgement Night]]"

* The way Becker recounts the sickening torture and misery he and the other prisoners at Dachau were forced to endure under SS Captain Lutze in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E74DeathsHeadRevisited Deaths-Head Revisited]]" is simply heartbreaking, and is only magnified by the unrepentant Lutze's own casual flippancy when confronted with the cruelty he inflicted on them.

* Arch Hammer's quest in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E13TheFourOfUsAreDying The Four of Us are Dying]]" is cruel enough- tricking a dead jazz singer's heartbroken girlfriend, for one thing. But after disguising himself as boxer Andy Marshak to escape some gangsters, he ends up running into Marshak's father. That's when we learn Hammer isn't the only monster in the episode: Andy Marshak abandoned his family, then broke his mother's heart and did something horribly cruel to a sweet young girl who was incredibly devoted to him. Whatever it was, his father has nothing but [[IHaveNoSon contempt]] for him, enough to want to ''[[OffingTheOffspring shoot his own son]]'', which is ultimately how Hammer meets his end. [[NothingIsScarier We never find out exactly what Marshak did, but the implications are very unpleasant.]]

* "The Silence". While neither party is exactly sympathetic, it's nothing short of a DownerEnding when you realize [[NothingIsTheSameAnymore betting has changed their lives for the worse]]. One party now has to live with both his lack of honor and the exposure of his [[ImpoverishedPatrician fraudulent wealth]]; and the other party is now broke ''and'' [[TheSpeechless unable to speak ever again]].
** Worse, if Jamie ''had'' won the $500,000 he was promised, it still would've been a PyrrhicVictory. Even if he found a skilled neurosurgeon with that money, severed nerves are nearly impossible to repair.

* In "A Piano In The House", {{Jerkass}} theatre critic Fitzgerald Fortune discovers that the titular player piano has the power to make people reveal their inmost secrets when certain music is placed within it, first discovering it when the piece chosen causes his [[TheStoic normally-taciturn butler]] to break into a manic smile, as he's genuinely happy with his job and even finds Fitzgerald's temper amusing. He decides to use this power to play a cruel joke on one of the people at his wife's birthday party, [[BigFun a jovial, heavyset woman]] named Marge. The music makes Marge reveal to everyone that she secretly wishes she was as light and delicate as a snowflake, and likes to imagine herself as a graceful ballerina named Tina. While in her trance she's quite graceful. At first, everyone is laughing, until Marge reveals her secret desires and dreams of being loved by somebody, as she takes his hand into hers and melts away. Once the music is off, Marge comes back to reality and realizes what she's just done. Of course, [[FunnyAneurysmMoment at that point]], the only person who was still laughing [[{{Jerkass}} was Fitzgerald]].

* In "Midnight Sun", a man breaks into the two main character's apartment and gulps down their water. At first, he would seem like just another brutish marauder taking whatever the heck he pleases during this desperate, lawless crisis. But then, he sees the paintings in the young woman's apartment and softens. They remind him of how his wife used to paint. He shares his personal story about [[FreudianExcuse how the wife died during childbirth, and how their baby perished in the growing heat]]. As he leaves the two in peace, he sadly moans to himself that he's not a bad guy. It's a sobering testament about how the crisis at hand has turned good (if grieving) men into desperate souls with nothing to lose. Arguably worse with TheReveal that none of it was real. The world is doomed, but not because of heat, but of ice. The Earth is leaving its orbit and slowly freezing over, and the whole episode was the main character having a fever dream caused by the encroaching cold.

* In "Midnight Sun", a man breaks into the two main character's apartment and gulps down their water. At first, he would seem like just another brutish marauder taking whatever the heck he pleases during this desperate, lawless crisis. But then, he sees the paintings in the young woman's apartment and softens. They remind him of how his wife used to paint. He shares his personal story about [[FreudianExcuse how the wife died during childbirth, and how their baby perished in the growing heat]]. As he leaves the two in peace, he sadly moans to himself that he's not a bad guy. It's a sobering testament about how the crisis at hand has turned good (if grieving) men into desperate souls with nothing to lose. Arguably worse with TheReveal that none of it was real. The world is doomed, but not because of heat, but of ice. The Earth is leaving it's orbit and slowly freezing over, and the whole episode was the main character having a fever dream caused by the encroaching cold.

* "Number 12 Looks Just Like You": Throughout the episode, everyone tells Lana Cuberle that going through a Transformation into looking just like a select few ideal men or women is always a good thing, but she doubts this, reminiscing on her fathers' love and care for her, and his wisdom about human dignity and identity. Near the end, it seems like she's finally gotten through to her friend Valerie... [[HopeSpot only for her to then callously rebuff her]] and reveal that it's regular for people to often get divorced, because "Everybody marries everybody these days." Then they have this shocking exchange:

-->'''Erich:''' (Angrily) [[IHaveNoSon I'm not your daddy!!]]

* Poor, poor, poor Jess-Belle.

-->'''Christie:''' (Tearfully) Daddy! Daddy, please!

* Arch Hammer's quest in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E13TheFourOfUsAreDying The Four of Us are Dying]]" is cruel enough- tricking a dead jazz singer's heartbroken girlfriend, for one thing. But after disguising himself as boxer Andy Marshak to escape some gangsters, he ends up running into Marshak's father. That's when we learn Hammer isn't the only monster in the episode: Andy Marshak abandoned his family, then broke his mother's heart and did something horribly cruel to a sweet young girl who was incredibly devoted to him. Whatever it was, his father has nothing but contempt for him, enough to want to ''[[OffingTheOffspring shoot his own son]]'', which is ultimately how Hammer meets his end. [[NothingIsScarier We never find out exactly what Marshak did, but the implications are very unpleasant.]]
** Earlier, when Marshak's father confronts Hammer over it, he starts screaming and trying to publicly shame him, Hammer shoves him to the ground and runs off. Marshak's father keeps screaming at him before his voice cracks and he starts crying. A man who's seen what kind of monster his own son has turned into and wants to put an end to it.

* ''The Trouble With Templeton'' has two of them. The first is Booth Templeton arriving in the past only to find his first wife, the love of his life, acting cruel, callous, and arrogant, to the point that she slaps him and demands he leave, breaking his heart and causing him to return to the past. The second is the moment Booth leaves the entire party he entered stops and his wife drops the act; it was all faked in order to get Booth to return to the present. But the heartbreak that she not only had to send him back but also break his heart to do it is a gut punch

* Arch Hammer's quest in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E13TheFourOfUsAreDying The Four of Us are Dying]]" is cruel enough- tricking a dead jazz singer's heartbroken girlfriend, for one thing. But after disguising himself as boxer Andy Marshak to escape some gangsters, he ends up running into Marshak's father. That's when we learn Hammer isn't the only monster in the episode: Andy Marshak broke his mother's heart and did something horribly cruel to a young girl who was devoted to him. Whatever it was, his father has nothing but contempt for him, enough to want to ''[[OffingTheOffspring shoot his own son]]'', which is ultimately how Hammer meets his end. The worst part? [[NothingIsScarier We never find out what Marshak did, but the implications are very unpleasant, given his celebrity status.]]
** Earlier, when Marshak's father confronts Hammer over it, he starts screaming and trying to publicly shame him, Hammer shoves him to the ground and runs off. Marshak's father keeps screaming at him before his voice cracks and he starts crying.

* Arch Hammer's quest in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E13TheFourOfUsAreDying The Four of Us are Dying]]" is cruel enough- tricking a dead jazz singer's heartbroken girlfriend, for one thing. But after disguising himself as boxer Andy Marshak to escape some gangsters, he ends up running into Marshak's father. That's when we learn Hammer isn't the only monster in the episode: Andy Marshak broke his mother's heart and did something horribly cruel to a young girl who was devoted to him. Whatever it was, his father has nothing but contempt for him, enough to want to ''[[OffingTheOffspring shoot his own son]]'', which is ultimately how Hammer meets his end. We never find out what Marshak did, which [[NothingIsScarier makes it even worse.]]
** Earlier, when Marshak's father confronts Hammer over it, he starts screaming and trying to publicly shame him, Hammer shoves him to the ground and runs off. Marshak's father keeps screaming at him before he breaks down in tears.
--> "Look at...my son."

* Arch Hammer's quest in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E13TheFourOfUsAreDying The Four of Us are Dying]]" is cruel enough- tricking a dead jazz singer's heartbroken girlfriend, for one thing. But after disguising himself as boxer Andy Marshak to escape some gangsters, he ends up running into Marshak's father. That's when we learn Hammer isn't the only monster in the episode: Andy Marshak broke his mother's heart and did something horribly cruel to a young girl who was devoted to him. Whatever it was, his father has nothing but contempt for him, enough to want to ''[[OffTheOffspring shoot his own son]]'', which is ultimately how Hammer meets his end. We never find out what Marshak did, which [[NothingIsScarier makes it even worse.]]

** The ending where the doctor, the nurse, and the staff sadly see off Janet Tyler as she goes to live with the other "ugly people". Even though their own faces are our definition of "ugly", they're nonetheless human enough to quietly weep out of pity that they couldn't help Miss Tyler. Earlier in the episode, one of the doctors laments the dictatorship they're living under--"Why? Why can't people be different?"--and a nurse fearfully tells him to be quiet, as even ''speaking'' dissent is apparently a crime in this world. Their monstrous faces don't change the fact that they're human beings, too. They're suffering under the dystopian laws of their society, too, and feel too powerless to do anything about it.

** The ending where the doctor, the nurse, and the staff sadly see off Janet Tyler as she goes to live with the other "ugly people". Even though their own faces are our definition of "ugly", they're nonetheless human enough to quietly weep out of pity that they couldn't help Miss Tyler.

* During Jason's tirade in "The Masks", he mentions that Emily's marriage to Wilfred "broke her dear, late mother's heart in every sense!" It's pretty clear that Emily marrying Wilfred was the catalyst to Jason's family becoming the cruel, miserable people that they are.
* Captain Riker leaving behind his wedding ring and baby pictures after being told by his best friend that he's doomed to die in ''The Purple Testament'' as well as said friends forlorn DeathSeeker attitude afterwards.
* After an episode of being conflicted about it, the three soldiers marching over the hill to join Custer's last stand in ''The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms'', with their names then appearing on the war memorial.