Of character deaths, writers with balls, and the reset button.

[castalia]

Okay, I'm gonna come out and say something in response to a lot of what I've been reading in SGA fannish circles. Then I have a bit of a survey question for all of you.

I've seen a LOT of people going on about how they hope Carson isn't brought back because it would undermine the emotional and narrative impact of killing off a main character. That they're impressed by the writers being brave enough to do that. That's a fair point. However, permanent death or not, I think this is another example of the writers taking the easy route and claiming it to be this bold thing they've done.

You know what would impress me? If they'd had the balls to kill off a character like Sheppard. The lead male, the guy who's first-billed. Something that pretty much never happens in television.

Killing Carson is similar to what the SG-1 writers did back when they killed off Janet Frasier. They patted themselves on their collective back and told us they were doing it for the audience's own good, showing realism and giving us a patronizing life lesson that sometimes our favorite characters die. But they took the easy way out with killing Janet - sure, she was a beloved character and a fan-favorite. But was she a MAIN character, a lead? No. She was recurring and the show moved on without her, sparing only a few brief tears at the time. They also lost a lot of the emotional impact by spending the entire two-parter pretending it was Jack who was really dead, thus relegating Janet to the "better, more acceptable loss" category. Now the SGA writers have killed off a fan-favorite, someone who was recurring and while yes, he was moved up to main character status and put in the opening credits, he was still the safe option. The main team is still intact, the top-billed characters still there.

So, on to the question. Can anyone think of a series where a lead or POV character has been killed? I'm talking permanent death, no reset button, no bringing the actor back as a different character (Hercules and Angel are out, in this case) or as a spirt guide, hologram, AU version, etc.

I know a lot of people cite Joss Whedon shows when talking about this stuff, but I wouldn't call Tara or Joyce lead characters and I'm unsure about Doyle. Cordelia might count, but the mystical weirdness may count against it. Wesley, Anya, Wash, and Book all died in finales where they knew that was it, they wouldn't be making any more of the shows, so I'm not counting those either. Those are safe deaths, b/c while they may cause fannish uproars, the shows don't have to go on afterwards, and Buffy and Angel remain alive at the end. This will take a number of shows out of the running, I think. Finales are safe times to kill off characters.

The best early example I can think of is Henry Blake from M*A*S*H. While not first-billed, he was still a lead character and his departure is considered an important moment in TV history. The show survived long after this, but the uproar caused by the tragic nature of his death supposedly prompted the writers to avoid ever killing off a character in such a manner ever again. Still, even in this case it was prompted by the actor wanting off the show.

OZ was fairly good at what the TV Tropes wiki calls "Killed Off For Real". Any number of lead characters were killed off without warning. This may just be an HBO thing, as Deadwood has done this with Hickok.

Surprisingly, ER has a number of lead deaths under its belt. Dr Greene was first-billed back in the day, wasn't he? They may have to lose some points for stupid deaths, however, as having a helicopter fall on someone is just silly.

Blake's 7 gets an honorable mention for killing off its title character and continuing on for a while without him. He did come back for the finale, but as he died again for real along with everyone else, they get points for their "kill 'em all!" bravado.

Farscape gets points for Zhaan, but D'Argo was a finale death and everyone else came back eventually.

NYPD Blue killed off a few lead detectives, though I don't remember their names. Whoever Jimmy Smits played.

NCIS killed Kate, who was IIRC second-billed and the female lead character. She was in the next two episodes as a sort of hallucination while her team members remembered her, but it was definitely a permanent death.

Any others? I'm especially looking for title or first-billed characters. Now that I've started listing them I've become incredibly curious about this. It'll also tie in rather well with this year's blingfest theme, so call it a research project. Unsurpisingly, cop shows and procedurals seem better at this than your average skiffy show.

Comments

[destina.livejournal.com]

I'm completely drawing a blank on anything but finale and not-final deaths -- like Xena in the finale of her show, or Iolaus (Hercules) and Daniel (SG-1), who eventually came back. Oh, wait! I can think of one. In Deep Space Nine, they did kill off Jadzia Dax, a lead character (and wow, was that traumatic, because I loved her), and then brought back the Dax symbiote in a new host in the last season, but Jadzia was definitely dead. So that counts.

[icepixie]

Well, Doctor Who killed off a few companions here and there. Then again, does anyone really care about Adric? ;)

Forever Knight, a show about vampires, killed off damn near everybody in the finale, but they also killed off Nick's detective partner, Schanke, at the end of the second season. Out of the five main characters, he was probably the most expendable as far as the series arc was concerned, but the actor was second- or third-billed in the credits.

Ballykissangel killed off one of its two leads at the end of the third season. The other one went off in a depression, never to be seen again. They had a revolving door of lead characters for the next three years, I think.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Blackadder (and everyone else pretty much) gets killed off at the end of Blackadder Goes Forth

[lauraspeak.livejournal.com]

The only ones I could think of were Buffy & Angel ones that you already mentioned, and as you said, most were finale deaths. I was going to mentioned Doyle as he never did come back. From what I understand, it was planned from the beginning for him to die, so I don't know how you want to count that.

In same vein I was also going to mention Cordelia because when she actually died in Season 5 it seemed permanent. Oh, where does Fred on Angel stack up? I mean, Amy Acker was still there, but she was a different character. Illyria retained Fred's memories and could turn herself into Fred, but Fred was dead and her soul destroyed.

I didn't know you watched NCIS... Anyway, that is also another example of the actor wanting to leave the show.

Granted I haven't seen the portion of Farscape, but from my reading it appaears that Zhaan only came back in AU kind of ways, but I understand it was left open that she could come back. But again, the actor wanted to leave.

All the deaths on BSG have been safe, I think, too...

I used to watch the first season of Close to Home and they killed Christian Kane's character at the end of the season, but he barely had screentime so, meh.

My mum watches Ghost Whisperer and they killed off the best friend at the end of the first season. She was around the first (and maybe the second, I'm not sure) episode of the next season as a ghost but then she was gone.

Oh! Law & Order the Original killed off Jill Hennessy's (sp?) character. She was the second of the revolving ADA's but the only one killed off.

[delle.livejournal.com]

La Femme Nikita killed of Birkoff in the middle of (last full) Season Four; altho at the time it was filmed I believe they hadn't been told the show wouldn't be renewed but the smell was in the air as the writers desperately tired to show the PTB how "versatile" the show could be.

The actor (Matthew Ferguson) actually remained on the show, as the convenient long-lost twin (EW EW EW). Although Michael and Nikita were The Leads, the show really was an ensemble piece with 6 main characters, one of which was Birkoff.

Madeline (Alberta Watson) was killed in the Season Four finale, when the show was cancelled (we won't talk about the abortion that was the short 5th Season, shall we?)

What about writing off/killing Edith Bunker?

[wemblee.livejournal.com]

From what I heard, the death of Jenny Calendar, while she wasn't one of the Core Scoobies, shocked a lot of BTVS fans.

I can't blame writers for only killing characters when it's "safe" -- those actors are contracted, and if they're doing good work, why put that actor out of a job? However, when they pat themselves on the back for being "risky," like you said, then it gets annoying.

[writerlibrarian]

The one show where no one is safe that I can think of is Spooks aka MI-5. They kill or take out at least two regular characters a season.
And no one is safe in my opinion. Yes, it sometimes comes from the actor wanting to leave but it's often jarring and effective. The beauty of season 5 cliffhanger is that both characters in peril survived. That was very very surprising but in season 6 I wouldn't bet on Adam making it to the end of the season alive. Nope.

Zaff was supposed to drop dead in the last episode but got a reprieve. For how long who knows. We already had lost Colin and Ruth this season I guess losing Zaff would have been too much.

[deborak]

To go back a ways, the old tv show Beauty and the Beast killed off Katherine then went another full season, so I think that counts.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Blakes 7 killed off major characters right and left. They started out with six protagonists (the ship's computer was originally counted as one of the Seven) and two antagonists. Over the four years it was on they killed Gan (protagonist), Travis (antagonist), and Cally (protagonist). Gan was not as major as some of the other characters, but Cally had been a very major (and sympathetic) character. Even the ship's computer, Zen, had a touching death scene.

Two of the original protagonists simply disappeared at the beginning of the third season; one (Jenna) was never heard from again, while the other (the "Blake" of the title) didn't turn up again until the finale. The only original characters remaining in the final season were Avon, Vila (protagonists) and Servalan, now renamed Sleer after faking her own death (antagonist).

This is all aside from the infamous finale, in which it appeared that the entire cast of protagonists, along with the newly-returned Blake, bit the dust.

...

There were two Doctor Who companions who died before Adric; I think their names were Sara Kingdom and Cassandra, but I'm not 100% sure. I used to know this stuff like the back of my hand. :-(

...

The character of Leo on West Wing, a central character, died in the last season because the actor who played him died.

It was strongly hinted that Yemana on Barney Miller had died along with Jack Soo, but never stated outright.

Neither of these was a deliberate decision by TPTB, though, so I don't think they fall under your heading.

[wishfulaces.livejournal.com]

Are you saying that Doctor Who doesn't count? 'Cos, I mean, changing the character pretty drastically every three years or so and keeping the series running for 40+ years has to be some kind of accomplishment, even if the character doesn't "die off" per se...

What about Star Trek: DS9? Jadzia Dax permanently died at the end of the sixth season--granted, it's kinda another DW-like situation, since Ezri Dax showed up.

I feel like I'm missing some really obvious show and will have to smack my own forehead when I think of it, but I can't for the life of me think of what it could be.

[chazzbanner.livejournal.com]

The first one I remember is Mark Harmon's character on St. Elsewhere. He was a young hot-shot surgeon/lothario. He caught AIDS I think and died pretty quickly (this was the early 80s so that wasn't unrealistic). I'm pretty sure he was first-billed. But, he was killed off because Harmon wanted to leave the show. Does that count? :-)

[fan-eunice.livejournal.com]

Homicide killed off Crosetti (*snifflesnifflesob*) in the first episode of season 3.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Let's not forget Kenny! (on South Park)

[gritkitty.livejournal.com]

Jimmy Smits' character, Bobby Simone, died in NYPD Blue. I used to watch the show regularly, and his death was *hard*. A few seasons later, another lead detective died, killed by the mob and only found months later.

The ER death of Dr. Romano (sp??) *was* silly, though satisfying; he was an asshat, and I think every was just as glad he died. But Dr. Green? That was another *ow*. Mondo tears. Yes, I cried like a girl -- shut up.

Oh, one of the DAs died in Law & Order, killed in a car accident. Lenny and drinking was involved.

Also, I keep telling nestra that Zelenka is, or was until Carson bought it, the leading contender for "appealing secondary character we can kill off during sweeps week." I still wouldn't be surprised.

Oh, oh! And in Master and Commander! The Hundred Days, I believe it was. My favorite character, dead dead dead! SO fucking shocking. *sob*

[krzykat.livejournal.com]

The show McLeod's Daughters killed off Claire (Lisa Chappell--who should be recognizable for her roles in HTLJ), one of the two leads, and I believe the show went on for at least two more seasons-- ok I just checked, it's up to season 7 and I'm trying to see if the other lead is still on the show. Unfortunately WE stopped playing it after the third season when they killed off Claire. It was an Australian or NZ show. From what I can tell, the other lead has also left the show, plus the male lead that she was coupled up with, but who knows.

Of course of the two sisters, Claire was my favorite.

[coppercowries.livejournal.com]

Hello lovely! I left a message with your brother but I'm sure he didn't give it to you. I thought you might like to pop over tonight or tomorrow.