You are guilty but shame-free people, PopWatchers, and we love you for it. After the success of our first PopWatch Confessional — where you shared the sins you’ve committed in the name of entertainment— we’d like to see your softer side. Tell us, which TV moments have made you cry?
As always, I’m happy to start the healing: I still tear up anytime I speak of the following moment from the sixth season of Three’s Company. (You read that right. Three’s Company.) Janet quits her job at the flower shop because her male dance instructor makes her believe she has real talent. Jack (John Ritter, pictured), believes the mentor just wants to get in Janet’s tights. After the instructor proves Jack right, Janet is left alone in the dance studio. Jack enters. She tells him not to say "I told you so." He says, he wasn’t going to — he was just going to ask her to dance.
Okay, I just got chills typing that.
Your turn.
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I tear up at every Olympic opening ceremony. I’m not sure why it makes me so emotional, except that it’s nice to see so many different people from different countries coming together for a (mostly) pure and peaceful purpose.
Season 2 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Buffy had to kill the newly reensouled Angel to save the world and then she tearfully left town on a bus with Sarah McLachlan playing in the background. Sniff. Tear.
I wouldn’t have remembered it except for the example given, but the episode of John Ritter’s last show where they dealt with his death. Their emotions were real, which in turn made me cry. It was real, heartfelt, and an honest tribute to a nice guy.
Radar says goodbye on M*A*S*H. Last episode didn’t come anywhere near close to making me as sad as this one did.
The fifth season finale of Buffy when she killed herself to save the world. Even now, when I hear the music that was playing during then, I get a bit misty and have to try to hide my head so that nobody notices.
Oh my god! I haven’t thought of that Three’s Company episode for years, but I grew up watching it and even as a little 8 year old that scene got to me in the re-runs every time and now as an adult I can appreciate it even more so. Thank you for remembering that.
no matter what season it is, no matter how much i don’t like the people, i always cry when i watch the episode of survivor when they get to see their families. i’m ridiculous!
On Growing Pains when Boner left for the military.
Honestly…..what Buffy episode WASNT heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and a tear jerker…. “Becoming Part 2″ and “The Gift” are pure examples. What about “Into the Woods”? “Lover’s Walk”? OH! Angel – Season 1 i think it was… “I Will Remember You” when Angel sets time back so that him and buffy ARENT together. Wow. KILLED me inside. (I like buffy and angel a little…)
anyways….thank you SO MUCH for mentioning Three’s Company!!! I’m only 22, but own all 8 Seasons on DVD. LOVE this show and it doesn’t get enough credit!
Jimmy Smits’ death on NYPD Blue
I cried like a baby every fall for about 5 years when I found out that Murphy Brown hadn’t been cancelled yet.
The episode of Boy Meets World where Shawn and Jack’s dad dies. I mean, yeah, death is sad, but I didn’t cry that much when, say, Mrs. Landingham died on West Wing, and that’s a show I actually followed.
Any child of the 70s remembers good ol’ Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street. The episode where his death was explained to Big Bird (and us kids) still makes me cry. It’s posted somewhere on YouTube, if you’ve got a box of Kleenex handy.
Designing Women when Charleene has the baby and the old woman dies at the same time. When Bill’s plane flys off at the end when they tell him he has a baby I am crying like a baby. I’m crying as I write this.
Fresh Prince:
When Will confessed to having the pills in his locker that Carlton took which resulted in Carlton having to go to the hospital.
I don’t watch Extreme Home Makeover because I cry at the commercials. The last time I cried while watching an actual show was when Saracen’s dad left for Iraq on Friday Night Lights. The way he was standing off to the side fidgeting and the hug with his grandma and Julie at the end. . . ummm, that’s not a tear, I have something in my eye. I swear.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer…this is what makes you people tear up. What is the world coming to?
What the….maybe you miss it EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. EW and every other critic RAVES about the show (its been off the air for a few years and its STILL talked about it). Don’t judge until you watch Seasons 1 and 2…then we can talk.
When Tasha Yar gives her hologram farewall after being killed by the oil slick creature on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The way she says she’s not sure if Picard is like a father to her because she never had one, but thinks he must be because he’s the one she most wants to make proud gets me everytime!
i made a pillow wet when i watched the last episode of Six Feet Under and they showed everyones future and how they died. most people hated it but i ate it up. i still get teary watching it.
btw- thank you for putting John Ritter’s pic up- everytime i see him i smile and get a little sad also. he’s still missed.
When Blake and Krystal got remarried in Season 9 before she went away for the surgery on her brain tumor. She made him sign a living will in case she didn’t come out of it saying that they would divorce. it was held in the mansion and they had no officiator, because Blake did it. ALl lit by candles adn each family member gave Krystal flowers making up her boquet as she came down the aisle…
When Monica proposed to Chandler in the season 6 finale of Friends.
“There’s a reason why girls dn’t do this”
Buffy– When Joyce dies. Heartwrenching and masterfully filmed. I was bawling the entire episode, Joyce’s death, Buffy’s call to Giles, Anya’s speech, everything
Grey’s Anatomy– When Denny Duquette died and “Chasing Cars” came on, I lost it
The episode of The Golden Girls when Blanche’s late husband comes back and explains he’s just been in hiding for the last few years. In the end it’s just her dream and I cry every time.
I also sob like a baby watching the Hawaii episode of ER when Mark Greene dies.
Yes, I agree with ya’ll about Buffy. My and my husband’s favorite show. Anyone who hasn’t watched it especially from the beginning, wouldn’t understand.
I still cry at the episode of MASH where Henry Blake is killed. I use to cry at almost every episode of ER in it’s early days. I completely lost it on the episode where they killed off Dr. Mark Green.
When Marrissa died on The O.C. my arms got all goose bumpy and my eyes welled up with tears. True she was an uninteresting stick figure. But she was MY uninteresting stick figure. Plus Imogen Heap was playing in the background and she could make a rock cry.
I know this is pretty recent, but the “Grey’s Anatomy” ep where George’s dad died aired the same week that my own dad had heart surgery. (My dad is doing great now, but it had been a tense week for my family.)
At the end of the episode, where Christina invites George into the “Dead Dad’s Club” and George tells her that he’s trying to figure out how to go on in a world that his dad is no longer part of, I think I damaged my boyfriend’s sweatshirt and the couch with all my tears. Sometimes it’s not even the storyline itself that grabs me as much as a line of dialogue that so succinctly expresses so much with just a few words. It was a very real and cathartic moment for a show that tends towards the soapy and overwrought too often.
The season finale of the second-to-last season of “Ed” (which many thought would be the series finale, but then it got renewed for one more not-nearly-as-good-because-that-was-the-most-perfect-ending-possible year), when Ed proposed to Carol. I sobbed!
Oh, and is it weird that I tear up almost every time an American Idol contestant is told they’re going to Hollywood and comes out of the room with their golden ticket?
Just reading everyone’s comments, especially re: Buffy and Designing Women makes me want to tear up all over again. I wanted to cry like a baby when I found out Once and Again had been cancelled
Ok, “What the”,
Anyone who still dismisses Buffy has obviously never bothered to watch one episode. I have all seven seasons on DVD and still watch reruns every morning on FX while dressing for work. Yes, you heard me, “work”, not “school” because I’m a 38 year old woman and I will forever consider Buffy not only one of my favorite shows, but one of the best written shows ever on tv. I’ll also add my own tearful Buffy moment – Season 2 when Angel first turns evil and blows her off after their first time in bed together. She doesn’t know he’s “evil” yet – just thinks it’s a typical blow off after sex. The look on her face is heartbreaking.