This Post Contains No Artificial Intelligence. It Contains No Human Intelligence Either.
Caitlin Todd on NCIS. Just when you think she was safe and they were wrapping up the episode BAM she gets shot right in the head by a sniper right in front of Gibbs.
That was pretty well advertised though. So it wasn't that shocking (exactly how his Doctor went out WAS though). In saying that, I wasn't prepared either. But he left because he had issues with the production and director Joe Ahearne (who himself left the show as well).
Darrin Stevens
*ducks*
In the case of MASH, the death was a smart move. The show had been a comedy up until that point and they felt killing Blake off would hammer home the seriousness of the Korean War and the risks one takes by involving themselves in a war environment. If that death hadn't have occurred, we wouldn't have had the dramatic shift towards a comedy-drama.
Alex Taylor on Third Watch.
I never really watched the show, so this is just something I heard ages ago...:
I believe Dan Conner was supposed to have died after a heart attack in an earlier season of Roseanne and it was revealed in the finale.
Now, I do know the show was rebooted a few years ago and Dan was alive.
And then they killed off Roseanne.
Heh.
Romano on ER. Not only was the death shocking, it was also stupid.
He had the heart attack towards the end of season 8. The last few episodes focused on his recovery. But the end of 9 revealed he had died and everything after that up until the finale was the result of Roseanne writing a book to cope with the grief. Then season 10 had to fix up that plot point via a Dallas style retcon that it was all the results of a nightmare.
Roseanne getting bumped off occurred because of her comments behind the scenes. Otherwise she would still be on it.