Over on Reddit, fans of small screen comedies and sitcoms are sharing the darkest episodes of their favorite light-hearted romps and sitcoms. From super sad moments in kiddie shows to scary scenes from classic ’80s comedies, here are incredibly dark episodes from light-hearted shows.
‘M*A*S*H’ – ‘Goodbye, Farewell and Amen’
The episode where Hawkeye is getting therapy for a situation where the mother had to suffocate her child because they were surrounded by NKA. He was in denial the whole episode and kept saying it was a chicken, but at the end they showed it was an actual child, I was like 12 at the time, f*cked me up
‘Little House on the Prairie’ – ‘Sylvia’
The ONLY episode of Little House on the Prairie I’ve ever seen was about a young teen girl getting [assaulted] and impregnated by a man in a clown mask, then killed.
‘Full House’ – ‘Silence Is Not Golden’
That episode of Full House where Stephanie makes friends with a boy whose father abuses him.
There’s this whole thing about whether she should keep her promise to keep it a secret or not, but then he starts missing school because of how bad his dad beats him, so she ends up telling Uncle Jesse.
Dinosaurs
The final episode synopsis:
Every year, there’s an annual event to watch some beetles migration. Except, this year, no insects appear, but one, who lands in the Sinclair’s household (the Sinclair’s being the family the show centers around). They go to the spot where the beetles are suppose to end up at, only to find that the entire area was plowed under to make room for a Wax Fruit Company (a division of the We Say So company, which is the monolithic company mentioned throughout the series), because wax fruit is more important that a bunch of beetles habitat.
Anyway, it turns out the beetles were responsible for eating a specific type of plant, and without anymore beetles coming around, the weed grows out of control. To combat this, they spread a pesticide, which ends up defoliating the entire planet.
So, without anymore plant life around, bad stuff happens, so they decide that plants need water. And what makes water? Clouds. And what can make clouds? Volcanos erupting. So, they drop bombs in every volcano in the world, causing a nuclear winter.
Earl Sinclair, who was the head of all of this, ends up realizing his mistake, and goes to his boss, B.P. Richfield, who doesn’t care that the world is ending. Next quarter’s profits are going to be the biggest of all time, due to an increase of people buying heaters and hot chocolate. Earl goes back home to apologize to his family about causing the end of the world, and the final scene you see is the news anchor, Howard Handupme, saying “Goodbye”.
‘Diff’rent Strokes’ – ‘The Hitchhikers’
Kimberly and Arnold hitch a ride from a [serial predator.]
Oh, and that episode about the [bike store owner/creep]. The shop owner lures them into the shop, and shows them some hentai, and Arnold’s like “[screw] that” and leaves Dudley there with the creep.
‘Hey Arnold!’ – ‘Helga On The Couch’
“Helga on the Couch” from Hey Arnold.
It’s the one focusing entirely on Helga as she’s forced to go to counseling after getting caught punching Brainy.
Hey Arnold always tackled great issues, but an episode showing that Helga’s anger stems from her neglect was so brutally real. Her parents fawn over her perfect sister and basically forget that she exists, to the point where as a preschooler, she walks by herself in the city in the pouring rain to get to school. She lashes out in anger because it’s the only way she’s learned how to cope, and her obsession with Arnold comes from the fact that he was the only person to show her any kindness.
It’s an excellent episode, but definitely touches on some very real themes.
‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ – ‘Hard Time’
Although Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is known for being a darker version of Trek than the other series, I’d say one episode that was pretty dark was “Hard Time” which is probably one of the only episodes where a main character has almost attempted suicide.
Chief O’Brien gets falsely accused of espionage and gets arrested and sentenced, however this planet doesn’t physically imprison people for crimes they mentally imprison them so they alter memories so that O’Brien served a 20 year prison sentence in only a few hours but to him he lived those 20 years, in his mind he lived every single day in that prison and these memories can’t just be removed.
By the time the station finds out about his arrest, the sentence is already complete since it only took a few hours, when he returns to DS9 everyone around him treats him normally as if only a few hours have passed whereas to him he hasn’t seen this people, his wife, his children and so on for 20 years and so he exhibits some prison habits in his daily life for instance his first night back home he sleeps on the floor because thats what hes used to or over dinner he’d put some extra food in a cloth involuntarily because in his memories of this “prison sentence” the guards would rarely feed them.
He begins to get more irritable and at one point he snaps at his kid and shouts at them then realizes that he’s never done that before and he begins to see a figment of his imagination around the station, the imaginary cellmate he had called Ee’char but when people would ask he would tell them that he was alone in the prison cell and we find out it’s because in his mind he accidentally killed his imaginary cellmate in a brawl over some scraps of food and felt so guilty about it that he tried to commit suicide by a phaser before Dr. Bashir stopped him.
‘8 Simple Rules’ – ‘Goodbye’
Lighthearted family friendly comedy. Nice likeable characters, no violence, no swearing etc.
Then the dad (John Ritter) dies in real life, so they kill him off-screen and they have multiple episodes of the family grieving their dead father. It’s rough.
‘The Powerpuff Girls’ – ‘Twisted Sister’
Powerpuff Girls episode “Twisted Sister,” when they create a fourth sister, Bunny, who’s horribly deformed and with a intellectually disabled. She then gets made fun of and reprimanded by her sisters, and runs away.
The episode ends with the sister blowing up because her body was unstable (they just threw in random ingredients when creating her), and the sisters crying. That’s it.
‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ – ‘Plan F: Goodbyeee’
The last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth. The characters have developed over the years from stupidly comical to quite likeable at that point. I avoided spoilers and didn’t see that coming at all. It’s devastating.
Basically Baldrick’s naivety in that episode becomes depressing, when he basically rants about why they couldn’t have peace and such. Even Blackadder doesn’t have any witty remarks in response to that.
And George admitting he’s actually really scared, plus Darling being sent at the last minute to the front lines. It makes the entire season much more harsher, because for all their effort, they still died a pointless death at the hands of a dumb as f**k general.
‘Rugrats’ – ‘Chuckie’s Wonderful Life’
The episode where Chas (Chuckie’s dad) completely unravels, and the Finster house is basically a storage unit for empty pizza boxes. I think he also makes hand puppets. Apparently it’s a “What If…” episode about what the world would be like if Chuckie were never born.
After the babies take Chas’ favorite “Latvian Folk Dance” music CD (Angelica takes it when they aren’t looking), Chuckie blames Tommy and the twins for having the idea of taking it, but then he feels guilty about it. When Angelica tells him that everyone would be better off without him, Chuckie decides to run away from home. But then his guardian angel stops him and shows him what the world would be like if he was never born:
He shows him that without him having been born, Chas is lonely, because he never married and the only person he has to talk to is a sock puppet he named Socky. And the house is a mess because without Chuckie, Chas didn’t see any reason to clean up. As the guardian angel drives Chuckie through the neighborhood, the streets are messy and broken while kids are causing trouble, because without him, he can’t tell them to stop or tell them that it’s wrong. At Phil and Lil’s house, the twins are dress as delinquents and throwing plates on the floor, while Howard and Betty are crying over their destroyed house. Showing that without Chuckie, Phil and Lil wouldn’t know the difference between right and wrong and act naughty all the time and cause havoc. Soon, Chas comes in and says he hopes that they don’t mind if he and Socky can stay because they are lonely. Then when they ask what they should do about Phil and Lil, he says they should be lucky to have a kid, even one that was like them, then they all start crying.
The guardian angel shows Chuckie Tommy’s house. When they get there, Tommy is going through the garbage, looking for food. The guardian angel says that one day, Angelica came by, threw him out, and took everything that he had (including his parents). Soon, she proceeded to take over his house and the reason nobody stopped her is because she kept on yelling until she got her way. Angelica has also become morbidly obese, forcing both Stu and Didi to bake her cookies constantly while never sharing them with anyone else. Angelica took a bite of cookie and a cup of syrup to drink. When Tommy asks for “just a little crumb of cookie, even if it’s already been in [her] mouth,” she refuses saying “she’d have to give one to everyone,” and takes his rattle.
When Chuckie asks why Tommy didn’t just stand up for himself, the angel explains that the only reason Tommy’s brave is because he’s got someone like Chuckie to back him up, and if Chuckie had never been born, Tommy’s got no real motivation to stand up to bullies like Angelica, and that it doesn’t matter that Chuckie always gets scared.
Chuckie’s fed up with being in a world without him, and says that running away isn’t such a good idea, and asks his guardian angel to take him home.
‘Teen Titans’ – ‘Haunted’
The show Teen Titans “Haunted” episode where Robin starts to lose his sanity because he believes Slade (who [passed] before this episode) is about to destroy the city and threatens his friends when they try to tell him that it’s all in his head.
‘Boy Meets World’ – ‘The Psychotic Episode’
That episode of Boy Meets World where Cory dreams he’s killing all of his friends, in a symbolic representation of his fear of married life.
‘Drake & Josh’ – ‘Josh Is Done’
That episode of Drake & Josh where Josh decides he’s completely done with Drake. He’s tired of his selfish ways, and cuts him out of his life. He doesn’t get mad, or yell. He just calmly goes about his life ignoring Drake altogether; when Drake tries talking to him, he’s all “I’m not mad, I’m just done with you.” It takes an accident in a science lab to completely break him down, and profess a sincere apology to Josh.
It’s so unsettling because the show was normally a pre-teen/teenager fun romp, and out of nowhere one of the characters was pretty much like “Yeah, you’re a [bad] person. I’ll be civil towards you because you’re my stepbrother, and we live together, but I’m completely done.”
Really showcased some stellar acting from the duo, too.
‘Frasier’ – ‘Room Full of Heroes’
The episode of Frasier where Niles dresses up as Martin for Halloween and puts all kinds of nasty words into Martin’s mouth. Uncomfortable, and a little dark in the way it reveals how grown kids can still idolize yet ultimately fear disappointing their parents, and the damage those beliefs do.
