9 TV Character Farewells That Hurt the Most
We’ve all ugly-cried over TV character deaths, but we’ve also gone through full tissue boxes when TV characters simply move away.
Fifteen years ago, for instance, we had to say “Goodbye, Michael” with an episode of that name, as Steve Carell’s character from The Office left Scranton with one final “That’s what she said” on April 28, 2011.
Read on for details about Michael Scott’s exit and those of eight other TV characters we weren’t ready to lose.
Doug Ross, ER
When Doug (George Clooney) resigns from County General under duress and opts to move to Seattle, Carol (Julianna Margulies) doesn’t understand why their relationship isn’t enough to make him want to stay. “I don’t want to wake up alone tomorrow,” she says between sobs echoed by viewers watching at home. (Luckily for shippers, Doug and Carol reunite a season later amid Margulies’ own ER departure.)
Daniel “Oz” Osbourne, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Speaking of abrupt ends to relationships, Buffy witch Willow (Alyson Hannigan) is devastated when boyfriend Oz (Seth Green) leaves Sunnydale to protect her and others from his werewolf alter-ego. She tries appealing to his heart — “Don’t I get any say in this?” — and his brain — “People? Kind of a planetary epidemic” — But Oz, the great and powerful, has made up his mind.
Cristina Yang, Grey’s Anatomy
Thanks to Sandra Oh giving a nine-month notice, we had all of Grey’s Anatomy’s 10th season to emotionally prepare for Cristina’s exit… and it still wasn’t enough time. After Cristina accepts a dream job in Switzerland, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) tearfully puts her in a cab to the airport, before Cristina doubles back one last dance break with her twisted sister.
Troy Barnes, Community
Given the rancor behind Chevy Chase’s Community exit, it’s doubtful anyone was sorry to see Pierce leave Greendale. But when Troy (Donald Glover) heads off for a sail around the world, the onscreen tears seem real — and those fans shed at the time definitely were. The toughest goodbye of the bunch is that between Troy and Abed (Danny Pudi), his pal in nerdiness.
Wanda Pierce, BoJack Horseman
BoJack (Will Arnett) falls in love with Wanda (Lisa Kudrow) but then sabotages the relationship by taking out his career frustration on her. Finally, she leaves after realizing he can’t tolerate his bitterness and negativity. As a parting shot, the owl dispenses this wisdom: “When you look at someone through rose-colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags.”
Diane Chambers, Cheers
In Cheers, Sam (Ted Danson) tells Diane (Shelley Long) to “have a good life” after they agree to postpone their wedding so she could move across the country for six months of giving her writing career a shot. And those words, we’re sorry to say, were prescient. A brief reunion in the Cheers series finale notwithstanding, Sam and Diane never get back together, and they certainly never tie the knot.
Walter “Radar” O’Reilly, M*A*S*H
When Radar (Gary Burghoff) gets word that he’s being sent home on a hardship discharge, his friends at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital plan to send him off with a party. But then the M*A*S*H team rushes into surgery, and the goodbyes are cut short. Radar does get brief emotional moments with some of his colleagues, but he and Hawkeye (Alan Alda) can only share a silent salute through a window pane.
Kalinda Sharma, The Good Wife
We still don’t have the backstory about why Archie Panjabi left The Good Wife and why the show had to rely on body doubles for her and Margulies to shoot the final Kalinda–Alicia scene. What we do know is that the legal drama lost its best private eye and its best friendship when Kalinda exited stage right.
Michael Scott, The Office
After Michael (Steve Carell) decides to leave Scranton to start a new life with his fiancée, he hatches a plan to flee the Dunder-Mifflin office a day early to avoid dramatic goodbyes. But he does have heartbreaking final scenes with longtime colleagues Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer). It was the end of an era for The Office — the loss of the best worst boss.
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