TV Show With Main Characters Who Die in the Series Premiere
Warning: The following post contains discussions of suicide.
Television writers often save major character deaths for mid-run episodes of their shows — a heart-rending season finale, perhaps — but sometimes a TV character meets their maker in Episode 1.
The Showtime comedy Dead Like Me, for instance, ended 20 years ago, on Halloween 2004, but its lead character had long since perished, dying in a freak accident in the pilot.
Here’s more about that demise and those of 10 other characters who died within the first hour — and either returned to the land of the living or made plenty of posthumous appearances. It should go without saying, but… first-episode spoilers below!
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or dial 988. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.
George Lass (Ellen Muth), Dead Like Me
Dead Like Me’s protagonist dies when she’s struck by a toilet seat from the de-orbiting space station Mir in the first episode. She then becomes a grim reaper, helping usher other souls to the afterlife.
Liv Moore (Rose McIver), iZombie
In the iZombie pilot, Liv goes from living medical resident to undead medical examiner on account of a zombie outbreak at a boat party she attends. (“I knew that party was gonna blow,” she says via narration.)
Chuck Charles (Anna Friel), Pushing Daisies
Speaking of maritime tragedies, Pushing Daisies starts with the murder of Chuck aboard a cruise ship. Luckily, her childhood neighbor Ned (Lee Pace) — who has long carried a torch for her — can resurrect corpses with one touch.
Liz Parker (Shiri Appleby), Roswell
“September 23rd, journal entry one. I’m Liz Parker and five days ago I died. After that, things got really weird.” So begins Roswell, in which Liz dies in a diner shooting… only to get resurrected by a heartthrob of an alien.
Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), The Good Place
The whole reason Eleanor ends up in the afterlife is that she was hit by a train of shopping carts. Well, she survived that, but she was then hit by a mobile billboard truck advertising an erectile dysfunction pill.
William Walker (Tom Skerritt), Brothers & Sisters
The first episode of Brothers & Sisters revealed Skerritt would only be a recurring star: His character, the Walker family patriarch, dies during a family dinner, taking his secrets to the grave.
Judd Crawford (Don Johnson), Watchmen
This Tulsa police chief died by hanging at the end of the first episode, though that wasn’t the last surprise regarding his character, as Detective Angela Abar (Regina King) would discover.
Jon Dixon (Ron Livingston), A Million Little Things
A Million Little Things starts with a tragedy that shakes a group of friends: Jon dies by suicide, falling from his office balcony. The mystery behind that tragedy propels the drama of the first season.
Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong), Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives’ omniscient narrator is a Wisteria Lane resident who shoots herself in the show’s opening minutes, setting the dark undertone for the suburban comedy. (Mary Alice calls it “the unusual day I had last week.”)
Beth Childs (Tatiana Maslany), Orphan Black
Sarah Manning’s first indication that she’s a clone in Orphan Black is an encounter with doppelgänger Beth Childs on a train platform. The two clones don’t even exchange words before Beth steps in front of a moving train.
Cody Hoyt (Ryan Phillippe), Big Sky
Not since Grey’s Anatomy has a TV drama dispensed with a top-tier talent like Kyle Chandler so suddenly, but that’s what makes Mayor of Kingstown such a ride. No one is safe, and his character Mitch found that out the hard way in the pilot for the Taylor Sheridan show
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