Random Times TV Shows Dealt With Real-Life Tragedies (12 items)

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  (#8) After 9/11, 'Sesame Street' Aired An Episode Where Elmo Is Traumatized By A Fire But Overcomes His Fear With The Help Of Firefighters

  Sesame Street was in its 33rd season when 9/11 happened. The show wanted to acknowledge the tragedy and the confusion children faced with compassion. The program had filmed nearly all of its episodes for the season; the remaining four shows were devoted to 9/11 topics.

  "We felt we needed to do something in response to 9/11, but we knew we had to be very careful, because our viewers are so young, and parents are returning to educational programming as a safe haven for kids," Rosemarie Truglio, senior vice president of curriculum and content at Sesame Workshop, said in 2002. 

  Lewis Bernstein, executive vice president of education and research at Sesame Workshop, said in 2011 that after consulting with child psychologists and emergency responders, the show decided to explore two topics in the four episodes: "fear and intolerance."

  The first episode doesn't address the 9/11 events directly. Instead, the show focuses on Elmo's fearful reaction when a fire breaks out at Mr. Hooper's store when he and Maria are inside. He's scared until an NYPD firefighter shows up and assuages his fears. He gives Elmo a tour of a fire station, lets him ride a fire engine, and explains how firefighters' protective equipment works. The episode includes guidance for kids on what to do in case of fire. 

  “We wanted to teach kids that it is okay to be scared, but that there are adults who are trying to protect you and take care of you," Bernstein said. "We also wanted to tip our hats to the firefighters of New York.”

  In one of the intolerance-themed episodes, Big Bird's friend, a seagull, visits him but doesn't want to hang out with Snuffy because the latter is not a bird. 
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  (#2) Sesame Street

  • Fran Brill, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, Ryan Dillon, Eric Jacobson, Joey Mazzarino, Carmen Osbahr, Martin P. Robinson, David Rudman, Caroll Spinney, Matt Vogel, Steve Whitmire, Kevin Clash, Jerry Nelson

  Sesame Street teaches kids about the alphabet, numbers, colors, words, and other educational concepts, but also doesn't shy away from heavier subjects like prejudice, parental incarceration, divorce - and death. 

  When one of the show's first human characters, Will Lee, who played grocery store owner Mr. Hooper, passed in 1982 from a heart attack, it was an opportunity for the show's writers to teach children about the irreversibility of death. For the episode "Farewell, Mr. Hooper," they consulted child psychologists and other experts to make sure the dialogue was easy for children to grasp without overwhelming them.

  In the episode, 6-year-old Big Bird comes to terms with the fact that his friend is gone forever. He expresses expected feelings - anger, sadness - and worries what will happen without Mr. Hooper in his life: "Who’s going to take care of the store? Who’s gonna make me birdseed milkshakes and tell me stories?” 

  Actor Bob McGrath, who plays Bob on Sesame Street, said in an interview that the researchers also came up with several reassuring messages they wanted to get across to children about what happens when someone dies, including: "'You'll be taken care of'; 'you know they are never coming back, but you're safe'; and 'Someone else would take care of you.'" 

  The episode doesn't get into philosophical questions about the circle of life. "Why does it have to be this way?" Big Bird asks. And human character Gordon replies, "Big Bird, it has to be this way... because."

  Caroll Spinney, the actor who played Big Bird, called the episode “one of the best things we ever did.” 

  Spinney and the writers won a Peabody Award for the episode, and the writers won a Daytime Emmy Award.

   
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  (#4) Riverdale

  • K.J. Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Casey Cott, Skeet Ulrich, Mädchen Amick, Vanessa Morgan, Charles Melton, Drew Ray Tanner, Erinn Westbrook, Mark Consuelos, Marisol Nichols, Luke Perry, Ashleigh Murray

  Luke Perry, who played Archie Andrews's dad, Fred, on The CW show Riverdale, passed unexpectedly at age 52 in March 2019 following a stroke. Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Entertainment Weekly the creators decided to wait until the next season's opener to add Fred's passing to the storyline: "We didn’t want to rush it; we didn’t want to sandwich it into all the other plotlines, and we just wanted to take our time and think about it." 

  In the episode, Fred dies in a hit-and-run incident after stopping to help a woman with car trouble. That woman is played by Shannen Doherty, Perry's former co-star on Beverly Hills 90210, making a surprise guest appearance. 

  “Very early on, we landed on the idea that Fred should have a heroic death and that would be impactful for Archie,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “It felt like that’s a way that Fred could have gone." He said he and Perry had discussed including Doherty on the show before the actor's passing, but it hadn't worked out. For the tribute episode, he said, when casting Doherty's character, "we thought it would be nice if it was someone that he cared for in real life and he cared so deeply about Shannen... And she really wanted to be a part of it from when we first talked to her about it.”

  The episode ends with Archie vowing to live a life that would make his dad proud. There are fireworks and a parade. The final screen is black, with the words "In Memoriam Luke Perry 1966-2019."
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  (#7) Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

  • Mariska Hargitay, Ice-T, Kelli Giddish, Peter Scanavino, Octavio Pisano, Molly Burnett, Jamie Gray Hyder, Demore Barnes, Philip Winchester, Raúl Esparza, Michelle Hurd, Danny Pino, Dann Florek, Richard Belzer, BD Wong, Tamara Tunie, Melissa Sagemiller, Christopher Meloni, Stephanie March, Michaela McManus, Diane Neal, Adam Beach

  The long-running NBC drama Law & Order: SVU takes place in New York City, so the show would have been remiss if it didn't address the events of 9/11 in some meaningful way. So, in the opening sequence of the show's third season, which aired on September 28, 2001, a new voiceover was added that said: 

  On September 11, 2001, New York City was ruthlessly and criminally attacked. While no tribute can ever heal the pain of that day, the producers of Law & Order dedicate this season to the victims and their families and to the firefighters and police officers who remind us every day with their lives and courage what it truly means to be an American.

  The Twin Towers appeared twice in the opening sequence of the show for the first two seasons; those images were removed in the third season. 
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  (#1) 8 Simple Rules

  • Katey Sagal, Kaley Cuoco, Amy Davidson

  8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter was a sitcom about a suburban family - husband Paul and wife Cate, played by John Ritter and Katey Sagal, and their three teenage kids. Dad Paul held the show together, serving as the sounding board for the rest of the Hennessy family, and as the straight guy to their screwballs. Ritter and Sagal had great chemistry and made a believable TV couple. 

  John Ritter's untimely passing at age 54 in 2003 from an aortic dissection was sudden and unexpected, and the show's writers had to quickly come up with a way to address it. They decided to go with the truth: Paul on the show passes as Ritter did in real life, and the rest of the family is left to deal with the fallout. The episode was authentic, funny without being schmaltzy, and lacked a live audience, which created a deafening silence. The result was a sweet and heartfelt sendoff.   

  James Garner, who played Cate's father-in-law on the final episode, said the emotion on set was real during filming of the "Goodbye" episode. "When [the cast members] have to do their tender scenes when they are crying - it's not difficult for them," he said. 
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  (#9) Glee

  • Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Darren Criss, Chord Overstreet, Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, Amber Riley, Naya Rivera, Kevin McHale, Heather Morris, Jenna Ushkowitz, Dianna Agron, Mark Salling, Dot Marie Jones, Lauren Potter, Jacob Artist, Melissa Benoist, Becca Tobin, Alex Newell, Blake Jenner, Mike O'Malley, Jayma Mays, Cory Monteith, Harry Shum, Jessalyn Gilsig

  Glee made it cool to be in a school choir, did some pretty great song covers, and revitalized old classics and the music industry in one fell swoop. On the Emmy-winning show, Cory Monteith starred as Finn Hudson, a high school football star who could also sing, and was charming and sweet. Monteith succumbed to an overdose at age 31 in 2013, made all the more tragic because he was dating Glee co-star Lea Michele (Rachel), both on the show and in real life. 

  Glee paid an episode-long tribute to the star, who was well-loved and popular both on and off the show. The episode never explains how he perished, just that he did, and it is an unbearable, irreparable loss. Each character grapples with the loss in their own way, and of course, they pay tribute to Finn in song, starting with a group performance of "Seasons of Love," as well as dialogue.

  "I wanted to memorialize him the only way we know how: by singing all week long," says teacher Will Schue (Matthew Morrison) to the current and former students who have gathered to memorialize Finn.

  Rachel, for example, sings "Make You Feel My Love" and recalls Finn as "my person" and the one she had planned to "live happily ever after" with. Mercedes (Amber Riley) chooses "Stand By Me" because she remembers Finn sang it to the sonogram of Quinn's baby. Santana (Naya Rivera) attempts to sing "If I Die Young."   

  Co-creator Brad Falchukm, who directed the episode, told The Hollywood Reporter it "was definitely the hardest thing I've ever done." He continued:

  My job as a director was to keep everyone in that grief because I didn't want anything fake in the episode, and I didn't want anyone to pretend they were sad. I wanted them to be sad about what they were sad about and to stay in that for the two weeks it took to shoot that... I had a hard time. I'm more proud of it than anything I've ever done. It's for Cory.

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