"The Day After" was pretty powerful, but when it comes to totally, completely, *demolishing* your emotions, try and sit through the British nuke movie, "Threads." I watched it once when I was 17 or so and had nightmares for years.

I hate to just repeat some of the same things that others have said, but let me add another vote for such great genre moments as Babylon 5's "Sleeping in Light" and "Severed Dreams."

The end of SiL, when Joe makes his cameo (no spoilers here), is enough to bring me tears. And I remember watching "Severed Dreams" in a room full of B5 fans, who went absolutely nuts when Delenn shows up. They were as pumped up as any sports fans watching the Super Bowl.

I'll also nominate "The Coming of Shadows," the drink that G'Kar buys Londo before he hears the news, and the flip side of that, "The Long Twilight Struggle," seeing Londo's face in the Centauri ship above Narn as he realizes what he has done. Oh, and one more? "The Fall of Centauri Prime," with Londo's long solo walk towards the end of the episode.

Damn. What a great show.

Buffy had some great moments, too. I'll go with the end of "Becoming," when Buffy realizes what she must do, even though Angel has gotten his soul back. "Close your eyes."

I'll also vote the class protector award from "The Prom."

Hey, here's one nobody's mentioned -- Alien Nation's "Real Men," when Sykes must help Francisco deliver his baby.

Sports Night had a ton of them. The return of Isaac at the end of season one, and the whole last sequence of season two, beginning with "Anyone who can't make money off of Sports Night doesn't belong in the money making business," moving through "My show is on! My show is on!" and finishing with Dana's (unheard) announcement to the crew that the network has been sold.

How 'bout The West Wing? The end of season three, with Bartlet walking through the pouring rain to the beautiful sounds of Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms." And then concluding with Leo's absolutely joyous "Watch this!"

MASH's "Abyssinia Henry" also gets a vote here.

Hmmm, My So-Called Life's Christmas episode also comes to mind. "So-Called Angels," I think it was called.

That's enough for me for now.

dstrauss,
I totally forgot about threads! That was harrowing. I remember now watching a repeat and typing verbatim what the narrator said throughout the whole piece and handed it in as a history report. Got an A+

Someone already posted a link to Jon Stewart's post-9/11 monologue, so here's David Letterman's monologue from September 17th, 2001.

Thank you very much.

Welcome to the Late Show. This is our first show on the air since New York and Washington were attacked, and I need to ask your patience and indulgence here because I want to say a few things, and believe me, sadly, I'm not going to be saying anything new, and in the past week others have said what I will be saying here tonight far more eloquently than I'm equipped to do.

But, if we are going to continue to do shows, I just need to hear myself talk for a couple of minutes, and so that's what I'm going to do here.

It's terribly sad here in New York City. We've lost five thousand fellow New Yorkers, and you can feel it. You can feel it. You can see it. It's terribly sad. Terribly, terribly sad. And watching all of this, I wasn't sure that I should be doing a television show, because for twenty years we've been in the city, making fun of everything, making fun of the city, making fun of my hair, making fun of Paul... well...

So, to come to this circumstance that is so desperately sad, I don't trust my judgment in matters like this, but I'll tell you the reason that I am doing a show and the reason I am back to work is because of Mayor Giuliani.

Very early on, after the attack, and how strange does it sound to invoke that phrase, "after the attack?", Mayor Giuliani encouraged us -- and here lately implored us -- to go back to our lives, go on living, continue trying to make New York City the place that it should be. And because of him, I'm here tonight.

And I just want to say one other thing about Mayor Giuliani: As this began, and if you were like me, and in many respects, God, I hope you're not. But in this one small measure, if you're like me, and you're watching and you're confused and depressed and irritated and angry and full of grief, and you don't know how to behave and you're not sure what to do and you don't really... because we've never been through this before... all you had to do at any moment was watch the Mayor. Watch how this guy behaved. Watch how this guy conducted himself. Watch what this guy did. Listen to what this guy said. Rudolph Giuliani is the personification of courage.

applause

And it's very simple... there is only one requirement for any of us, and that is to be courageous, because courage, as you might know, defines all other human behavior. And I believe, because I've done a little of this myself, pretending to be courageous is just as good as the real thing. He's an amazing man, and far, far better than we could have hoped for. To run the city in the midst of this obscene chaos and attack, and also demonstrate human dignity... my God... who can do that? That's a pretty short list.
The twenty years we've been here in New York City, we've worked closely with police officers and the fire fighters and...

applause

...and fortunately, most of us don't really have to think too much about what these men and women do on a daily basis, and the phrase New York's finest and New York's bravest, you know, did it mean anything to us personally, firsthand? Well, maybe, hopefully, but probably not. But boy, it means something now, doesn't it? They put themselves in harm's way to protect people like us, and the men and women, the fire fighters and the police department who are lost are going to be missed by this city for a very, very long time. And I, and my hope for myself and everybody else, not only in New York but everywhere, is that we never, ever take these people for granted... absolutely never take them for granted.

applause

I just want to go through this, and again, forgive me if this is more for me than it is for people watching, I'm sorry, but uh, I just, I have to go through this, I'm...

The reason we were attacked, the reason these people are dead, these people are missing and dead, and they weren't doing anything wrong, they were living their lives, they were going to work, they were traveling, they were doing what they normally do. As I understand it (and my understanding of this is vague at best), another smaller group of people stole some airplanes and crashed them into buildings. And we're told that they were zealots, fueled by religious fervor... religious fervor. And if you live to be a thousand years old, will that make any sense to you? Will that make any Goddamned sense? Whew.

I'll tell you about a thing that happened last night. There's a town in Montana by the name of Choteau. It's about a hundred miles south of the Canadian border. And I know a little something about this town. It's 1,600 people. 1,600 people. And it's an ag-business community, which means farming and ranching. And Montana's been in the middle of a drought for... I don't know... three years? And if you've got no rain, you can't grow anything. And if you can't grow anything, you can't farm, and if you can't grow anything, you can't ranch, because the cattle don't have anything to eat, and that's the way life is in a small town. 1,600 people.

Last night at the high school auditorium in Choteau, Montana, they had a rally, home of the Bulldogs, by the way... they had a rally for New York City. And not just a rally for New York City, but a rally to raise money... to raise money for New York City. And if that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about the... the spirit of the United States, then I can't help you. I'm sorry.

applause

And I have one more thing to say, and then, thank God, Regis is here, so we have something to make fun of.

If you didn't believe it before, and it's easy to understand how you might have been skeptical on this point, if you didn't believe it before, you can absolutely believe it now... New York City is the greatest city in the world.

lengthy applause

We're going to try and feel our way through this, and we'll just see how it goes... take it a day at a time. We're lucky enough tonight to have two fantastic representatives of this town, Dan Rather and Regis Philbin, and we'll be right back.

to commercial

Here's Jay Leno's:

das

(Re-edited)
OK, so they have to be non-news or non-sports (And while we're at it, was there a strict code on whether it had to be happy or sad emotional??)--Sorry, but this was THE most emotional, possibly the only real emotional moment I've seen on TV in my lifetime (Except possibly the safe return of Elizabeth Smart or the rescue of Jessica Lynch and the other POWs in Iraq, but we only saw fragments of those moments; Let's not even bring up 9/11 even though maybe that's it for all time on the darker side), and it was far more truthful and meaningful than any moment cooked up by a hired writer, in fact better than any writer could have hoped to dream up, and I'm breaking the rules proudly for this one:

2/21/02: A 16-year-old kid from Great Neck, Long Island performing a stunningly solid 4 and a half minute program, totally stealing the show in front of a sellout crowd at the SLC Olmypics and then taking home the gold medal.
The world actually sat up and took notice of Sarah Hughes, at least on that night.
And America felt a lot better, too!

das,

Something tells me you would know what others said post 9/11. How about say Emeril?

• Quoth Hannibal •<HR SIZE=1>das,

Something tells me you would know what others said post 9/11. How about say Emeril? <HR SIZE=1>

das

Two moments for me, one young and one slightly older (as I recall them):

On Doctor Who, the death of Adric was a shocking moment for me, as it was the first time that I can remember a character dying on a show.

In the final epsiode of Cheers, when Sam adjusts the picture, the little nod to coach that it makes was just such a nice touch that it will stay with me for a very long time.

It's bad to laugh...but I hate Jay Leno.

Just bumping this so you know I re-edited my first post

In Band Oof Brothers

Episode 9: Why we fight

The entire episode (the entire series) can be emotionally trying, but when they liberated the death camp, and one old man stumbles up to a G.I. crying, and kisses the man repeatedly on both cheaks and embraces him, it got me big time.

And since everyone is mentioning Star Trek, I'll throw one in. The entire last episode of DS9 got pretty emotional, with all the goodbyes. Particularly though, when they are at Vic's and he starts to sing "Just the Way You Look Tonight". Everyone is relaxed and bittersweet, and you feel as if you're watching the actors through the characters, as even they are sad it's over. When he sings "And that laugh that wrinkles your nose" to Kira and there's genuine suprise and humor in their eyes. That scene was really touching.

Doc

There were a lot of emotional moments on Little House on the Prairie. Particularly the final episode when they blew up the town.

Although nobody died or anything, there was an episode on Gilligan's Island that was emotional -- to me, at least. It was the episode where Ginger was pretending to be a Seer, and she told everyone that a great big ship was going to pass close to the island on the first blue moon. Everyone was all excited, and everyone prepared for the ship by setting up bonfires, signals, etc. For some reason (and I forget at this late date), the joke was intended for Gilligan, while everyone else knew that Ginger was faking. Near the end of the episode, Ginger confessed to being a fraud, and Gilligan was very disappointed. The skipper joined Gilligan at the lagoon and explained to him why Ginger did what she did, and they both walked off together back to the huts.

A few minutes later, a huge ocean liner passed close to the island.

Definately "The Gift" on Buffy and many episodes previously mentioned on Babylon 5. Also, I cried like a baby at the end of season 2 on Farscape.

tasha

Anyone remember the episode of M*A*S*H where BJ gets the letter from his wife telling how she and his little girl met Radar at the airport and his daughter called Radar "daddy"? I can understand how that could bother a father that hasn't seen his daughter before or that hasn't seen her when she's of an age where she would know him but the build-up to the final scene, with BJ punching Hawkeye, which is utterly out of character, and the scene in Col. Potter's office where BJ becomes nearly unhinged and he's crying so hard and so miserably...it's really kind of shocking. I don't know that Mike Farrell is a great actor but anyone that needs proof that he's a good actor can just cue up that scene. He tapped into something very deep and emotional within himself for that sequence.

The Buffy season 2 close of the bad Angel arc "Becoming" is epic TV. That's probably where the show went from very good to all-time great IMO. I've also always found the end of the season 3 episode "The Wish" to be pretty moving.

Also, does anyone remember back on I think the night the first Iraq war started, there was some awards show on. Maybe the Grammys. Anyway, Jack Nicholson is there and he's introducing Bob Dylan and Bob is supposed to sing something from his new album but instead, he rips into a scalding, intense performance of "Masters of War". And Jack is standing to the side just grinning up a storm. That was exciting.

For me, it's always been miniseries/telelfims that get me extremely weepy.

The few that stand out:

Roots - the entire miniseries

Lace - the scene where Lilly asked "Which one of you #$##$ is my mother?" That still sends chills up my spine

Alex:The Life of a Child - a movie about the little girl of a famous sports writer (Frank Deford) - the scene: "Daddy, my sweet little daddy", when she was dying - I was crushed!

And, a Timothy Hutton movie - A Long Way Home, when he found all of his siblings.

Ah, the Luke & Laura wedding, when Bo and Hope got together....

Yes, I'm a child of the 70's.

I think its pt 7 of bob when a soldier see's 2 of his friends dead and drops his helmet and cries, that always gets me (and its in the credits as well)

Season 7 finale, Magnum, P. I. - "Limbo"

The 2 part episode of "Did You See the Sunrise?", Season 3

How wierd, I just did a search on Band of Brothers episode and this came up and the last post is relatively recent.

The reason I did the search was because I wanted to see what people's favorite Band of Brother's episode was because episode 5 "Crossroads" was so emotionally stirring for me.

The entire series is incredible but for some reason this episode kills me. I rarely cry during movies but while I was watching this episode I just... wept.

Cheers

What about the finale of My So Called Life? When she found out who really wrote the note to her -- the one she thought was from Jordan. And she went with Jordan anyway.

Plus I saw Er's Love's Labor Lost when I was pregnant with my first child. My family kept calling me during the show because they were upset I was watching it.

I'll agree with the Wonder Years episode about the teacher, and the first episode when Winnie's brother died. The ending of the series was also pretty emotional.

The ending of Cheers was also a nice touch.

This is why I thought DS9 was so much better than TNG. As cool as the characters were, the only one that ever showed real, honest emotion was Patrick Stewart. Having the characters all say goodbye at the end of DS9, especially with Vic singing, brought out all of the emotion in the actors themselves. They truly were a family by that point and realized that they had just come to the end of a wonderful 7 year ride.

Well there have been several mentioned that I wont repeat.

My most emotional moments in every episode of a show would be

The Simpsons
"And Maggie Makes Three"
2F10
Original Airdate: 1/22/95
The end of the episode where it shows a poster that says "DONT FORGET YOU'RE HERE FOREVER" with Photos of maggie covering up the Letters so it says "DO IT FOR HER"

"Lisa's Wedding"
2F15
Original Airdate: 3/26/95
The end of the episode where Homer and Lisa are walking away from the camera holding hands and Lisa is asking Homer questions just to know more and spend time with her father.

Sesame Street
When Mr. Hooper Dies and all the people are explaining to Big Bird that Mr. Hooper won't be comming back.
http://www.reallyrics.com/lyrics/S021200010036.asp

Another episode for Cheers that gets to me is the one with Lisa, Coach's daugher shows up engaged to a slimey salesman that Coach really doesn't approve of. They have a father/daughter talk about her mother not being pretty, Very touching.

It was in the first season. It is one of the best episodes. But for a show that never really had any serious moments, this one was kinda out of place. But that is good, it was a highlight of the season, not to mention entire series run.