Their are multiple shows i can think of that shocked me as to see that a well known character from a TV Show was almost killed off at random during an episode of a show, can any of you fans name a few shows where a character popular or unpopular was almost killed off on a TV Show ???

Ritchie Cunningham nearly died after being in a motorcycle crash on "Happy Days".

Niles on Frasier had to have heart surgery.

Rose on GG had to have a triple bypass.

Mr. Belvedere on Mr. Belvedere was in the hospital for some reason and almost died.

Dan Fielding on Night Court was in the hospital. He slipped into a coma and almost died.

Will on Fresh Prince was shot in the back but he pulled through.

Uncle Phil on Fresh Prince suffered a heart attack. He pulled through.

J.R. was shot at the end of Season 3 of the original Dallas; he eventually recovered.

Dan Conner had a heart attack and survived, then we found out later that he did die.

Carl on "Family Matters" got an electric shock, and Steve had to save his life.

Niles on "The nanny" also had a heart attack.

Chrissy on Three's Company, when she bumped her head while she and Janet were putting up a new shower curtain.

Fonzie in the explosion at the garage on Happy Days.

Herb Tarlek had a heart attack on WKRP

Dave Lister, and Cat several times on Red Dwarf. Arnold Rimmer did die, then came back as a hologram.

J.R. was shot at the end of Season 3 of the original Dallas; he eventually recovered

The Who Shot J.R theory was the most talked about episode in history


Will on Fresh Prince was shot in the back but he pulled through.

Yeah it was a good episode will smith looks like he is really crying in the episode nobody ever found out what happened to carlton after he left the hospital he still looked kinda pissed off at the end.

Family Matters the episode where steve saves carls life is a good one its about time i can think of numerous episodes where carl is risking his own life to save steve from getting killed.

Steven Keaton had a heart attack on "Family Ties" and nearly died.
Mr. Turner nearly died in a bad motorcycle accident on "Boy Meets World".
While I'm talking about that show, Joshua Matthews also died as well just coming into the world. He was a miracle baby- very touching and moving episode, particularly regarding faith in God.
Thomas Magnum nearly died on "Magnum, P.I." (the original intention was to kill off his character in the last episode, but they decided to come back for an 8th. season and so bring him back from the brink instead.)
MacGyver nearly died multiple times from various people trying to kill him on "MacGyver". (Pete Thornton and Jack Dalton and others were also in peril at times. Some of the closest calls MacGyver had were in "Passages", when he was in a coma and he had a vision of the afterlife where he was reunited with his parents briefly and "Strictly Business" when he was shot and lost his memory. He was also shot in "Cease Fire" and probably the worst was when he was shot in "Trail of Tears"- he did come close to dying through blood loss and all, but he had a mystical healing from a Native American shaman.)
And of course, Murdoc nearly died several times on the series- that was an ongoing thing. In most every episode he showed up in (well, except for his appearance in MacGyver's dream), he "died" at the end, only to come back in his next appearance.
ALF nearly died in the "Fever" episode of "ALF".
In the "Superfriends" series, Superman almost died in an episode. (It's explained that he actually just fell into suspended animation via Kryptonian trance.) However, in the comics, he actually did die defending Metropolis against Doomsday and then he had a resurrection- much like Jesus Christ died and rose in reality. (Which is one reason why Superman is my favorite superhero- he's such a great Christ figure.):) :cool:

Steven Keaton nearly died of a heart attack on Family Ties

Buddy Lembeck came close to dying in an episode of "Charles in Charge".

Family Matters the bald headed kid that bullied steve urkel and gave him a swirlie at school almost died until steve urkel saved his life the guy in the episode was played by lamont Bentley he played on the Moesha show.

Well, if we can count one-shot characters, yeah, that's correct.

Superman also came close to dying in the "Home is Where the Hurt Is" episod e of "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" (after being infected with a Kryptonite virus.)

One could argue Batman and Robin came close to dying on almost every episode of "Batman" (the 1960s live action show), particularly in the cliffhanger endings of the first part of the 2-part episodes where they were captured by the criminals and put in a dastardly death trap!

Everybody Loves Raymond- Ray Barone almost died in the episode called "The Finale" in season 9.

Sanford&Son had an episode where fred plays a bad trick on lamont by faking a heart attack and lamont thinks he's going to die in the episode he actually starts crying, good episode.

Sanford&Son had an episode where fred plays a bad trick on lamont by faking a heart attack and lamont thinks he's going to die in the episode he actually starts crying, good episode.

I'm pretty sure Fred does that in like every episode.;)
("This is the big one. I'm coming to join ya, Elizabeth!")

Sanford&Son had an episode where fred plays a bad trick on lamont by faking a heart attack and lamont thinks he's going to die in the episode he actually starts crying, good episode.

Are you making this up? If not, then I would like to know which episode it is. I've seen every episode of Sanford & Son (most episodes several times) and I've seen Fred fake a lot of heart attacks, but I don't recall Lamont ever being fooled by it or crying about it.

Criminal Minds-Special Agent Emily Prentiss was almost killed by
Ian Doyle, but she was brought back in surgery(but Hotch and J.J.
decided to keep her "dead" for a time to protect her from Doyle)

Indiana Jones came close to dying in many episodes of "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles".
The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew came close to dying on episodes of "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" (and the 1990s "The Hardy Boys" series and 1990s "Nancy Drew" series)
Gary Hobson came close to dying on multiple episodes of "Early Edition" (particularly "Fate"- Gary actually read his own obituary in the early edition newspaper in that episode. That's one of the best episodes of Season 3, if not the entire series. I so wish Seasons 3 and 4 would come to DVD soon......)
Sam Beckett came close to dying on multiple episodes of "Quantum Leap".
And......
this could keep on for numerous action/adventure and scifi series, so I probably won't be able to list them all.
I presume the idea is more to find the cliche episode where a main character is on their death bed, only to come out of it at the last minute, etc.
Of course, there are plenty of those too.

Are you making this up? If not, then I would like to know which episode it is. I've seen every episode of Sanford & Son (most episodes several times) and I've seen Fred fake a lot of heart attacks, but I don't recall Lamont ever being fooled by it or crying about it.


Dude i have seen Sanford and Son on both N@N TVLand and on DVD uncut for 10 years now this is a real episode its from season 3 you can watch it on youtube for yourself the episode is called Fred's cheating heart lamont is scared about his fathers health and takes him down to the hospital for a few tests his father changes the chart to trick lamont into thinking he has a desease and lamont cries for a brief second but nothing like him on the floor crying his eyes out lol

JJ Evans from Good Times is almost killed on the show in season 2 called JJ and the gang part 1 he is shot by Mad Dog he was lucky it was only a little bruise.

Dan Conner had a heart attack and survived, then we found out later that he did die.

But then after that he got better.


You can put Ann Romano in the heart attack club.

Also on ODAAT Barbara and Max electrocuted Schneider and almost killed him.