The other day, over Mexican food, the SO accidentally mistook Scott Bakula for Scott Wolf. While for most couples, this probably wouldn't have been a big deal, being the Quantum Leap fan that I am, this was something I had to correct and assure would never happen again. Somehow, I managed to go from telling him how to never mistake the two again to tearing up over salsa as I recounted the end of the Quantum Leap series and the most pivotal episodes that led to it.
I know.
So, in light of the fact that I've already almost started crying this week just telling the story of Quantum Leap's end, I thought I would take on the topic head-on and present my list of the most tear-jerking TV moments. Warning: there will be lots of spoilers. I also had to split this post in two because, apparently, I have a lot to say on this topic.
10. Alf's Special Christmas
It only seems fair to begin this list where it all began. In 1987, I was a big fan of Alf, the Alien Life Form, who lived with the Tanners. (He always wanted to eat the cat!) During that year's Christmas special, Alf somehow ended up in the hospital with a very sick girl named Tiffany. I think Tiffany had leukemia, and I also think she died or was dying. (This is hard to confirm through any Internet sources. It seems that no one has bothered to do an episode-by-episode breakdown of Alf, and I, for one, am shocked.) The idea of a dying child was too much for me, and I just started sobbing. I cried and cried. I cried so much, my father decided to have a talk with me about the difference between fantasy and reality and moving on.
Clearly, it didn't stick.
9. Cheers: The Finale
Even though I was also relatively young when I watched Cheers, I remember loving the show. Woody and his naivete, Carla the sassy waitress and, of course, Sam. Who didn't love Sam Malone, the scamp? And if you didn't, I don't really want to know you.
In the episode when Diane left, my memory is that she and Sam are alone in the bar. She's going, but she just wants to say "see you later" or something like that. Once she left the bar, Sam said, "Have a nice life." At the time, I thought, "How does he know she isn't coming back?" and "Adult life is complicated."
When the show went off the air, and Sam was left alone in his bar -- the implication being that Cheers was the true love of his life -- I, again, cried like a baby.
8. Party of Five: The Intervention
You've got a family of five who has already lost both of their parents to a drunk driver. They have to keep the family restaurant going. Rebellious Charlie has to be a dad, and then you go and throw in the normal teenage stuff like lost virginity, break-ups, drugs and pregnancy scares. On top of all this, sometime in season three, Bailey becomes an alcoholic and begins driving drunk, oh irony of ironies. Of course, the family has to intervene.
All of the siblings are there, and even Sarah, the ex-girlfriend shows up, because she loves him that much. I won't get into all of the lines that killed me because nothing about this episode wasn't a tear-fest for me. But, in the end, when Bailey brushes Claudia aside to walk out on his family and picks drinking over them, there was a breakdown.
7. House: Wilson's HeartSure, for the most part, I didn't like a lot of season 4 (too little Cameron). I also couldn't stand Amber. That doesn't mean it didn't crush me when she died. House has the key to saving her, somewhere in his fragmented memory, only to realize that there's nothing anyone can do. She's going to die no matter what, and so they wake Amber up for everyone to say goodbye.
Oh, Wilson. Twice-divorced, finally-found-love Wilson. It was all too much for me. I just laid on the couch and sobbed. All over that poor cut-throat bitch.
6. Quantum Leap: Mirror Image
Clearly, if I can't get through a burrito without crying over this one, it affected me. The three episodes that had gotten to me most before this were, of course, M.I.A. (when Sam won't tell Al's wife Beth that Al is coming home to him from Vietnam, even though Al begs for it, because Sam believes they should not use their leaps for selfish reasons), The Leap Home (when Sam leaps into his own teenage self and sees his dead father and brother again) and The Leap Home: Part 2 (when Sam does change history selfishly to save his brother in Vietnam, and in the end, also keeps Al from being rescued early and going home to Beth).
So, Sam spends most of this leap in the series finale trying to figure out where he is and why he can finally see his own reflection in the mirror. It's his birthday. He keeps seeing people he recognizes from the past. He and the bartender banter and argue. Is the bartender God? Sam says that he's done enough. The bartender asks if he really has, if he's really done. Sam is supposed to accept that he is the one leaping him through time and space. For the first time in five years (in a way), Sam will be able to choose where he leaps next. Will he finally go home?
No, he goes back to Beth, and he tells her that Al will come home to her. "Georgia on my Mind" plays in the background. The viewer learns that Beth and Al remain married happily for the rest of their lives and have four children. Dr. Sam Beckett never leaps home.
Give me just a minute here. The keyboard is a little wet.
More to come ...
