A lot of movies and TV shows have been made based on real life events, probably more than you imagine. Some of them were dedicated to the lives of famous people, others showed big historic events. Filmmakers have also created some great (and some not so great) movies based on tragic events. Exploring real life tragic stories, they give their audience a new perspective on things and food for some thought.
Unfortunately, not every tragedy is left in the past. Events that affect our lives in a grave manner still occur, leaving many people at a loss as to how to process them. And though most of the time we don’t see television as anything more than entertainment, some of the best TV shows went above and beyond to help the viewers cope with trauma when encountering a tragedy in life, or dealing with a loss of a beloved cast member.
For this article, we have collected examples of how shows dealt with public and personal tragic events. Do you think they did the correct thing? If you were the network executive or series creator, how would you have dealt with any of these situations? Share with us in the comments. If you know any similar cases, recommend some shows to watch that dealt with real life tragedies.
#1 Sesame Street’s Elmo Overcomes Fear Of Fire With The Help Of Firefighters
The 9/11 tragedy was an indescribable shock for the entire world. Sesame Street, which was in its 33rd season at that time, decided to dedicate the remaining four episodes of the season to address what happened in hopes to help their young viewers cope with the confusion and fear the event caused them.
Of course, before beginning the production, they consulted child psychologists and emergency responders to make sure the content they created would not overwhelm children even more. After lots of considerations, the show creators decided to explore the topics of fear and intolerance.
Instead of mentioning 9/11 directly, they made an episode where a fire breaks out at Mr. Hooper’s store, while Elmo is inside. An NYPD firefighter shows up to rescue him and also tells him about the job of firefighters. After Elmo is out of the store, the firefighter lets him ride his fire engine and shows him protective equipment. Elmo learns to overcome his fear and also understands that being scared is okay. The message to children throughout the episode was that even though they may find themselves in scary situations, there are always adults who will work to protect them.
To address the concept of intolerance, one of the episodes had Big Bird’s friend, a seagull, come visit him. During his stay, the seagull didn’t want to hang out with Snuffy because he is not a bird.
Image credits: muppetcentral.com
#2 Kelsey Grammer’s Absence During An Episode Of Frasier. Kelsey Checked Himself Into Rehab Following A Car Crash Due To Substance Abuse
Frasier was arguably one of the funniest, wittiest, and most popular shows throughout the ‘90s and in the early 2000s. It had both expert writing and an outstanding cast led by Kelsey Grammer, who played the titular character Dr. Frasier Crane. Watching the chaotic events unfold when he moves to Seattle, you would probably never suspect the amount of struggle that went on behind the scenes.
Grammer’s younger years were full of pain and tragic events that eventually took their toll on the actor. Both his father and sister were murdered, and his grandfather, the only close relative he had left, died when Grammer was still a teenager. Unable to cope with the trauma, Grammer turned to substance use to deal with his mental health.
In 1996, during one of episodes of being under the influence, Grammer ended up in a car crash. This was when the cast and crew realized an intervention was necessary if they wanted to help him. Later many of them admitted that showing up on his doorstep to convince the actor to check into rehab was a terrifying thought, as they couldn’t predict how he would have reacted. However, Grammer realized it was done out of concern for his health and well-being and complied with their request. Filming had to be paused for a while but in the end it was worth it.
Image credits: imdb.com
#3 Michael J. Fox’s Character On Spin City Resigns After Health Issues
Everyone knows Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, but if you watched the ‘90s sitcom Spin City, you also knew him as Michael Flaherty, the deputy mayor of New York everyone liked. Although the show had a lot of strong aspects to its credit, like great cast and excellent writing, Fox was still one of the main reasons for the show’s success. That’s why when he announced his decision to leave due to health issues, it was a huge shock for everybody.
After Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, it became progressively more difficult for him to keep up with the shooting schedules, which is why he decided to leave after the 100th episode. To write him out of the show, the writers created a plotline where Flaherty took the fall for his colleagues, having, as a result, to resign and move to a different city. Los Angeles Times stated that Fox participated in the script writing for his final episode, because in his own words, he “didn’t want to be flippant with the way that other people felt about it.”
Charlie Sheen was cast to play the new mayor, but the show had lost a certain portion of its appeal, and was canceled in 2002.
Image credits: imdb.com
#4 Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown Explores The Past In The Final Episode
Anthony Bourdain rose to fame as a celebrity chef and author. He was also a travel documentarian who explored the world’s various cultures, cuisines, and international life. He also had his own TV show on CNN called Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. The show, which ran for 12 seasons until Bourdain’s demise, explored lesser known corners of the world and introduced their culture and cuisine to the audience.
The final episode aired on November 11, 2018, 5 months after Bourdain took his life. In this episode, the chef returned to his hometown of New York, exploring the Lower East Side. He spoke openly about his former days as a drug addict chef, as well as the lives of other residents of the area, many of whom would be new arrivals who still had to find their path in New York. He also talked about the influences of the era, its music and culture.
The episode was more than just a piece of nostalgia. It is acceptance of your past and understanding that it doesn’t matter where you come from or how you started off. If you choose to achieve a specific goal, you can always turn your life around.
Image credits: imdb.com
#5 “Glee” Cast Held An Episode-Long Tribute To The Late Cory Monteith
Even if you don’t like musicals, there is no chance you haven’t seen at least some snippets of Glee or listened to their covers of popular songs of past and present. They did a lot of things right, including creating the character of Finn Hudson, a high school football star who also had a great singing voice. Unlike many high school movie stereotypes where football players are often portrayed as arrogant bullies who make fun of everyone who does art or science, Finn was also charming and sweet.
It was extremely hard both for the cast and crew as well as the audiences to lose him after Cory Monteith, who played the part of Finn, died in 2013 at the age of 31. An entire episode was dedicated to him, where students sing their last messages to Finn. “Make You Feel My Love” sung by Rachel (actress Lea Michele) was especially painful to listen to, since not only did Rachel and Finn date onscreen, Lea and Cory were a real life couple too.
Image credits: imdb.com
#6 “Hannibal” Scrapped An Episode That Was Filmed Before The Sandy Hook Shooting
When Thomas Harris was creating his recurring character Hannibal Lecter, he probably didn’t expect him to find new life on screen. First he was played by Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 classic The Silence of the Lambs, and later, from 2013-2015 by Mads Mikkelsen on the TV show Hannibal that explored the earlier days of Lecter.
In December 2012, several months before the first season of the show went on air, a dreadful tragedy took place in Connecticut. A 20-year-old man killed his mother at home and then committed a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, taking the lives of 20 children and six staff members, before he killed himself. While the country was mourning the victims of the Sandy Hook events, Bryan Fuller, who created Hannibal, asked the broadcasting network to pull one episode off air.
In this particular episode, titled Oeuf, a deranged mother figure (played by Molly Shannon) brainwashed children into killing other children. Fuller mentioned in an interview that it was not the graphic imagery that bothered him so much but the topic itself, as it was easy to associate it with the real life events of Sandy Hook Elementary, and he didn’t want his show to cause negative emotions in the audience. The network agreed with him, and the episode never aired.
Image credits: imdb.com
#7 “Law & Order: SVU” Dedicated Its 2002 Season To The Families Of 9/11 Victims And First Responders
Set in New York city, it was almost obligatory for the NBC drama Law & Order: SVU to address the 9/11 tragedy. So when the third season went on air on September 28, 2001, a new voiceover was added to it:
“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 footage of the Twin Towers that had been permanently featured in the opening sequence for the first two seasons was removed in the third season.
Image credits: wikipedia.org
#8 Friends Season 8 Episode “The One Where Rachel Tells…” A Scene That Originally Had Chandler Joking About A Bomb In An Airport – Was Changed Following Sept. 11
Episode 3 of season 8, “The One Where Rachel Tells…”, was packed with a lot of funny, witty, and goofy scenes, like any other Friends episode. Rachel finally tells Ross about their baby, Joey and Phoebe are locked out of their own apartment, and Chandler and Monica go on honeymoon.
A considerable part of the episode was dedicated to the misfortunes Chandler and Monica run into during their honeymoon because of another newly wed couple. However, originally, the script included scenes where Chandler made fun of the airport security and Monica pretended to give terrorist commands to Joey and Phoebe over the phone. But as the episode was scheduled to go on air on October 11, 2001, exactly one month after the 9/11 tragedy, the creators decided to replace this entire plotline and filmed additional scenes, writing the rival honeymoon couple into the story.
Image credits: friends.fandom.com
#9 The 2016 Shooting At Pulse Nightclub In Orlando, Led To “The Last Ship” Postponing Their Season 3 Premiere. The Plot Eerily Reflected The Massacre
Another TV series that had to make adjustments to their schedule was The Last Ship. Executive produced by Michael Bay, along with several others, the show follows the crew of a surviving team of a fictional missile destroyer on its mission to find a cure against a global pandemic and save humanity after the said pandemic wiped out 80 percent of the world’s population.
The shooting that took place in the early morning hours of the same day season 3 was set to premier was assessed to be the deadliest in the US history, taking the lives of 50 people and injuring another 53. The gunman who opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was killed in the standoff with the police.
Later in the day, TNT announced their decision to postpone the premier in the wake of the event. Though it was not explicitly stated by the executives, many assumed that the reason behind that decision was a shooting scene in a Vietnamese nightclub.
Image credits: imdb.com
#10 “Mr. Robot” Delayed Its Season 1 Finale After The Virginia Journalist Shootings
Mr. Robot tells the story of a genius hacker whose hallucinations mess with his perception of things he sees and hears but this doesn’t stop him from becoming a vigilante. Starring Rami Malek, the show ran for four seasons from 2015 to 2019.
Season 1 finale was filmed and scheduled for airing when television reporter Allison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were killed in Franklin County, Virginia in August 2015. The culprit, who was a former employee of the station both Parker and Ward worked for, also injured another person and took his own life.
The season finale had a very similar storyline, so the broadcasting network thought it better to postpone the episode out of respect to the victims, their bereaving families, and colleagues.
Image credits: imdb.com
#11 “30 Rock” Actor Rip Torn Was Written Of The Show After Torn Was Arrested For Drunkenly Breaking Into A Bank
Unfortunately, not every time an episode was postponed or removed altogether had noble reasons behind it. One such example is the story of Rip Torn and his character Don Geiss on the American sitcom 30 Rock.
In 2010, Torn was detained after he broke into a bank while drunk and carrying a loaded gun. Several charges were pressed against the actor, including reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, and illegal carrying of firearms, which he all pleaded guilty to.
The prosecutors later mentioned that he was so intoxicated that he believed he was in his own house and even left his hat and boots by the door. Thankfully, no one was hurt on the scene, so Torn only got a suspended sentence and probation. However, the channel deemed it necessary to remove him from the show and subsequently wrote his character out of the plot.
Image credits: bbc.com
#12 Documentary Now! Episode Postponed Due To The Roanoke Shootings And The Sensitive Subject Matter In The Episode
It was not only Mr. Robot that pulled an episode off air following the Roanoke shooting that took the lives of reporter Allison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward. Documentary Now! had an episode scheduled to be broadcasted the very next day after the tragedy broke out; however, the morning after the shooting, the channel announced its decision to postpone it by a week.
Shot in mockumentary style, this show created parodies of well-known documentary films, recreating their storytelling style with a similar, though fictitious story. In the episode Dronez that was supposed to go on air on August 27, 2015, the reporters were investigating El Chingon, the infamous and elusive leader of a Mexican drug cartel. The network officials stated that this was the most appropriate thing to do out of respect to the victims and their families.
Image credits: imdb.com
#13 “Castle” Delayed An Episode Involving Dismantling A Bomb. The Timing Would Have Been Too Close To The Real-Life Tragedy, 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings
Castle, named after its main character best-selling novelist Richard Castle, managed to combine crime mystery and comedy. It ran successfully for 8 seasons over 7 years. However, when the Boston Marathon bombing occurred in 2013, the creators of the show thought it would be appropriate to postpone by a week one of the episodes of season five that was on air at the time. The Tsarnaev brothers planted two pressure cooker bombs at the finish line of the annual marathon race held in the greater Boston area. Three people died and hundreds were injured, out of which 17 lost limbs.
Titled Still, the main plotline of episode 21 that was supposed to go on air on April 22 is focused on detective Beckett, the female lead of the series, accidentally stepping on a pressure bomb. While the team managed to disarm it and save Beckett, the creators thought it was too soon to show the episode that might have brought back the trauma of the Boston Marathon.
Image credits: imdb.com
#14 The Sitcom Heathers Delayed The Launch Of The Show “Out Of Respect” For The Victims Of The Deadly Mass Shooting At A High School In Parkland, Florida
The Parkland shooting has gained a lot of media attention since the surviving students of the Stoneman Douglas high school were very vocal about it, demanding a viable solution for the gun control problem in the United States. The shooting, which occurred on February 14, 2018, took the lives of 17 students and left 17 others injured. In the following period, some of the surviving students committed suicide, unable to cope with the PTSD and survivor’s guilt.
In the light of these events, the Paramount Network announced its decision to postpone the premier of their second scripted series Heathers. Based on the 1988 dark comedy starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, it is built around a high school student and her feud with a clique of popular mean girls called The Heathers.
Prior to the premier, the network sent out several episodes to journalists for review. Many agreed that while episode five was probably the reason the network decided to delay the release, the entire show treated violence and other social issues inappropriately.
Image credits: wikipedia.org
#15 “Alternatino With Arturo Castro’s” 7th Episode Featured A Sketch About Mass Shootings, Episode Was Pulled After A Shooting At A Garlic Festival In Northern California
Arturo Castro has performed in film and television for over 10 years and created numerous comic characters. For his sketch show Alternatino with Arturo Castro on Comedy Central, he played not one, not two, but multiple characters. The show that depicted “Arturo’s experiences as a Latino millennial in the United States” premiered on June 18, 2019 and ran successfully for six episodes until the mass shooting at the Garlic Festival happened.
On July 28, 2019, a 19-year-old male broke into the site of the Garlic Festival, a famous food festival in Northern California, and opened gunfire. He took the lives of three people, two of them underage, and injured many more. After a shootout with the police on site, he shot himself.
Following this event, Castro decided to postpone the seventh episode of his show that accidentally was built on the topic of mass shooting. A week later, before airing the sketch, Castro took to Twitter to leave a heartfelt message about the tragedy and how mass shootings need to end.
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Image credits: imdb.com
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