10 Moments That Literally Stopped TV Shows

1. Roseanne Reveals Dan's Death - Roseanne

Fleabag TV
ABC

But record scratch moments don't get much more shocking than the original series finale to legendary sitcom Roseanne.

The ninth and final season of its original run saw the Conners win a lottery jackpot totalling $108 million, turning the show's down-to-Earth depiction of a blue-collar American family entirely on its head.

But the series finale revealed in its later moments that the outlandish season was actually a fabrication - a fantastical book written by Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) based on the life of her family.

Though her husband Dan (John Goodman) had an affair during the season, this mind-boggling rug-pull confirmed that Dan actually died of the heart attack he suffered in season eight.

It's about as WTF as apparent series finales get, and depending on your opinion either walked back an entire season's worth of terrible storytelling or saw the series explode in a spectacular last-minute fireball - until the recent revival brought Dan back to life, of course.

Either way, Roseanne literally stopped the show mid-fantasy to reveal that what we thought we knew wasn't the case at all.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.