10 Most Shocking Deaths In TV History

Far less brutal than most of the deaths on this list, but no less shocking, when Maude Flanders was killed in The Simpsons’ eleventh season, it was hard to believe.

While the show had touched on the subject of death numerous times, only a few supporting characters had been killed – most notably jazz legend Bleeding Gums Murphy, who had an entire episode dedicated to his passing.

The episode starts of innocuously enough, with the Simpson family on an outing to what they think is a bird sanctuary, only to find that a racetrack has been built in its place.

Hijinks ensue, Homer encourages a host of scantily-clad beauties to fire t-shirts at him, and when he ducks at the last moment, Maude is struck, thrown from the bleachers and killed. Just like that, a staple character of the show was gone. As Reverend Lovejoy movingly says during her eulogy, “whether you noticed her or not, Maude was always there, and we thought she always would be.”