10 TV Deaths That Totally Trolled Audiences

Killing off a character in a television show is harder than most viewers think. Whether it's because the actor doesn't want to be involved anymore, or the showrunner is going for something evocative to keep the series fresh, taking a character out of a series can be that show's biggest event.

Of course, it doesn't always work out that way. A series may kill off a character, but only because they plan on bringing them back in a follow-up episode. Another reason could simply be that the showrunners wanted to "troll" the audience by whipping them into a frenzy over the death of their favorite character.

Whatever the reasoning for killing someone off, it's not always done with the best intentions. When a death is little more than a troll, it's often hated by fans, but not always. Sometimes, the fans can accept the murder of their beloved fan-favorite if it progresses the story in a good way... but not always.

In each of these examples, someone died on a show, and it had a significant impact the viewers felt in their gut. Even when a character returns, or simply didn't die in the first place due to some sort of retcon, it's going to cause an Internet riot, and these ten examples are the best from television history.

It's risky to kill off a major character on any show, but it's also a strange thing to do in an animated series like Family Guy. Nearly all of the characters are voiced by the show's creator, Seth MacFarlane, so there wasn't an issue with the talent being absent, but they decided to kill off Brian anyway, and the fans didn't like it one bit.

The death was shocking, as it happened in a rather pedestrian manner. Brian was hit by a car, which is sadly a fate that befalls many a four-legged friend IRL, so there was a great deal of emotion to the scene.

The real question here is, why did they bother to kill off Brian? The answer is one that is all too familiar these days; it was meant to shock the audience. This was confirmed by the voice of Brian, who said he chose to kill Brian because "It did what it was designed to do — it reminded people this is still a show where anything that can happen despite the fact it’s been on for a while."

Of course, Brian was brought back a few episodes later, and everything went back to normal, but for a little bit, MacFarlane trolled the hell out of his audience, and most of them were angry about it. He commented on the reaction as well:

“We were all very surprised, in a good way, that people still cared enough about that character to be that angry. We thought it would create a little bit of a stir, but the rage wasn’t something we counted on.”