At the beginning of the month, I showed you the scenes from cinema that bring me to tears. Now, I wanna show you the moments from television that get me to cry. This one was a bit more difficult to make, as I’ve watched a practical horde of TV, and because of this I may be stretching the definition a little bit. Not across the whole list, but there are certain positions where something outside the televised screen was chosen. So with that being said, here are the ton 10 moments in television that made me cry. Let’s begin.
10) Conair Flight 5191 News Footage (Scene)
- 2021 marks 15 years since one of the worst aviation disasters took place in the United States. On the 27th of August, 2006, 49 people (Including my Uncle) died due to a tragic com-tower & pilot error. Back in 2016 there was a memorial to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the accident, and I found it incredibly difficult to watch. I didn’t exactly cry, as my attention wasn’t fully devoted to it, but the times I did have my eye on what was going on.....I can tell you that my eyes were definitely moistening up.
9) Sesame Street - Mr. Hooper’s Death (Scene)
- Being born in the late 80s, I never managed to watch what was a surprisingly deep moment for Sesame Street. Mr. Hooper was a big fixture on the show for quite some time, but when he died in real life, the producers saw an opportunity to teach a heavy lesson to kids. Yet, they didn’t shove it in the audience’s face. They let the scene play out naturally, and let the viewers themselves take the lesson instead of someone telling them about it. Taking that into consideration, the death of Mr. Hooper is Sesame Street at it’s most mature & tear inducing. Creating a moment that’s not forgettable in any way, it’s lesson is something that every child should pay attention to and remember. Death is always there, but by learning to cope in just the right way.....it’s not so bad.
8) September 11, 2001 News Footage (Scene)
- This year marks the 20th anniversary in which one of the most infamous days in American history took place. It was on this day that terrorists came through Canada (Not Mexico like the far right enjoys to say), trained themselves to be pilots, and drove planes into the World Trade Center. Overall, their actions caused the deaths of 2,996 people (Including themselves), and left a permanent scar on my home nation. To this day, seeing the planes crash into those tall spires is incredibly shocking. I actually learned of a family member on my Mom’s side died that day, but didn’t know about it till a few weeks later. Given the significance of what’s coming later this year, it seemed only right to talk about this day somewhere on the list.
7) Queen - These Are The Days Of Our Lives (Scene)
- As I said in the intro, I did have points where I would stretch the definition of television. Granted, music videos used to be on TV for the most part, they’re now exclusively within the realm of websites like Youtube. In regards to this spot, it was actually hard to pick. The music videos that came from the brief Innuendo period are all pretty emotional. Show Must Go On was almost selected to be here, but I have to ultimately select the tender These Are The Days Of Our Lives. I think in this video is where you see Freddy at the bottom of the barrel in terms of physicality. Though his soul shall forever be beautiful, at this point his body was not what it once was. Even if he was still at the top of his game in a physical manner, the song itself is really deep and emotional. It’s obvious that the band is pouring out their heart, reflecting on their past in the process. Coupled with the simplistic trappings of the music video itself, and you have something that really brings out the tears.
6) Sabaton History: Episode 42 - Inmate 4859 (Scene)
- Once again I’m stretching things here. Technically, Sabaton History is more of a mini-documentary series on Youtube with a brief interview at the end. However, if there was one exception I wanted to make, it would for episode 42 of the series. Now, I had known of the story of Witold Pilecki and his brave & suicidal mission of entering the hell on earth that is Auschwitz in an effort to destroy it for some time, I wasn’t ready to see some of the imagery used. I won’t describe what I saw, but I will say it is some of the most horrific footage & pictures anyone will ever see. Even the interview at the end, you can see that Joakim is taking things pretty seriously for the most part. I got a little bit more to say....but I’m saving that for another time!
5) Sainsbury 2014 - Christmas Eve 1914 (Scene)
- If you recall from my original top 10 best Christmas commercials list (Which you can read here), you might remember I placed this 2014 advert at the no. 1 spot, and I still stand by that decision. Since 2017, watching this 3-minute piece of advertising has become an essential holiday tradition for me. Even if it wasn’t, the amount of care and detail that went into the commercial is incredible. From the uniforms, to the setting, and even to the atmosphere, it was obvious that Sainsbury weren’t going for something cheap or sappy. The history that was behind the Christmas Truce, and the act itself, is nothing short of a cosmic miracle that will quite possibly never ever happen again. That alone is enough to get me to cry.
4) Most Extreme Elimination Challenge - Any Episode (Scene)
- If any of you can recall the early to mid 2000s, you might remember the channel known as Spike TV. Formerly known as the TNN Network, the programming shifted more into what was being promoted as "The First Network for Men", and as such many of the shows were geared more towards guys like myself. There were adult cartoons like Gary the Rat & Stripperela, new shows Ride with Funkmaster Flex, and the acquisitions of CSI, WWE Raw, and Star Trek. But perhaps one of the most iconic shows that aired on the channel was Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, or MXC for short in later seasons. A raunchy dub of the 80s Japanese gameshow Takeshi's Castle (See here for it’s history), the producers took out every reference to the show they’re making fun of, and instead turned it into basically a dirty version of American Gladiators. If anything, the whole series comes across like a live-action Ghost Stories: original concept thrown out the window, and replaced almost exclusively with over-the-top & politically incorrect humor. MXC is not for everybody, but if you’re willing to turn your brain off for a half-hour, you will be crying due to sheer laughter!
3) Doctor Who (Matt Smith) - Vincent Van Gogh Visits the Gallery (Scene)
- Now we get to some of the really sad stuff. In recent years, I’ve gained an appreciation for the Matt Smith era of Doctor Who. For quite a while I considered him too much of a man-child character, but there were times where a fair bit of maturity behind it. Chief example is at the end of the Vincent Van Gogh episode. After the Doctor & Amy encounter the eccentric artist, they decide to take him to their modern time, and show Van Gogh that there were people who did appreciate how incredible his work was. The artist at first seems confused by what he sees, but after a moment or two, he breaks down and cries. Though he’s happy, the emotional weight from his tears is highly evident. I have another scene from Doctor Who that is perhaps more tragic, but none the less seeing Van Gogh among his art is pretty heavy & tear inducing.
2) The Colbert Report - The Final Episode (Scene) & The Daily Show with John Stewart - The Final Episode (Scene)
- I know it seems a little silly to talk about comedic fake news shows on a list of TV moments that make me cry, but I’m actually being serious. I think for a horde of people, whether from my generation or the one beforehand, we got more actual news & information about the world from these two men than from any news network (Even the exceedingly few good ones). Their dedication to the truth, not to mention how genuinely clever & funny they both are, was highly endearing. So when it came to the final episodes of their respective shows, it’s actually rather sad. These last two episodes were filled with an incredible amount of heart, and showed that at times they were perhaps more than a parody news show. Perhaps John Stewart & Stephen Colbert knew that life sucks & people wanted to know how the world really worked, and they wanted to bring a smile to viewer’s faces. Seeing them on the screen one last time brought tears to my face.....yet they weren’t the most emotional.
So before we get to my number 1 TV scene, I wanted to take a moment to talk about some honorable mentions. Make no mistake: these are pretty emotional moments to me. However, they don’t quite carry the emotional weight as those on my main list. Still, I feel that it would be wrong to not speak of them, so here are my TV show moment honorable mentions.
HM1) Pokemon - Bye Bye Butterfree (Scene)
- I think it’s a safe bet to say that when my generation saw this, we probably had a Nam moment. Fans of the newer Pokemon series probably wouldn’t get it, but this was a really heavy scene. Granted looking back at it, it does come across as perhaps a little too sappy & cheesy, but seeing Ash set his very first caught Pokemon free to be among it’s own really pulls at the heartstrings. At this point it my life I don’t cry much during this scene, but at the same time the nostalgia from it is pretty intense. I can understand if modern Pokemon fans don’t quite feel the same, but for us 90s kids.....we’ll never forget.
HM2) Yan Can Cook - Any Episode (Scene)
- If there’s one good thing I can say about 2020, it would be that the weirdest things sometimes come back with a vengeance. Around May of last year, I’m randomly looking for things on Youtube, when for some reason a cooking show I loved as a kid came back into my brain. I decided to look & see if any episodes were on the site, and not only were there, but there was a channel that was seemingly putting them up every few days/weeks. Watching the episodes I saw never truly made me cry, but there were some big nostalgia waves coming at me, and my eyes were moistened a tiny bit. Definitely a show to watch if you like authentic Chinese cooking!
1) Doctor Who (Peter Capaldi) - The Doctor’s Speech (Scene)
- And here it is. The number 1 moment in all of television that gets me to cry. As heavy & emotional as the Van Gogh scene was, this fine moment of Peter Capaldi’s time as the doctor is far more so. Perhaps more than any other point, you finally see the age of the Doctor and the emotional weight he carries. You see the literal hell he’s gone through with ever word he speaks, and at so many points you get the impression that he wants to break down and weep as much as the audience does. On top of that, what makes this such a tearjerker of a scene is how he talks down to the villain. Yes it’s not very realistic, but it’s how he speaks that makes it seem like the most intelligent & realistic solution. Every point that he brings up seems logical, and with every word he says turns the gears in the heads of those that he’s trying to save. If there’s anyone who’s a critic of Capaldi’s time as the doctor....send them this scene.
And those were my 10 moments in television that get me to cry. Again, this list was harder to make than the last one....but it doesn’t compare to the difficulty that is the next post. See you all at the end of the month, when I’ll be talking about music that makes me cry. Definitely some surprises to be there for sure!
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