The TV deaths you didn’t see coming

TONIGHT’S episode of The Good Wife has sent fans into meltdown. We look back on the most shocking TV deaths. SPOILER ALERT

TONIGHT’S episode of The Good Wife — which features the shock death of a lead character — sent fans into meltdown when it aired in the US.

Some of our biggest home-grown and overseas dramas have received recent shock deaths and shake-ups.

But if you’re wary of spoilers and haven’t seen early eps of Game of Thrones, season four, or season two of House of Cards, steer clear of them here.

DOWNTON ABBEY

Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) has just given birth and Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) is rushing home to share the news. A winding road and a truck coming towards him end his Downton journey, and season three.

OFFSPRING

Fans recoil in shock and anger when the leading man in Nina’s (Asher Keddie’s) life, Patrick Reid (Matt Le Nevez) dies after being struck by a car towards the end of season four.

LOVE MY WAY

Never has Australian TV been so traumatic. Claudia Karvan’s screen daughter Lou leaves us reaching for the tissues when she slumps to the ground in a park.

PACKED TO THE RAFTERS

The biggest-rating episode of Packed to the Rafters sees Melissa Rafter (Zoe Ventoura) killed while driving and fiddling with her mobile phone on her way to meet husband Ben (Hugh Sheridan) in season three.

GAME OF THRONES

The hit fantasy phenomenon leaves those who haven’t read the books scrambling. Think Ned Stark’s (Sean Bean) season one beheading; the bloody Red Wedding which takes out three key cast in a matter of five minutes to end season three, and the season four poisoning of evil boy-king Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) at his own nuptials.

HOUSE OF CARDS

Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood leaves us gobsmacked, in no doubt about his merciless presidential ambitions, when he casually pushes former lover and journalist Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) into the path of a train.

BLUE HEELERS

What was the most significant TV event of 2000? Was it Cathy Freeman winning gold at the Olympics? No way. Lisa McCune’s Blue Heelers character Maggie Doyle is gunned down and the cop series never really recovers. Everyone has a theory as to who killed the show’s most popular officer. The finger is pointed at a drug syndicate. Viewers tear up as Maggie passes away in the arms of her lover, P.J. Hasham, played by Martin Sacks.

NUMBER 96

This sexy drama packs real dramatic punch. In 1975, five cast members drop when a bomb blast rocks the deli.

HOME AND AWAY

Shane Parrish, played by massively popular Dieter Brummer, drops off his perch after a bout of blood poisoning.

PRISONER

An iconic name in Aussie TV, Franky Doyle, bites the dust in 1979. Franky is on the run after escaping from Wentworth and perishes in a brutal showdown with police.

THE SULLIVANS

The Sullivans, a major TV success story, is rocked to the core when family matriarch Grace Sullivan’s (Lorraine Bayley) trip to London ends in tragedy. She’s visiting a hospital when it’s hit during an air raid.

THE SIMPSONS

How could they be so cruel to do-gooder Ned Flanders? Easy. The actor who voices his wife gets into a salary dispute with producers and they respond by having Maude fall to her death in an accident at a speedway.

M*A*S*H

The death of Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) on M*A*S*H hits audiences hard. At the end of the fourth season, it’s announced by Radar O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff) that Blake’s plane has been shot down.

SEINFELD

One of the most darkly comedic moments in sitcom history occurred when George’s fiancee, Susan, dies from licking out-of-date wedding invitation envelopes. The episode is pulled from the US airwaves because of fears about anthrax and mail.

NEIGHBOURS

In 2005, a bomb detonates on a plane during a joy flight over Bass Strait and gone are characters including David Bishop (Kevin Harrington). Then there’s the tragic Toadie-Dee wedding episode. Toadie (Ryan Moloney), driving away from the ceremony, loses concentration and the car veers into a lake. The last we see of Dee (Madeleine West) is her wedding veil flapping wildly out the open window of the car. If you slow down the footage, you can see the ramp that was built for the stunt.

DEXTER

When Dexter (Michael C. Hall) takes out the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow) in season four, he assumes his family is safe. In a scene of unimaginable horror, he returns home to discover the body of wife Rita (Julie Benz) in the tub.

THE SOPRANOS

Adriana (Drea de Matteo) is under pressure, turning FBI informant. Her awful demise is carried out by so-called “nice” wise guy Silvio. She’s seen crawling through autumn leaves, begging for her life. Then come the gunshots.

The Good Wife airs on Network Ten tonight at 9.30pm AEST