Television has the power to change our perspectives, challenge societal norms, and create unforgettable moments. Join us as we explore the most groundbreaking scenes that revolutionized the small screen and left an indelible mark on pop culture history.
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00:00Isn't that what you said one time, try and remember the times that were good?"
00:03Welcome to MissMojo, and today, we're counting down our picks for the TV moments that made
00:08us re-examine what was possible on the small screen.
00:10For this list, we're excluding news coverage and live TV moments.
00:15Also, a spoiler alert is in effect.
00:17It's been an honor and a privilege to have worked with you."
00:2120.
00:22Ross says Rachel, Friends
00:26Obviously, this beloved 90s sitcom wasn't the first to do a will-they-won't-they romance,
00:31but it seems like every show since Friends has shades of Ross and Rachel's arc in it.
00:35I have sexual feelings for him, but I do love him.
00:39Oh my god, oh my god, why didn't you tell me?
00:48We thought you knew.
00:49We?
00:50Yeah, we all know.
00:51We talk about it all the time.
00:52Could there even be a Jim and Pam or a Janine and Gregory without them?
00:56These two had a rocky road, but for many, they didn't really become an end-game pairing
01:01until after Ross got married to another woman.
01:03Once Ross said his ex-girlfriend's name at the altar instead of his soon-to-be wife,
01:08the writing was on the wall.
01:10I, Ross,
01:11I, Ross,
01:12Take thee, Emily,
01:13Take thee, Rachel,
01:14Emily.
01:15Emily.
01:29It was a screw-up so big, we had to wait an entire summer to see its conclusion in
01:34the season 5 premiere.
01:35I think we'd better start again.
01:38Ross, repeat after me.
01:41I, Ross,
01:42I, Ross,
01:44Take thee, Emily,
01:49Take thee, Emily,
01:50I don't think there'd be anybody else.
01:5519.
01:56The Kiss
01:57Star Trek.
01:58The original Gene Roddenberry science fiction series broke ground in more ways than one,
02:03but among its most important and memorable moments was this scene in the season 3 episode
02:07Plato's Stepchildren.
02:08I'm so very frightened.
02:09That's the way they want you to feel.
02:14Makes them think that they're alive.
02:15I know it, but I wish I could stop trembling.
02:24Captain James Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura shared a kiss under the powerful influence of a nefarious
02:29group of aliens called Plutonians.
02:32Their embrace made a lot of network executives nervous.
02:35There was a reason.
02:37William Shatner was white, and Nichelle Nichols was black.
02:40And this was 1968, only one year after interracial marriage became legal in the United States.
02:47The drama of, oh my god, a white guy's kissing a black girl on camera, wow, to me it lacked
02:55that.
02:56Although for years it was incorrectly identified as the first interracial kiss on network television,
03:01it was probably the most famous instance on American network television up to that point.
03:07Apparently, this was the largest fan mail that Paramount had ever gotten on Star Trek
03:14and won for one episode.
03:16Number 18, time enough at last, The Twilight Zone.
03:20From the moment it premiered in 1959, Rod Serling's twisted, bizarre, and allegorical
03:25anthology series was pushing buttons and broadening the scope of television storytelling.
03:30You should thank me, really.
03:32A grown man who reads silly, ridiculous, nonsensical doggerel.
03:36This isn't doggerel.
03:37There's some very beautiful things here.
03:39The Twilight Zone soon became famous for its twist endings.
03:42One of its most enduring conclusions came at the expense of voracious reader Henry Bemis,
03:48a bookish man who is the lone survivor of a nuclear blast and manages to see the bright
03:52side.
03:53Books!
03:54All the books I'll need!
03:55All the books!
03:56All the books I'll ever want!
03:59Shelley!
04:00Shakespeare!
04:01John!
04:03He finally has time to read.
04:06Then he breaks his glasses.
04:07Left completely alone and unable to see, his post-apocalyptic dream becomes a nightmare.
04:13This unforgettable climax has been referenced and parodied ever since.
04:17That's not fair!
04:19That's not fair!
04:20There was time now!
04:22Oh!
04:23It's not fair!
04:25Number 17, Don Pitches the Carousel, Mad Men.
04:29This AMC period drama examines mid-century America through the eyes of men, and eventually
04:35women, who shaped the culture through advertising.
04:37The most important idea in advertising is new.
04:44Creates an itch.
04:45You simply put your product in there as a kind of calamine lotion.
04:49But he also talks about a deeper bond with the product.
04:55In the first season finale, genius adman Don Draper manages to break our hearts and
05:00beautifully expose the show's entire thesis in one achingly brilliant scene.
05:05His pitch for the Kodak Carousel, a photo projector, includes his own family photos.
05:10It takes us to a place where we ache to go again.
05:15It simultaneously illuminates Don's failing marriage and exposes the great lie his career
05:20is based on.
05:21And as it pulls at your heartstrings, it's making us face the reality that nostalgia,
05:25like advertising, is something that's only constructed and made to seem real.
05:31Round and around, back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.
05:41Number 16, Luke and Laura's Wedding, General Hospital.
05:45From their summer on the run to their legendary marriage, Luke and Laura Spencer were a worldwide
05:49sensation.
05:50The media wedding of all time, Luke and Laura.
05:53Actor Tony Geary and actress Jeannie Francis having survived terror and plots, tying the
05:58knot in one of the most popular soap operas of all time.
06:01In November 1981, 30 million people tuned in to watch them tie the knot in front of
06:06all the citizens of Port Charles, New York.
06:09The episode still holds the record for most-watched episode of a soap opera.
06:13Luke and Laura, it is with great admiration and affection that we share with you today
06:21the joy of this, your wedding day."
06:24Not only was it huge for daytime drama fans, but the event was credited with lending legitimacy
06:28to the entire genre.
06:30Actors Jeannie Francis and Anthony Geary became bona fide superstars.
06:35Luke and Laura's Wedding was the culmination of a new era of daytime serials, one that
06:40revolved around the supercouple.
06:41The popularity of the actors and actresses on General Hospital is a phenomenon.
06:46One in 15 Americans is said to watch this show.
06:49Crowds follow the actors on the streets.
06:51Number 15.
06:52The One Who Knocks, Breaking Bad
06:54At first, Walter White just seems like a desperate guy driven to desperate measures.
06:58If he cut you, at least this would all be over.
07:00Oh yeah, yeah, that's a tremendous weight just lifted off of me.
07:05Now I understand myself.
07:09Walter's efforts as an illegal side hustle to offset the cost of cancer treatments gives
07:14way to something else entirely, and this Season 4 sequence makes us realize how far gone he
07:19is.
07:20Delivered brilliantly by Bryan Cranston, the monologue sees Walter spelling out who the
07:25real villain is here.
07:27Who are you talking to right now?
07:31Who is it you think you see?
07:33He never was the mild-mannered chemistry teacher we thought we knew.
07:37He's proven himself from the beginning to be cruel, manipulative, and full of rage.
07:43He is the danger.
07:45He's shameless, almost boastful, perfectly encapsulating the TV anti-hero of the age.
07:51I am not in danger, Skyler.
07:54I am the danger.
07:55A guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that of me?
07:59No.
08:00I am the one who knocks.
08:02Number 14.
08:03Bob Newhart Gets Meta, Newhart
08:05In the series finale of Bob Newhart's second sitcom, his character is knocked unconscious
08:10by a golf ball.
08:11I've got to get out of this madhouse before you're all crazy.
08:25He then wakes up in the bedroom from his previous sitcom, in bed next to his former co-star
08:30Suzanne Plachette.
08:31The scene was filmed under complete secrecy, with fake endings leaked to the press to keep
08:36them from spoiling the surprise.
08:37Nothing made sense in this place.
08:39I mean, the maid was an heiress, her husband talked in alliteration, the handyman kept
08:46missing the point of things.
08:48While St. Elsewhere had shocked audiences with its It Was All Just a Dream ending a
08:52couple of years before, Newhart took that conceit and pushed it even further.
08:57This wraparound, universal wormhole ending was insane for the time.
09:14Number 13.
09:15The Contest, Seinfeld Several episodes of this show-about-nothing
09:19changed the way TV comedies functioned.
09:32Seinfeld could spin comedy gold from situations as mundane as waiting for a table at a Chinese
09:37restaurant.
09:38But perhaps its most audacious feat is a scene from a classic episode, The Contest, where
09:43the core four characters have an entire discussion about self-pleasure without ever saying the
09:48word.
10:00In fact, that's what makes it devastatingly funny.
10:03Instead, they resort to euphemism and innuendo that just gets more unhinged as the scene
10:08goes on.
10:09It presented a fresh, innovative way to broach offensive topics without aggravating the censors.
10:15Number 12.
10:23The Red Room, Twin Peaks Even with all its quirks, the first episode
10:27or two of David Lynch and Mark Frost's surreal soap opera Whodunit isn't completely off the
10:33rails yet.
10:51It's only when FBI agent Dale Cooper first dreams of the Red Room, a sort of dimensional
10:56nexus between worlds, that the show really announces itself as one of a kind.
11:00While there, Cooper finds himself with a person who speaks cryptically and Laura Palmer,
11:05the high schooler whose murder he's come to Twin Peaks to solve.
11:22The whole scene is packed with eerie and unforgettable images.
11:26Series of shows like The X-Files, Riverdale, Atlanta, and even The Sopranos were all influenced
11:31by the series' use of dreams and surreal imagery to illuminate the story.
11:36Number 11.
11:37Chuckle's Funeral, The Mary Tyler Moore Show
11:39Recurring character Chuckles the Clown was the butt of all kinds of jokes by the madcap
11:43news crew of WJM-TV.
11:46This trend continues even after his death, and at his own funeral, no less.
12:07The writers of The Mary Tyler Moore Show won a well-deserved Emmy for this classic episode
12:12that finds an equally hilarious and profound way to deal with death and grieving.
12:16Given how absurd it all is, it's hard not to crack up alongside Mary Richards as she
12:21tries to keep it cute out of respect for poor, dead Chuckles, but that's what makes
12:42this scene so great.
12:43It's hilarious, but it's also human.
12:46Number 10.
12:47Bill and Frank's Last Dinner, The Last of Us
12:57One episode of this HBO adaptation of a celebrated video game had everyone talking.
13:02In a post-apocalyptic America, survivalist Bill takes in a traveler named Frank, and
13:06the two share many blissful years together.
13:20But as Frank becomes weaker due to a progressive illness, Bill decides to spend one last day
13:24with him before Frank ends his own suffering.
13:27As they share a last meal and a glass of wine, Bill reveals they'll be dying together.
13:40And then we all wept.
13:42The episode won several awards and was lauded for presenting a story about a mature gay
13:47couple.
14:06Number 9.
14:07Kimball Catches the One-Armed Man, The Fugitive
14:10For four seasons, TV viewers watched as Dr. Richard Kimball was wrongfully convicted of
14:15murdering his wife and evaded police to find the killer for himself.
14:29Then after four seasons, the unthinkable happened.
14:32He actually caught the one-armed man, the shadowy figure truly responsible for her death.
14:43After years of running, Kimball can finally walk free.
14:46This was so huge for the era because this was a time when TV storytelling just wasn't
14:50taken seriously.
14:51It was almost unheard of for a show to have a proper conclusion in its series finale.
14:56The Fugitive paved the way for episodic stories that had a complete arc.
15:11Number 8.
15:13Archie Bunker, All in the Family
15:15Explosive, vulgar, and gut-bustingly funny, the Bunker family patriarch crashed onto the
15:20TV screens for the first time in 1971.
15:34Right away, the irascible Archie Bunker gets into a heated discussion with his daughter
15:38and son-in-law about religion, a discussion that was probably happening in millions of
15:43American households.
15:44But at that time, primetime network TV was not exactly known for being that controversial,
15:49especially in sitcoms.
15:59Creator Norman Lear faced pushback right away.
16:02Everyone, from viewers to critics to the show's network, seemed scared of Archie Bunker's
16:06frank observations.
16:09But it didn't matter.
16:10The show eventually earned a devoted audience and became a cultural institution.
16:20Number 7.
16:21Who Shot J.R.?
16:22Dallas
16:23Did your favorite show always end a season on a cliffhanger?
16:26Take Dallas for that one.
16:41Third season finale of this primetime soap ended on a mysterious note.
16:45Megalomaniacal oil baron J.R. Ewing sits alone in his office late at night.
16:50He hears a noise, goes to investigate, and is gunned down by an unseen assailant.
16:55Viewers had two questions.
16:57Would J.R. survive?
16:59And who shot him?
17:00Was it his ambitious younger brother Bobby?
17:02Could it have been his long-suffering wife, Sue Ellen?
17:05Or how about her lover, Dusty?
17:18The cliffhanger ending had audiences speculating all through the summer of 1980.
17:22When the show returned in the fall, the season premiere scored an unbelievable 76% of that
17:28night's TV viewing audience.
17:41Number 6.
17:42Ellen Comes Out
17:43Ellen.
17:44It was big enough news that Ellen DeGeneres came out in real life.
17:46But the scandal that occurred once her sitcom avatar made that big leap was a completely
17:51different animal.
17:52The two-part Puppy episode from 1997 was an auspicious event.
18:08Not only did it include guest stars Laura Dern and Oprah Winfrey, it was the very first
18:12time a main character on a series came out as gay midway through its run.
18:16When Ellen's character made her announcement over the airport intercom, it was to the cheers
18:20of a studio audience.
18:22Public reaction was not as joyous.
18:35Advertisers and special interest groups trashed the show.
18:38Ellen only lasted one more season, and DeGeneres and Dern both faced career repercussions as
18:43a result.
18:53Number 5.
18:54Kunta Kinte's Name.
18:55Roots.
18:56Based on the 1976 novel by Alex Haley, this ABC miniseries was the first mainstream American
19:02TV project to delve into the horrors of slavery.
19:11The miniseries made the brilliant decision to cast familiar white actors in the roles
19:15of slave owners and antebellum racists to draw its audience in.
19:20Over 30 million people watched the second episode, which comes to a climax with Kunta
19:24Kinte refusing to answer to the name Toby, given to him by the slave owner who's purchased
19:30him.
19:31He is whipped until he does so.
19:44The scene is relentless, even by today's standards, and pushed the boundaries of what could be
19:48shown on network TV.
20:04Number 4.
20:05The Final Scene.
20:06The Sopranos.
20:07In the 2000s, there may have been more viewing options than ever before, but HBO's mob-centered
20:12masterpiece was appointment television.
20:15Over 11 million people tuned in to see how Tony Soprano's story would end.
20:23Facing unprecedented threats to his underworld empire, the crime kingpin of New Jersey sits
20:28down to dinner with his family as Journey's Don't Stop Believing plays on the jukebox.
20:32A feeling of unease creeps in.
20:35After six seasons, we realize that any person in this restaurant could be an assassin.
20:47Then the screen cuts to black.
20:49Allegedly, the abrupt ending had people thinking their cable had gone out.
20:53The amount of speculation and downright anger this ambiguous ending caused is still unprecedented
20:59to this day.
21:00Number 3.
21:10The Red Wedding.
21:11Game of Thrones.
21:12If this fantasy epic taught us anything, it's that you can't get too attached to anyone.
21:26Even the show's main characters aren't safe.
21:28Two seasons after Ned Stark was beheaded for treason, his widow, an eldest son, and heir
21:33befell one of the most violent fates in all of TV history.
21:37In a flash, Captain Stark, Robb Stark, his pregnant wife Talisa, and their retinue of
21:41partisans are slaughtered by Walder Frey's party.
21:45Lord Walder, Lord Walder, enough, let it end, please.
21:54Visceral doesn't begin to cover it.
21:56In one fell swoop, three pivotal characters are gone, and in the most brutal way possible.
22:01The reaction was incredible.
22:04On top of being a near-peerless episode of television, it still generates conversation
22:08more than a decade later.
22:14Number 2.
22:15Goodbye, M.A.S.H.
22:16Despite lasting literal years longer than the Korean War, this war dramedy was insanely
22:21popular.
22:22Described as a straight comedy, it changed tone and direction, as exemplified by the
22:27death of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake in its third season.
22:42There was room for the horrors of war between punchlines.
22:45This was doubly true in the series finale, which still holds the record for most-watched
22:50episode of TV.
22:51I know how tough it is for you to say goodbye, so I'll say it.
22:56Maybe you're right, maybe we will see each other again, but just in case we don't, I
23:02want you to know how much you've meant to me."
23:04Filled with incredible and powerful moments, the most memorable scene is its very last,
23:09where Hawkeye Pierce leaves the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital for good.
23:15His helicopter rises to reveal B.J. Hunnicutt's
23:25goodbye message, spelled out using stones.
23:28It's a majestic and elegant end to M.A.S.H.'s legendary 11-season run.
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23:481.
23:50The Candy Factory – I Love Lucy
23:52Lucille Ball's influence still looms large over TV comedy.
24:06To watch an episode of I Love Lucy is to see the origins of gags and setups that we've
24:11seen hundreds of times since.
24:13But few have left as lasting an impact as Lucy Ricardo, trying different careers and
24:17hysterically failing.
24:19Whether it's accidentally getting drunk during a spokeswoman gig or stomping grapes in Italy,
24:24nobody could mess up a job like her.
24:26This scene sees her and Ethel Mertz wrapping candies on a conveyor belt.
24:30They lose control almost immediately, shoving the candies into their mouths, leaving the
24:34studio audience dying with laughter.
24:37Its impact is a testament to the show's enduring popularity and the legendary status of its
24:41star.
24:42What landmark TV moment did we leave out?
24:53Let us know in the comments.