Greatest scenes in TV history

Agreed, Devil. There are many from Band of Brothers that could be cited. Someone mentioned it already, but the scene in which they encounter the concentration camp is heart-wrenching.

 

agreed on final scene of "st. elsewhere." right there with the final scene of "newhart." 8) 8) 8)

 

The scene in All In The Family after Edith's death when Archie is sitting in their room crying asking how she could leave him like this.

 

The Honeymooners: "Hello, ball!"

 

The rat and the snake speech in Survivor I

The scene in the pilot of Cosby when Theo asks his dad to love him, even if he is just a D student (audience applauds and says ahhh) Cosby comes back with "That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. No wonder you get Ds. I'll tell you something (while holding a baseball bat), "I brought you into this world. And I'll take you out." To me, that scene was what made the show great. Not the funniest ever, but what hooked viewers.

Henry Blake's death
Newhart ending
"But she doesn't have an uncle" ending of Law and Order.
"I'm out" from Seinfeld

 

I needed to see that show four or five times to figure out the timeline. That ending, the first time I saw it, completely fucking floored me. It still does. How does McGinley get tripe like "Are We Still There Yet" and "Wild Hogs" when he just kills every scene he does on Scrubs?

And because Mikey is right, and I have a massive man crush on Bill Lawrence, I'll rank my second thru fifth favorite Scrubs moments:

2.) The whole fucking final act of "My Life In Four Cameras." Even though "My Screwup" delivers a bigger punch to the gut, I think this is the best episode ever of Scrubs. Absolutely perfectly brilliant.
3.) Cox storming out of the hospital after mistakenly giving the organs of a rabies-infected patient to three patients, all of whom die.
J.D.: Remember what you told me? The second you start blaming yourself for peoples' deaths there's no coming back.
Dr. Cox: Yeah, you're right.
4.) Carla screaming at JD in the rain outside the bus in "My Nickname."
5.) Janitor realizing he's made a difference in "His Story III," when he spends the day talking to a paralyzed patient whose computer he broke and venting about how even though he knows he's only a janitor, he took the job at the hospital b/c he felt he could make a difference there. Cox gets a new computer and the patient blinks out "thank you." Cox, in his typical smarmy way, says "Ahh don't mention it." Patient blinks out "I wasn't talking to you" and Cox turns around and sees Janitor looking at the room. Janitor whirls around as he makes eye contact with Cox, but in the split second before he does so, you can see his throat catch and you realize he's about to cry. He walks down the hall, an ever so subtle spring in his step.

I could go to 20 and not cover them all.

 

Act I, Scene I of The Wire.

Snot Boogie.

 

The episode where JD wishes that day-to-day life in the hospital was more like a sitcom gets me every single time. For 15 minutes, it's nothing but typical sitcom tripe, then "Cheers writer" Charles James collapses onto his hospital bed for the last time, making Elliot's life-saving effort irrelevant. In the last scene, JD is watching a Cheers DVD trying forget about the lousy day.

 

Monopoly money scene from the Cosby Show pilot:

 

The original "Brothers in Arms" musical montage scene, featuring the always outstanding Bruce McGill:

 

I'm with you on that Zeke.

May be the greatest opening scene ever.

"It's America, man".

 

Still have to think about my answer to this topic, but a quick story. I grew up about 5 blocks from the NBC studio in Brooklyn where the first couple of seasons were shot. My brother read about the show, wrote a bunch of requests for tickets, and I was able to go to the tapings for most of the first season, including the pilot (part of which was shot in advance). The scenes with Cliff and Theo in the pilot just killed. I remember thinking at the time that the show was going to be a huge hit.