Comedy to Die For: When Death Rears Its Head in Sitcoms

With the recent series finale of the imaginative, funny, and thought-provoking sitcom The Good Place — which began with four recently deceased characters finding themselves in the afterlife — perhaps this is as good a time as any to take a look at how more conventional sitcoms through the years have handled the deaths of major (and minor) characters.

Until The Good Place came along, death wasn’t something many of us were likely to think about while relaxing in the evening to have a few laughs watching our favorite TV comedies. The…