TV's All-Time Best & Worst Pranks
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Alias' Fake Francie
"Francie doesn't like coffee ice cream." [Cue amazing fight sequence between Sydney and Allison Doren, Francie's look-alike assassin.]
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American Idol: Lee DeWyze Beats Crystal Bowersox
Of all the egregious results on Idol over the years — and there have been many — this was easily one of the most baffling.
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Arrow's Fallen Hero
The show's called Arrow — not Everybody Else — so it was fair to assume that The CW drama's titular hero didn't really die at the hands of Ra's al Ghul in Season 3... but that didn't stop a handful of believers from freaking the frak out.
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Buffy's Death
Remember when we all thought we'd have to face a world without the Slayer? Let's never speak of that again.
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Chuck: R.I.P., Shaw?
Shaw wasn't the best guy, but we still didn't want to see him murdered by the show's titular hero... so we were kind of relieved when, just a few episodes later, he was revealed to still be alive!
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Dallas: Bobby's Alive!
How does a popular primetime soap recover after a particularly dismal season, which incudes the poorly planned death of a fan-favorite character? If you're Dallas, you'll reveal it was all a dream. No, really. All of it.
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Family Guy's #Briangate
Last season, Fox promised that a major character's death would stick, and it did... for two whole episodes, at which point Stewie went back in time and prevented Brian from ever dying. (Perhaps the cruelest joke of all was temporarily replacing Brian with the utterly un-funny Vinny.)
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The Flash: Ciscooooo!
Listen, Flash, if you ever decide to temporarily kill off another character, please don't make it Cisco again. When we thought we'd lost him forever, our hearts — and his, of course — simply couldn't handle it.
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Fringe's Twisted Trip
The Fox drama truly and gloriously showed its trippy hand as Season 1 drew to a close, when Olivia paid a visit to the elusive William Bell... in whose office she saw a peculiar, incongruous newspaper headline. As the camera swooped back and beyond the office window, we realized that we weren't in Kansas our universe anymore, but the infamous "Other" side.
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House of Cards Digs Up Doug
Man, Doug's murder was a killer way to end the Netflix drama's second season. Wait, did we say murder? Strike that, apparently.
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How I Met You Mother's Series Finale
Pretty much all of it. But mostly the Mother dying and Ted ending up with Robin.
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The Last Man on Earth...
...is not, in fact, the last man on earth.
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Lost's Future Shock
Throughout the Season 3 finale, we saw what we presumed were new flashbacks, as a disheveled and bearded Jack pondered suicide, visited a recently deceased friend (?) in a funeral parlor, and tried to score some oxycodone using a bogus prescription. But at episode's end, when Jack meets up with Kate (?!) outside an airport, it becomes clear that we are not seeing his past, but his future, via a new flash-forward device. We have to go baaaack... and rewatch.
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Newhart's (Long) Nap
Newhart saw Dallas' "this season never happened" and raised it a "this entire series never happened." The final episode of the sitcom ended with Bob waking up in bed next to Emily, his wife from The Bob Newhart Show, revealing that all eight seasons of Newhart had been a dream.
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One Tree Hill's (Un)interrupted Wedding
When Peyton objected during Lucas' wedding to Lindsey, fans across the globe leapt from their couches and cheered — then promptly sat back down in silence when it was revealed that Peyton's entire speech had been in her head. (That's cold, Mark Schwahn. Real cold.)
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Pretty Little Liars: Ezra Is 'A'!
Remember when the show tricked us into thinking Aria's age-inappropriate boyfriend was also the show's über villain? For some reason, it felt a little familiar...
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Pretty Little Liars, Cont'd.
...Oh, that's right. PLL has done that same thing for nearly every single character. Every day is April Fools' Day in Rosewood!
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Revenge Revives David Clarke
The ABC sudser's entire premise was built upon the notion that Emily Thorne's father, David Clarke, was dead. And he was... for three whole seasons.
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Roseanne's Retcon
Retconning in sitcoms is a rarity, but Roseanne's final episode — which revealed that much of the series, including Jackie's sexuality and Dan's heart attack, was altered as part of Roseanne's literary escapades — managed to kinda-sorta pull it off.
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South Park Farts on Its Fans
Rather than revealing the identity of Eric Cartman's father, as promised, the Season 2 premiere of the Comedy Central series was merely an extended episode of Terrance and Phillip, titled "Not Without My Anus."
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St. Elsewhere's Snow Job
The iconic finale of this '80s medical drama ended by revealing that the entire series had taken place in a snow globe... in the mind of an autistic child. Boom.
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True Blood's Jason-Eric Sex Scene
Of all the sex dream fake-outs during the HBO drama's seven-season run, why couldn't this one have been a reality?
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Two and a Half Men's Sheen-less Finale
Don't even lie, you thought this was Charlie Sheen from behind, too. It wasn't until he didn't turn around — before having a piano dropped on his head — that we realized it was, in fact, a body double. (And a damn good one at that.)
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The Vampire Diaries' First Elena-Katherine Switcheroo
Neither the audience, nor Damon, nor John('s fingers) saw this one coming. Well done, writers. Well done.
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Veronica Mars' Fake Break
Kristen Bell isn't just good at acting; she's good at acting like she's acting. We totally bought Duncan and Veronica's fake split in Season 2.
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The View: Rosie Returns
We actually blame ourselves for this one. Why did we think it would end any differently — or last any longer — than her first stink (er, stint) at the table?