Dead Wrong

Due to a whacky misunderstanding, a character mistakenly thinks another character is dead or dying.

Too Close for Comfort

Appearances

• Sanford and Son: Season 4, episode 24, "The Over-the-hill Gag" (1975). When Lamont mishears a doctor telling Fred that he "only has six months" to pay his bill, he thinks Fred only has six months to live.
• Diff'rent Strokes: Season 2, episode 23, "Arnold Faces Fatality" (1980). Mr. Drummond starts trying to tell Arnold that his goldfish died, but he gets distracted and leaves Arnold at his desk, where he was amending his will. When Arnold reads the will, he thinks Mr. Drummond is dying.
• Night Court: Season 2, episode 9, "Inside Harry Stone" (1984). After eating some questionable food in a Greek restaurant, Harry starts having terrible stomach pains and ends up in the hospital. After he has surgery, the owner of the restaurant goes to the hospital to visit him, and Mac tells him Harry's "gone," making him think Harry died.
• Too Close for Comfort: Season 5, episode 2, "Nearly Departed" (1985). After his father's funeral, Henry starts to think about his own future passing and who might show up to pay their final respects. He invites his friend Herb over to ask him to give his eulogy, and Herb mistakenly thinks Henry is dying.
• It's a Living: Season 4, episode 7, "Family Feud" (1986). When Sonny gets conned into buying a burial plot, Amy thinks he's dying. Sonny doesn't correct Amy because he enjoys her sympathy, and it's not long before she tells some of the other staff.
• Too Close for Comfort: Season 6, episode 7, "Bedtime for Henry" (1986). Henry takes a day off and decides to stay in bed all day, and despite his reassurances, Mrs. Stinson, Monroe, and Lisa all start to think he's dying of some mysterious illness, and Lisa even goes so far as to call 9-1-1, which leads to paramedics storming his room.
• Perfect Strangers: Season 2, episode 19, "Snow Way to Treat a Lady: Part 2" (1987). While Balki is digging a tunnel through the snow from the avalanche, Larry, Jennifer, and Mary Anne are asleep inside the cabin. When they wake up, the tunnel has collapsed, and Balki is nowhere to be found, so they all assume the tunnel caved in on top of him and killed him, but he actually made it outside to the roof.
• The Golden Girls: Season 7, episode 18, "Journey to the Center of Attention" (1992). Sophia is so moved by a late friend's wake that she decides to have one for herself while she's alive. Unfortunately, a miscommunication convinces all her friends that she's actually dead, and when she appears at the wake—alive—they get pissed off and leave.
• The Nanny: Season 2, episode 17, "The Will" (1995). Mr. Sheffield is talking about making out his will, and Fran discovers a pamphlet from the American Heart Association in the kitchen and assumes he's dying from heart disease.
• Frasier: Season 5, episode 9, "Perspectives on Christmas" (1997). When Daphne figures out that Martin has been going to church, she starts to think he's dying and doesn't want to tell anyone, just like her uncle John.