TV Shows That Eerily Predicted Real Life Deaths

Many popular TV shows draw from real-life events to create compelling storylines. For example, "Orange is the New Black" was based on the experiences of money launderer Piper Kerman, and "Entourage," was inspired by Mark Wahlberg's early days in Hollywood. Sometimes, however, TV shows have storylines that come eerily close to real events — including deaths — before they happen. Of course, it is usually just a coincidence, but it does leave some audience members wondering if the writers may have some hidden psychic abilities. 

These spooky predictions have been happening for decades. There's "Star Trek" which spoke about a major assassination days before that of Martin Luther King Jr., a dark plotline in "Family Guy" about Robin Williams that just finished airing as news broke of the actor's death by suicide, and several lines in "Friends" that take on a chilling new meaning in the wake of Matthew Perry's passing. We look at some of the mysterious cases of TV shows foretelling real-life deaths.

Since news broke on October 28, 2023, of Matthew Perry's death, "Friends" fans have been reeling over the loss of the man behind the sarcastic and loveable Chandler Bing. For many, their comfort show now has a dark cloud over it, especially since two episodes eerily foreshadow his death.

In Season 9, Episode 8 ("The One with Rachel's Other Sister"), Chandler suggests to Monica (Courteney Cox) that they use their expensive wedding plates for Thanksgiving dinner. She's hesitant but obliges. Though the plates survive the tense meal, it's Chandler who accidentally knocks over the entire box of them, shattering the dishes on the floor. He tells his friends, "Well, what do you know? I guess I'll be the one who dies first." While intended as a gag, this line takes on a whole new meaning now as Perry is the first of the core six cast members to pass away.

Similarly, in Season 7, Episode 5 ("The One with the Engagement Picture"), Chandler struggles to smile properly for a professional photo to announce his and Monica's engagement in the newspaper. Monica, frustrated, tells her fiancé, "Chandler, what is the matter with your face? This picture is supposed to say, 'Geller and Bing to be married,' not, 'Local woman saves drowning moron.'" Though Perry's exact cause of death is yet to be determined at the time of this writing, drowning has not been ruled out as he was found in his hot tub. Given the circumstances, some fans are calling for Monica's comment to be cut from the episode.

In 2015, the Season 1 finale of "Mr. Robot" was postponed from airing on USA Network because one scene is darkly similar to a devastating killing that occurred in Virginia the week before its original release date. The episode ("eps1.9_zer0-day.avi") shows James Plouffe (Richard Bekins), EVP of technology for E Corp, shooting himself on national television due to the irreversibility of the Five/Nine Hack.

Just days before the "Mr. Robot" finale was due to air, former WDBJ reporter Vester Lee Flanagan II shot and killed two of his past colleagues — reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, — while they were live on the air covering the 50th anniversary of Smith Mountain Lake. Flanagan, who also shot himself, was previously fired from WDBJ for problematic behavior. He had sued the station for discriminating against him, but his lawsuit was ruled as baseless (per ABC News).

Ultimately, the "Mr. Robot" finale was postponed out of sympathy and respect for the victim's loved ones, since the events that unfold are disturbingly reminiscent of the real-life events in Roanoke, Virginia.

While "Family Guy" didn't necessarily predict the death of beloved comic Robin Williams, one episode — and the themes within it — left some viewers of the adult cartoon a little weirded out in 2014. In Season 10, Episode 22 ("Family Guy Viewer Mail #2"), several tales are told, including one where Peter Griffin (Seth MacFarlane) earns the ability to turn everyone in Quahog into Williams. Though it's fun at first, Peter soon becomes agitated being surrounded by endless versions of the actor. Peter even tries to kill himself in numerous ways but isn't successful.

The episode originally aired in May 2012, but as is the case with "Family Guy," reruns are shown for years after. On August 12, 2014, "Family Guy Viewer Mail #2" finished airing on BBC Three in the U.K. just as the news broke of Williams' death by suicide.

A BBC spokesperson told the Independent, "This was a repeat that we have shown a couple of times before, so who could have planned that? It was scheduled more than two weeks ago, it is just an uncanny coincidence." They went on to say that the episode had been due to be repeated again a few days later, but would now be canceled.

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Sometimes, fans of "The X-Files" forget about the short-lived spinoff "The Lone Gunmen" ... even after it somewhat predicted the terrorist attack that changed the United States forever. In its pilot episode, which aired on March 4, 2001, a hacker — hired by powerful government officials — takes control of a Boeing aircraft intending to fly it into one of the World Trade Center towers.

Though the Lone Gunmen manage to stop the plane — and though the show involves a remote hacker instead of a hijacker on the plane — the show's events are uncannily similar. In fact, conspiracy theories continue to circle that the attack was orchestrated by the U.S. government, just like on the show. Despite this unintentional prediction, right down to the brand of the plane, not many people made the connection between the episode and the events of September 11, 2001.

"The Lone Gunmen" executive producer Frank Spotnitz said (via Daily Star), "I woke up on September 11 and saw it on TV and the first thing I thought of was 'The Lone Gunmen.' But then in the weeks and months that followed, almost no one noticed the connection."

One of the most heartbreaking storylines of "Modern Family" comes in Season 11, Episode 11 ("Legacy"), when Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) grows concerned about his aging father Frank (Fred Willard) when he's discovered seemingly lost in the grocery store. Frank assures his son that he's fine, and they spend an enjoyable day together. Little does Phil know, it's their final day together, and Frank passes away soon after.

The episode aired on January 15, 2020, and, exactly four months later, Willard died at the age of 86. Just as Phil and Frank spent the latter's last moments reflecting on their relationship and ending the day on a hopeful note, Burrell and Willard did the same during their last moments together on the "Modern Family" set. 

Frank knew his time was coming to an end, and Burrell believes Willard did too, even while filming the death of his "Modern Family" character. Burrell said in a tribute to the late actor (via EW), "The reason that moment was so poignant was that he knew his time was limited, and the only real way for him to say goodbye was to say, 'I'll see you on the next one.' That's the way he always thought. He said it with a wink, and he knew that that wasn't the case."

Despite running for only 21 episodes between 1987 and 1988, "Second Chance" – later titled "Boys Will Be Boys" and one of the earliest projects of the late Matthew Perry — makes an eerily spot-on prediction about the eventual death of the Libyan dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Set in the then-futuristic year of 2011, Saint Peter (Joseph Maher) greets newly deceased souls and has them take a test to determine if they'll be spending eternity in heaven or hell. In one episode, Gaddafi appears before Peter, in disbelief that he's dead. When asked to step onto a retro-looking machine to decide his fate, it lights up red. Peter tells him, "Because you have ordered the deaths of innocent people by means of terroristic explosives, you are sentenced to spend eternity wired as a human bomb. Every two minutes, you will blow up." Peter's comment likely refers to the April 5, 1986 bombing of a West Berlin dance hall, where two were killed and over 200 were injured.

As predicted in "Second Chance," Gaddafi died in 2011. Aided by the U.S., Britain, and France, he was killed at the hands of his own people who had enough of his lengthy regime.

In June 2005, a mere month before four terrorists bombed the London Underground and a bus, the cast of "Spooks" — a British drama that follows security intelligence agents as they work to prevent threats — filmed an episode that involves an attempted bombing on the city's transportation network. Though the fictional agents stopped the attack, this wasn't the case in the real-life July 7 event, which took the lives of 52 and injured over 770.

"At one point, the episode wasn't going to be shown because it was too near the mark," said "Spooks" star Peter Firth to the Independent. "In the end, the episode went out in a very heavily edited version." The amended episode eventually aired in September 2005, just a few months after the real bombing. 

The show's ability to predict the future isn't limited to this instance, with another example including Russian tensions with the U.K. Richard Armitage, who plays agent Lucas North was also a little freaked out over the show's preemptive plotlines, commenting, "Are the 'Spooks' team writing the newspapers as well?"

Throughout the sitcom "Scrubs," Janitor (Neil Flynn) makes the life of J.D. (Zach Braff) as difficult as possible. He's always pulling pranks, annoying him, and bending the truth on pretty much everything he says. However, one comment made by Janitor became eerily factual, four years after it was uttered on "Scrubs."

In Season 6, Episode 7 ("His Story IV"), Iraq veteran Brian Dancer (Michael Weston) comes to Sacred Heart suffering memory loss due to a head injury. As a result, the war — and the staff's varying beliefs surrounding it — becomes a major topic of conversation. At the end of the episode, during one of their many uncomfortable encounters, Janitor tells J.D., "In my opinion, we should be looking for bin Laden in Pakistan."

In May 2011, four years after the episode aired and nearly a decade after al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden orchestrated the terrorist attack on New York City's World Trade Center towers, U.S. Navy SEALs located him in Pakistan, where he was swiftly executed. Former U.S. President Barack Obama said at the time, "The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al-Qaeda."

Maybe not everything that comes out of Janitor's mouth is a downright lie after all. 

A more recent eerie death prediction can be found in "Legends of Chamberlain Heights," a Comedy Central cartoon that follows three aspiring young basketball players, that ran from 2016 to 2017. In one episode, the trio of Grover (Josiah Johnson), Malik (Michael Starrbury), and Jamal (Quinn Hawking) encounter the legendary Kobe Bryant after a helicopter crash. He's on the ground being crushed by the chopper while clutching his trophies and asking the boys to help him. Before they can act, the helicopter explodes.

In January 2020, Bryant died tragically in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant. Overcome by thick fog, pilot Ara Zobayan is said to have lost his sense of spatial awareness. This caused him to unintentionally fly downward and crash into a hillside, where the helicopter — much like in "Legends of Chamberlain Heights" — exploded into flames. None of the nine individuals on board survived the incident.

Captain James Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) are rather stressed in "Star Trek" Season 2, Episode 26 ("Assignment: Earth"), when interstellar agent Gary Seven (Robert Lansing) threatens to wreak havoc on the events of the 20th century. A particularly eerie moment comes when Spock talks about an assassination. This episode aired on March 29, 1968. Only a few days later, on April 4, 1968, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed on his balcony at the Lorraine Motel.

Strangely enough, King was a massive fan of "Star Trek," and it was King who encouraged Nyota Uhura actress Nichelle Nichols — one of the first black female actors to play such a powerful character on screen — to stay on the show after she contemplated leaving TV for Broadway.

She said in a Reddit AMA thread, "Dr. Martin Luther King, quite some time after I'd first met him, approached me and said something along the lines of, 'Nichelle, whether you like it or not, you have become a symbol. If you leave, they can replace you with a blonde-haired white girl, and it will be like you were never there. What you've accomplished, for all of us, will only be real if you stay.' That got me thinking about how it would look for fans of color around the country if they saw me leave. I saw that this was bigger than just me."

One episode of "Family Guy" comes extremely close to predicting the death of Antonin Scalia, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. In Season 5, Episode 18 ("Meet the Quagmires"), Peter Griffin calls on Death (Norm MacDonald) to send him back in time so that he can stop his 18-year-old self from canceling a date with Lois Griffin (Alex Borstein). However, Peter accidentally changes the past, and Lois ends up with Glenn Quagmire (Seth MacFarlane). 

When Peter asks Death to send him back so he can make things right, Death — tired from a busy day — recounts, "Dick Cheney shot Supreme Court Justice Scalia in a hunting accident and the bullet went right through him and killed Karl Rove and Tucker Carlson."

While this outlandish situation didn't happen in real life, Scalia did die while on a hunting getaway at Cibolo Creek Ranch, organized by the International Order of St. Hubertus. On February 13, 2016, about a decade after the 2007 "Family Guy" episode aired, Scalia was found dead by ranch owner John Poindexter after the Associate Justice failed to attend breakfast.

"Scrubs" isn't the only show to predict the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. On November 7, 2001, a little less than two months after the attack on the Twin Towers in New York, "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone did what they do best: concoct an over-the-top plotline about a then-current headline.

In Season 5, Episode 9 ("Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants"), the boys travel to Afghanistan to return a goat sent to them by four Afghan children as reciprocation for the $1 their teacher forced them to donate. While there, Cartman (Parker) and friends are taken hostage by bin Laden and the Taliban. After a "Looney Tunes"-esque segment between Cartman and the militant, bin Laden finds himself donning an Uncle Sam ensemble. Not knowing it's their leader, his followers fire at him, causing the explosive in his hand to detonate. A U.S. Navy SEAL then delivers one more shot to bin Laden's head, causing his demise.

This isn't quite how things went down in real life, especially since bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan, not Afghanistan as shown in "South Park." Still, Parker and Stone get a few things right. He was secretly living in plain view of everyone, a fact that's highlighted on the show with a "Not Where Osama bin Laden Is" sign outside his compound. And, of course, he was shot and killed by a SEAL.