The writing and dialogue - WOW - the best. Here's one of my faves between Ellyn and her mother Marjorie who is divorcing Ellyn's dad: Marjorie Warren: You see, there are two kinds of boys in high school. There are the good-looking ones, the ones on every team, the ones everyone wants. They're the greatest dancers too. And then there are the others... the boys who look as if they'd always rather be somewhere else reading a book, who are shy and awkward. I think you'd call them 'nerds' now. Those are the boys to marry, Ellyn. Those are the boys who tell you secrets, who hold you when you cry in the middle of the night, who want to grow old with you. Ellyn Warren: How do you know about this, Mom? Marjorie Warren: Because... I married a great dancer.
A lifelong friend of mine died at this time in a car accident, and as hard as this was to watch, i found it oddly comforting that others were going through what I was.
My husband was in a bike accident (and wasn't wearing a helmet) when we were in college and dating. He was in a coma for two weeks and had just come out of it. I went home and this episode aired. I ugly cried, especially the last scene with him on the bike. I know the nurse said he was in a car, but the image of Gary on the bike with no helmet and the haunting music- I just lost it.
Always loved Thirty Something. My daughter laughs at me because I constantly call This Is Us Thirty Something. Both shows are so well written. The casts of both shows are wonderful actors which make both shows so easy to watch.
On January 8, 2020, ABC confirmed a television pilot that will serve as a sequel to the series has been ordered. The pilot will be directed by Zwick, written by Zwick and Herskovitz, and have four members of the original cast (Olin, Harris, Busfield and Wettig) reprising their roles.
Thirtysomething years later, and these scenes still make me cry. What a series that was. The finest writing, the best acting. The characters still live in my memory like good friends.
My husband and I used to watch this show. We were thirty something’s with kids and careers and it was very good. Fast forward 30 years and my husband is gone 13 years. Amazing to me I ever lived that life. It was a lifetime ago.
I used to watch Thirty Something as inspiration to make something of myself. I wanted to be a Yuppie with a nice clean office job. No one in my family had even graduated from high school and I saw an education as a way out of the life I had. Struggled through a community college. Then a university and even graduate school. I even worked in advertising for several years. I just always thought, "If rich kids can do it, so can I!" Looking back, I realize that the odds of me making it were pretty slim, but I did!
This show I remember watching although from a Boomer generation but loved how the entire cast cemented their relationship so well. However, Gary, was the one that glued all of the relationships together which helped them become less biased but "see the reality" of their actions. Loved this show for all those talented actors/actresses.
Thirtysomething was and will always be an incredible show. I remember when i was fifteen staying up just to watch this amazing cast and poignantly written stories about the baby boomer generation struggling through their lives but also showing how much love they all loved each other. I miss this show so much.
Michele pinsker.i was around that age too.its funny that I wish I couldve watched it originally when I was in my 30s.a sign of a great show that I could watch it as a teenager and find meaning and watch it as a 48 yr old and find it just as meaningful
I loved reading this because I thought I was the only weirdo teen who’d intentionally watch the show. I loved these characters and they were the archetypes of what I’d imagined my own adult life would be. Somehow, I feel so immature compared to these characters even though I’m now forty something 😹😹😹
I was in my early 30s when this show was on and watched it every week. I hated the complaints that it was about yuppies complaining about their perfect lives. The point was, they had problems like everyone else and their lives weren't perfect
Ken Olin and the actress playing the woman with cancer are married in real life. They also played a married couple on a another show, and her character had early onset Alzheimer's.
OH! Ok....When I saw Hope..was the name? calmly eating a candy bar while getting bad news...that was played out on This Is Us. I didn't watch much of this show...but, I thought I'd seen that scene when Mandy Moore git news her husband died in Us..
I watched this when it first aired and was stunned. (No spoilers back then!) My husband came home from work and found me bawling! “What’s wrong?” “Gary died!” “Who the f--is Gary?” Crying all over watching it again.
I turned 30 in '89. I never missed thirty something. After it ended and went into reruns on a cable channel, I remember liking the tag line: "like real life, only with better writing."
Yup I was thirty something during the run of thirty something. Wallpaper peeling on the kitchen , working around the house with a little boy ( he’s now thirty something) it was / is our lifetime. Rinse repeat
He was gorgeous. Ken Olin did not age well. After this, he stuck to behind the camera work and got heavy. Odd, because his wife, Patricia Wettig stayed fabulously beautiful.
From what I understand at this time it can't be streamed because of all the amazing music that was part of the show. Each piece needs to be renegotiated so artists get paid. All the original agreements and music rights are fine to be in the DVDs as no-one could have ever imagined streaming. This is what's happened with China Beach and Homicide Life on the Streets, which was finally secured and is now streaming on Peacock.
The night the pilot aired, my husband called me from the living room to come down. I did. He said "Someone has been spying on us. Watch!" I even still have crappy VHS tapes of some of the episodes. Great cast. Well written. Great production.
It's been ages since I've watched this and even now, all these years later, I'm still struck by how poignantly it was written and the excellent acting on the show.
We were in our 30s with 3 kids and two very involved careers when this show came out. It was all people talked about in our age group. It was after the kids went to bed television for our generation. This episode was essentially compelling. Now we’re all 60 something.
I was also married and in my 30s with little kids when Thirtysomething was aired. It dealt with the same kinds of issues that my age cohort was dealing with at the time. Our group of friends all watched the show and discussed it. The realism and the superb acting and writing are what made the series so compelling. Because network television still commanded a mass audience at the time, excellent series like Thirtysomething had a much broader and deeper impact than even the best series of the past ~15 years. I would love to have it streamed on Netflix or another streaming service.
It first aired when I was 8-years-old, and it ended when I was 11. I watched it, and I loved it. This show was really important to me. Television taught me about the world in a way that my family didn't. I'm grateful quality shows like this existed back then on free tv.
Loved this show sooooooo much. This episode I will always remember. Ken olin is a boss at acting. The scene when he gets Gary things and breaks down.... Wow!!!!
OMG I totally agree with you. This was the saddest TV episode I have ever watched in my entire life!! I loved Gary and the entire cast. Thirtysomething was one of a kind. I cried my eyes out too. So unexpected. I haven't seen this episode in years. Cried again when I rewatched this clip.
Debi Taylor Me too! I was 27 when this show started. I am 59 now got chills and tears again. I was such a shock back then. I was heartbroken when they cancelled the show.
I am a big This is Us fan. Watching this I just noticed the connection to Jack’s dying scene with Rebecca at the vending machine eating the candy bar, all light and happy just as Hope was with the vending machine candy.
Never before or since has the death of a TV character affected me like it was a real person. It was surreal how deeply I felt this. And it wasn't like I was the world's biggest Gary fan. It was just depicted in such stark realism.
OMG, I remember this amazing episode as if it had first aired five minutes ago. What a punch to the gut I felt at that moment!!! "Thirtysomething" was and always will remain one of my all-time favorite TV shows, airing during my college years when I was just an early-twentysomething. Gary's shocking death happening on the same ep as Nancy's good prognosis? I don't believe *anyone* saw that coming! The writing on this show, not just for this particular episode but also for the entire run of the series, was utterly brilliant and engaging. Like many others who have posted here, I would LOVE for them to have some sort of reboot.
I still wish that some day Ken Olin & Jon Hamm (who played Don Draper in Mad Men among other roles) would play brothers. There's a strong resemblance there, in my opinion.
I loved this show, never missed It back In the 90s.. I was In my 20s They don't make shows like this anymore, superb acting & great cast! I had the biggest crush on Michael ~
Me too. I think we got very specific shows for our time. Not 50s feel-good, not 60s rebellion, & not ra-ra capitalism-is-best-70s, just straight realism rolled from 50s-90s.
Omg. I haven’t watched this scene in more years than I care to count. Lol. I’ll tell you one thing, never has a television show had me speechless, heartbroken, shaken as this one. I will never forget watching this scene, the whole program. Never. It’s so odd that this even popped up in my suggested videos!
I cried when this episode came on back in 1991. One of the things that got me was when Nancy said “It’s not supposed to Gary, it’s supposed... but I got better”. That still gets me everything I see this clip.
My brother died at 23 in a stupid car accident in Galveston TX on a stretch of sea wall road that should hav3 had a guardrail and good lighting-but did not. His life was just beginning, his wife was pregnant with their first child, whom he never got to see. He had helped a woman earlier in the day whose battery had died by jumping her battery. On the ride home his car lost its lights, his friend was driving. They went over the sea wall, my brother was the only fatality. He went through the windshield and the car landed on top of him. It changed all our lives, so it felt familiar when I watched this when first broadcast. I loved this show.
So sorry. This is so similar to the way I lost my brother. He was 21 on his way back to college with two of his friends in the car. He fell asleep and the car flipped over a guardrail. He was ejected and the car landed on him. Fortunately the other two boys got out ok. That was 49 years ago.
LOVED this show! As a baby boomer the same age as the cast/characters, having a baby when the lead characters did and going through all those same experiences of brand-new parenthood, establishing careers or putting them on hold to be at-home parents, figuring out where we were headed now that we were the grownups, the writing was so true and honest and the characters were so well acted.
Back when Lifetime reran the series early 2000, I was a cashier in Los Angeles for a local supermarket. The evening prior to working, I had just watched this episode and Peter Horton (Gary) came through my check out. Was the coolest thing ever. I was kind of in shock. I told him I just watched it last night. Don't know if he knew it aired the night before... who knows? Also, for those wishing this was streaming; I bought the whole series on dvd so can watch whenever. One of the best drama series on TV.
How much was the DVD set? I ran into the actress who played Ellen back in 1996 at the Burbank Toys 'R Us. My gf mom friend and I followed her around the store with our two toddlers like silly school girls.
@@debmauritson5016 I have had the set for a while now but Amazon has them. If I can recall I bought them somewhere between 15-20 dollars per season. Also, I got them as they were released and they weren't released all at the same time. Glad you ran into Ellen (Polly Draper). I would love to meet Ken Olin; he's my fav.
@@valleya6114 I looked on Ebay and found only the first season and the last season with a huge price difference between the two. I jut want the whole four seasons but I don't see anyway to buy them easily in a full grouping.
@@debmauritson5016 Yeah, there are quite a few price differences now... I see some on Amazon for 40 dollars; pretty pricey. Also, depending if you buy used or new.
Ken Olin was awesome _ the whole ensemble of actors was great!!!!! Ken went on to direct Alias for a couple years..I was actually surprised that we don’t see reruns of this show. The music and real life situations all blend together crashing into hard realities. I truly loved this show.
I wish we still had payphones and I think this episode was one of the top 5 in TV history. Amazing work! And Gary’s present to Nancy was perfect and so true!
@@ZippyTripped I remember everyone saying charge up your cell phones before Hurrican Katrina made landfall. The first thing that went out during the storm was my cellphone. Landline was still working.
I remember weeping over this episode...they kill off the English major...my best friend and I watched this even tho' we were in our twenties (in our early sixties now).
Clearly a rough cut of the episode. I haven't seen the show since it aired. Such incredible acting, writing, and directing. It is just a pleasure to watch the artistry.
A real blast from the past. People who are thirty something now will probably not remember having to make public calls within a few centimetres of a wall.
I remember when this aired; so shocking! He and Melissa never quite made it beyond the “friends with benefits” stage. I always hoped they’d make it as a couple. Gary was so cute, and the actor Peter Horton, who played Gary, was married to Michelle Pfeiffer at the time.
You gotta understand what the USA was like pre-911 and COVID. People under 40 didn't just die for no reason in the 20th C. In the very rare case where your friend was in an accident or got cancer it was something that affected the entire high school and was a genuine tragedy that happened once your life up to age 30. I person out of 2500. You had to OD or suicide (20x less common than today). It was a different, and better, world.
Remember the show. Not sure how it got on my recommendations, but in three days (April 18, 2019) will be my daughters 2 year anniversary of her death. She was 32. 💕🐝
I rem when this aired i was crying like I knew Gary. Even watching this now so many years later I felt this in the pit of my stomach. Snd Michael in the hospital scene hearing the news its like raw emotions.
This episode was something like 30 years ago now. Yet, the emotions still well up inside. This haunting miserable feeling of loss when everything was supposed to be better. When art like this is done well, it taps into my subconscious touching me in ways I cannot describe. I miss this show terribly. I may have to give This Is Us a try since Ken is executive producer.
This still breaks my heart, the night this aired my best friend of 14 years had been killed in an accident that morning..this ep. still breaks my heart! :((
I was just a kid. My parents thought I was asleep but I was secretly watching “Thirtysomething”. I apparently thought I was thirty or something. I was so obsessed with the music, I actually held my stereo up to the t.v. and recorded the song. I played it over and over until I figured it out on the piano. I just got a keyboard for Christmas, this is the first song I played.
I love mine and the song choices for stand out episodes like this one. I have two cassettes and I think the CD too. Now to buy all the episodes on DVD one day. If we even can.
They didn't show all of everyone's reactions. I remember this episode. At the very end Melissa sits at the piano (which they showed), the very last scene when everybody was at the house, Melissa just totally breaks down at the piano. That was the most powerful scene I've ever seen - ever - to this day.
I was about 10 yo watching this episode with my mother, it kinda effected me because the actors were so good. Very realistic acting and scene. I never look at large hospital the same again after I saw this episode and actually gave me anxiety for years.
@@diannebrett4074 RIght-- Also, the actress who played her (Patricia Kalember) was not a "regular" on the show. So I guess they didn't want to bring her in for 1 scene.
So many things are etched in my memory about this episode. Melissa at the piano. That tiny breath that Nancy inhaled after she heard the news. I truly felt like I lost someone. Every detail was written exaxtly how people feel that moment you find out. How they captured that heavy dread in your gut...the mood in a room is beyond me.
I cannot comprehend why this show is not on any streaming service. This very episode was the most traumatic thing to happen to me when it was aired. It has stayed with me all these decades. I so wish I could watch the whole show from Season 1 without having to shell out all the money for the DVD sets. Someone please upload the torrents.
For those too young to remember, he was talking into a coin-operated payphone. They used to be everywhere and the powers that be couldn't track your whereabouts 24 hours a day like they do now.
My now-wife and I loved this show when we were dating in college. We were nowhere near thirtysomething at the time, but the show resonated with us. Now we are fiftysomethings and watching this clip reminds me of all the reasons I loved this show.
In my early twenties, I used to watch Thirty Something as inspiration to make something of myself. I wanted to be a Yuppie with a nice clean office job. No one in my family had even graduated from high school and I saw an education as a way out of the life I had. Struggled through a community college. Then a university and even graduate school. I even worked in advertising for several years. I just always thought, "If rich kids can do it, so can I!" Looking back, I realize that the odds of me making it were pretty slim, but I did! It was quite a journey.