Tony Almeda in 24 reveals to one of the terrorists that killed his wife Michelle in a car bombing in Season 5 that Michelle was pregnant with Tony’s unborn son, with said unborn son dying along with his mother.
The Affair: Alison and Cole lost their son Gabriel in 2012. She blames herself for it, as they saved him from drowning and then put him to bed, only for him to die in his sleep as a result of secondary drowning (fluid retained in the lungs).
Vivian and Ben outlive Violet, although they are not aware of her death until much later than it occurs, due to her appearing as a ghost. Both join her as spirits trapped in the house by the series' end
Constance Langdon survives all four of her children, although the effect of their deaths on her is debatable. While she appears to grieve for Adelaide, she quickly recovers from her death.
Constance: I have grieved enough for two lifetimes. Most people would be broken by the deaths of their children, but my nature would not permit such weakness.
Nora Montgomery is driven mad by the death of her child and her husband's attempt to resurrect him. Eventually, she murders her husband and commits suicide, doomed to spend eternity trapped in the house longing for a child.
In Andromeda, Tyr learns that he has a son after a one-night stand with a Nietzschean woman. Moreover, his son Tamerlane is the genetic reincarnation of their race's progenitor Drago Museveni. Tyr then causes the Genites to wipe out his wife's pride and returns to the Andromeda a grief-stricken man, telling Dylan that yesterday, he was a husband and a father. Today, he's neither. Subverted in that he managed to save his son and hide him away. Note that, for a Nietzschean, continuing one's genetic line (by having children, of course) is the only thing that supersedes personal survival as their driving goal, so losing a child would be incredibly hard for a Nietzschean, especially if they don't have any others.
Moira Queen thought this happened when Oliver seemingly died on the Queen's Gambit, but it obviously didn't. She winds up dying before either of her children.
Malcolm Merlyn's son Tommy is dead... because of Malcolm himself. It's a testament to the kind of person Malcolm is that he doesn't seem that upset by it. And yet, when Merlyn gets the chance to rewrite reality with the Spear of Destiny, his ideal world includes his son, alive and well.
But the Lance family, hoo boy, the Lance family. Dinah Lance isn't a main character, so it's less apparent with her than with Quentin, but it obviously still applies. In order, they, like Moira Queen, thought Sara died on the Gambit, Sara was actually killed in the Season 3 premiere, but was later brought Back from the Dead. Laurel was then murdered towards the end of Season 4, meaning they have lost their two daughters three times (they've seen their children die more than they've been born), effectively turning them into a Cosmic Plaything.
In the Season 3 flashbacks, Maseo and Tatsu Yamashiro lost their son, Akio, as a result of the plague attack on Hong Kong. They divorced soon after.
A variation with Diggle and Lyla. Their daughter, Sara, is gone come Season 5... because she is erased from existence as a result of Barry Allen's actions in the Season 2 finale of The Flash. In exchange, they now have a son, but upon finding out about this, Diggle acts as if Barry murdered his little girl, which briefly strains their relationship.
Cayden James, one of the primary villains in Season 6, is motivated to hunt Oliver because he thinks he killed his son, an innocent man who knew nothing of his father's involvement in dangerous things.
The Flash (2014) has Nora West-Allen, Barry and Iris's daughter from the future. She is erased from the timeline after Barry destroys Cicada's dagger. Notable for also "dying" before even being born (or conceived), thanks to Time Travel.
Also Cisco's parents, shown only once, after Cisco's brother Dante was killed by a drunk driver in the post-Flashpoint timeline. We are mostly shown Cisco trying to cope with this.
By season six, Cisco's ex-girlfriend Gypsy was killed by an Evil Doppleganger of Cisco while her father not only outlived her, but was even Forced to Watch as she died.
On Earth-2, Oliver Queen died aboard the Queen's Gambit, while his father Robert survived and became the Hood.
Supergirl (2015): J'onn J'onzz lost his wife and two daughters as part of the Green Martian genocide. This explains a lot of his attraction to Kara and Alex, whom he sees as replacements of his daughters.
In Legends of Tomorrow, Rip Hunter is determined to stop Vandal Savage at all costs because Savage murdered his wife and child. Savage himself, being thousands of years old, has had to watch his own children die of old age several times over.
The very premise of the series involves one of a pair of twins being dead while her mother is still alive.
One family unknowingly involved in one of the governments secret plans has two separate cases. First, the parents were told that both their children had caught The Plague. One actually had and died, but the death of the other was faked so he could be taken away to be experimented on. The parents meet their youngest son again by chance but are soon killed because They Know Too Much. However, the father's own still-alive father was spared that fate.
President Adar: [reacting to Zak's viper exploding] What was that?
Commander Adama: [grimly] That was my son, Mr. President.
Battlestar Galactica (2003): The death of Bill Adama's younger son Zak in a crash is the reason for the rift between him and older son Lee.
Belgravia: The story focuses on two families who lost a child around the time of the Battle of Waterloo; the Earl and Countess of Brockenhurst lost their son Edmund when he was slain during the battle and the Trenchards lost their daughter Sophia when she died giving birth to Edmund's son Charles Pope.
Lady Brockenhurst: Everyone claims to understand what you're going through, but I do. And I've learnt that it never goes away.
Before he moved to New Mexico, Mike was a Dirty Cop working in Philadelphia. His son Matty followed in his footsteps, but was crushed to learn how corrupt the department was and that his own father was in on it. Mike convinces Matty to take a bribe for his own safety, but Matty was murdered by his partners anyway because he took too long and they got nervous he would rat them out. Devastated by the death of his son, Mike fell into a deep depression, before he retired from the force, gunned down Matty's killers, and then fled to Albuquerque to support his son's widow and their daughter.
Nacho's father's open refusal to participate in the cartel's criminal doings or flee Mexico ends up making him a huge liability to Nacho, as his father's life ends up being a bargaining chip for Nacho to act as a double-agent for Gus. Nacho commits suicide to ensure his father's safety, although his father is of course devastated to learn about Nacho's death, but curtly brushes off Mike's vow that he will get justice on the people who did it, because no amount of criminal "justice" will bring his son back.
In The Beverly Hillbillies, Granny serves as the Clampett family's maternal figure due to the death of her daughter, Jed's wife, and Elly May's Missing Mom.
The Big Bang Theory: Even though it's not said out loud, based on the diagram of Sheldon's family tree in the second episode of the fourth season, it shows that his uncle Carl is dead and Sheldon's Meemaw is still alive.
Frank Reagan has already lost his middle son Joe by the time the series begins. The circumstances surrounding Joe's death form the main subplot throughout the first season and the driving conflict of the season finale.
In the episode "Men in Black", Henry reveals that he had another son named Peter who died of leukemia before Frank was born.
Donald Margolis finds his drug-addict daughter Jane dead of an overdose. The death of his only child absolutely destroys him, eventually leading him to get distracted while working as an air traffic controller, causing two planes to crash into one another. Afterwards, it's mentioned he attempted to commit suicide.
Although we never see them, Hector Salamanca has long outlived his children because he's explicitly the last of the Salamancas by the end of the third season, after Jesse guns down Hector's last living family member, his grandson Joaquin. Hector's clearly in anguish over this, but the fact he was once a cold-blooded cartel enforcer and Jesse killed Joaquin in self-defence takes away a lot of sympathy from either of them.
The Halliwell sisters' mother Patty died when the girls were very young and predeceased her own mother Penny (a.k.a. Grams) by at least a decade.
Prue's B-plot in "Ex Libris" involves her meeting Cleavant Wilson whose daughter was murdered. Cleavant knows who did it but any witnesses are too scared of the culprit to come forward. The sisters secure the help of a ghost from the A-plot to scare the murderer into confessing, but Cleavant admits that he's still going to struggle with his daughter being gone.
Prue's death between seasons three and four means her father Victor has to go through this. The fourth season premiere mostly focuses on Piper and Phoebe's reactions, but Victor is clearly saddened by the loss of one of his daughters. In Season 6, Victor is horrified to find out that, unless his time-travelling grandson succeeds in changing things, he'll outlive all three of his daughters.
Lyudmilla Ignatenko outlives her baby girl, who dies a few hours after she is born.
The series was going to have a scene where Anatoly Dyatlov hallucinates meeting his son, who died of radiation-induced leukemia from an unrelated accident years prior. This would have explained his reason to stubbornly proceed with the nuclear test, because he wants to "conquer the atom". However, the scene ended up being left out, making Dyatlov look like a selfish jerk who places his own career advancements over safety.
On Chicago P.D. both Voight and Olinsky lost children tragically. Parents-to-be Burgess and Ruzek lose their own unborn child to miscarriage following a violent assault on the former.
Bev: No mother should ever have to bury her own child.
Jackie: Mom, you're 92. You're gonna see all of us die, and then you're gonna get buried by a robot.
In Copper, Corcoran was serving as a soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War when he got the news that, back in New York, his daughter was found dead and his wife went missing. When the series starts, he is a New York City police detective and is still desperately searching for answers about what really happened. He also becomes obsessively protective of Annie, a homeless girl he rescues from pedophiles.
In Criminal Minds, two characters lost their children: David Rossi's son by his first wife died shortly after being born, while Alex Blake's son Ethan died of an unnamed neurological disease at age 9.
The second episode of The Crown (2016) is largely about the death of King George VI in 1952. But for Queen Mary, it's the loss of her beloved son Bertie. She openly blames his brother David, the brief king Edward VIII, since his abdication forced Bertie to bear the immeasurable burden of World War II.
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven had a recurring character named Talon, who became a Crow after she and her daughter were killed.
Dark Desire: Íñigo, Julieta's father, is not only devastated by her death but laments now dealing with things such as planning her funeral which he'd never thought would occur.
Dark Side of the Ring: The episode "The Final Days of Owen Hart" shows footage of Owen's elderly parents attending his funeral.
Joe and Emma Leaphorn lost Joe Jr., their son, several years before the series starts. Both are still mourning him. It's particularly poignant as he was their only child due to Emma's being sterilized illegally after she had delivered him.
Anna's parents lose her in the pilot when she's murdered. Guy, her father, later apologizes tearfully to Joe Leaphorn for not knowing the pain he was suffering over the loss of his son, saying he does now after Anna died.
Dawson's Creek: while technically she doesn't outlive her child, Grams Ryan ultimately was at the bedside of her granddaughter Jen when the latter was dying of a heart condition.
In Degrassi, Audra Torres outlived her son Adam when he was involved in a car crash.
The whistleblower Gabriel Thompson is revealed to have lost his stepdaughter, whom he had raised since infancy, during the Capitol bombing.
Al-Sakar terrorist leader Nassar tells Agent Wells that he lost his wife and children due to an incident caused by the United States.
Atwood's son was kidnapped by the conspiracy to force Atwood to comply with their demands. However, it's revealed that the conspiracy had no intention of keeping their promise and Atwood's son was found dead, leaving Atwood heartbroken for the remainder of the season.
The Diagnosis: Murder TV movie "A Town Without Pity" has Mark Sloan investigating the murder of his daughter Carol. Mark has also stated numerous times that he's afraid of this happening with his son Steve, given that he is a cop.
The Doctor lost their family, children and grandchildren included, along with their species in the Last Great Time War. Several centuries later, they still can't tell even their closest friends about it in more than vague terms.
In "The Empty Child", the Ninth Doctor meets a bereaved doctor in Blitz-era London.
Dr. Constantine: Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I'm neither, but I'm still a doctor. The Doctor: Yeah, I know the feeling.
Gets worse when you remember Jenny, the Tenth Doctor's artificially created daughter born after the Time War. At this point, he had already lost his previous children, so he was understandably reluctant to let her in. He finally did, acknowledging her as his daughter and obviously enjoying her company, only to watch her get shot right in front of him. She got better, but he doesn't know that.
The Doctor: I was a dad once, but I lost all that, along with everything else. And when they died, that part of me died with them.
The Doctor is, much later, able to save Gallifrey, and at one point Clara describes the Doctor's children as "missing". There's been no word on any of their family since, however, even when Twelve actually visits Gallifrey in "Hell Bent".
This would have happened to the immortal Ashildr/"Me" eventually, except her children died of the Bubonic plague in infancy. Understandably, she swore off having children ever again. Due to suffering from The Fog of Ages, she keeps this written down in journals so she'll remember to not have children again. The Doctor sees that some pages have been torn out, memories so horrific and traumatizing she doesn't want to remember them. When he asks what could be more painful than seeing your children die, she replies that she obviously doesn't know because she made sure to forget it.
Matthew's mother has a hard time accepting his death.
Isobel: Once your only child dies, you're not a parent anymore. You're not... much of anything, really.
Cora and Robert, and Violet as a grandparent, after the death of Sybil.
Cora: Is it over? When one loses a child, is it ever really over?
Mr. Mason after William is killed in World War I.
Played with when Ethel chooses to give up her son, Charlie, to his wealthy grandparents, who outlived their son Charles when he was killed in World War I.
Ethel: When you lose your child, there's nothing worse under the sun.
Reggie Swire outlives his daughter Lavinia. After Reggie dies, Matthew buries his urn in the same grave as Lavinia.
Sir Michael Reresby, an aristocrat who interviews Barrow for a butler's position, lost both of his sons in World War I.
Discussed in Everybody Loves Raymond, when Marie's antics endanger her son Robert's chances of becoming a Federal agent. The Federal agent reviewing Robert's application figures out that she's doing it deliberately and confronts her. Marie tearfully explains that she's terrified that she might outlive Robert. She felt relieved when he retired from the police force and she doesn't want him to take another job where he would be expected to die in the line of duty.
Fellow Travelers: Hawkins and Lucy Fuller outlive their son Jackson, who died in his early 20s of a heroin overdose in October 1978note according to the card Timothy Laughlin sent Hawk to offer his condolences.
The Flash (1990) has Barry's older brother, a decorated cop, ambushed and killed by a criminal. Their parents are devastated, but knew it was a possibility since Allen Sr. is a retired cop himself. Still, they're glad their younger son is just a lab tech, not knowing about his powers and crime-fighting.
In Flashpoint, this is referenced in many episodes and is often the breaking point for some subjects.
A father is trying to cope with his infant daughter's death while also dealing with being accused of killing her in "Collateral Damage".
In "Jumping At Shadows", the 911 dispatcher Kate develops a bond with the young girl who frequently calls because she had lost her own daughter a few years prior.
In "Good Cop", after a police officer accidentally killed a teenager, the boy's father incites a mob to demand justice for his son's death.
In the ending of "Behind the Blue Lines", after the shooter decided to go Suicide by Cop, the shooter's father is seen outside collapsing in grief when realizing his son is dead.
"Coming To You Live" has the radio talk host finding out that his Old Flame's son who died years earlier in a car accident was actually his son. He then takes a young politician hostage, believing he was involved in the accident.
In "Clean Hands", the father of a murdered girl attempts to kill the serial killer that Team One is safeguarding.
Tragically occurs in "Broken Peace" where Ed is forced to shoot and kill a teenaged girl in front of her parents as the girl was an active shooter attempting to kill her abusive father.
Forever (2014) stars Dr. Henry Morgan, who adopted Abraham as a baby after he was saved from a concentration camp near the end of World War II. Since Henry is immortal, he and Abe are aware that this trope is inevitable. Abraham is philosophical about it, while Henry tries not to think about it and is acutely uncomfortable whenever Abe brings up that his days are numbered.
Full House: Danny's late wife Pam, who was also Jesse's sister and died before the show began, was outlived by her parents and paternal grandparents, who would make appearances in later seasons.
General and I: Sima Hong and his queen outlive their two sons, who are murdered to frame Chu Bei Jie.
General Hospital has the character of Edward Quatermaine who, prior to his death in 2012, lost two sons, three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild (though some suffered from Comic Book Death and were revived). The deaths of his eldest son and youngest granddaughter affected him the most.
The George Lopez Show: Benny's brother Joe dies in an early episode. Much later on, Benny's mom Luisa makes an appearance and mentions how she's outlived both her husband and her son, and believes she would outlive Benny as well. This is a retcon, however, as Benny's mom had been previously established as having been dead.
Glee: Carole Hudson outlives her son, Finn Hudson, mainly due to Cory Monteith's death. She has also outlived her first husband, Christopher Hudson.
Good Trouble: Prior to moving to The Coterie, Dennis lost his son, something he doesn't tell anyone he lives with initially. In fact, the first person he tells is Stef, Mariana and Callie's mother. Davia learns from his ex-wife when he goes missing and is almost Driven to Suicide.
The Handmaid's Tale: Rita reveals in a conversation with Serena that her nineteen-year-old son died serving in "the war" (presumably the one Gilead is fighting against the rump US). All Serena can offer is a weak expression of gratitude for his sacrifice.
Hand of God: Pernell and Crystal's only child, PJ, eventually dies after his life support is removed. He was in a coma due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His injury had caused Pernell to have a mental breakdown and sent Crystal into a depression. Avoiding this is why they fought so hard with Jocelyn to keep him on life support initially.
In The Hardy Boys (2020), Gloria Estabrooke loses her only daughter Laura Hardy. She is seen trying to make it up with her grandchildren, Frank and Joe, by being a better grandmother as she is well aware she had not been the best mother to Laura.
Hugh Crain is unable to stop the titular Haunted House from murdering his youngest daughter Nell, but is able to help save the rest of her siblings.
The Dudleys' daughter Amelia is murdered by Olivia while under the house's influence. They convince Hugh to keep the house standing to preserve the ghosts that live in it.
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess just love this trope. Herc's three children, along with his wife, are all killed by Hera in the first episode. Xena's son is killed in the third season. Gabrielle's Antichrist child also dies before she does. Hera even outright refers to this trope when speaking to Hercules:
"Because of a lesson I regret teaching you long ago, Hercules. Parents should never outlive their children."
Even though the Immortals of Highlander cannot biologically have children, at least one episode dealt with an Immortal dealing with the death of her adopted child.
Augustus. All of his adopted heirs plus a few of his grandchildren by Julia die "mysteriously" over the course of the first few episodes. He doesn't realize until the last few months of his life that they were systematically eliminated by his wife Livia, who wanted her son Tiberius to inherit—and since Augustus hated Tiberius, he would never make him heir unless there was literally no other option.
Antonia the Younger loses her son Germanicus to poison. Three of her grandchildren are eliminated by Sejanus, who sees the as rivals. And she kills her daughter Livillaherself when she finds proof that Livilla poisoned her own daughter and was conspiring with Sejanus to kill Emperor Tiberius. With these losses and the state of total degradation Rome has sunk to, the aged Antonia makes a very matter-of-fact decision to take her own life.
Agrippina the Elder also suffers from this because Tiberius sees her children (except Caligula) as a threat. He has her other two sons exiled and one of them starved in prison.
The Last of Us (2023): Joel tried and failed to save his daughter Sarah in the pilot. He had to watch helplessly as she died from being shot by a soldier. It partly motivates him in the present to protect Ellie, who's a girl about Sarah's age when she died.
Many episodes in the various Law & Order series have shown the detectives interviewing the parents of a murder victim; sometimes the parent is even the one who has to identify the body. It's especially heartbreaking when that victim is a child.
On the main character side, one Season 8 episode of the original series ends with Briscoe finding out that his daughter Cathy has been murdered. After seeing the body, he just crumbles, saying, "She was my baby. What am I gonna do now?"
In the Season 17 finale of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Deputy Chief Dodds, a major recurring character, loses his son Mike (also a major recurring character) after Mike is shot in the line of duty. The unprecedented display of emotion from the older Dodds just makes the whole thing so much more wrenching.
The season 2 premiere sees Frank Castle machine-gun a meeting of Kitchen Irish men, one of whom is the son of Finn Cooley, the boss in this Irish mob faction. A few episodes later, Finn arrives in New York City for the funeral. He does launch a manhunt for the guy responsible, but he seems more motivated by the money Castle took as collateral, rather than his son's death.
Frank Castle himself was targeting the Kitchen Irish, along with the Dogs of Hell, and a Mexican cartel chapter, because his wife and kids were killed (and Frank himself critically injured) in the midst of a three-way gang shootout in Central Park.
Luke Cage (2016): Misty Knight's corrupt partner Rafael Scarfe. He used to have a baby son named Earl, until one night when Scarfe accidentally forgot to lock up his off-duty gun, and Earl subsequently managed to shoot himself with it. Scarfe himself dies in the same episode that we learn about this, and one of the last things he says to Misty before he expires is that at least he'll be reunited with his son in death.
In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Bucky befriends a man named Yori, whose son was murdered while abroad for reasons he doesn't understand. In actuality, a brainwashed Bucky, then known as the Winter Soldier, killed the innocent bystander for witnessing an assassination. Another character muses that while someone who loses their parents is an "orphan" and someone who loses their spouse is a "widow", there's no word for someone who loses their child because it's so tragic.
The Mentalist: Patrick Jane's wife and young daughter were murdered by Red John prior to the start of the series.
Midnight Sun (2016): Sparen suffered it due to his son's murder. He still can't bear speaking about it in the present at first.
Midsomer Murders: In "Garden of Death", Naomi Inkpen survives while both her daughter Elspeth and granddaughter Fliss are killed.
Ji-eun and Seo-joon outlive their son Yo-han, who is killed by Seo-joon. Then subverted with the reveal Yo-han was adopted. Their biological son, Ba-reum, kills Seo-joon but is outlived by Ji-eun.
Hyung-chul's parents outlive their daughter Su-jin, who's murdered by Hyung-chul.
Chi-guk's mother outlives him.
The Murders: In "Never Kissed A Girl" one suspect is the father of the young women who a man was convicted then later exonerated for murdering, as he's never really gotten over her loss.
In Neighbours, this applies to several of the main characters:
Helen Daniels outlived her daughter Anne (who died from complications after giving birth, about ten years before the show started) and her granddaughter Julie (fell off a roof in 1994).
Harold Bishop outlived both his children (Kerry was shot by duck hunters in 1990, David drowned after the plane he was on went down in 2005) and one of his granddaughters (Serena, also killed in the plane crash).
Doug and Pam Willis outlived their daughter Cody (shot during a drug sting in 1996), as well as their grandson Josh, albeit only by about half an hour in Doug's case (both killed after the boiler explosion at Lassiters in 2016). By extension, Brad and Terese Willis also outlived Josh.
Marlene Kratz outlived her daughter Cheryl (hit by a car in 1996).
Paul Robinson and Gail Lewis (formerly Robinson) outlived their son Cameron (hit by a car in 2006). Paul also outlived his son David (died from internal injuries after a fall in 2025).
Janelle Timmins outlived her son Stingray (died of an aneurysm in 2007).
Steve and Miranda Parker outlived their daughter Bridget (died of a pulmonary embolism after a car crash in 2009).
Sheila Canning outlived her son Gary (murdered by Finn Kelly in 2020).
Pierce Greyson outlived his son Hendrix (died following a botched lung transplant in 2022).
New Amsterdam (2008): John Amsterdam, the main character, is an immortal man who has lived in the New York area since the 1600s. He's seen generations come and go, and his children and their subsequent children have all died in the interim. He's at the point where he's occasionally running into his great-grandchildren and has to keep a chart of all his relatives to prevent becoming intimate with an unknowing blood relation. His latest son is physically in his 60s during the present day and has his own grandchildren.
The Old Man: Harold’s son and daughter-in-law both died in a car accident just prior to the series, and he struggles to hold it together for the sake of his orphaned grandson.
Once Upon a Time has Rumplestiltskin, who takes on a dark curse to save his child only to lose him instead. He then spends 300 years to get him back only to lose his son again, and this time permanently. Ouch.
Princess Agents: Lan Shu Yi outlives her son, who's murdered by Yuwen Huai.
Mabel outlived her daughter Cookie, whose death turned Mabel from the kindliest mother figure to a cold and unfeeling guardian to her parentless granddaughter.
Danny and Hokti outlived their only child Daniel, causing their divorce. In the year since, Danny gave up alcohol and became a workaholic, while Hokti went to jail.
Ming Ying outlives both of her children. One died as a baby and the other drinks poison to save Zhi Wei.
Ning Shi Zheng outlives five of his children. Ning Qiao died before the series starts, while Ning Chuan, Ning Sheng, Ning Yan and Shao Ning die during it.
The Rising: Neve's mom Maria suffers deeply due to her death, crying often and grieving in distress over it. Her dad on the other hand copes as he sees that she's still there as a ghost, helping her look into who killed her. Joan, who lost her own daughter Victoria, commiserates with her over this and advising Maria on how to go forward (though Maria blows it off).
Clifford and Penelope Blossom are alive (until episode 13 in Clifford's case) after their son Jason dies. This is later revealed to be the work of Clifford himself.
In season 2, Midge Klump's mother loses her daughter to the Black Hood, and is as distraught as one would expect. She later chews out Sheriff Keller for failing to protect Midge.
In season 5, Polly dies while her mother Alice remains alive.
RoboCop: The Series sees Alex Murphy's parents alive and dealing with this as they're unaware their son was resurrected as the titular cyborg. "Corporate Raiders" ended with Alex's father, Russell learning the truth, and Alex swearing him to keep it a secret.
Roswell, New Mexico: Arturo suffered this when Rosa died in a car accident (and worse, two girls were killed as well, for which she's loathed, thus adding to the pain). She turns out to not be his biological child, but he didn't know then.
"Sleep of the Just": In addition to Dr. Hathaway losing his son Edmund in World War I as was the case in the original comic book series, Roderick Burgess loses his Canon Foreigner son Randall in that same war.
"Dream a Little Dream of Me": After Rachel dies peacefully as opposed to violently thanks to Morpheus giving her one last pleasant dream after he gets his pouch of sand back, Johanna states that she'll let Rachel's father know that he has outlived his daughter.
"The Doll's House": Unity Kincaid has outlived both her daughter and granddaughter by the time she meets her great-granddaughter Rose Walker.
Even ignoring his immortal lifespan, Hob Gadling not only lost his wife with their unborn child during childbirth, he also lost his oldest son in a bar fight.
It's revealed that Morpheus and Calliope had a son Orpheus who died long ago and his death was one of the main reasons their marriage fell apart.
Scarlet Heart: The Kangxi Emperor outlives his son the Eighteenth Prince, Yin Zhen and Zhang Xiao outlive their unborn baby, Ruo Lan outlives her unborn baby, and Yin Zhen and Lady Ulanara outlive their son Hong Hui.
Scrubs: Dr. Cox is forced to spend an episode on ambulance detail and is slowly driven mad by the paramedic driver he's assigned to who will not stop talking. At the end of the day, Cox works out that the twelve-year-old son she kept mentioning is actually dead, and may have been for some time. After Cox approaches her more sympathetically the driver reveals that while the paramedics couldn't save her own son they inspired her to become a driver to try and help others.
The story arc that spanned the final two seasons of Seinfeld, where at one point, Susan Ross's parents bring up what a tragedy it is when parents outlive their children.
Riley Blue from Sense8 went into labour in the middle of an Icelandic blizzard and got into a car accident while trying to get to a hospital. She gave birth in the crashed car but her baby daughter died of exposure while Riley was trying to hike them to safety. The trauma of this, and her husband dying in the car accident, drove her out of Iceland and turned her into a major Broken Bird.
Siren (2018): It turns out that a major part of why Tia loathes all humans is because, when captured by them, she'd been pregnant, before miscarrying due to her mistreatment. She describes it as the worst thing any person can experience.
Stated by Maggie's double's father in an episode of Sliders. Her double was an astronaut, who was reported to have died during humanity's first manned mission to Mars. While it was a lie, her double did die on Earth after the mission due to poor radiation shielding on the spacecraft.
Another episode took place in a world where post-WWII scientific progress is banned. Quinn's analogue is dead from polio, but his father is alive.
Occurred several times in Six Feet Under, and the deceased were babies, young children, teenagers or adults, often due to illnesses or horrible accidents. Sometimes it was a funeral of the week but at times a main character. Brenda Chenowith points out that this situation is so unspeakably awful that there isn't even a word for it in the English language: a person losing their spouse is a widow/widower and a child losing parents is an orphan, but a person losing a child doesn't even have a name.
On Soap, the news that Jessica is dying snaps her father out of his dementia-related soldier fantasy.
In Stargate SG-1, the death of Jack O'Neill's son (Charlie) is occasionally mentioned, including one time when a crystal entity takes Charlie's form based upon Jack's memories. After entering an alternate reality in Stargate: Continuum, Daniel mentions Jack's son's death as one of the facts that proves that he knows him, only for Jack to furiously respond that Charlie is very much alive in that world. Jack is now less inclined to help them.
In the fifth season episode, "Silicon Avatar", the Enterprise crew has another run-in with the Crystalline Entity, a space creature that devours entire planets of organic life to survive. They are assisted by a scientist who studied the entity, Dr. Kila Marr, whose son Rennie was on the same colony planet where Doctor Soong created Data and Lore before the Entity destroyed it. She not only wants to destroy the Entity to get revenge for her son, but also starts to see Data as a Replacement Goldfish after she learns that he is the next closest thing, since the logs and memories of the colonists who died were all built into his code.
In the seventh season episode, "Dark Page", Counselor Troi is revealed to have had an older sister, Kestra, who drowned in an accident while she (Deanna) was an infant. Her mother, Lwaxana, was devastated by grief and guilt, and destroyed all evidence the girl had lived (except for one photograph Mr. Homn had saved just in case) and buried the memory in what a telepathic ambassador with whom she was dealing described as a "dark place" because she was unable to live with the pain. And while not directly mentioned in this episode, Lwaxana's husband - Kestra's father - was also alive at the time.
In two different Star Trek: Voyager episodes ("Time and Again" and "Timeless"), Tom Paris dies in subsequently averted timelines. As the events leading up to his death are unrelated to anything in the Alpha Quadrent at the time, it can be presumed that his father, who we see in a few later episodes, is still alive in those timelines.
By Season 3, the machinations of the Upside Down and Hawkins Lab (and the Soviets) have taken the lives of 16 year old Barb Holland, 18 year old Billy, and at least one child (who was flayed) and all have left behind grieving parents (except maybe Neil) who will never know the exact causes of the deaths.
Jody Mills outlived her son, who later came back as a zombie.
In "Abandon All Hope...", Ellen Harvelle ends up watching her daughter Jo die, shortly before she performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
Crowley's son, Gavin, died centuries ago while sailing to America. He is briefly brought back through time travel but decides to return back in time so he can die together with his lover.
In season 9, Linda Tran demands to be taken to her son after being freed from captivity. Sam doesn't explicitly say he's dead, but his silence tells her all she needs to know. She reacts as expected, but she forces herself to stay calm.
In season 13, Rowena learns that her son, Crowley, is dead, having sacrificed himself to save the Winchesters. Though she seems to act nonchalant, it's revealed that her guilt regarding her previous treatment of him leads her to try bringing him back.
Teen Wolf: As of the end of Season 3, Chris Argent has outlived his daughter Allison, as well as the rest of his family (except for his father, with whom he now wants no interaction).
In Torchwood: Children of Earth Jack Harkness's daughter already looks older than him. And in the end, Jack is forced to sacrifice his grandson to stop the 456.
Transparent was wrapped up with a Finale Movie titled Musicale Finale, which killed off the titular trans parent Maura Pfefferman and had the plot revolve around the aftermath of her death. Maura's father Moshe Pfefferman is among the relatives present at Maura's funeral.
In Season 1 of True Detective, this is part of Rust Cohle's backstory. As he tells Hart's wife Maggie, his marriage didn't last long afterwards.
The Tunnel: Karl suffers this in the first season as his son Adam is murdered by the Truth Terrorist. The season finale sees him nearly retire from the police force after almost killing TT in revenge. It sticks with him over the rest of the series, and he repeatedly mentions that he's never really moved on. He expresses deep sympathy for other parents who've lost children after this, and it helps him relate to a killer seeking her own son whom she'd lost years ago as well. Particularly poignant is when Karl says that every day he wakes up, feels normal for a little while, then remembering what happened hits him again.
In "Long Distance Call", Grandma Bayles lost two children before her son Chris was born. She never forgave Chris for marrying Sylvia and leaving her. Part of the reason that she was so attached to her grandson Billy was that he reminded her of her first two children.
In "Mute", Harry and Cora Wheeler's daughter Sally drowned at some point before Ilsa Nielsen came to live with them.
In "Death Ship", Lt. Ted Mason's daughter Jeannie was killed in a car accident, as was his wife Ruth.
In Twin Peaks, Laura Palmer's parents are devastated by her death. Sarah seems to be teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown from her grief, and her husband Leland begins showing signs of Sanity Slippage, including compulsive dancing and singing punctuated by crying breakdowns. He also takes revenge by murdering Jacques Renault, a suspect. Of course, he was likely mentally unstable to begin with and was pushed over the edge by Laura's death, given that he was being demonically possessed, a phenomenon that seems to corrupt the psyche, and also probably sensed or remembered on a subconscious level what really occurred the night of her death.
Applies to many characters in The Walking Dead (2010). Carol's daughter was killed after wandering away from the group in Season 2, Morgan's son was bitten by his own undead mother, Abraham's children were killed early in the apocalypse by walkers when he was away scavenging, and Michonne's infant son was lost the same way. The latter is trying her hardest to avert this with Carl and Judith. In Season 4, Carol also lost her two surrogate daughters when Mika was killed by her mentally ill sister Lizzie, who Carol then had to put down herself. Zig-zagged in Season 6 when Jessie watches Sam being Devoured by the Horde before she dies herself, followed shortly thereafter by her other son, Ron. Rick and Michonne eventually lose Carl in Season 8, as well as King Ezekiel and Carol losing Henry in Season 9.
John and Olivia outlive three of their children - Anne, Joe, and Joy. Anne and Joe both died at birth prior to the start of the show, while Joy was a miscarriage in the first season.
Grandpa and Grandma outlived their younger son Ben, who was killed overseas in World War I.
Much later, Ben and Cindy lose their daughter Virginia, who drowns as a small child.
Warehouse 13: Female H.G. Wells' Start of Darkness was when her daughter was murdered. When Claudia comments that outliving a child is the most painful thing a person can go through, Wells corrects her. What she did to the people that killed her daughter, that's the most pain a person can go through.
Bernard lost his son, Charlie, due to terminal illness. But it turns out that Bernard is a host based on Ford's dead partner, Arnold, who was Charlie's father. Arnold's suicide is partially motivated by his son's death since he mentions wanting to see him again.
This tragically happens with William (a.k.a. the Man in Black) who assumes that his daughter, Emily, is a host controlled by Ford, whom he thinks is trying to mess with him. So he shoots her but finds out she's really human after he sees her hand, holding a key card containing his psych profile.
The West Wing: In the first christmas episode Mrs. Landingham, the President's secretary, reveals she had twin sons who were drafted into the Vietnam War at the same time. She and her husband begged them to take a deferment as they were medical students, but the boys wanted to serve as medics. They were both killed in action in the same battle on Christmas Eve 1970.
Mrs. Landingham: It's hard when that happens so far away, you know because, with the noises and the shooting, they had to be so scared. It's hard not to think that right then they needed their mother... Anyway, I miss my boys.
The Wheel of Time (2021): It turns out that Liandrin has an elderly son whom she cares for, while given his advanced age and illness it's clear she faces his imminent death.
Why Women Kill: Beth Ann and Rob's daughter Emily died two years prior. It's made worse because Beth Ann blames herself, thinking she left the back gate open, through which Emily ran into the street chasing her ball, getting hit by a car. It turns out this wasn't her fault, but Rob let her believe it was.
Wild Bill: Angie in "Welcome to Boston" lost her daughter Mel and waited for a decade to find out what had become of her. Upon learning she was murdered, she's so distraught that Angie nearly kills herself.
Queen Calanthe's only daughter, Princess Pavetta, died before the series began. The loss sent her into a Heroic BSoD for several months before she was able to pull herself back together.
In the second season, the elf queen Francesca's infant daughter is murdered. She proceeds to enact a Roaring Rampage of Revenge on the kingdom she is led to believe is responsible, inflicting the trope on any woman living there who has a baby.
Scully's daughter, an unstable genetic experiment created using the ova stolen from Scully when she was abducted, dies just days after Scully learns of her existence.
Scully's mother also has to deal with this when her other daughter Melissa is killed.
Your Honor: Jimmy and Gina Baxter suffer the loss of their younger son Rocco, his death sparking the plot. Michael's son Adam is also killed later.
