Tear Jerker / Growing Pains

• In "Call Me," in a moment of panic Ben scapegoats his innocent and kind-hearted neighbor and playmate Kris as the one who has been spreading around the number to a phone sex line at school. Minutes later, Kris invites a guilt-ridden Ben on a boating trip with his family right before being called away and badly spanked by his father (who is The Unapologetic upon learning Kris was innocent). Kris ends the episode rejecting Ben’s apology in a sad but understandable moment.
• In "Michaelgate", Carol supports Mike's opponent in the class president election, and said opponent gleefully points this out to demonstrate why no one should vote for Mike. The look on Mike's face when he realizes that Carol thinks that about him (and that the whole school knows it), and the look on Carol's face when she sees how hurt and embarrassed Mike is are both full of pain.
• "A Reason to Live" features Jason having a heart-to-heart with one of Mike's classmates, who is feeling suicidal for several reasons, including long-lasting trauma over how her mother committed suicide a week before the girl's twelfth birthday.
• Carol and Bobby slowly realizing that their goals are too different for a future together right as they were celebrating their engagement.
• In "How the West was Won Part 1", Mike and Boner eavesdrop on Coach Lubbock (who they've just learned has a wife and eight kids to support) talking about how he is losing his job and can't find another, and then are stunned as he sits down, cries, looks up at the sky, and asks God what he's supposed to do.
• Mike feels angry and abandoned throughout "Semper Fidelis" after Boner, his best friend since elementary school, abruptly decides to drop out of the college they attend and join the Marines. It turns into a heartwarming moment when Mike finally makes peace with this, though.
• The episode where Carol's boyfriend (pre-Friends Matthew Perry) dies of accident injuries after a long Hope Spot and she breaks down after getting the news.
• Mike being so scared and conflicted about marrying Julie at the beginning of season 5 even though he loves her. Then, he finds out that she has been going through the same feelings and had left him a "Dear John" Letter. That their romantic subplot got cancelled due to backstage drama in the show's Troubled Production can be even sadder.
• In "Daddy Mike," Mike lies about being a single parent while attending a mixer, and falls hard for another guest. After initially trying to maintain a Snowball Lie, he admits the truth and desperately pleads for a chance to start over. Feeling betrayed, his girlfriend refuses, leaving Mike morose and contemplative.
• After being a recurring character for the whole show and a decent and warm guy (unless you are Jason or Wally), Ed Malone reveals he is dying in "Eddie We Hardly Knew Ye". Ed shows heartbreaking fear and frustration as he admits that he's afraid to die and can't understand how this is happening to him when he takes better care of his body than so many of his peers.
• In "Not With My Carol You Don't," Carol starts dating Webster, a Reformed Criminal and trusted friend and protégé of Jason. Then, Webster briefly succumbs to Then Let Me Be Evil anger during A Tragedy of Impulsiveness. He fights with and then robs a man who interrupted his date with Carol to try to arrest Webster for a years-old crime from before his reformation, leaving Webster, Carol, and Jason all devastated.