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.

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.

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."

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.

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. 

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."

"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.