Chipping in on the Buffy discussion:
The thing that pissed me off about that series (and Angel) was how Whedon never kept the dead characters dead.
If Angel stayed stuck in the hell dimension at the end of season two, it would have made my top 5 TV deaths. If Buffy stayed dead at the end of season five, Whedon would've taken #1. If Spike stayed dead throughout Angel, his sacrifice would've meant something.
Whedon piled on all this delicious meaning into their deaths and then cheapened them by making them temporary. Lamesauce.
(Rita from season four Dexter is my #1 choice for TV death, btw)