It’s a total eclipse of the heart.
The 2024 solar eclipse is upon us in the real world, but if you’re too cautious to look up at the sun even through eclipse glasses, you can do it from the safety of your TV screen.
Over the years, plenty of fictional characters have also seen an eclipse, in shows ranging from medical dramas to procedurals to supernatural genre fare.
Everything to know about the 2024 solar eclipse
- The solar eclipse will take place Monday, April 8, blocking the sun for over 180 million people in its path.
- The eclipse will expand from Mexico’s Pacific Coast across North America, hitting 15 US states and pulling itself all the way to the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
- New Yorkers will experience the solar eclipse just after 2 p.m. Monday.
- A huge explosion on the sun, known as a coronal mass ejection, is anticipated, according to experts. This happens when massive particles from the sun are hurled out into space, explains Ryan French of the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado.
- To avoid serious injury to the eyes, it is necessary to view the event through proper eyewear like eclipse glasses, or a handheld solar viewer, during the partial eclipse phase before and after totality.
- The next total solar eclipse will take place on Aug. 12, 2026, and totality will be visible to those in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and a small slice of Portugal.
Here are the key TV episodes featuring eclipse-related plots.
‘Mad Men’
In the Season 3 episode “Seven Twenty Three” of the AMC period drama, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) flirts with his kids’ teacher Miss Farrell (Abigail Spencer) during the eclipse, which isn’t shown on-screen — but, the sky does darken. And Don uses his sunglasses to look up (which is not good eclipse safety)!
Later, he picks up some hitchhikers who end up stealing his money. Meanwhile, Betty (January Jones) redoes her living room and meets up with politician Henry Francis (Chris Stanley), the man she will eventually end up married to after Don. Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) tries to make moves away from Sterling Cooper.
‘E.R.’
In the landmark 200th episode of the NBC medical drama (which ran from 1994 to 2009), “When Night Meets Day,” Greg Pratt’s (Mekhi Phifer) night shift is juxtaposed with John Carter’s (Noah Wyle) day shift, as they work during a solar eclipse.
It’s scheduled to be Pratt’s final night in the emergency room, and among his patients are victims of a cult poisoning that’s related to the solar eclipse.
‘The Vampire Diaries‘
In The CW show’s Season 6 episode “Yellow Ledbetter,” vampire Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) and witch Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) discover that they are trapped in a mysterious parallel universe where none of their family or friends are around in their hometown of Mystic Falls. Eventually, they find a newspaper and learn that somehow, they’re in May 10, 1994 — the day that there was a solar eclipse. They end up repeating the day over and over.
‘Heroes‘
In Season 3 of the NBC supernatural drama, the two-part episode “The Eclipse” depicts the celestial event causing all villains and heroes to lose their powers. The villain Sylar (Zachary Quinto) is relieved, while Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) and Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) land in hot water when Nathan, who can fly, loses his powers mid-flight. Hiro (Masi Oka) loses his memories. Claire (Hayden Panettiere), who could previously use her powers to heal and come back to life, gets shot. She’s taken to the hospital and dramatically dies, but she’s eventually able to use her powers to regenerate and return.
‘The Simpsons’
The long-running Fox animated series has not one but two episodes featuring an eclipse: Season 4’s “Marge vs. The Monorail” (which originally aired in 1993) and Season 20’s “Gone Maggie Gone” (which originally aired in 2009). The former — in which Leonard Nimoy of “Star Trek” fame is a guest star — features a monorail operated by Homer. The sun’s energy causes the monorail to go haywire, but an eclipse saves it. In the latter episode, Marge goes temporarily blind after looking straight at an eclipse with her naked eye — which results in her baby daughter Maggie going missing.
‘CSI: Miami’
In the Season 6 episode “Sunblock,” Horatio Caine (David Caruso) is on the case of a man who was murdered during a solar eclipse. When another person is murdered, he suspects he’s dealing with a serial killer who strikes at night.
‘Charmed’
During the Season 3 episode “Magic Hour” (which originally aired in 2000), a solar eclipse provides the cover for Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Leo (Brian Krause) to get married, without the Powers That Be finding out — and it also helps the sisters break another couple’s curse.
