Magnum, P.I./Awesome

"Magnum: Ivan.
 * The last ten seconds of the the third-season premiere, "Did You See the Sunrise?" One of Magnum's friends has been killed by a car-bomb meant for Magnum; the last thing he said before starting the car was a suggestion that he, Magnum, and a third person with them drive up to a lookout point and watch the sunrise. At the end of the episode Magnum contrived to be alone with the killer, a Soviet agent known as "Ivan." After a mildly civilized discussion Ivan, who has diplomatic immunity and is on his way out of the country, walks away, passing Magnum so that the two men have their backs to each other. After a pause, Magnum asks a question:

Ivan: Yes?

Magnum: Did you see the sunrise this morning?

Ivan: [a bit puzzled] Yes, why?"


 * And Thomas Magnum, the hero of a tv detective show in 1982, when heroes still didn't do morally questionable things on television, turns around with something wrong with his eyes, and fires a single shot, with the episode ending on a freeze-frame of the muzzle flash. It may be the greatest moment this troper, born in 1957, has ever seen on television. And then the screen goes black and the words "Executive Producer : Donald P. Bellisario" appear, and that made it the Crowning Moment of Awesome for him, and makes this troper forgive anything he's done wrong since then, even the end of Quantum Leap.