The Simpsons debuted its 26^th season in the US last night, and the show started with an ending. After months of speculation following the announcement that the series would begin with the death of a character, the unlucky one was revealed – and people were not happy.

The episode, called Clown in the Dumps, saw Springfield’s favourite children’s entertainer Krusty bury his father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky – voiced by the American comedian Jackie Mason, and who’s only appeared in ten episodes of the show’s 553 to date.

The reaction online was grief-tinged or mildly bemused at best, with most viewers nonplussed that such a minor character had kicked the bucket. 

Rabbi Krustofsky is DEAD! I called it months ago! Such a weak death! Disappointed. #TheSimpsons

— INDIGO BRO (@astralxgod) September 29, 2014

Sooooo Krusty's father the rabbi died. I expected more of a bigger role character. #TheSimpsons

— Rashawn Rezwan (@King_doubleR) September 29, 2014

@TheSimpsons Seriously? The Rabbi? That's it? That was so weak it makes me want to change the channel! #SMH BOOOOO #TheSimpsons

— TheBrianMo (@TheBrianMo) September 29, 2014

Which got us thinking about some of the most arresting and surprising TV deaths that have taken place on the small screen in the past - all far more shocking and surprising than Krusty's dad. So here's our take on the top 10 most shocking TV deaths...

(Warning: Spoilers are about to spoil things for you)

1: Zoe Barnes - House of Cards

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Anyone familiar with the original British incarnation of the show won't have been too surprised to see the young journalist go the way of print media, but the sheer speed of her demise in the first episode of the Netflix show's second season is what makes it so shocking - and arguably it is a loss from which the show never quite recovers.

2: Matthew Crawley - Downton Abbey 

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Matthew had survived a tour of duty in the first World War, a terrible dose of the Spanish Flu, and had managed to warm the cold depths of Lady Mary's heart. Having just witnessed the birth of his son, he speeds home to tell his family, and is promptly killed in a car crash. Cause of death: the end of contractual obligations.

3: Ned Stark - Game of Thrones

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The Red Wedding perhaps packs more of an emotional punch than the death of the show's protagonist in the penultimate episode of season one, but Ned's beheading plays out as a brilliant slow burner. You just never expect that they'll actually go through with killing off the only decent man in Westeros - and then the next thing you know his head is on a spike. 

4: Biddy Byrne - Glenroe

A whopping 1.5m of us tuned in the night that Biddy Byrne bit the dust on Glenroe, crashing into a tractor after flipping her car, just hours after saving the farm from Dinny. The show only lasted another year after one of its most beloved characters was killed off.

5: Nicholas Brody - Homeland

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Everyone's favourite drug-addicted ginger prisoner-of-war sleeper-agent redeemed his sins by teaming back up with a pregnant Carrie for one last mission. And unfortunately for Brody, after the speediest heroin addiction recovery on TV, he get publicly hanged. Arguably a better fate then having to put up with his on-screen daughter for one more episode.

6: Omar Little - The Wire

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Omar is the show's most intriguing character - a gay vigilante who's trying to clean up the street corners of Baltimore the only way he knows how. And his death - killed by some little kid we've never seen before as he peruses a corner shop - is completely shocking, in a show that never shied away from twists and turns. 

7: Adriana La Cerva - The Sopranos 

The gangster's moll's progression from minor character to serious supporting role saw Drea De Matteo win an Emmy, and help make the show as groundbreaking as it was. After she believes she's convinced Christopher to go into witness protection, he dobs her in to Tony, who organises her heartbreaking murder - a stark reminder just how much of a bad guy Tony Soprano really is.

8: Joyce Summers - Buffy the Vampire Slayer 

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In one of the supernatural show's most absorbing episodes, Buffy returns home to find her mother lying dead on the couch. The episode brilliantly plays on the fact that show's lead spends seasons saving hundreds of lives from demonic threats, but that she can't save her mother from disease. As touching as it is brutal.

9: Mrs Landingham - The West Wing 

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There's something incredibly moving about the episode of the US presidential drama that sees Jed Bartlet's secretary (whose one-liners are among the show's best), pass away. Her death at the end of season two reveals flashbacks to her early involvement in his political career, and the episode is emotionally draining. 

10: And... Maude Flander - The Simpsons

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To go full circle, this death goes to show that sometimes the Simpsons can shock us with a character death. Ned's wife Maude may not have been one of the supporting cast's more showier members, but it was hard to imagine that the show's creators would leave Ned a widower - and all because of a t-shirt gun and Homer bending over... what a way to go.