Best and Worst End to TV shows? - Possible Spoilers

[jschild]

I was checking out io9.com and they had a nice link to an article someone wrote about why they considered BSG's finale to be the worst ever. I hated much of it, though there were many touching moments (Adama and Roslins trip over Africa made me cry).

http://ideas.4brad.com/battlestar/battlestars-daybreak-worst-ending-history-screen-science-fiction

What do you consider to be among the best and worst endings in a TV show?

For me, it would easily have to be Babylon 5's very emotional ending. It was a perfect endcap to a series that, more than anything else, is about consequences. Had me and my wife both in tears throughout much of it.

Another shows' ending that I love (though not on first viewing), was Sienfeld's. I hated it on the first time, but re-watching it a few years later I could really appreciate how Apropos (sp?) it was.

For my worst ending, I will quickly point out the dreck that was the final episode of X-files. A bad ending to a horrible season (guess what Mulder, it wasn't aliens or the government who took your sister, it was ghost children????). Filled with pointless deaths, tons of unresolved answers, and just horrible plotting, a sad endcap to a once great series.

[Malechi]

Best Series Ending Ever: Newhart
http://www.amoeba.com/dynamic-images/blog/Eric_B/newhart-1.jpg
Bob wakes up in his earlier series The Bob Newhart Show next to his wife from that series with Suzanne Pleshette reenacting her role. He goes on to describe the "dream" he had about owning a bed and breakfast in Vermont and the various ridiculous people inhabiting that "dream". Truly inspired comedy writing.

Worst Series Ending Ever: Sopranos
http://www.searchingforagem.com/2000s/2000s_Pictures/Sopranos2.jpg
Cut to black mid sentence to make the audience think their cable went out. The biggest copout ever.

[jschild]

I had forgot about the wonderful twist of Newhart - That should indeed rank as one of the best of all time.

I don't always mind "the story never ends" endings, IE, NYPD Blue and Star Trek TNG, but Sopranos was indeed so abrupt that you had no clue what was going on.

[Purplebeard]

"V"

Anyone remember "V" from the 80's? No? Sigh.

After a not too terrible start with the first miniseries, they went on to destroy the concept with a second miniseries and then followed it with very short lived TV series. It was a hideous season of 12? episodes being bounced around all over the weekly schedule before they took it out behind the barn and shot it in the head with some mystical crap from the "starchild" I kept wishing they would kill all season. Almost as bad as Galactica 1980.

Hmmm. I'm still bitter about both series. Interesting.

Best ever?......

Not sure if it qualifies....but I liked Serenity the end story (so far) for the FireFly series. Can't think of anything else I've seen that I really liked.

[ollie]

Best Ever: Blackadder Goes Forth (by about a million miles).

Worst Ever: The West Wing (where "end" is defined to be the last two seasons).

[Malechi]

Anyone remember "V" from the 80's? No? Sigh...
You are aware there is a new version of the series (http://abc.go.com/fallpreview/index?pn=v) coming out soon (this Fall on ABC), right?

[jschild]

That doesn't mean it will be any good however.

[Shermif]

For one of the best I've seen, I would have to say the final four-part episode of Avatar, the Last Airbender. Excellent action throughout, a good twist toward the end, great lessons on respect for life, and some very emotional moments at the end with the coronation and the concluding reunion scene. Great writing, great show!

[Onacara]

Great final episode is really a difficult thing to judge because there were a few shows where the last episode itself was not really great..but the way it ended was... (i.e. Newhart and Cheers are great examples) There are others that end very cleverly but leave you saying :WTF:...St. Elsewhere is a perfect example of that. Then there are others that catch you totally off guard. There was a show called "I Married Dora" in the ealry 90's late 80's ???. It was the story of a single father who marries the housekeeper/nanny so she can stay in America. On the last episode the man and his kids are about to board a plane and Dora says goodbye to them. (I'm not 100% sure but I think she had gotten deported and he went their with the kids to really propose to her or something) Anyways...they walk through the door to the plane and the studio audience lets out a big "awwwwwww" and then man comes running back out from the plane. Dora looks at him lovingly and he says "We got cancelled"...She says "the flight?"...and he says "No the show"...and them and the kids just turn to the camera and say goodbye.

MASH by far is the best ending to a long running series.

The last episode of OZ was really good.

The last episode of Invasion was also amazing....."What did you do???? WHAT DID YOU DO???" (If you never saw this show I suggest getting the DVD boxed set)

[skyknight]

I thought Seinfeld was absolutely terrible

[Greyelephant]

I thought Seinfeld was absolutely terrible

Ditto.

Such a great series and for such a weak ending, it just left you empty.


Mash, Newhart, and Cheers were some of my favorites that were already mentioned. When they turned the lights off in the Cheers bar, you felt sad, but happy. Newharts "it was just a dream" was funny all on it's own.

[tubafication]

The ending to Alf was really bad.
What happened was the show got canceled before they aired the last episode. Horrible, just horrible. They then later came out with a movie so that they could show the ending, but I don't think the movie did really well, so it's not really available. Oh well.

[Devil's Advocate]

Seinfeld and BSG both had pretty good endings. The only bad thing about BSG was that it is hard to believe every person would give up all tech so and cut life expectancy by probably 50 years for future generations.

The last episode of Twilight Zone was one of the poorer ones although it isn't a finale more than just the last, stand alone episode. The last epiode of Roseanne was poor but mainly cuz it had to explain the last Season which was really bad

[rym]

Seinfeld's ending left a lot to be desired, when it first aired. I was disappointed, to say the least. However, in seeing it in syndication, I think the ending truly fits the show. A show about nothing ended with...well, nothing.

I do think the 100th episode Look Back with snippets of all the characters and missed lines, with the photo montage while Green Day's "Time of My Life" was playing, drew more emotion from me, though.

Best Ever? Don't know. Probably MASH. I loved the way the Cosby Show ended, though, but probably not the best.

Worst Ever? I've no idea. The Friends finale really irked me. I thought it was lame.

[Greyelephant]

Worst Ever? I've no idea. The Friends finale really irked me. I thought it was lame.


That show became lame way before the last episode. ;)

[Purplebeard]

Anyone remember "V" from the 80's? No? Sigh...
You are aware there is a new version of the series (http://abc.go.com/fallpreview/index?pn=v) coming out soon (this Fall on ABC), right?

I'd seen some script treatments floating around a while back, but hadn't realized they'd gone forward with it. Huh. That might be an interesting reboot.

[rym]

Worst Ever? I've no idea. The Friends finale really irked me. I thought it was lame.


That show became lame way before the last episode. ;)

Agreed. Come on, eating cheesecake off the hallway floor. Puh-leeze. :roll:

[Shades fan]

Worst ending Defiantly Sopranos!
http://www.searchingforagem.com/2000s/2000s_Pictures/Sopranos2.jpg
But being a life long Twilight zone, and X-Files fan, those were pretty crappy, but defiantly not the worst. At least they had an ending, Does Tony live or die... will never know!

Best ending it hard to judge... but probably Arrested Development, I loved the show, and the fact that it got canceled is a crime, luckily the movie should be great as all the cast are on board.

The Show is certainly amazing, and when we got to see the final 4 episodes of the series all in a block as the Series Finale was great. S.O.B.s was one of my favorite episodes of the late seasons, and Development Arrested was a amazing last episode.
http://assets.hulu.com/shows/key_art_arrested_development.jpg

[Malechi]

Forgot one:

The Perfect Series Ender*: Life on Mars
The series finale wraps up all of the mystery, bizarreness, complete WTF? moments cleanly and perfectly. Basically, the series finale was written before the series and each and every episode had to fall into the parameters of that specific ending ...


* This does not fall under Best Series Ending as the series, like its UK predecessor, ended much, much too early! But, I am happy we did get to see the very satisfying ending.

[MI_Tiger]

Angel has to be in the running for worst ending. I believe Whedon got some advance warning of the show's cancellation, but instead of wrapping up the show neatly, he had the characters take on a suicide mission which ended in a pseudo-cliffhanger for the survivors. Either the character all died (which is a rotten ending), or their fate is uncertain (which is a rotten ending).

[dra(gon)]

well today mannyshows ended to dsoom or with a cliffhanger (most dismist from the studio), firefly , rome, deadwood. today fans could happy to get an endig but many writers have in that way no idea how ist would end.

best ending:six feet under a good iodea with this epilog, this sould be in the sopanos !

bsg oh well planed for 4 seasons with a goal to finish it, they did it , but i think the creators had no real idea how the end and steal from neon evangelion genisis.
the end was verrystrange (tv endig) eoe was a movie that expaned it .


but in bsg there was that a littel to much , but this was because the steal from greek mythology and god.


in that way babylon 5 had tow good endings the 4 seson end and the 5 seson end(but most of seson 5 episodes was crappy) sad that it not became as planed.

[SpiderCoach]

I'm going to agree with the MASH folks....great ending. But, I want to give props to CHEERS. I love how you felt like everything thereafter was same-old-same-old. Very classy.....

[skyknight]

wow...careful guys, I almost read a spoiler for BSG which I have not finished...my own fault for it though, I shoulda been thinking before i came in here. May want to add a spoiler alert though if we are going to be talking about newer series into the title of the thread.

[jschild]

Angel has to be in the running for worst ending. I believe Whedon got some advance warning of the show's cancellation, but instead of wrapping up the show neatly, he had the characters take on a suicide mission which ended in a pseudo-cliffhanger for the survivors. Either the character all died (which is a rotten ending), or their fate is uncertain (which is a rotten ending).

Check out the new Angel comics Whedon is writing, which is essentially Angel season 6 for what happened after.

well today mannyshows ended to dsoom or with a cliffhanger (most dismist from the studio), firefly

Rent the very good movie Serenity for an awesome wrap up to that show, cancelled long before it's time.

and the 5 seson end(but most of seson 5 episodes was crappy) sad that it not became as planed.

You can thank Claudia Christian and the JMS expecting the show to be canceled for that. The war with Earth was supposed to last into the first half of Season 5, but he shortened it so that they could finish at the end of Season 4 (In fact, the series finale was filmed during S4). But TNT saved the show for the final season, and then Claudia left the show for her "movie" career and he had to rewrite huge swathes as she was supposed to be a big focus for the final season.

[dra(gon)]

jep , that was right the real final was shot in seson 4 , and it was verry dumb at the end . but that was because tnt came first after the formal studio sell the show, and so the cut many good ideas.

in the b5 had too many holes from this point, and crusade did not filed it.
than came the other tales, movies ect but it get not the quality.


firefly the movie was a poor idea to end the series, for me it was a side story about gau sommers charakter, the reaper explain was to easy(in the show you never see one) and the dead of some cast. i hope for a second movie or a tv movie. the movie hat some very good scens, but the series goes deaper.

damm you fox!!!!!!!! dame you wheldon for not writing books after epidode 13th, comics are not the solution for all.

[jschild]

in the b5 had too many holes from this point, and crusade did not filed it

What holes? All the stories were wrapped up? Crusade was NEVER supposed to fill in any holes from B5 at all. Everything was wrapped up by the end of the second to last story, with the final consequences being wrapped up in the "true" final episode that takes place 20 years later.

firefly the movie was a poor idea to end the series, for me it was a side story about gau sommers charakter, the reaper explain was to easy(in the show you never see one) and the dead of some cast. i hope for a second movie or a tv movie. the movie hat some very good scens, but the series goes deaper.

The whole story, from the very first episode was centered on Summer Glau's character. She was the entire reason they were on the run. The only thing I hate is that we never got to know more backstory on Preacher's character.

[mecha frog]

Forgot one:

The Perfect Series Ender*: Life on Mars
The series finale wraps up all of the mystery, bizarreness, complete WTF? moments cleanly and perfectly. Basically, the series finale was written before the series and each and every episode had to fall into the parameters of that specific ending ...


* This does not fall under Best Series Ending as the series, like its UK predecessor, ended much, much too early! But, I am happy we did get to see the very satisfying ending.

I never watched the US version but did just recently see the original BBC one. The BBC ending was outstanding. You start out with a little bit of hope and excitement of a long quest nearing its end. Then you start wondering if someone needs to be careful of what they wish for.

I'd write more but this is such a great show I recommend you watch it for yourself.

16 episodes.

You got time for 16 episodes.

[jschild]

The UK series ended when it was supposed to, AFAIK. They regularly have shows that are only supposed to last one season. A very intriging ending. Didn't watch the entire series but a very bold end.

[Ryougabot]

Ahhh...to many...There were some very powerful endings written in shows that you would not expect.

I still get a little down when I think of the end of Fresh Prince of Bell Air. The end of MASH was great...After MASH was not.

B5 had a good ending

Robotech - Macross was great as well as Robotech New Generation

Night Court had a great ending as did Freaks and Geeks.

Captain Power had one of the most tragic endings for a show of that time and target audience...Leave it to JMS

Mysterious Cities of Gold and Sparticus both had vey good endings.

Wonder Years...



I think the series that had the worst ending was Exosquad. The show was great and it was very epic as opposed to eppisodic. They knew where they were going and it had to end. But really...they could have ended it well with Fall of the Neo Empire 5, but no...they had to tie up some loose ends (that could have stayed untied for the sake of good literature) and make a cliffhanger. That might have worked, except the show was canceled.

[Richard]

I think the X Files had a lame ending personally, as well as Family Guy when they canceled it. I know it's back but at the time it was a lame ending episode at the time.

DBGT had a pretty crappy ending as well, though I don't count it as DB anyway, it wasn't even written by Toriama! The whole series is filled with contradictions!

The ending of Seinfeld was pretty good, I think, after all it fit the whole idea of the show well and felt just like another episode of Seinfeld even though it was their last.

An ending that sort of grew on me was the ending of the Sopranos. At first the sudden fade to black at the end made you wonder if your tv broke and if your missing something, then you realize Chase tricked you, then you think its lame. I thought the same for a bit and then realized that Chase was wanting fans to decide for themselves what the ending meant.

[The Walrus King]

Best and worse endings?... Ooh there's a few...

Mixed
FullMetal Alchemist- nice ending, but left off a big hole in the plotline. (and no, I have not seen the movie or the new season yet- I'm talking original 51 episodes) Al dies. Ed uses some weird transmutaion on himself that he learned from The Truth to bring Al back. Al comes back. Ed ends up somewhere in WWII-era Europe. (it doesn't say- may be England, but then again may be Germany)

Avatar: The Last Airbender- GREAT SERIES.... except from a plot analysis standpoint, most of the episodes from the Day of Black Sun up to The Phoenix King (Sozin's Comet) were mainly filler episodes to stretch it to 60/61 episodes total. Such as...

Day of Black Sun was an utter failure- plot, but then could be filler.
Katara & Zuko "bonding" episode- only place you see bloodbending (that episode could've been removed too), NO PLOT AT ALL- outcoem is Katara trusts Zuko.
Prison Break episodes- PLOT!!! (May & TyLi betray Azula- leads to her insanity)... But could have been shrunken to one episode. Sokka rescues his dad... BUT THE DAD NEVER SHOWS UP AGAIN TIL THE FINALE!!!!!!!!!!... Suki IS help later on tho.
The ending was nice too.... except the whole "energy-bending" thing seemed to be a Deux Ex Machina created by the producers at the last minute. (i.e. "Wait... we can't have Aang kill the firelord! This show's designed for 11-year-olds! Imagine what it'll do to their conscience...... Oh i know! Let's have Aang learn some new thing at the last minute and have him take away the Firelords' bending! Yeah, that'll do it!")

DragonBall Z- Nice ending. It's not the best, becasue DBZ is one of those shows that just can't end. Watching it you feel like it isn't the end and it needs to continue. It was indeed an ending, but it didn't leave that feeling on the hearts of the viewers.... And yes i know about DBGT. It sucked and it was not based off the Toriama's manga, so I don't consider it "real"

BEST ENDINGS
Pitchman- A Tribute to Billy Mays- Not really a "ending"... but more like a farewell to a friend. The series will continue on, but without Billy. So in a sense, this IS an ending. An ending to the story of a person.


WORST ENDINGS
....um.... read below...

...to be honest I've never really watched any other series all the way through to the finale... I saw G-Gundam, Gundam SD, and Rurouni Kenshin, but that was YEARS ago, back when Toonami aired every evening on cartoon network... It was so long ago I can't give you an accurate description on whether it was good or bad. Sorry ;)

And that was my :2cents:! :)

[Syvaris]

Worst Endings
Firefly-because Fox is a bunch of morons and canceled it
Xena-sorry but the show went way downhill in its later seasons
Surface-because NBC is a bunch of morons and canceled it
Friends-went down hill after Rachel got pregnant
Sabrina-went downhill after she went to college
Stargate all-ended just so we could have tv movies
(Hmm I sense a trend in TV)

Good endings
BattleStar Galatica-wtf and very good, close to the original in wtf ending
Avatar-wonderful as always
Teen Titans-total head screw but oh well

Wait and see after this season
Chuck
Dollhouse-at least it got a second season to actually finish

[Drumline3469]

The ending of Dexter Season 1 blew my mind... I know the show is still running, but each season is pretty much encased in its own nice little shell. The 2nd season finale, however, really disappointed me. It didn't seem like a finale at all. Same with Lost Season 4, but I know Lost was due to the writer's strike...

[Jed Starkiller]

Worst Endings
Firefly-because Fox is a bunch of morons and canceled it
I have to agree about this while I loved Serenity I hated fox and still basically due for not letting this show last.
Stargate all-ended just so we could have tv movies
No the movies came becuase the creators wanted to tell more stories they were canceled because Sci Fi (Sy Fy or Sy fu) wont let anything run longer than 5 season on it. Only reason SG 1 lasted 10 is 5 were on Showtime.