TV series finales

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AmandaByNight
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#11 Post by AmandaByNight »

Styles Bitchley wrote:
AmandaByNight wrote:When I think of incredible show finales I always think of Newhart. That one was probably the most clever thing I have ever seen. I saw Bob Newhart speak in 2009 and he said his wife came up with the ending as a joke and I guess everyone loved it.
I used to watch Newhart with my mom back in its first run, but somehow I missed the finale. Several years ago I caught his stand up act in Toronto (again with my mom) and as a part of his act, he dropped a screen and showed the end sequence of the finale. Brilliant. I'm glad I got to see it that way too.

Other finales that stand out in a good way for me are MASH, Northern Exposure (although I sort of think of the Rob Morrow departure episode as the finale - the actual finale wasn't great), Seinfeld (which I watched with thousands of others at the Sky Dome in Toronto), and Cheers.

I think several don't stand out, because I really never saw them. Often a show has run its course by the time the decide to can it and the audience is much smaller than it was at its apex. I mean I really liked Happy Days, but who was watching near the end?
Wow, I would love to see Newhart's stand up. I saw him speak at a screening of two of his movies, Cold Turkey and Hot Millions. He's brilliant.

Speaking of Happy Days, which I do not remember the ending of, I do remember another sitcom quite well, Three's Company. That was a pretty good send-off, although it did become a spin off. Three's A Crowd is still one of my favorite shows. Robert Mandan 4ever!

And speaking of the Mandan (as I often do), the finale for SOAP is so frustrating because it's not the finale at all. Talk about leaving too many cliffhangers. I know Katherine Helmond reprised her role on Benson to say she was in limbo... That kind of upset me for some reason.

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#12 Post by IKnowWhatYoureThinking »

I think M*A*S*H Sticks out for me. I was pretty young, and I remember it being a really big deal.

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#13 Post by ConchRepublican »

I still consider Limbo to be the Magnum finale, and I think it's one of the best shows I've ever seen. Incredibly moving.

I thought the Seinfeld finale was a classic, they all got what they deserved.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, although I was big fan of the series, I thought the finale (and last season in general) was weak.

Sopranos . . . a LOT of opinions about this, but I really liked it. It stopped and made you think and left you with a lot of questions, like the show did.

The Cheers finale I thought was pretty good, but the best part of that, for me, was when Sam adjusted the Geronimo picture on the wall, which was a nod to Coach, who had passed away earlier in the series. Again, IMHO, that series ended when Diane left.
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#14 Post by Styles Bitchley »

Hmm. I forgot to mention the Lost finale, which I found to be a disappointment. Others have said they like it though. For me, it just confirmed that the writers - just like the audience - didn't actually know where their story-lines were taking them!
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#15 Post by Seaver41 »

too often finales are shows that ran out of gas. The memorable ones are the great ones. Newhart was a show I did not watch on a regular basis, but if you watched tv you couldn't help but see commercials and such. Nowadays with so much tv spread across cable networks, it's easy to get lost in the shuffle.

For me, Newhart might've been the most clever........truly great idea. Mary Tyler Moore people remember, but it wasn't great.......I think last scene is simply Mary turning out lights and closing door at the tv station.

Cheers was good........but maybe too clever in trying to be unpredictable. The loose end type of endings I do not like.

M*A*S*H* was tough.........a show I watched in syndication over and over again was ending.........it was emotional and powerful.

Miami Vice for me was disappointing......the show was on fumes and the ending seemed to be missing something. It just doesn't stand out except the final scene........but if I remember there was a writer's issue that year and episodes were skipped and shown later........messy.

St Elsewhere had one of those AHA moments.......a kid's snow globe and autistic mind was the entire series......very clever. The ending superceded the series in general.

Happy Days........not very strong............the episode with Richie leaving and saying goodbye to Fonzie was more emotional than any, IMO.

Soap......clearly left us in limbo, but if you think about it......the show was destined to end in a similar fashion.......every episode left you hanging so the end would have been a cliffhanger of sorts anyways. Great show.

Friends......that was good......everyone got the Ross/Rachel payoff they wanted.

Seinfeld.......dumb, but appropriate.....a show about nothing had a nothing ending.

Magnum........wow.........AT THE TIME.......I was extremely disappointed. The format was different and the 'movie' feel left loyal fans cold. Not to mention the useless Tidewater storyline. In the end though, the payoff is Magnum getting his daughter back.........something I couldn't appreciate as much then as i do now being a father. The end scene with the wedding was eh, nothing memorable. As finales go, not good. As the finale to Magnum goes......it was must see just to see what happened...but not much beyond that. a 2 hour movie with some puzzling plotlines.

The NEW Battlestar Galactica had a very clever ending........they tied up that bow nicely. Solid show for sci-fi fans.

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#16 Post by Seaver41 »

Styles Bitchley wrote:Hmm. I forgot to mention the Lost finale, which I found to be a disappointment. Others have said they like it though. For me, it just confirmed that the writers - just like the audience - didn't actually know where their story-lines were taking them!

have to agree.........seemed thrown together....not a big fan of the white light solves everything ending.

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#17 Post by MagnumsLeftShoulder »

I hated the Lost finale, too. It seemed like such an easy way out of a complicated series that wanted the audience to believe it had all the answers. For this reason, I don't think the show has much re-watchability.

I guess I'm in the minority on the Newhart finale. I didn't like it. I always liked Newhart better than the Bob Newhart Show so I didn't like the dream idea. Suzanne Pleshette is awesome, though. I just thought the other characters on The Bob Newhart Show were annoying.

As for the Magnum finale, parts of it I liked and parts of it I didn't like. I posted my list of likes/dislikes in the forum for Resolutions part 2.

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Re: TV series finales

#18 Post by Chancellor Higgins »

My favorites, in no particular order;

Magnum PI (of course)
Frasier
Seinfeld
MASH
Monk
Burn Notice
Quantum Leap (although it was forced, I think they did the best they could with it)

Edit: after seeing the series finale of Psych tonight, it has joined the list!
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Re: TV series finales

#19 Post by Robert »

Chancellor Higgins wrote:Burn Notice
I'd have been disappointed if someone hadn't put that on this list.

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Re: TV series finales

#20 Post by ConchRepublican »

Robert wrote:
Chancellor Higgins wrote:Burn Notice
I'd have been disappointed if someone hadn't put that on this list.
Good call on Burn Notice. I really enjoyed that show.
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Re: TV series finales

#21 Post by KingKC »

The really good finales that I remember are MASH, St. Elsewhere, Newhart, Monk and Magnum, PI. But the all time greatest finale, IMO, was back in the 1960s...the Fugitive! (OK, OK...I am old!!!...lol)

SPOILERS FOR THE CASTLE FINALE BELOW (edit - ConchRepublican)

I could post my comments here or on the CASTLE thread but I think the CASTLE finale was pretty good but the ending was a little unexpected. The talk on the internet was that the finale would end in such a way that the show could not come back in a different form and they did it. I really thought Beckett and Castle were dead at more than one point but the last scene from "7 years later" where they are both alive with kids did pretty much wrap it up...at least for me. I still would have loved to see a continuation of the show with Castle as a PI having had Beckett written out completely and/or even killed off.

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Re: TV series finales

#22 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

Hi Guys,
I would like to add the finale of Perry Mason. Dick Clark played the last murderer of the series, a screenplay writer. Set in the actual studio used for Perry Mason, the producers cleverly made the last episode into a sort of yearbook for cast and crew.
All the behind scenes talent were shown onscreen during the police investigation. The last scene with Della, Paul and Mason was nicely underplayed.
By the way, one episode of the series was shot in color but isn't available in the rerun package. I saw it maybe 25 years ago when TBS ran it in a one off.
Also memorable was the last episode of Nichols, the James Garner starred cult western. Garner is murdered in it.
Due South's last episode was fine too. An outstanding series little known in America but big in Canada and Europe. It was a CBS/Canadian co-production about a Mountie assigned to Chicago and ran for three years.
Hill Street Blues. Dennis Franz turned the initially tiny part of dinosaur cop Norman Buntz into a star making comet that launched him into NYPD Blue. He stole the last year of the show from the series regulars. The series ends with the now exiled Buntz leaving the station, which was only just reprieved from the wrecking ball.
It was time for the series and Buntz to leave.
Last edited by Luther's nephew Dobie on Tue Jul 12, 2016 3:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: TV series finales

#23 Post by BWheelz54 »

I just watched the finale to Quantum Leap for the first time. I just loved it. I thought it pulled off a bit of a magic trick by closing just enough of the story while leaving just enough out their for fans and viewers' imagination as well. Both sad and joyous all at the same time. A really subtle ending to that show.

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Re: TV series finales

#24 Post by Mrs. Higgins »

Aside from Magnum (of course), my favorite finales were Newhart and Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Ok, call me a dork.) The three Enterprises converging at once was way cool. IMHO, the MASH finale didn't live up to the hype and some of the storylines were dumb. The actors were showing their age and Loretta Swit's hairstyles were pure 1980's. They would be unacceptable by 1950's nursing standards, and never would be allowed in the military.
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Re: TV series finales

#25 Post by marlboro »

Mrs. Higgins wrote:Aside from Magnum (of course), my favorite finales were Newhart and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Those would be my two picks as well. There's no topping the Newhart ending. There was actually a callback to the final episode of Newhart on the rarely seen "The Bob Newhart Show 19th Anniversary Special" (1991). It picks up the morning after Bob wakes up in bed with Emily. He keeps mentioning the crazy dream he had about owning the inn to the rest of the cast. SPOILERS At the end of the special, as he is about to get on the elevator in his office, the doors open and Larry, Darryl, and Darryl are in it. Bob says something like "I think I'll take the stairs" and that's how it ends.


Star Trek TNG had a great ending. DS0 had a pretty strong ending too. A bit more bittersweet befitting the grayer tone of the series.

Honorable mention: Breaking Bad and the last episode of Superman the Animated Series.

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