Best ending for a TV show

[FAST6191]

Many TV shows are great fun to watch, fewer manage to stick the landing though. This can be because of the network cancelling the show, cancelling the show but the writers left things unfinished (on a related note has this ever saved a show? Would it be better form to have a series end act as something of a whole show end if it turns out that is the case?), because the writers ran out of material several series back (or source material if it is that), networks slashing a budget and hamstringing people, departure of a key actor, or good old fashioned incompetence.

Anyway we are not really here to discuss that* as much as what shows really did well for the series end. Important plot threads resolved, possibly some king of poignant ending if it is necessary, something utterly absurd but did it so well that you count that, maybe a nice what happened next...
If the show finished as a book, comic or film then tell us more there as well, especially if it is not as well known.

*if you have a "watch the show up to this episode/series suggestion then it plays. Better yet if you have one the ordering of shows was messed with then do that too.

I will also say the ending to Sons of Anarchy was made 1000 times better when I watched it with Arlo Guthrie - The Motorcycle song and to this day if I think of that ending then that song plays in my head.

In my case the finale of Six Feet Under did it for me. Won't do much to watch standalone but if you watched the whole series it is so fitting.

 

[godreborn]

I always thought the ending to ds9 was pretty good. you get to see what happens to the crew after the war is over. I liked it much more than the voyager finale, which just shows them getting back to Earth, then it abruptly ends.

edit: these two shows are both star trek.

 

[Veho]

cancelling the show but the writers left things unfinished (on a related note has this ever saved a show?

Jericho, if I recall correctly. The first season ended on a cliffhanger, the show was not renewed for a second season. Fans campaigned, show got a short second season. For that one, the creators filmed two possible final episodes: one with a season three cliffhanger, the other a finale in case the series didn't get renewed for season three (which it didn't).

Not sure if that counts.

And my example of a good finale is "Sledge Hammer!" season 1.

 

[FAST6191]

I always thought the ending to ds9 was pretty good. you get to see what happens to the crew after the war is over. I liked it much more than the voyager finale, which just shows them getting back to Earth, then it abruptly ends.

Might want to note that those are Star Trek as not everybody will know what they are such (it has been over 20 years since Deep Space 9 ended, and almost as many for Voyager, and not like they do good/popular games or films, or indeed TV shows these days).

Jericho, if I recall correctly. The first season ended on a cliffhanger, the show was not renewed for a second season. Fans campaigned, show got a short second season. For that one, the creators filmed two possible final episodes: one with a season three cliffhanger, the other a finale in case the series didn't get renewed for season three (which it didn't).

Not sure if that counts.

And my example of a good finale is "Sledge Hammer!" season 1.

I will have to look more into that but it sounds closer to fan campaign than execs or someone said "we can't leave them (or me/my friend/my spouse/my kid/...) hanging". At this point the closest I have is Amazon's owner grabbing The Expanse after Sci Fi/SyFy bailed out and saying make it happen, but given it presumably makes their streaming service all the money that is not such a big thing, and there have been a few partner networks taking things over before -- I forget the full story but Flashpoint (Canadian SWAT team show) had its secondary partner (a then up and coming rebroadcaster) finish the thing off after the main funders pulled out, probably also would count Red Dwarf there but that was years after the fact and I have not actually watched them.

 

[godreborn]

@FAST6191 ,

I just added that in the edit.

 

[ChibiMofo]

The best ever was Newhart. Not the original Bob Newhart Show from the 70s, but the later unrelated Newhart from the 80s-90s. Here's a quote from elsewhere:
"Bob Newhart’s second classic sitcom offered eight years of slightly surreal goofiness, as provided by innkeeper Dick Loudon’s (Newhart) eccentric neighbors and staffers, but the finale amps the surrealism to new heights. There’s the sequence of Vermont villagers trudging away from their hometown to the tune of Fiddler on the Roof dirge “Anatevka,” after a conglomerate buys out the whole town (save Dick’s inn) and turns it into a golf resort. There’s the sight of backwoodsmen Larry, Darryl, and Darryl as well-dressed moguls after the windfall, with brothers Darryl and Darryl uttering their first words of the entire series (shouting in unison “Quiet!” to their chatty wives). Finally, in the best sitcom switcheroo ever, there’s Newhart waking up as Robert Hartley, his character from the 1970s The Bob Newhart Show, next to his 1970s TV wife, Emily (Suzanne Pleshette), and realizing that the entire eight seasons of Newhart were just Robert Hartley’s nightmare. Viewers did not feel cheated; this was the best it-was-all-just-a-dream scenario ever, one that didn’t dishonor the eight seasons of sublime silliness that preceded it. The M*A*S*H finale may have garnered the biggest ratings, but when TV fans think back to the sitcom finale that pleased them the most (and offered the biggest, most satisfying laughs), they think of Newhart."

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

Frasier - perfect End.Nothing open,nothing to add,nothing more to say. (But I am very curious of this Years Summer "Resurrection").
Home Improvement - What a grande Finale...
Friends - It is over now and all is good.Very good Ending.



Best Example for me for an "worst" End - Star Trek - Enterprise. ..no Series deserves such an "quick" Ending.

Thank you.

 

[Flame]

Best for me "burn notice".

worst is by a mile is "Lost". i was just lost by the end.

 

[FAST6191]

Burn notice was a great show but I am not so sure about the ending to it all ranking among the best.

 

[Flame]

Burn notice was a great show but I am not so sure about the ending to it all ranking among the best.

i loved the end scene. its just my opinion of course.

its hard finding a TV series were it was loved during its run and it ended well.

just look at game of thrones.

 

[Deleted User]

Waspinator ruling over a tribe of proto humans at the end of Beast Wars.

I'd believe a bumbling space wasp once ruled over our ancestors over an intolerantly tolerant god who loves his creations, yet sends them to hell for exercising the freedom of thought he gave them and supposedly is never wrong despite being responsible for creating an entire species which always chooses to undermine his authority.

On second thought, someone who is never wrong, yet created all of his own problems and responds to them with extreme prejudice sounds exactly like someone whose image humans were created in.

 

[jesterscourt]

Uh... Breaking Bad?

 

[Deleted User]

Uh... Breaking Bad?

Did he finally break his bad habits?

 

[CeeDee]

I liked Futurama's a lot, but man, that show had like four "endings".

Also an honorable mention: OK KO.

 

[MurraySkull]

Don't know what the best would be, but the darkest is undoubtedly "Dinosaurs".

 

[flipped]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

The same attitude the show held for the entire series helped it end how it wanted to end.

 

[relauby]

I couldn't agree more on Six Feet Under, absolutely genius ending. I also think The Office, for as rough as the last few seasons were, nailed the finale and had some really nice sendoffs for its characters. My favourite TV show ending though is probably Andy Daly's Review. The whole show is about a guy being pushed further and further into insanity, and the finale pushes him far enough that he's in complete denial about the state of his life, but it cuts before we see him forced to face reality. So we know something terrible happened, but don't know the details, and it creates this really chilling effect.

cancelling the show but the writers left things unfinished (on a related note has this ever saved a show? Would it be better form to have a series end act as something of a whole show end if it turns out that is the case?

I'm not super familiar with the show myself, but I think this happened with Deadwood kinda. People were rotted that HBO cancelled the show after three seasons, but after the creator announced plans for what would have been the fourth season, I heard of a few fans being kind of relieved that it didn't happen. There was a Deadwood movie recently, not sure if that went over well or even matched up with what would have been the season four.

The best ever was Newhart. Not the original Bob Newhart Show from the 70s, but the later unrelated Newhart from the 80s-90s. Here's a quote from elsewhere:
"Bob Newhart’s second classic sitcom offered eight years of slightly surreal goofiness, as provided by innkeeper Dick Loudon’s (Newhart) eccentric neighbors and staffers, but the finale amps the surrealism to new heights. There’s the sequence of Vermont villagers trudging away from their hometown to the tune of Fiddler on the Roof dirge “Anatevka,” after a conglomerate buys out the whole town (save Dick’s inn) and turns it into a golf resort. There’s the sight of backwoodsmen Larry, Darryl, and Darryl as well-dressed moguls after the windfall, with brothers Darryl and Darryl uttering their first words of the entire series (shouting in unison “Quiet!” to their chatty wives). Finally, in the best sitcom switcheroo ever, there’s Newhart waking up as Robert Hartley, his character from the 1970s The Bob Newhart Show, next to his 1970s TV wife, Emily (Suzanne Pleshette), and realizing that the entire eight seasons of Newhart were just Robert Hartley’s nightmare. Viewers did not feel cheated; this was the best it-was-all-just-a-dream scenario ever, one that didn’t dishonor the eight seasons of sublime silliness that preceded it. The M*A*S*H finale may have garnered the biggest ratings, but when TV fans think back to the sitcom finale that pleased them the most (and offered the biggest, most satisfying laughs), they think of Newhart."

Did you ever see the riff on this they made around the Breaking Bad ending? Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek wake up in bed as their characters from Malcolm in the Middle and it turns out the whole show was Hal's dream. Unfortunately the only clip I could find is a terrible quality upload on YouTube, but it's worth watching.

Spoiler: Breaking Bad

Speaking of Breaking Bad's ending, I've never been a huge fan of it. I don't like that Walt basically gets everything he wanted, is able to evade the police so easily, and in a show with such a grey morality I don't like that he's basically selfless throughout the finale. I know he spends a lot of it with the intention of killing Jesse, but his face turn would be a lot more impactful if he wasn't such a superhero throughout the rest of the finale. I always like to pretend Breaking Bad ended two episodes earlier with Ozymandias.