Worst TV Series Ending

[Lute Skywatcher]

I noticed the Movie Ending thread and figured I might as well start one for television.

My top two:

St. Elsewhere--it was all the figment of an autistic boy's imagination? WTF?

Quantum Leap--Sam suddenly finds out it was all from his subconscious and he can really go anywhere he wants. Yeah, right.

[Superdude]

...I always felt cheated by both of those, as well. Here's mine:

As inventive as it was, I was always disappointed by the very last "Newhart." I thought that it was clever that he woke up at the end, in bed with Suzanne Pleshett (sp), his wife from his first sit-com, but it seemed to me like that was too contrived an ending. And I hated the last episode of "Seinfeld."

[Agrippina]

I hated the last episode of Alf. Alf's alien friends are coming to pick him up in order to colonize a new planet and the CIA come and get Alf. I believe the last episode might have been a "To Be Continued..." and it wasn't continued until years later with that TV movie with Alf escaping from the CIA, in order to close up any loose questions the fans may have. It was an OK movie, but I would have liked to see the Tanner's POV.

Perfect Strangers had the same type of ending. It was a To Be Continued... where their kids are being born and that was the last episode. By then I was disapointed in the show. I couldn't believe that Larry and Balki went and got married, but marriage (or a baby) is usually where a show turns crummy. Except for Get Smart. But then they had to add the twins. ::shudder::

[Max Torque]

Originally posted by Jeff Olsen
Quantum Leap--Sam suddenly finds out it was all from his subconscious and he can really go anywhere he wants. Yeah, right.

Huh? I remember the last episode of Quantum Leap as ending with just text on the screen that talked about what happened with Al and concluded with something like, "Sam never made it home." Which really, really, REALLY sucked; that's my all-time crappy series ending champ.

[RealityChuck]

It's funny, but I just watched the QL final episode again and was surprised that it wasn't as bad as I remembered it. However, "you control the leaps" just doesn't wash -- how the hell could he know?

"Twin Peaks" final episode was a disappointment, but that was because they were setting up for a new season, so it actually wasn't an "ending."

[BobT]

I always thought that QL's last episode was interesting. St. Elsewhere's did disappoint me. I believe it's on Bravo today (4/13) or Monday (4/15).

St. Elsewhere's last episode also ran into a problem because Ed Flanders was supposed to give a long speech on the importance of the hospital to the community, etc. etc. However, he was just too obstinate to do those lines and the producers were running into a time crunch, so they just ended up having Flander's Dr. Westphall character looking out over a crowd of people with music playing in the background.
St. Elsewhere's last year was pretty much a drag anyway. Ronny Cox just didn't cut it.

However, I identified with the characters so strongly that I still think that when I see Norman Lloyd on TV that he should be dead. But actually he seems in pretty good shape for a guy in his 80s.

[Airblairxxx]

Originally posted by neptune_1984
Perfect Strangers had the same type of ending. It was a To Be Continued... where their kids are being born and that was the last episode. . .I couldn't believe that Larry and Balki went and got married, but marriage (or a baby) is usually where a show turns crummy.

Was that show kinkier than I remember?


And as far as when a show turns crummy, look at jumptheshark.com. It refers to the Happy Days episode when Fonzi jumped a sharktank on his motorcycle, and the show sucked ever after. It discusses when your favorite sitcom started to suck.

[Sir Rhosis]

Yeah, yeah, diss the last episode of Quantum Leap all ya want, you're never gonna find a more powerful, intense moment in any previous episode (well, you might, but I'm being hyperbolic) than when Sam leaps back to the moment (which was fom another episode, I believe) and tells Al's wife that he's alive. Simple and effective, thought I. IIRC the scene just plays with Sam saying something like "Al's alive... he's coming home," whereupon the actress dissolves into smiles/tears of joy. Good moment.

On the other hand, I thought it was a crime that Al shows up for only something like three minutes in the entire show.

Sir

Oh, the OP: Although, I can't say that I had followed the show religiously (even once opened a thread to ask what happened in the last season), I didn't care for the Sisko in the lake of fire finale of Star Trek: DS9. And I always thought Alf and Max Wright went off to smoke crack in the final show.

[Rich G7subs]

[i]Originally posted by neptune_1984
Perfect Strangers had the same type of ending. It was a To Be Continued... where their kids are being born and that was the last episode. By then I was disapointed in the show. I couldn't believe that Larry and Balki went and got married, but marriage (or a baby) is usually where a show turns crummy. Except for Get Smart. But then they had to add the twins. ::shudder::

[/b]

Wow...The ENDING sucked? I thought the whole damned SERIES sucked.I didn't think anyone on the planet watched that show.

Yeah,The quantum leap last episode sucked.But basically the whole last year was getting progressivly worse.

[DKW]

I didn't think the last episode of Quantum Leap was that bad, but the conclusion was a disappointment. In particular, I would have liked to know what prevented Sam from ever returning home...did it have anything to do with saving Al's marriage? Or not "really wanting to" return? Too confusing. I don't quite understand how his subconscious "controlled the leaps" or whatever...all in all, this could have gone a lot more smoothly than it did.

The ending for Newhart was a total cop-out, and worse, I didn't even get it until much later (you know, some of the viewers, myself included, didn't see the his first series).

And although I'm probably the only person in the country who still remembers Herman's Head, I found the last episode to be a bit of a disappointment. Herman has a bunch of flashbacks and decides not to give up on life...yawn. (Actually, I'm kinda disappointed it got cancelled at all; liked it much more than about 95% of their primetime fare back then.)

[Eliahna]

RealityChuck is on the money with his nomination of Twin Peaks.

A dedicated fan of the show, I never missed an episode, and watched it religously until the final episode - a cliff-hanger because they were expecting to come back the next year. The fact that THAT was the final episode ruined the whole show for me, and I refused to watch the reruns until a year or two ago, I was so disappointed.

I mean, there were explosions, major characters possibly dead, the good guy had allowed evil in, this was a heavy-duty cliffhanger! If only it hadn't been axed.

[lawoot]

Ah, Quantum Leap

I always read the ending as more a matter of Sam CHOOSING not to come home at the end... continuing going around the world, correcting the historical mix-ups, etc...

Wasn't it kind of inferred that the 'bartender' in the last episode was God?

[KneadToKnow]

Originally posted by Sir Rhosis
you're never gonna find a more powerful, intense moment in any previous episode (well, you might, but I'm being hyperbolic) than when Sam leaps back to the moment (which was fom another episode, I believe) and tells Al's wife that he's alive. Simple and effective, thought I. IIRC the scene just plays with Sam saying something like "Al's alive... he's coming home," whereupon the actress dissolves into smiles/tears of joy. Good moment.

Sorry for this hijack, but:

I couldn't agree more. I'm sad and disappointed that so many people who seem to have liked Quantum Leap disliked the last episode. It was the perfect last episode. Allow me to explicate:

Over the course of the show, Sam undid pretty much everything that ever bad happened to him or his loved ones. He saved his brother, his father, too, if I recall. He was given a chance to be reunited with his wife. He fathered a child who wound up (possibly unaware of being his child) a key member of Project Quantum Leap, and he even got Ziggy's gender straightened out. The only mission he ever failed a friend on was the chance he had to save Al's first marriage.

Knowing Sam, you can imagine how this must have weighed on his swiss-cheesed mind. Once God-Al (sorry, best name I could come up with) told Sam that he was in control of his own destiny, what was the first thing Sam did? He fixed the one thing he'd failed to do for his best friend who'd stuck with him through it all.

I f*cking cried like a baby.

The postscript "Sam never went home" was intended, as others have noted, to indicate that Sam chose to continue doing the work of God-Al in setting right what once went wrong.

Jesus, I'm getting verklempt just thinking about it.

Talk amongst y'selves.

[Jet Jaguar]

Originally posted by neptune_1984
I hated the last episode of Alf. Alf's alien friends are coming to pick him up in order to colonize a new planet and the CIA come and get Alf. I believe the last episode might have been a "To Be Continued..." and it wasn't continued until years later with that TV movie with Alf escaping from the CIA, in order to close up any loose questions the fans may have. It was an OK movie, but I would have liked to see the Tanner's POV.

The final episode of ALF was a "to be continued...". From what I understand, the show was on the network's chopping block, and the producers thought they pulled a fast one with the cliffhanger ending. They can't cancel a show and leave the loose ends hanging like that, right?

[Agrippina]

Originally posted by Rich G7subs

Wow...The ENDING sucked? I thought the whole damned SERIES sucked.I didn't think anyone on the planet watched that show.

Yeah,The quantum leap last episode sucked.But basically the whole last year was getting progressivly worse. [/b]

LOL! Yeah, I'm sure it did suck, but I was twelve or thirteen when the show went off the air and I was young when I watched it. It's one of those childhood shows of mine that have no artistic value at all but you like because it reminds you of your childhood.

[Pammipoo]

As I recall, the last episode of Full House was pretty lame. I know I saw it, but I don't remember all the details. I think they all moved away to their own happy little homes.

[Deiket]

The worst TV ending I have ever seen just HAS to be for Silk Stalkings. I loved this show, the old episode with Chris and Rita. Once those two got married I was SO happy! Then, something absolutly AWFUL happened and both characters er.... left....
But did they end the series there? NO!
They went on for THREE MORE YEARS, with two new detectives who.... I'm going to restrain myself.
Anyway, the last few lines of the show were between these two. There was this big IA investigation on the male character and he was going to get arrested or something, and the female finds him in the captain's office and says "So what happens now?"
Last line of the show? "I don't know."

That was it. Blech.

[Folkie]

The last episode of Northern Exposure was pretty stinky.
Not that it was bad in itself but the series deserved better. The REAL ending was when Joel wound up back in NY but they had the rest of the season to go.

I did not mind the end of Twin Peaks. If it HADN'T been a cliffhanger, it wouldn't have been TP. The FBI man staring at Bob in the mirror, laughing maniacally and yelling "How's Annie?" over and over seemed perfectly in tune with the rest of the show.

[Mahaloth]

Does anyone else remember the ALF movie that came out and concluded the story?

It's called Project ALF.

http://us.imdb.com/Details?0117397

See? It all worked out. And ALF is never gone, he's always around...in pog form.

[PatrickM]

I thought the last show of "Magnum P.I.", when Magnum rejoined the Navy and Higgins turned out to be Robin Masters, was pretty bad because it was so inconsistent with what had been established in earlier seasons. In previous years Robin Masters had been portrayed by the back of Orson Welles' head, but then Orson had the termerity to die while the show was still in production.

In what should have been the final show Magnum died and the final shot showed him walking through the clouds toward heaven. Then the show got renewed, and the first show of the next (and final) season had Magnum recovering from a near death experience. Bah!

[Ross]

Originally posted by KneadToKnow
The postscript "Sam never went home" was intended, as others have noted, to indicate that Sam chose to continue doing the work of God-Al in setting right what once went wrong.

I liked the open ending (it was pretty open) because it allowed me to read into the story more than may have been intended. I always thought Sam ensured another leap just by fixing the "problem" on the present one. Thus, to return home, he just had to take his hands off and let the bad stuff happen: but was unable to resist helping, due to being an all-round good egg. Decent chap, what? One of Us.
But I have no proof, even no background, to suggest that Sam never failed to fix a problem.

[waterj2]

The worst I saw was the final episode of Ellen. A complete incoherent mess.

[Fern Forest]

I'd like to vote for

-- SOAP. Basically everybody is just about to die and then the show ended and they never renewed it. It just makes me seeth.

-- This doesn't really count but at the end of Cheers Woody was elected to City Council, years later he's on Frasier and he's back to being a bartender. Made me feel bad for Woody.

[Silvio]

Overall, I thought Cheers was a terrible season finale. It was very depressing, and made you ashamed for keeping up with such a batch of futile losers for all of those years.

I thought the ending of Deep Space 9 was a disappointment as well. The whole energy of the war arc had been deluted all season with detours into Ferengi low comedy and Ezri Dax love and detective stories. While the final episode had great moments, it really blew it with the "is Sisco really dead or isn't he" set-up.

[pesch]

Put me down as one of those who thought the Magnum ending blew chunks as well. He was better off dead.

I was especially disappointed because I thought the show got a bum rap. It did some clever stories with the secondary characters and tried to be more than just another detective series.

That last year was pretty much forgettable.

As for "Newhart," I grew up with the first show, so the ending made perfect sense to me, but I can understand all the headscratching that went on with some people.

[Drastic]

I've never quite decided whether or not to love or hate how Blake's 7 ended. It was definitely memorable for me--moreso than most of the show after intervening years.

[SPOOFE]

The last episode for Voyager was an utter pooch-screw. Wait, no, the whole last season of Voyager was an utter pooch-screw. Sure, they had some good episodes, but there was absolutely NO build-up to the final confrontration. It was set up like any other episode - "Oh, the Borg are doin' not-nice stuff again!" - except at this one, the producers remembered at the last minute that it was the final episode, and tacked on the whole "Hey, we got back to Earth!" as an aside.

That's the feeling... "tacked on". You'd a-thought that the finale for a seven-year run would have taken a bit more build-up than just one episode. As such, the whole thing felt VERY rushed. I mean, hell, in several parts, I felt like the actors were talking very fast in order to squeeze it all in.

[Enderw24]

I liked Quantum Leap's ending.

Silvio, here's an old thread I created on DS9's final episode. My OP is quite long so I didn't want to repost it here. In the words of Jay Sherman, it stinked!

Also, what about Alien Nation? The ending was crappy because there never was an ending. They left it open for a cliffhanger and then necer got to film the second half. Why? They cancelled it after one season! One season! That show was excellent, IMO. I still haven't forgiven Fox for it.

[Czarcasm]

Before I move this to Cafe Society, I'd like to give my take on the Quantum Leap finale. Sam didn't go home because he deliberately eliminated much of his own history by fixing Al's life. I believe he met his wife through the Project, and without Al there was no Project. Sam knew exactly what he was sacrificing when he did that jump, and that's what made it the hardest jump of his life.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

There was a late 1980's cops and robbers series called Crime Story. Michael Mann produced it, it starred a young(er) Dennis Farina. It also was a victim of the "network wants to axe us so lets make a cliffhanger episode so they wouldn't dare not let us come back next season" syndrome. They did dare. They didn't come back. The last episode ended with all of the major characters, good and bad, on a plane that was about to crash, with the pilot and copilot dead or incapacitated.

[TheeGrumpy]

Originally posted by Enderw24
what about Alien Nation? The ending was crappy because there never was an ending. They left it open for a cliffhanger and then necer [sic] got to film the second half. Why? They cancelled it after one season!

First, the final episode "Green Eyes" wasn't bad in itself -- just a letdown because they never filmed the conclusion. Second, they did film the conclusion! In 1994 (4 years after cancellation), the TV film "Alien Nation: Dark Horizon" wrapped up the cliffhanger. Since they didn't want to recap the previous episode, the events were restructured in such a way that it stands on its own. Unfortunately, after 4 years the cast looks mighty chubby. They slimmed down for the subsequent TV movies.

(When this thread was revived as part of the Quantum Leap discussion, I noticed that it had ended prior to ST:Voyager's finale. And I just knew there was more to be said.)

[elfkin477]

From 94-95' there was a trashy night-time soap called Models Inc. that was trying to cash in on the fame of Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. Though I liked it, even I could see a pattern of it's episodes bearing an errie similarity to MP episodes that aired two weeks before. Ok, I watched it because there were hot guys. Happy? Anyway, in the season finale Grayson comes to a wedding with a gun, and is planning to murder one of the happy couple. Just as she pulls the trigger a toddler, the son she and the groom had, runs towards the couple and.... To Be Continued. Arggh!

[Max Harvey]

Mork & Mindy. They died. Very, very disturbing to an 8-year-old.

[Fionn]

Roseanne's ending was horrible. Since I've been watching the show in reruns, I was cursed with seeing the last episode again.
In the final season, the Conners won the lottery, Dan had an affair, the family went on long trips, met terrorists, and so forth. Most of it was stupid, but they got the show back on track when Darlene and David's baby was born. Then, in the last episode, it is revealed that none of the preceding events happened. All of events were part of a story Roseanne wrote after Dan died.
Strangest of all, Roseanne's voice-over says that she thought Becky and Darlene were better with each others husbands, so she switched them around. Does that mean Darlene was married to Mark and Becky was married to David?

[SpoilerVirgin]

I'd look to put a big thumbs up vote in here for every TV series that ended by explaining the entire series as some kind of work of fiction. I LOVE those endings -- they give the shows a special kind of cohesion.

St. Elsewhere - The whole show was always slightly off. Wacky stuff that would never happen IRL kept happening. The ending tied it all together by making it a child's imagination. I mean, how else do you explain Howie Mandel?

Newhart - My vote for best TV series ending ever. It played on the way the audience always identifies TV actors by the parts they play. So many people saw Dick Loudon as just another version of the psychiatrist Bob played on his earlier show. And adding Suzanne Pleshette was just the icing on the cake. Again, could you really explain Larry, Darryl, and my other brother Darryl as anything except a truly bizarre dream?

Roseanne - By far the sweetest, and another one of my favorites. Of course, I'd loved the original conception of Roseanne as this tight-knit, middle class, middle American family. I liked the show less and less as it drifted away from that concept. But the ending made it all good again (except for Dan being dead of course). And it made perfect sense that Roseanne would see things the way she did. Plus, she got to be a writer after all. (Yes, IRL, according to the show, Becky was married to David, and Darlene was married to Mark).

I also really liked the ending of Magnum, but mainly because Lily turned out to be alive. I had basically said that the one thing I wanted from the final episode was to bring back Lily, and they did, so I was happy.

As for Soap, even though I know it ended abruptly because of the cancellation, it really couldn't have ended any other way. It was a soap opera, after all. They can't end.

As for the OP, I agree with everyone who suggested Quantum Leap. No conclusion, no answers, and really depressing too. I also want to throw in a vote for Cheers, which was hyped so much that anything they did would have been anticlimatic, and which violated the cardinal rule of sitcom endings -- it wasn't funny. Finally, Seinfeld had an extremely depressing and unfunny episode. The joke was that these people were jerks without knowing it. Once they learned the truth, it burst the bubble (sort of like a heckler at a standup show completely deflating the comedian).

[Kaitlyn]

Gotta weigh in on a couple of these.

Quantum Leap: My take is that near the end, they have finally found the correct calculations to bring Sam home. He can choose himself, or he can choose to help Al, but by choosing to help Al, he would change his own history so much that the Quantum Leap project would never come to exist (as Czarcasm said). Al is the navy admiral who is responsible for getting funding for the project, presumably as a part of naval intelligence. With Al happy with his first wife, the project never comes to be, and our Sam is set adrift. But this isn't a sad ending. Sam, being who he is, can't do anything but choose the path of helping others over helping himself. Controlling his own leaps is a natural consequence of losing his guide (Al) and possibly the entire support team. By the way, am I the only one who sees a strong resemblance between Sam Becket and Deadman?

Roseanne: Ballybay has it close. I think the ending indicates that everything that happens is a story written by Roseanne, but the point of divergence isn't Dan's death at the end of the penultimate season. In the first or second season, Roseanne is given as a birthday present a writing workshop in the basement. Everything after that is part of the story, which explains the switched boyfriends/husbands, both of which had been going on for several seasons by the end.

St. Elsewhere: It was supposed to end with the fourth season closer, which had the hospital being torn down while Dr. Aushlander runs down the main hall in a hospital gown screaming, having been left inside. This was a good final episode. The show was renewed, and they took back Aushlander's death and the hospital's destruction, leading to the finale we now have, which I like, but not as much.

Magnum, P. I.: Another final episode that was negated by the series being renewed. I liked this one because of a subtle touch. Every Magnum episode begins with a Magnum voice-over in the first scene Magnum appears in. This is the film equivilent of a first-person narration that is the standard for detective novels. First person narration implies that the narrator is alive at the end of the story to tell it. This episode begins with a shootout in a warehouse involving Magnum, but with no voiceover. The first time I saw it, I was uneasy, and didn't realize what was wrong until after he gets shot and then begins the narration. He isn't narrating at the beginning because he doesn't survive to tell the story.

The revival episode sucked, but I liked the final scene from the "new" final episode also: Magnum walking on the beach holding hands with his daughter.

I loved the finales of Newhart, imho the greatest series finale ever, and Cheers which was more drama than comedy, but worked in a series that in its beginning was often as much drama as comedy.

Let me add a series finale that I dislike. In the final episode of Happy Days, they entirely forget that Richie and Joanie had an older brother, Chuck, who figured prominently in several first season episodes.

[jcgmoi]

Laughing Lagomorph: A&E is running Crime Story most Mondays at 9. Since I missed the show first time around I get a 2001 perspective on a 1986 perspective of 1963 Chicago. Great honking Detroit steel, music arranged by Todd Rundgren and Al Kooper, first-rate bad guys, grown people twisting--it's the lurid, sleazy high-light of my TV week.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

Originally posted by jcgmoi
Laughing Lagomorph: A&E is running Crime Story most Mondays at 9. Since I missed the show first time around I get a 2001 perspective on a 1986 perspective of 1963 Chicago. Great honking Detroit steel, music arranged by Todd Rundgren and Al Kooper, first-rate bad guys, grown people twisting--it's the lurid, sleazy high-light of my TV week.

Don't I know it! And don't miss Andrew Dice Clay, acting! And not doing a bad job of it, either. But watch out, my friend! That ending is going to leave you hanging!

[Torgo]

Blackadder Goes Forth

I've always thought the last episode (or last scene I should say) of the last installment of this terrific, insensitive, irreverent and blasphemous series was unnecessarily sentimental and maudlin. A betrayal to the true nature and attitude of the show.

[Drastic]

Blake's 7. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with it looking back. That the crew all ended in such a pooch-screw fit the rather bleak future, but still...

American Gothic falls into the categories of shows that ended badly because of the network (CBS in this case) killing it--that after a season of continually preempting it for, well, crap, changing its timeslot repeatedly, etc.

[Jeannie]

Originally posted by Max Harvey
Mork & Mindy. They died. Very, very disturbing to an 8-year-old.

They what?! Please tell me you're joking.

I used to watch the show in reruns, and I never (apparently) saw the last episode.

They died? How? Why?

Oh, man, this is really disappointing...

[Kamino Neko]

Originally posted by Torgo
Blackadder Goes Forth

I've always thought the last episode (or last scene I should say) of the last installment of this terrific, insensitive, irreverent and blasphemous series was unnecessarily sentimental and maudlin. A betrayal to the true nature and attitude of the show.

Were we watching the same series?

The last episode was the perfect way to end the series.

Not only was it an echo to the 'Kill-em-all' endings of I and II (I think III skipped that and had Blackadder replace Prince George...), but it was the culmination of the 'this is all completely futile and stupid' attitude of the series.

While Baldrick's last few lines are 'sentimental and maudlin', Blackadder's final line or two, and the 'Aw, bugger it' attitude thereof broke that (and this fits the above).

[okielady]

Another vote for Seinfeld. Horrific, disgusting, nonsensical CRAP if you ask me. I was all ready for this great finale, and they come up with this horseshit trial? I enjoyed the pre-finale more, with the flashbacks and bloopers. (Side note, every time I hear Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) by Green Day I think of the final episode of Seinfeld.)

Roseanne was also pretty lame. I mean, the concept was good, but it just didn't make up for the final season being so full of pointless storylines.

[Kaitlyn]

I hated the final episode of Seinfeld as a whole, but I loved the final moments. The first episode began with a standup spot, followed by the first in-character moment: a conversation between Jerry and George about the second button on George's shirt. The final moments of the last episode have Jerry and George in the jail cell, and Jerry comments on the second button on George's shirt. George points out that they'd had that conversation before, and for the first time in their lives, they have nothing to talk about. Then it ends with a final stand-up spot. The last moments mirror the first moments. Nice.

[Kaitlyn]

Originally posted by Jeannie

They what?! Please tell me you're joking.

I used to watch the show in reruns, and I never (apparently) saw the last episode.

They died? How? Why?

Oh, man, this is really disappointing...

The final episode was "The Mork Report". Mork tries to get a promotion from Orson by filing a report on what makes a good marriage, but winds up violating the principles in his own report. No one dies. It is likely that this episode was aired out of its intended order.

The true series finale could be considered IIRC "On the Run", a three parter in which the couple are pursued by a homocidal alien, their apartment is bombed, and they decide to reveal that Mork is an alien on TV. They are pursued by a mob back to their apartment, and Mork uses his magic shoes to escape, which, being damaged, accidently transport them to prehistoric times.

I'd prefer to think of the series as having ended after the first season.

[custard dragon]

As I recall, the last episode of Full House was pretty lame.

[hopefully]Did everyone die in the end of that one?[/hopefully]

[Max Harvey]

Originally posted by Jeannie

They what?! Please tell me you're joking.

I used to watch the show in reruns, and I never (apparently) saw the last episode.

They died? How? Why?

Oh, man, this is really disappointing...

This is all pretty hazy, I saw it when it first aired, and then c. 1987 in syndication.

It was a three-episode arc. In the first episode, Mork and Mindy meet an alien (played by Joe from Murphy Brown) and his wife. Everyone gets along fine, until the "wife" tells M&M that her husband is actually an assassin sent to kill Mork, and she's really a bomb. She explodes and the apartment is destroyed.

In the second episode, M&M and their son (Jonathon Winters, god that was a waste of talent) climb out of the rubble, and "Joe" returns trying to kill them. During the battles between Mork and Joe, it becomes public knowledge that Mork is an alien. M&M decide to time-travel to the past in order to escape Joe. Somehow Jonathon Winters gets left behind, and the episode ends with him in hysterics, surrounded by reporters.

In the third episode M&M arrive at some point in the past, only to be followed shortly by Joe. M&M keep going back in time, Joe catches up to them, etc. Eventually M&M foil Joe, and he meets with some ghastly, morally just fate that I can't remember. Unfortunately M&M, still traveling back in time, are unable to escape the "time tunnel" thingie. Mork tells Mindy he doesn't know where they'll end up, but Mindy is optimistic, saying at least they'll be together.

The final shot is (presumably) a primordial Earth. Mork and Mindy are facing the camera and holding hands, but their bodies are...altered. They still have their hair and their clothes, but their flesh has been transformed into either goo or ice. Their faces are gone.

I did some web-hopping to try to confirm my version, and according to the several (!) Mork & Mindy episode guides available, I got most of it right, but apparently there was, as Number Six said, another episode called "The Mork Report" which was the final one aired, but I also think it was not intended to be "the end". No mention in the guides on how the Mork vs. Joe arc (actually called "Gotta Run") ended, although one says something about cavemen.

There is a consensus, however, that Mork was able to travel through time because he had magic shoes.

[Ashtar]

The final shot is (presumably) a primordial Earth. Mork and Mindy are facing the camera and holding hands, but their bodies are...altered. They still have their hair and their clothes, but their flesh has been transformed into either goo or ice. Their faces are gone.

-WICKED-! It makes me think of Silent Hill for some reason. Just 'cause it's creepy.

The only TV series I really followed was Married With Children. That show rocked. I was actually kinda happy with the final episode because it was so....anti-climactic. There were no big gimmicks...no changes to the core of the series and it's characters. It makes me wanna think that the story lives on.

My least-favorite series finale is Star Trek: TNG. And only because of the whole half-assed 'canon' explanation afterwards about how none of it was real because it was 'anti-time', or something. It basically turned me into a nitpicker of everything Star Trek has put out since the original series (which is still the best!)

-Ashley

[Reeder]

While it wasn't the "final" show..it was a season ending one..

But we can't forget Dallas..


It was a frigging dream!


In my opinion that killed the show.

[Torgo]

Originally posted by Tengu

Were we watching the same series?

The last episode was the perfect way to end the series.

Not only was it an echo to the 'Kill-em-all' endings of I and II (I think III skipped that and had Blackadder replace Prince George...), but it was the culmination of the 'this is all completely futile and stupid' attitude of the series.

While Baldrick's last few lines are 'sentimental and maudlin', Blackadder's final line or two, and the 'Aw, bugger it' attitude thereof broke that (and this fits the above).

What I remember is Blackadder making a few Hawkeye Piercesque "damn these insane warmongers" remarks that (for me) made the episode more of a anti-war commentary instead of something that represented the irreverent attitude of the previous episodes and incarnations of Blackadder. What about that cheesy dissolve to the battlefield as it appears today, with the birds chirping and all? What the hell was that about? I think a more appropo ending would be Blackadder arranging for Col. Melchett's and Capt. Darling's headquarters to be bombed (by British pilots of course) and then skipping out of active duty by forging himself some sort of release and taking off with a French whore. Wouldn't that have been more like it?