Seinfeld’s last episode sucked, but I was sorry to see the series end.
I really enjoyed Twin Peaks, but it soon became clear that it should have remained a miniseries and not been padded and stretched to fill out a second season. And the ending of the series finale was genuinely upsetting to me - how could they leave our beloved FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper like that? Aiyeeee!
Frasier, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager all went out on high notes, I thought. Almost perfect.
I miss **The Larry Sanders Show ** 
X-Files, Buffy, Angel, FIREFLY, Cheers and Knotts Landing because my little sis and I had a standing date to watch those together, In Plain Sight, and shortly, Eureka and The Closer…sniffle
I would totally get behind this.
One of the earliest TV shows I remember is the classic Japanese marionette series Star Fleet (originally X-Bomber), which was broadcast in the UK in 1982. It was notable for the theme song, which was later covered by Brian May and Eddie Van Halen (together!). Seriously, it’s great fun, and the video answers the question of what Zardoz would have been like if they had modelled the giant head on Brian May’s head. “The guitar is good”, it would have said. “The oboe is evil, and pollutes rock music with wussy tones. Go forth, and solo!”
But, yes, I remember that (a) one of the main characters was actually killed stone dead never to return dead and (b) the main villain was killed, too - punched to death by a giant robot (at 3:15) and (c) it had an end. All of which were unprecedented for Saturday morning kid’s TV shows.
No, no, also Ulysses 31, which also had a fantastic mid-80s pop metal theme song and an ending. “Space Jesus with a lightsabre” as one of the comments points out. Cartoons never usually had an end, see. Mysterious Cities of Gold, another one. Endings are melancholic because there aren’t going to be any more episodes. And in those days you couldn’t buy the shows on DVD, because DVDs didn’t exist. There were videotapes, but you got two episodes per tape at £7.95, you do the maths.
MAS*H was the only series whose finale made much of an impression on me - but not in a good way. That series lasted about a year too long. Had they gone out a year or so earlier, when they were doing creative stuff like the Point of View episode, they might have had a finale that was worthy of the series. Instead, two hours of sanctimonious “look how sensitive we is”. Blech.
For an example of how to go out, I need only mention the last Newhart.
I still haven’t gotten around to seeing the last season of Lost. Maybe I shouldn’t, but then again I shouldn’t smell the sour milk before I pour it down the disposal.
Regards,
Shodan
[bad taste]
If they cancel Battlestar Galactica I’m gonna kill myself!
[/bad taste]
I can’t not mention Carnivale, the two seasons of which my husband and I just finished watching. (I told him, you are going to love it, he said, well, I’ll watch a couple episodes, but I dunno … well, of COURSE he loved it!). I suppose the ending was OK, in that a storyline came to a conclusion. But obviously there was a lot more to come, and it’s a shame it will never be.
Forever Knight had a definite ending, in which all his struggling to control his nature fails as he first kills the one who loves him, then gives up and kills himself.
I never go out of my way to watch any of the following. But almost every time one of them is being shown on live TV, I watch it because there is almost never anything better on.
I saw that someone recalled The Larry Sanders Show. It was an all-time favorite of mine. So was Sports Night, Weeds, The Rockford Files and The Dick Van Dyke Show.