Yesterday a friend & I were discussing ER–specificially how this once-great series has turned into nearly unwatchable dreck on the order of Third Watch. I told her that I’d decided to edit the history of the show in my head: specifically that it had ended with the episode showing the ER staff’s reaction to Mark Greene’s death. It nicely paralleled the first episode, which showed an overwhelmed Carter, on his first day in the ER, being encouraged by Mark, by showing Carter doing the exact same thing in virtually the same way for medical student Gallant. It’s not that there haven’t been other good episodes since then; it’s that this episode would have been a perfect coda for the series.
All of which brings me to the thread topic. Thinking of a show you once liked but now are nauseated by, where would you have chosen to end it, and why?\
In a perfect world The Andy Griffith Show ended when Don Knotts left the show. Mayberry was not the same in color. Warren was no Barney Fife, Andy seemed to get meaner and Opie wasn’t as cute any more.
Buffy should have ended when she dashed to her death to save the world, before she turned into Spike’s bitch and before Willow woke up and became a lesbian.
In “Turnabout Intruder,” episode #79 of Star Trek’s original series, Janice Lester shouldn’t have been caught and Captain Kirk should have stayed stuck in her body.
Oooo-ooookaaaay, it was the last show of the last season for Trek, so what? You said I could change its history, but not early history.
Come on, you know you want this. It would’ve kept Shatner out of the movies.
While I’d agree that most of Buffy seasons 6 & 7 should be discarded, I’d hate to lose “Once More, With Feeling.” Also, Willow was already a lesbian when Buffy died. Remember, Tara was a full-fledged Scooby in every way except for being in the opening credits at that point.
Damn Joss to hell for killing Tara. Also Anya. What the hell was he thinking? Andrew was RIGHT THERE, begging to be put out of all our misery. Not to mention David Palmer’s little brother. But noooooo, you kill ANYA. Bastard.
The West Wing ended with Zoey Bartlet’s kidnapping and Josiah Bartlet resigning the Presidency. It certainly did not end with Jimmy Smits being elected President over Hawkeye from MAS*H.
Millenium ended after the excellent season two, with a large percentage of the world’s population dead from the plague and civilization in tatters, with Frank Black catatonic.
There was no season three.
Do I have to mention “Roseanne”? Started out as one of the best sitcoms on TV. Of course the last year should just be buried like so much nuclear waste, but let’s get rid of a few more years before that, where everyone became parodies of themselves.
There was no fifth season of Earth Final Conflict. The show ended with the Taelons changing into another species, the nature of which was simply left unknown.
Stargate ended it’s stellar (excuse the pun) run when Richard Dean Anderson left the show, with a final episode featuring the marriage of Samantha Carter and Jack O’Neil.
Stargate Atlantis never had a character named Elizabeth Weir. The leader of the expedition has always been Col. Caldwell.
For the sake of closure we could shut the series down right before Lecy Gorenson turned into Sarah Chalke – or at least before Sarah Chalke turned back into Lecy Gorenson.
There are no, nor have there ever been, any “lost episodes” of The Honeymooners. There are simply the “classic 39.”
Cheers should have jumped right to the finale just before Rebecca met Robin Colcort.
I suiggest that pretty much every sci-fi series that ever was should be retro-ended before the characters get switched with their alternate-universe duplicates.
This bears repeating, because I don’t think there’s a better possible answer to the OP.
Lost would have been pretty sweet if the island exploded and everyone died at the end of the first season… but I imagine a lot of people won’t agree with me so much on that one
I never understood why he killed Anya, either. I mean, I’d read that the actress wanted Anya to die if the series went on past the seventh season, but only because she didn’t want to do the show anymore and she didn’t want the possibility of the character coming back. Since it was the very last episode there was no chance of either of those things happening, so I don’t get it.
Hell, I’m the OP, and I think so. I just thought I’d let someone else mention it.
I would resolve Zoe’s kidnapping, though. But I don’t want any West Wing not masterminded by Aaron Sorkin.
Returning to the general topic, I’d fast-forward Star Trek: DS9 so it ended in the 6th season by getting rid of most of of the non-Dominion War arc episodes. I’d let Dax survive the series, though Sisko would still go off to be with the prophets at the end.
The one series I can think of that I’d leave pretty much as it is is Star Trek: The Next Generation. They had a pretty good idea of when to get the hell out of Dodge.
Enterprise seasons 1 & 2 would be consolidated into one, and they’d get an extra season to tell the story of the Earth-Romulus War. Because that would rock, particularly if they got extremely brutal.
Oh, and T’Pol would dump Trip for Hoshi.
Voyager would end … oh, hell, it’s irredeemable. Just reveal that the whole thing is a holonovel and be done with it. Not even Roxanne Dawson is worth all that trash.
This is the phenomen called “jumping the shark”. It comes from the TV show Happy Days (see here ).
You’re absolutely right - ER jumped the shark after Mark Greene died. And I think Law & Order is in the process of jumping the shark after Lenny Briscoe left.
Agreed! Unfortunately, they crapped all over their perfect ending (“All Good Things”) by adding on three mediocre-to-awful movies. It’s sad to think that the TNG crew went out with a dud like Insurrection.
Are you ignoring *Nemesis *or just overlooking it?
I could agree to this although my own personal rewriting of the series would have Dax still dying, only in Change of Heart because Worf left her to finish the mission assigned to him instead of by Dukat’s hand in Tears of the Prophets. That’s always bugged me.
I’d also change the incredibly annoying deus ex machina destruction of the Dominion fleet by the Prophets, the even more annoying demigod origins of Benjamin Sisko, and the just plain absurd appointment of Nog as Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance. I’m pretty okay with everything else, even Vic.
I think we’re all nerdy enough to be familiar with the term, dude. Well–at least I am. What I was asking is how you’d change the series given creative control & a time machine. ER was just the simplest example, as it has a good final episode already shot & broadcast. What I was really looking for is examples of changing the series so that it ends not merely earlier, but better.
Another example: I’d have ended Gilmore Girls last season around the time that Rory dumped Logan. Her getting back together with him is just so indicative of a generally unhealthy mindset that it bespeaks her needing a great deal of therapy. She’d move in with Paris (with whom, she’d realize, she’s been in love with since high school) and Logan can, I don’t know, get eaten by mongooses. Mongeese. Whatever. Anywhistle, in the meantime Lorelai, after her mother tries to make friends with the little girl she mistakenly believes to be Luke’s daughter, finally reverts to normal, tells Luke what she’s feeling, and they resolve their problems without the current, odious Christopher storyline.
So the final episode would be a double wedding: Luke & Lorelai, Paris & Logan.
By the way, I’ll be unleashing my hordes of genetically engineered winged howler monkeys on the first person who writes “I’ll be in my bunk.” Just so you know.
The problem with that idea is that it’s better than MY idea. Stop that, or it’s the monkeys for you. :mad:
Dax’s death as written bugged me too, because of Sisko’s reaction to it. Her HUSBAND stays on post after her death, but her PLATONIC MALE FRIEND is so broken up he has to take a six-month sabbatical during the middle of the biggest war the federation has been in since the first Romulan conflict? And he GETS TO KEEP HIS JOB AFTERWARDS? Just not buying it.
If you ditch Sisko’s demigod status, how would you end the series? That is, do you just stop with the Federation/Klingon alliance investing Cardassia? Because you still have to resolve the Gul Dukat storyline.
Nitpick:
Nog is the Ferengi who joined Starfleet, Quark’s nephew. Rom is his father, Quark’s brother; he became Grand Nagus.
