Favorite, Worst Final Episodes Ever.

What? I liked Seinfeld but was never a huge fan and this doesn’t sound like anything I’m familiar with.

Yes, assuming you know who it was. Director/Producer/Series Creator James Burrows.

I thought the real Cheers finale took place on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. :wink:

Agreed! Wasn’t the last Blackadder episode the one where they finally get the order to leave the trenches and storm the German lines in World War I? That episode was downright depressing and I thought it was a brilliant thing (seriously, this is not irony) to do for a comedy show.

I didn’t like the ending of Moonlighting much, but the end of Transformers was pretty good for an overstretched commercial. Fortunately David Wise is an awesome writer and can work against the limitations the toy companies burdened him with.

The bartender is NOT God. There are little clues that tell us this. For example, when the bartender says

“I’m not God, Sam.”

Re Personalities

The only episode I remember dealing with the personalities of people Sam had leaped into, had Sam leaping into the body of a mental patient just before shock treatment. The return of those personalities had nothing to do with Sam’s leaping. The project psychiatrist tells Al ‘That the shock got rid of Sam’ ego. His mind created those other personalities to fill the void.’ Sam does not actually carry folks personalities around with him or need to be emptied.

Re Ghosts

They were played by the same actors, but were not the same characters and did not have the same names.

The best: Newhart

There was one thing that really didn’t work about the Seinfeld finale, and it took me a while to figure it out. The really good episodes, and there were a lot of them, had an inescapable internal consistency. (Can’t really call it internal logic.) There were extreme coincidences, and bizarre causes that led to even more bizarre and overblown effects, but it all held together somehow. But there’s no sense of that in the finale. And, in fact, it all hinges on a huge inconsistency.

After the gang is arrested for just standing around while some guy gets mugged; at the trial, there’s a parade of witnesses who have suffered because Jerry, et al. did get involved with them. Jerry tried to help Babu, and suggested that his fledgling restaurant should serve Pakistani cuisine. (It was Pakistani, right?) Jerry pretty much ruined Babu’s life. And having him testify doesn’t push forward the idea of what the trial’s supposed to be about. The best thing that ever happened to that mugging victim was when Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer decided to mind their own business for once.

It would have been fine to see them get their comeuppance in a way that made sense, or through some ghastly misunderstanding, but not the way it was. As a wise cartoon bulldog once said, it just don’t add up.

Most dissapointing ending might be Soap, which didn’t have a chance to do a proper final episode and left unresolved cliffhangers.

What is the Last episode of the Futurama, BTW?

When I get into a series, it’s very disappointing and depressing watching the finale if it’s done well. If it’s not done well, it’s infuriating and totally pisses me off.

Judging by my emotional reaction to watching the finale in first-run, I’d say the best are:

The Larry Sanders Show: Spectacular ending to the best series ever made.

ST: TNG: Awesome episode. Very moving, plus it was good to begin and end the series with Q, who always got the best lines. ("…puddle of goo…") Picard commanding everyone to man their stations in the face of imminent destruction was my second favorite TNG line ever, especially when compared to the similar situation (in a time loop) where he’s screaming “All hands abandon ship! All hands abandon ship!”. It’s probably only me, but I always think of the time loop scene (and did during first run of All Good Things), and that backdrop makes the scene very powerful for me. (My favorite line was, of course: “Coward!” “If you were any other man, I would kill you where you stand.”)

Angel: With what little time they had to work with, they did an awesome job. No doubt it could have been better, but didn’t they only have a month warning? In that light, it was excellent.

Worst: Friends, Seinfeld, Grounded for Life. I only include GFL because I actually liked the show, (big Donal Logue fan), and I didn’t realize it was the series finale until the second commercial break when they thanked us for watching. My gut reaction was “wtf? It was cancelled?” Really pissed me off.

A new category I’d like to add is “Best if tv ended right now”, simply so I can mention this episode:

Deeadwood: The season one finale was one of the greatest damn finale episodes I have ever seen in my life. Far and away the best episode of the season, and the entire season was excellent. The Sopranos had a similar situation, with a tremendous three-episode season finale arc that simply set the bar way too high. Subsequent seasons have still been good, to be sure, but nothing could match that earlier greatness. I fear Deadwood is on a similar path, but that’s not a terrible path to follow.

The ending episodes to both Buffy and Angel were terrible, although Angel’s could be excused with the sudden cancellation. You could easily see that it was written to be a season finale and not a series’ finale.

Buffy’s series’ finale was simply a cap to a terrible season. But, it meant that we no longer had to see Kennedy, so that was alright. And, I did enjoy the nod to the end of season one’s premiere episode (a two-hour combination of both Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest) with Giles, Buffy, Willow and Xander standing around talking to each other with Giles walking away mumbling about how the Earth was definitely doomed.

As for Quantum Leap: I didn’t much care for the idea that he never got home (especially since he was told he was the one causing the leaps), but I thought it was incredibly touching that he went back to help out Al. That was my favorite part, and it gave a nod to a previous episode that was also pretty touching.

“The Devil’s Hands are Idle Playthings” – Fry makes a deal with the robot devil to become a great holophoner player and composes a wonderful opera to impress Leela. Features an Emmy-nominated song in the climactic arc and one of my favorite Bender lines of all time: “Well, Fry, perhaps it’s time to make a metaphorical deal with the devil. And by devil, I mean robot devil. And by metaphorical, I mean get your coat.”

–Cliffy

He could be a Clarence Oddbody, though.

Yeah because God wouldnt lie would he, sheesh its not like you are dealing with someone with moral integrity (ie the Devil) :stuck_out_tongue:

[dogbert]
Bah!
[/dogbert]
But seriously, its been years since I saw the series end, so Im waiting (not so patiently) for it to come out on DVD.