# Greatest Final Episode of a Television Series... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2002, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128 "2002-12-16T18:28:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Toby-T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@Toby-T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toby-T)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/1 "2002-12-16T18:28:46Z")
There have been many interesting and creative series finales in television history? What is the greatest final episode in these 3 categories? 1. Most Creative 2. Funniest 3. Best Overall Conclusion of the series…all loose ends tied up neatly my choices: 4. St. Elsewhere – autistic son’s daydream 5. Newhart – dreams the whole thing and awakes beside wife from earlier series 6. M_A_S_H_…what else? your choices? ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/2 "2002-12-16T18:48:33Z")
I’d agree with Newhart. That was the very best ending ever. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/3 "2002-12-16T18:53:43Z")
As I’ve said in earlier posts, the final scene from Newhart was the greatest scene in the history of sitcoms. The final episode from Mary Tyler Moore was very satisfying to everyone who had invested their time into the show for all those seasons. And let’s give honorable mention to the final Fugitive. IIRC it was the first dramatic series to have a definite ending. ---
**Author:** ![Toby-T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@Toby-T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toby-T)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/4 "2002-12-16T18:58:42Z")
After reading your post Kunilou I became aware that this topic has been discussed before (probably many times over) I apologize for re-hashing the same-ol stuff. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/5 "2002-12-16T22:06:01Z")
**Mod note:** This topic is more appropriate to the **Cafe Society** , being arty stuff and all. Movin’ it on over… TVeblen, IMHO mod ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/6 "2002-12-16T22:13:45Z")
Quantum Leap. I mean, God is a bartender? Classic. DaLovin’ Dj ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/7 "2002-12-16T22:17:38Z")
The final episode of the comedy series **Blackadder Goes Forth**. As the characters line up to go over the top into the face of the German guns, Baldrick has yet another cunning plan. Only … nothing comes of it, and the characters are mown down in a hail of bullets. The final scene fades away in slow-motion to a shot of a modern-day Belgian poppy field, with no final credits.Absolute genius. I wanted to cry. ---
**Author:** ![Scruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Scruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruff)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/8 "2002-12-16T22:30:02Z")
_Blakes’s 7_ – did kind of rule out a sequel. One more vote for _Newhart_. And _Sleeping in Light_, the last episode of Babylon 5. Viewed at the end of series 4, it was very moving and well, sort of final. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/9 "2002-12-16T23:03:26Z")
The ending of Newhart was brilliant. I hadn’t cared much for the show, but it made it all fit together. Everybody acted so weird in that town because it was all a dream. ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/10 "2002-12-16T23:08:10Z")
Star Trek TNG- It was satisfying and a good way to end the series. you get to see the old crew the modern crew and where the crew goes in the future. Care was taken to make the parts showing the old crew look like the old episodes. Quantum Leap- It was good and crushingly depressing. Sam changes something in order to make Al’s life better. Leaving himself without Al’s help, leaping forever. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/11 "2002-12-16T23:44:27Z")
Said it before, will say it again: Magnum P.I. should have ended with Magnum walking into the clouds. I wish I could ignore the season that followed. ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/12 "2002-12-16T23:48:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wearia \* > **Star Trek TNG- It was satisfying and a good way to end the series. you get to see the old crew the modern crew and where the crew goes in the future. Care was taken to make the parts showing the old crew look like the old episodes.** I agree with this one, for best overall conclusion. Not so much because it “tied up all loose ends,” but just because it felt like a great ending. My favorite TNG episode is the last one, for this reason: “Nothing wild… and the sky’s the limit.” Yeah. _snif_ “Newhart” has the funniest ending, though, bar none. Unexpected and brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/13 "2002-12-17T00:44:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doghouse Reilly \* > \*\*Said it before, will say it again: Magnum P.I. should have ended with Magnum walking into the clouds. I wish I could ignore the season that followed. \*\* Amen to that, brother. That series really surprised me once I started watching it (I had the impression it was another hunk P.I. show, nothing special). So Magnam’s end really affected me, in a good way. Bringing him back was a disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/14 "2002-12-17T00:45:46Z")
I never saw it, but I have to vote for the last episode of _Full House_. Because it ended the series. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/15 "2002-12-17T01:21:43Z")
Newhart, as everyone else has said, was great. But in addition, I have a very fond spot in my heart for the final episode or two of the first or second season of Land of the Lost, which was due to be cancelled. Niven, Gerrold, um…Vonda McIntyre(?) and a bunch of other SF types were involved and given a pretty free hand. First it’s determined that they’re not in the past, they’re in a parallel dimension or a time loop or…something. But not the past because, y’know dinosaurs didn’t co-exist with Ramapithicus (or whatever th’ hell Chakka’s people were). Anyway, Enoch the super-evolved future Sleestack is screwing with the ancient Pylons to try to get everyone out of the time trap but determines that there’s some sort of weird “conservation of energy” thing going on with Marshall, Will and Holly. Their entrance into this dimension unbalanced things, and unless three new people are brought in, they can’t leave. And until they leave, Enoch can’t go home. Also, there’s some funky time paradox going on: as he looks through the time-portal, all he can see is the three humans going over the waterfall in the scene from the opening credits…only their ending up dead. Finally, in the last episode, about half way through, Marshall suggests that the way to balance things AND resolve the paradox is to bring their past selves into the Land. Enoch does, the three humans go home, Enoch goes home and the last half of the episode is the first few minutes of the first episode as the humans wake up in the Land. As a 12 year old it blew my mind. I was stunned by how involved and complex it was. Why the hell doesn’t someone release the whole first season on DVD, dammit! Fenris ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/16 "2002-12-17T01:49:53Z")
?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? DEFINITELY no votes for the finale’ of TWIN PEAKS (which is still one of my favorite TV shows) NEWHART finale’ indeed rocked! I hated the MASH finale’. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/17 "2002-12-17T01:53:30Z")
I’d vote for Quantum Leap and Babylon 5 kinda tied together. Honorary mention to Homicide: Life on the Street. Enter the system, know the system, become the system, defeat the system. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/18 "2002-12-17T02:30:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Crusoe \* > \*\*The final episode of the comedy series **Blackadder Goes Forth**.Absolute genius. I wanted to cry. \*\* Totally unexpected, truly brilliant. I’m in complete agreement. The last episode of _The X-Files_ also scores _nul points_. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/19 "2002-12-17T03:08:28Z")
Newhart good. This has already been mentioned. However, I’d like to go along with **Daniel** in mentioning the final episode of **Homicide** - it was, in fact, the absolute perfect way to end the series. ---
**Author:** ![marinwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@marinwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marinwood)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128/20 "2002-12-17T04:32:55Z")
Re **Homicide** , are we talking about the series finale or the TV movie? Because I liked the series ender much, much better. And another vote for the incredible, thought provoking end to **The Prisoner**. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-final-episode-of-a-television-series/143128.md?page=2)