I like shows that tie up loose ends. Though they weren’t “the best” by any means I liked the way “Good Times,” “Maude,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” (first one) and “Happy Days” wrapped everything up in a nice neat little package.
I’ve got to agree with the Fugitive and Newhart votes.
Fugitive was one of the first shows to really even have an ending, wasn’t it? And it brought everything to a very satisfying conclusion.
Newhart, the one show in history where “it was all a dream” didn’t come off as lame.
I dunno…spaceship pew pew, killer robots…how could anyone mistake it for sci-fi is beyond me. :rolleyes:
And yes, they had a religious thread running through the show but rarely if ever was there an element of magic/miracles making things happen. At the end…it was all magic.
There was some groundwork laid for it but precious little. Was all hocus pocus at the end.
Like I said. Huge ripoff. Huge copout.
To the OP have to agree Newhart was brilliant. Six Feet Under was pretty great too.
No love for Blake’s Seven? :dubious:
There was an animated Spider-man that had a pretty good ending – various Universe’s Spider-men (includeing the one where he is just an actor playing a fictional hero) team up.
Brian
Poppies.
More votes for Shield and Six Feet Under. Nothing else that I have seen deserves mentioning in the same breath.
And they broadcast it on Nov 11th.
In a prog about the prog they said that they were all mown down.
Didn’t we just take that as read given that about 99.9% of all people who went over the top met that very fate?
Nothing will ever top the Newhart finale. One finale that wasn’t mentioned yet that I found very satisfying and among the best series finales was Arrested Development’s. It may have been a little bit rushed, but it was tightly written, satisfyingly tied up all loose plot points, and nicely came full-circle to the first episode.
Now that gives me a shivver. I didn’t know that.
The significance of which might be lost on some of my fellow yanks. Although Wikipedia currently says the wearing of poppies for remembrance on Nov. 11 is a tradition in the United States, it’s not practiced to any extent where I live. I only became aware of it by watching British TV.
Although Americans recognize November 11 (or the nearest Monday) as a holiday, I get the impression that Brits take it much more seriously, although again that’s an impression formed through television.
Six Feet Under’s ending was amazing. It’s one of those endings that was built perfectly for the viewers who watched the entire series and felt like they were part of the Fisher family…and had to watch their whole family die in front of them, one at a time.
The Shield…well, it’s tough to say much about it without spoiling anything, but that show really pulled out all the punches for the last 2 episodes, and had a brilliant way of wrapping things up.
I haven’t seen the Newhart finale (or any other episode), but I’ve heard about it, and it sounds DUMB. Like Lost DUMB. I need to recheck this thread, but has anyone mentioned WHY they’re citing Newhart as the best, or is it just because that’s the stock answer? I mean, how can anyone who has seen the SFU or Shield finales say that Newhart was still the best?
Easily. Because it is the best. I thought Six Feet Under’s ending was meh, personally.
Yep, upon reading this whole thread, about half the people agree with me that SFU and The Shield had the two most perfect endings, and give plenty of reasons why they feel that way. The other half (minus a couple of original posts) are part of the Newhart group-think and NOBODY says what makes it not only great, but the best ending ever. Some elaboration, PLEASE???
The key to the Newhart ending was his previous series. It’s a call-back to that, and a perfectly executed one at that. The right set-up, the right mood, the sudden reveal…all perfect.
Hardly “group-think.”
Again, I haven’t seen either tv series (or really know ANYTHING about them, other than that both shows have Bob Newhart on them), but the whole idea of “this second show being a dream that the first show’s character have” feels to me like it just cheapens the second show’s existence…unless of course the second show parallels the first show throughout it (does he play the same character on both shows?). I can’t say I know, but I still don’t get how one joke like that could cause undeniable BEST ENDING EVER claims.
Sorry for sounding so bitter about a show I never watched (tell me, should I give both shows a watch? Were the episodes OTHER than the finale any good?), but there was just SO MUCH going on in the SFU and Shield finales, much of which was building throughout the entire series so that the viewer really feels so satisfied with the way things were wrapped up, that I don’t see how they could pale into comparison to a “hey remember my last show?” moment.
And the group-think comment comes from the way that everyone keeps saying “best ever. End of story. And nothing else will ever be better either” without any rationale behind their answer. I’m not saying your opinion is wrong, but is it really your opinion, or did TV Guide program you to think that way?
I took it as read but the other poster wasn’t sure so I just cleared it up for them.
Bob Newhart did not play the same character in both shows, until the revelation in the finale of Newhart; but there was a similar sort of humor at work. Most TV comedies have the star of the show as a wacky eccentric. In both series in question, Newhart reversed that image. He is the sane center amidst a collection of oddballs. I’ve often said that Bob Newhart isn’t a comedian at all; he’s just such a great straight man that he makes everyone around him funny. Even in his standup days, with the famous one-sided phone calls, the punch lines were implied but unspoken, and with only straight-man Bob trying to make sense of them.
So the finale of Newhart works for several reasons. When he wakes up and describes the show we’ve been watching for years, it really must have been a dream. No place that odd could really exist, although, like a cartoon, it had a sort of internal logic that no one thought to question at the time. The style of his shows is such that it’s often the supporting characters who are the most memorable. And Bob is a very sympathetic character, so to bring back Suzanne Pleshette, and to see Bob and Emily in bed together, is the happiest ending it could possibly be.
Plus, it was one of the most perfect surprises in television history, and they played it out perfectly. Bob wakes up and turns on the light. Is that bedroom familiar? And just as the realization is dawning, the other light comes on and there she is. The way they executed the idea was brilliant.
(I do have one slight quibble. Since it ends as a dream within The Bob Newhart Show, I’ve always thought that they should have ended it with the original show’s music and closing credits. But I’m willing to let that slide.)
I never understood why they didn’t even have any mention of Pru. I know they can’t use the Daugherty, but, since it features a bunch of time travel, they could have at least used her in the past. Heck, have her finally come back as a ghost–but in a younger state (like most of the other ghosts who didn’t come back at their age of death.) Or just bring her back from the past for a few seconds to be there in the family- photo-esque ending
It was that show that made me wish that every show would film a portion of a season finale to call back the character, and put it into the contract that they can’t object.(whether legally possible, I don’t know.)