The American version of “Life on Mars” wrapped up the main mystery AND left on a cliffhanger of sorts, in a way that I still can’t decide if it was ingenious or stupid:
Sam Tyler aka “Spaceman” awakens from cryogenic sleep and recalls that he’s really an astronaut on the first manned mission to Mars in 2035. The squad-room staff are all fellow astronauts. Sam’s flower child neighbor is an AI program designed to oversee the Virtual Reality ‘dreams’ the crew experiences in cryogenic sleep. Sam had opted to experience a VR simulation of life as a cop in 2008, but a meteor storm disrupted the program and changed the ‘desktop setting’ to a 1973 design. Thus, neither Sam’s 1973 nor his 2008 experiences were real. The story ends as Sam becomes the first human being to set foot on Mars. But it’s left up in the air as to what he discovers there…
Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles ended on a cliffhanger, with the PSICON forces regrouping after fighting off a huge bug invasion of Earth, only to discover… that the main Bug force hadn’t arrived yet.
I’m told the studio ran out of money before they could finish making the show, and the plot would have been resolved in the final campaign (the show was divided into five-episode “Campaigns” instead of seasons, this was the “Homefront” campaign)
On a similar vein: Space: Above and Beyond also ended on something of a cliffhanger, though I don’t think it was necessarily ever meant to be resolved.
Colonel McQueen is badly wounded in an explosion which coincided with a failed attempt at a ceasefire negotiation with the Chig ambassador. The surviving colonists from the Tellus colony are successfully recovered (including West’s girl), but at the loss of Vansen, Damphoose (their ship crippled and descending towards the Chig homeworld), and Wang (killed while covering West and Cooper’s retreat with the colonists). The UN forces, having before the cease fire been in a position to launch a surprise attack against the Chig homeworld, now have lost the initiative and face a long bloody war.
Oh yeah, and Reboot ended on a cliffhanger too. I miss that show.
I was pissed off by that too, but the made-for-TV years later resolved the story. IIRC he was set free and ended up becoming an ambassador for Earth.
Someone else on the thread mentioned Veronica Mars. I remember watching it and thinking “That’s it?” But I should have seen it coming. It was one of the episodes where you’re five minutes away from the end and wondering how they’re going to wrap everything up. We never find out what happens to Logan, if Veronica gets in trouble, what becomes of her dad. A great show that died an untimely death.
I don’t know if it was a cliffhanger, meaning a nail-biter, but they did set it up where she met someone who may or may not have been Satan and realizing she’d have to rely on her friends going forward. Meaning, I think, that she’d have to tell them she talked to God.
Wasn’t there that cop show with Arsenio Hall and Samo Hung that had a cliffhanger season finale and the show came back- and didn’t acknowledge the cliffhanger.
**Golden Years ** was cancelled with the last episode unaired. Things remained unresolved until years later when the series, in entirety, was released on DVD.
From what I’ve read, the cliffhanger was briefly addressed and disposed of. New producers had come in and were retooling the show; continuity was the last thing on their minds.
I seem to recall I’m not the only one around here who fondly remembers Grand.
As I recall, the final episode had a tornado bearing down on the town, I believe heading straight for a trailer which contained several of the cast members. Never found out which members of the ensemble cast survived.
More or less the same thing happened between seasons 2 and 3 of 24. Season 2 ended with a big setup, and season 3 dismissed it with an offhand comment and went entirely in a different direction.
Ah, someone beat me to Kyle XY. I was *FURIOUS *that they ended the show like that!!!
Another show that ended on a cliffhanger was Surface. I didn’t see it when it was on (the whole one season) but one of my sisters loaned me her DVDs. I got into it and was ticked off at the ending. She did it to get even with me for introducing her to **Firefly **after it had been canceled.
I think Eli Stone pretty much ended up as a cliffhanger, as well.
They should allow those shows to create some kind of ending before booting them off the air.
I really wish Kyle XY and Eli Stone would have been picked up by another network or give us some kind of TV movie to wrap things up…
Dark Skies ended with a large body entering the solar system, due to come close to Earth around 1999 (IIRC) and the alien antagonists having infiltrated the organisation fighting them and polishing off their leader.
I’d really like to see how they got round that one, having the deputy head of a secret service shoot his superior dead and then explain it :dubious:
Yeah, that one bothered me, although I must admit the cracks were already starting to show in the storylines and the whole thing was turning into a more sinister version of Forrest Gump as far as shoehorning in famous historical events and people went ("…and so the aliens infiltrated the White House again and…")
Not really a cliffhanger but a lot of unresolved questions and always worth mentioning: Firefly. I know the story was effectively condensed and resolved in the film but still, it just wasn’t right.
And they haven’t aired the end of My Name is Earl in the UK yet either, consarn you!
CBS’ recent show about the 70s (Swingtown) and a set of couples, including a couple who were swingers, a couple that were proto-yuppies, and the proto-yuppies working class friends ended on several cliff-hangers.
The wife in the proto-yuppie couple shows up at the hotel room of the husband from the working class couple, closes the door behind her, and that is that. there were several unresolved plot threads as well, including the Swinger wife’s pregnancy and the working-class wife’s rise as a newspaper advice columnist.