Right now we are entering the final lap of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s run. It was pretty well known before the season that this 7th season would be the last.
I for one am extremely underwhelmed with how this season has gone. Without going into way too many details for anyone who is not a fan, this season’s episodes are all over the place. They seem to be staggering towards some major resolution, but they keep cluttering things up by introducing new characters that go nowhere and detract from the characters/relationships viewers have developed feelings about over the past 6 years.
I can’t remember any other shows of a similar serial vein, which dealt with a much publicized final season. Maybe X-Files, tho I feel that show had been on somewhat of a downward swing the final couple of seasons. I DO remember shows such as MAS*H, Cheers, and Seinfeld which had - IMO - extremely dissatisfying final episodes.
Can anyone remember a longrunning TV show that dealt extremely well with a final season/ep?
How about any shows that did not obviously try to wrap things up, even tho folks knew the final show was the last?
[rant]Buffy is still a first-class show and I’m tired of the whiners who seem to think otherwise. Christ, people dislike the show because they killed Tara – one of the best dramatic moments ever shown on TV (and I liked Tara a lot)[/rant]
Anyway, the Dick Van Dyke final show was a classic, as was the ending of Mary Tyler Moore. There was also The Fugitive.
I would disagree with Cheers. I think their final season was one of the best of the series. Granted, they revolved around some outlandish situations, but this is a TV show. THe true barometer of how good it is doesn’t necessarily reside in the randomness of the situation, but rather in the humor level culled from that situation.
The last episode was vaguely maudlin, which is fine. The apparent need to include Diane Chambers was probably unnecessary and ceertainly seemed to drag it down a notch or two. But, on the whole the laughs were consistently solid at the end, the characters still felt vital and productive, and issues seemed to be closed as if life was going on for the characters, not as if everything was completely done.
My recollection of the Cheers finale may be tainted by my recollection of all the related hoopla, the interview show, etc. As a rule, however, I would express a preference for not artificially reintroducing old characters.
I think RealityChuck is talking about DVD episode 157, The Last Chapter: Rob’s autobiography conjures up scenes from the past and leads Alan Brady to buy the book for a television series.
I don’t know why they aired The Gunslinger as the last episode, but if you watch them, its clear that The Last Chapter was intended to be the final episode.
Back on topic, how about the final episode of Quantum Leap? I liked how Sam helped Al get reunited with his first wife. I’m not sure how I feel about Sam never returning home, though.
I loathed the last episode of Quantum Leap and thought it betrayed everything they had set up over the entire rest of the series. It was a huge cop-out.
For a good series ending…there are very few.
I liked the ending to MASH, but the final season that led up to it sucked.
The Miami Vice series finale was pretty good, although again the season up till then had been disappointing.
Magnum PI had a pretty good series finale.
Although it only ran for 2 series, The Young Ones had a superb ending in its “Summer Holiday”-parody final episode:
They crash off a cliff in a bus, land safely at the bottom, and just when they think they’ve survived, the bus explodes.
The last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth is also widely admired for its pathos and general comic genius. Except then they made a series of shitty specials. Proof that if the creators can decide when to end a show, and are willing to get out while it’s still popular, then you’ve a good chance of a great finale.
And series one is finally coming out on DVD!!!
And Ashley Judd will show us how to make a teleport bracelet out of a washing-up liquid bottle and some sticky-back plastic!!!
I am so happy!!!
Barney Miller had a good final episode that wrapped everything up (as did the aforementioned The Fugitive and Mary Tyler Moore, which I would’ve brought up if no one else had).
The Dick Van Dyke Show did not have a “final episode”. As noted above, the last one was “THe Gunslinger”, which could have occurred at any time in the series – it was just a dream episode. I remember when it was broadcast, and feeling disappointed that the show didn’t go out with a bigger bang.
Father Ted and Waiting for God had good final episodes (Dermot Morgan had decided that was the last Father Ted season—it was just a coincidence that he keeled over dead the day after filming it!).
I thought the last episode of Moonlighting was a slap in the face to those of us who stayed with it through its last couple of awful seasons.
Same here. Somewhere around here is a link to what is supposedly the original script for that epsiode before it was changed to be the series finale. I like that script much better and would have been great if they had stuck to it up until Sam leaped again after getting back to Al’s wife. They should have showed him leaping but not where he ended up, then a fade out with the line “Sam never made it home.”
I liked the finale for “Home Improvement”: the Taylors moving their entire house.
On preview, a summary of the last “3rd Rock” for FairyDust: •The crew gets recalled to their homeworld
•Dick reveals to Mary that he’s really from another planet
•a huge going away party is organized and put on (Dick’s?) credit card
•Elvis Costello is hired for the party and performs “Fly Me to the Moon”
•Dick erases Mary’s memory at the last minute (konks her on the head)
•They may have gone back for Mary but I don’t remember
I don’t remember DVD having an “ending.” I just took a look at an 