To answer some of the ones that have already been listed :
Star Trek: TNG - it was a good episode, but not really a last episode. There weren’t any long running plot points to resolve. They just stopped making episodes after that,
Cheers, however, did do so. At least the last two or three episodes. We saw Norm get a job, Cliff promoted, Rebecca stopped chasing millionaires and marry a good man, Frasier & Lilith reconciled, Sam resolve his issues with Dianne, and Woody’s careers as an actor and in local politics beginning to take off.
Life On Mars sucked. I didn’t even bother with the sequel.
How was it? I’ve never seen St. Elsewhere but I remember hearing about the finale, so I’m just curious.
I liked the Scrubs finale (the first one, not that extra season). The movie thing JD was watching at the end was just supposed to be his imagination but I decided to take it as that was what was really going to happen.
Satisfying:
Star Trek: DS9
Rescue Me
The Office (U.S) (IMO this show ended when Steve Carell left)
ER
Entourage
24
King of Queens
Home Improvement
Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Everybody Loves Raymond
Roseanne
Boy Meets World
Friday Night Lights
Third Watch
Not satisfying:
Sopranos
Lost
Star Trek: Voyager (This series I dint really care for)
Star Trek: TNG
King of The Hill
OZ
Full House
I may be dating myself here, but Dinosaurs had a particularly poor ending IMHO. Hated how they ended a comedy on such a dark note. Never liked how Mary and Dick’s relationship ended on the finale of 3rd Rock from the Sun, either.
It’s called Ashes to Ashes. Stick with it - the main character isn’t as instantly likable as the John Simm character, but it’s a great series with a very satisfying final episode.
I also think the last episode of Firefly was very good.
Recent cast and creator comments suggest that they’re getting things together to do a Veronica Mars style Kickstarter to fund a feature movie. Kristin Chenoweth and Lee Pace have already said that if it happens, they’re in.
As someone who slogged through all eleventydozen seasons, I’d say that the ER finale was pretty unsatisfying. Having really wrapped the season in the six preceding shows, the first 2/3 of the finale episode unfolded with a lackluster storyline like a midseason regular episode, then clobbered us with emotional “hey, it’s all the folks who’ve left except the ones who died or said no” in the last 1/3. I still don’t understand that ending at all.
He’s basically says “YES!!! we’re going to do that” every time anyone asks him if he’s going to do something. If you went up to him right now and said “Bryan, is it true that you’re going to make It’s A Small World type ride that will take care of all the loose ends from Pushing Daises?” I’d swear, he’d say “umm, yeah! I’m working on that right now with someone, I just have to get a few more permits signed”
I know, that was a little extreme, I’m just saying I keep hearing this stuff but it’s been three years and I haven’t see jack.
What? This was very much intended as a concluding note for the series as series (though the first movie was already in preproduction), and it draws on a plot point from the very first episode! You can’t get any longer-running.
I thought the ending to Star Trek: DS9 was pretty good. They had a climatic battle that the whole last season was building towards and then a number of bittersweet (and sometimes maudlin) moments where they wrapped up most of the threads. Some conclusions were a little abrupt, but nothing was unnatural.
Good
“The Fugitive” where the one armed man is caught and Kimball & Gerard shake hands
“Sgt Bilko” Colonel Halls looks at a tv monitor of Bilko and his gang in jail and says “This is one tv show I hope never gets cancelled.”
“Upstairs, Downstairs” Rose wanders through an empty 165 Eaton Place, hearing voices, ending with Major Bellamy consoling her about her fiance killed in action.
“Newhart” sheer perfection
Bad
“Sopranos”
Sipowicz made sergeant during that season and was bumped off detective duty because of the promotion. In the final episode, he gets command of the detective squad and has a moment at his desk. I thought it was a pretty decent ending.
I know I’ll never convince anybody, but I thought the ending of BSG was great. It’s established that events have been manipulated by a Superior Being of some sort, which appears to show as much consideration for individual humans as a scientist does for the worms she’s studying. This phase of the experiment is over, so the SB nudges a few worms, including a potentially interesting hybrid, into a new environment. Having done that, attention can be turned to other matters for a while. I think it’s an elegant ending.
I liked the finale of “Barney Miller.” The precinct building had been designated by the city as an historical monument and the officers of the 12th precinct were being dispersed to other precincts. Inspector Luger was handing out the detectives’ new assignments. As he came to Levitt he called him “Levine” as he always did. Levitt said, “For probably the last time, it’s Levitt, Sir. Officer Carl Levitt.” Luger replied, “Correction. It’s Sergeant Carl Levitt. Congratulations.”