No limited-run or mini-series please.
I’m looking for shows with finales that resolve major issues enough to let viewers know that the series is over.
For example, I remember a show I watched from first episode to last back when I was a youngster-Hank
Teenager tries to get through college by impersonating students he knew would be absent. In the finale, the college Registrar finds out about the scam, somehow the protagonist gets to take an exam and aces it…and is awarded a full scholarship. The premise of the show is moot, and done.
I remember watching the final episode of this show when I was ten:
As I recall, it wasn’t just Cara and Frank who got to keep their jobs. The “no married couples” policy was abandoned, and it turned out that a lot of the employees already were married to one another.
The final episode of The Americans definitely fits. I’ll spoiler it in case anyone hasn’t seen it and wants to.
Phillip and Elizabeth are discovered by the FBI and flee to the Soviet Union. Paige initially goes with them, but at the last minute changes her mind and remains it the US. Their days as KGB spies are pretty clearly over.
ETA: Star Trek Voyager. (I think 20 years is beyond the statute of limitations for spoilers). Voyager gets back to the Alfa Quadrant. That pretty much wraps up the storyline of them trying to get home.
Blake’s 7 definitely ended fairly decisively, if not satisfactorily, Babylon 5 was intended to have a beginning, middle., and an end. The kerfuffle over the 5th season altered things, but I’d say most major storylines concluded. MASH of course. The Fugitive (original version) ended conclusively (one of the first shows to do so?). Alias? Fringe? (I think they mostly ended but could be misremembering.) How I Met Your Mother did answer the premise.
The sitcom Wings ran for 8 seasons from 1990 to 1997. The first episode centered on two reunited brothers searching for a presumed fortune that their father had left them. What they found was an empty suitcase.The finale, a two part episode followed up on that search 8 years later when a second suitcase was discovered that contained a large sum of money. Enough money to resolve the economic problems faced by the primary characters.
IIRC correctly it also had the irresponsible brother finally acting like an adult and taking control of Sandpiper so his responsible brother could be the one to have fun.
Yes. I’m not quite clear on it, but I recall Joe (responsible brother) going away with his wife Helen who finally got a job as a cellist. The money enabled them to do this and leave Sandpiper financially intact enough to stay in business while Brian (irresponsible brother) would stay in Nantucket to run it. .
In The King of Queens Doug and Carrie are on the verge of divorce because Carrie rented an apartment in Manhattan so she wouldn’t have to commute to her job during the week. . Carrie had tried to get pregnant for many years and finally the Heffernans applied to adopt an infant from China. The adoption is approved, but Doug and Carrie have to fly to Beijing to pick it up. They both get on the same plane, each intending to adopt the baby for themself. They resolve their differences on the flight and bring the infant home together. Carrie then learns she is pregnant. The episode fast forwards a year and shows Doug and Carrie taking care of their two children.
Pushing Daisies was cancelled partway through its second season; after it was cancelled, the production team filmed a short “conclusion” segment, which aired at the end of what turned out to be the final episode, and which wrapped up (more or less) the plotlines for each of the major characters.
Babylon 5 is the most obvious example, but it’s hard to explain without giving away one major plot point or another.
“Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. There would never be another. It changed the future… and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future… or others will do it for us. It showed us that we have to care for one another, because if we don’t, who will? And that true strength sometimes comes from the most unlikely places. Mostly, though, I think it gave us hope… that there can always be new beginnings… even for people like us.”
IIRC, Kimball had him cornered at the top of a water tower. A fight ensued, and Lt Girard shot said Man from long range with a rifle before he could kill Kimball. And “The long nightmare of Richard Kimball” was “finally over.”
At least, that’s how I remember it from 50+ years ago. I always thought it was funny how Girard came to believe Kimball was innocent just in time for the finale.
