Best: Newhart and Cheers.
The best thing about the Cheers ending is it was just another day at the bar. Cheers was still open. We just weren’t going there anymore
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Yeah. They literally had a plan to end it, were told to bring it back by the studio and threw together what they could only for interest to be expressed in a Season 10… and that to be pulled at the last minute.
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Speaking of DCAU, Destroyer for Justice League Unlimited. Even if if JUST had the “World Of Cardboard” speech, it would have been a great send-off.
And, if we pretend that Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles doesn’t exist (and I wouldn’t blame you, it’s not very good), then the Hunter’s Moon trilogy for Gargoyles is another excellent finale.
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Hard to pick between Newheart, St. Elsewhere, and Cheers. All perfect in their own ways.
I always hope to see any current show that’s ending give a nod to any of these three, because, let’s be honest… no one’s going to beat them.
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It seems almost something of a cliche to bring this into series finale discussions, but I can never get over how emotionally/visually/narratively satisfying the Breaking Bad finale was.
It’s probably my favorite drama series (and MAYBE my favorite non-MST3K show), and the finale was a tour de force on so many levels: direction, writing, performance, editing, and cinematography.
It felt so cathartic at the time that the show stuck the landing, that they concluded this amazing drama on such a fantastic note. And it only got better over time as you turned it over and around in your head and thought about everything that it accomplished.
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Lots of good series finales already mentioned here so I’ll bring up one of my least favorites - Enterprise. They managed to drag down one of The Next Generation’s best episodes while insulting the audience with the Enterprise characters apparently not having grown at all in six years after the previous episode, a hackneyed action plot and a cheap death for one of the best characters of the show. And for chickening out before they’d have to write an actual speech for Archer at the creation of the Federation. To top it all off, they called it a “valentine” to the fans. Bleagh.
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Always loved this tune, but will never think of it any other way now.
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Saved, thank you! Been a fan of MASH since the 80’s.
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So much so.
Like “Stuck in the Middle with You” in Reservoir Dogs, “Baby Blue” is inextricably connected to Breaking Bad now. And that’s a really good thing. Pitch perfect song usage.
Same deal with Marty Robbins’s “El Paso” at the start of the episode right before the main titles kicked off for the last time.
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Anybody got talkshow finales they’d like to bring into the discussion, to add even more variety into it?
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I was too young to regularly watch and appreciate it, but I remember the last Johnny Carson show being a real watershed event.
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I’m a little surprised nobody (that I saw) has nominated Buffy the Vampire Slayer for best series finale.
For worst, GoT by a wide margin. Not only was the final episode insulting and wrong-headed, it was the worst thing it could be: boring.
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Farscape, all day long. I think it’s my favorite Sci fi TV series ever (along with Babylon 5.) Amazing cast (love the romantic chemistry between Crichton and Aeryn,) Incredible fx, insane writing… and Scorpius is my favorite TV villain ever. I think Peacekeeper Wars wrapped that up as good as Scapers could have hoped for since Sci Fi channel decided to screw us (AGAIN. )
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I saw someone here nominate it for bad, but I hadn’t seen it recently enough to disagree
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The rebooted X-Files seasons 10-11… can a bad finale hurt us if we refuse to believe it exists?
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I’d like to think that Joel and the Bots refusing to accept fiction as it’s presented at the end of The Girl in Lovers Lane would extend to unsatisfying series finales, sure!
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That was well done. But it was the next-to-last show that really did it. Of course, one of the best ever talk show guests, Robin Williams, being on it. More importantly, Bette Midler was the MVP. Her funny song was awesome. But it was her singing “One More for the Road” with Johnny looking on that was transcendent. Perfection.
My best ending - Newhart, of course. Thing was, the supposed ending was leaked. As the show went on, it was exactly the way they said. I thought it was too stupid, and get angry… until the last scene, so different, and perfect. Well played, leakers.
My Worst - How I Met Your Mother, of course. Ultimately, they betrayed the audience… and the title. A real shame, since the early seasons had such clever, amazing storytelling, fitting in perfectly with the brilliant sitcoms of the time (The Office (both), Arrested Development, My Name Is Earl, Community).
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I nominated it for one people say is bad, but that I disagreed with that. (I was a huge Buffy fan and never saw an episode I hated. Except maybe one.)
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Carson’s last 2 shows were excellent. I also particularly liked the end of Craig Ferguson’s run. The next-to-last show was an exceptionally good “regular episode”. The last show started with a song called “Bang Your Drum” (which has become one of my favorite songs). It starts out with various guests of the show (including Bishop Tutu!) lip-synching to the song and beating on drums, and concludes with a couple of verses sung in the studio by Ferguson with a band and a gospel choir, with Ferguson standing on his desk. It was tremendous.
After the monologue, the episode concludes with an interview with Jay Leno, which is just weird.
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I’m prepared to be pelted with vegetables for this, but I liked the final episode of Scrubs. (The final episode of the real show, not the zombie spin-off version.) It was moving and satisfying and I might have got a little something in my eye.
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