Best TV series finale ever?

I'm clearing up some DVR space for tomorrow's three-hour ER event (a retrospective followed by the two-hour series finale), and wondering what I'm going to experience after 15 years of watching the show. I know it'll be emotional to see the characters again, as it's been throughout this season (it first hit me when they showed the backroom wall with the nameplates on it), but will the episode soar or flop? I'm reminded of other series sign-offs of varying quality:

The good:

• M*A*S*H: "Goodbye, Farewell & Amen" (2/28/83, 11 seasons):  The cast bids goodbye to the 4077th in still the most-watched television program ever.
• Star Trek The Next Generation: "All Good Things..." (5/29/94, seven seasons): Picard jumps through time, with the help of an old nemesis.
• Dawson's Creek: "All Good Things... Must Come to an End" (5/14/03, six seasons): A tearful farewell to one of the cast principals.
• Cheers: "One for the Road" (5/21/93, 11 seasons): Sam and Diane reunite, and Sam closes the bar. (EDIT: I agree it's probably more accurate to say he turns out the lights.  I never said that Sam and Diane end up together, however.)
• Six Feet Under: "Everyone's Waiting" (8/21/05, five seasons): I admit I didn't watch this series, but the other day at dinner our waiter proclaimed it as the "best finale ever!" so it makes the list.

The bad:

• Seinfeld: "The Finale" (5/14/98, nine seasons): What a mess!

Still has everyone confused:

• The Sopranos: "Made in America" (6/10/07, six seasons): strange conclusion to the Journey
  
• Battlestar Galactica: "Daybreak" (3/20/09, four seasons): I guess I liked it, but what about the Starbuck question?

What are some of your memorable series finales from over the years?  --David

Comments

[lorien1973 on April 02, 2009 at 12:36 PM]

lorien- I think he meant closed up for the night-IIRC, the final scene had Sam turning out the light.

That's not quite right.

I'm going totally by memory here (so I might be off, but I think this is about 90% right), but I love this show...still my favorite show ever....

Sam is at the bar fretting that Diane is gone and that he'll never have anyone who will love him forever. Norm is there and tells him that he's always had that. Think about it. Lights are already out - bar was never open at the time.

Norm walks out. Sam gazes around the bar and says "son of a b***ch" (the bar is what he truly loves)

Cut to credits (or maybe a bow for the cast in front of the audience)

[Maureen on April 02, 2009 at 12:42 PM]

NEWHART!

What made it even better was that, prior to the finale, "National Enquirer" or some such rag had been hinting that Bob would be hit on the head by a golf ball & killed. Naturally, everyone was pooh-poohing that--a tabloid couldn't possibly be right! Well, all of a sudden....Bob is hit on the head with a golf ball & falls down. The initial thought is "The National Enquirer can't possibly be right. He can't be dead!" Then comes the absolute magic. Complete darkness, then Bob's voice, a light snapping on. The audience immediately recognized the previous Newhart set & started laughing. When Emily sits up (the wonderful Suzanne Pleshette), they audience went nuts. "Dallas" was still fresh in everyone's mind, so the show managed to do a hilarious ending, while spoofing another show, & bringing tabloids in on the whole joke.

Absolute classic.

[Paul A'Barge on April 02, 2009 at 12:43 PM]

get a life

[Jim on April 02, 2009 at 12:48 PM]

The Shield. You knew there was going to be tragedy involved, but it came in very unexpected and diverse ways. Probably the most devastating piece of television I have ever seen (with the possible exception of the Season Five finale for that show).

[Stephen on April 02, 2009 at 12:48 PM]

In the "bad" category, throw in Night Court. As Christine is leaving to be a state legislator (nothing wrong there), Dan decides he's going to quit his job and chase after her. Harry gets offers to be a state Supreme Court justice, to be a professor, and to tour with Mel Torme, and he opts to remain an arraignment court judge. And Bull gets transported to the planet Jupiter with two old men. Awful send-off for one of my all-time favorite shows.

Fans are divided on this, but I liked the ending to "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Mike and the 'bots finally escape the satellite, and with their newfound freedom, they spend their Saturday afternoon watching bad movies on a tiny little screen.

[pete on April 02, 2009 at 12:51 PM]

Newhart was the best. The final scene is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McVWkGWMHKI

[A.W. on April 02, 2009 at 12:52 PM]

Among the good: the Shield. And no, the BSG end didn't wrap up everything, but life is messy that way and that show was as much about the mess of life as anything.

Seinfeld's end wasn't bad, it was just "meh."

[Brain on April 02, 2009 at 12:54 PM]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned "Blake's 7" yet, probably the most infamous finale on TV.

[hitnrun on April 02, 2009 at 12:57 PM]

Oh, come on. I can't believe people are still whining about the Seinfeld finale. People who were dumb enough to expect something to actually happen (WILL JERRY MARRY ELAINE!?!1) didn't "get" the show in the first place.

[MFP on April 02, 2009 at 01:01 PM]

All in all, and despite the comments, I have to say that your five top choices are excellent and I can't quibble with them. Thanks.

[Ginny on April 02, 2009 at 01:08 PM]

Loved Newhart - we watched that last episode a couple of months ago and it takes us back to the days the Japanese were buying everything up.
Seinfeld summed it up in an interesting way.
Iris DeMent was wonderful - and that conclusion was great - though I agree it really lost its bearings toward the end.
One of my favorites was the conclusion of To the Manot Born - there was something that made it seem a true, aesthetic conclusion that felt full, completed in a nice way.

[Teacher in Tejas on April 02, 2009 at 01:11 PM]

Newhart: Classic

St. Elsewhere: People were talking about that one for weeks.

An under-stated, but appropriate finale was "Hill Street Blues" (the show without which ER and the like would not exist) the first huge cast, multiple story arc, drama/comedy blend shot with hand-held realism.

The day shift characters, some who are moving on,are leaving after work. The phone rings. An known sergent answers, saying simply, "Hill Street."

We all move on to other things, but life and Hill Street station still carry on.

Very understated

[Richard on April 02, 2009 at 01:14 PM]

It only had a cult following and I'll get much revile for this, but the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was kind of epic. If you didn't watch the show you may or may not get the gravity of the whole thing, but...
- quite a few series-long characters die
- the town the show is based on for it's full run is destroyed and
- Buffy spends the entire 7 year series as a solitary super hero, and the last episode changes that moving forward and you're left with one of those "the future will never be the same" and "you've got your whole future ahead of you" moments at the end.
I thought it was pretty well done.

[Grandpa on April 02, 2009 at 01:17 PM]

The final show of the Shield, is absolutely the best I have seen. It tied everything up, with touches of irony. The last 2 living rogue cops, were dealt with in such a way, you almost felt sorry for them, and at the same time justice was basically done. What was going to happen next, as he reached for his gun, and it fades to black? Imagine, no friends, no family, a job that is livng hell. He is left with three options, live in hell, go to prison for life, or suicide.

[Cog on April 02, 2009 at 01:19 PM]

I only watched a handful of episodes from Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos, and The Shield. Hands down the series that went out with the most conflict, the most drama, and was most representative of it's on air run was The Shield. I thought for sure it would be BSG.

I have just started going through DVDs of older seasons, and one oft-heard complaint about The Shield was that their actions did not result in appropriate consequences to the point that it strained believability. The finale saw the entire barn (the police department building in the mythical Farmington district of LA) crash down around the protagonist, his crew, his coworkers and family. He took everyone with him, and was confined to a deskjob for the foreseeable future. Hell indeed.

The whole series was a triumph of low budget filmmaking, East LA was as much a character of the show as Michael Chiklis, with an emphasis on quality writing and acting. The finale ended with a montage set to Concrete Blonde's "Long Time Ago" that was a perfect parting shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR4Yowq8lkw

[Cookie the Dog's Owner on April 02, 2009 at 01:19 PM]

Hill Street Blues. It resolved all the pending story arcs, but left you with the sense that Captain Furillo and company would be back on the job the next morning.

[m12edit on April 02, 2009 at 01:20 PM]

The best ever? The REAL ending of Buffy...when she dies to save her "sister." (end season 5) The show was basically up in the air/canceled/in negotiation hell between the WB and UPN...when it was resurrected for UPN, along with Buffy, it wasn't nearly as good.

[brian c. on April 02, 2009 at 01:22 PM]

My three top finales:

1. The Wire

2. Six Feet Under

3. NYPD Blue

[Trudger on April 02, 2009 at 01:23 PM]

Newhart. Hands down. Complete surprise and brilliant!

[Jim O on April 02, 2009 at 01:25 PM]

(1)I don't think Seinfeld's was that bad. The show's viewers were such fanatics that anything would have beeen a disappointment. MASH and Cheers were further in the background of most peoples lives. But folks used to tell me all day Thurday that they coudn't wait for Seinfeld to come on the air that night. I was not that big a fan (it was on Thursdays, right?). So I was less disappointed.

92) There is no reason to be puzzled about the ending of the Sopranos. He was whacked. Two episodes previously, Tony was talking with the few surviving members of his crew about what happens to you when you get killed. Somebody said "I guess everything just goes to black." QED

[RL on April 02, 2009 at 01:25 PM]

I think most shows don't have a great finale because they've tired out or the really good writers have left by the end.

Newhart, I think, was the best finale of all-time.

I also liked the Cheers finale. For some reason, I can't explain why, I thought it was going to end tragically. Irrational I guess.

Battlestar Galactica was just OK I thought. I thought the show had become such a downer, I only watched the last few episodes just to be able to say I did. But to their credit, I don't know how it could have been better given the plots that they had going.

I didn't like the Star Trek Next Gen finale. The really good writers jumped before the last season (I thought THAT season was their best).

Then again, as I rack my brain to remember my favorite show finales...I realize that most of them ended unexpectedly! Oh, well.

[Joby on April 02, 2009 at 01:32 PM]

I have to second the Babylon 5 finale "Sleeping in Light", ending a series couldn't be done better.

[Ice-Nine on April 02, 2009 at 01:47 PM]

Best finale: China Beach - especially if you were there. "I knew you; you knew me. We did things together...important things..."

[RR Ryan on April 02, 2009 at 01:50 PM]

Best ever: Newhart and MTM. Close, even though it's open ended and sentimental: JAG. But then again, it gave us NCIS so it gets bonus points. Not many spinoffs outdo the original in the ratings(although, interestingly, Rhoda was probably the first), so again, JAG gets a couple of extra points.

[Jon A. on April 02, 2009 at 01:52 PM]

"Magnum, PI" had a great finale. Magnum finds out that the daughter he had with his Vietnamese true love is still alive. With a daughter to care for, he can't just be a beach bum any more. When he shows up at Rick's wedding, he's wearing navy whites, having reenlisted with Naval Intelligence so he can support his daughter.