The Brady Bunch, one of my favorite shows.... had the worst finale in TV history!

My mom thought that they knew the series was going to end.... so they let Bobby and Cindy right the final episode.

After thinking about it.... it probably would have came out better!

How the hell could Mike MISS HIS OWN SON'S GRADUATION??!
Away on business??!
Come on....

The final scene of that episode, should have been Mike waking up saying, "I CAN'T MISS HIS GRADUATION", and then the family leaves for Greg's graduation after an entire dream sequence.

Why does such a GREAT show have to end so terribly??

Back then, it wasn't unusual for shows to not have wrap-up episodes -- the general thinking then was that final episodes hurt the value of the syndication package.

Still, Sherwood Schwartz had a good idea the series was ending. The rest of ABC's Friday night lineup had been cancelled at midseason, and Sherwood was surprised that the Bunch was not cancelled along with it. Then, when ABC unexpectedly picked up the show for the last half of the season, Sherwood had to scramble to come up with scripts. The first half of that season is fine, with some good episodes ("Adios Johnny Bravo" and "Miss Popularity", for example). It's not until those final 9 episodes that there are some real stinkers (the UFO episode, Peter's double, and pretty much anything with Oliver).

That said, they didn't get the official cancellation notice from ABC until well after the last episode of the season had been filmed.