Best and Worst Series Finales

[slackermonkey]

Rank 'em and tell why/why not.

Best:
"Cheers" (my favorite series finale, subtle and emotional without being the 'happy ever after' ending)
"Friends" (so satisfying)

Worst:
"Seinfeld" (glorified clip show that totally went against the theme of the show)
"ALF" (ALF faces possible death... then what?)

[Joker85]

Excellent topic. Series finales always seem to be either really good, or really bad, with more tending to lead towards the latter. I guess the writers find it hard to wrap up a series but so many of them are so disappointing.

Favorites:
Cheers: The best example of a series finale. It is emotional without being sad, and in the end it's just another episode. Nothing is really tied up character wise. Sure some get new jobs/promotions, but noone leaves in that episode or anything like that. Yet even without sending everyone their seperate ways, it bookends the series so well. Just a brilliant piece of writing.

The Golden Girls: Sad, sweet, and very well done. Strong writing here and an excellent sendoff to my favorite show.

Frasier: Not quite up to Cheers but still very well done. A fitting farewell to the character.

Empty Nest: With the return of Barbara and both Carol and Laverne finally getting married and Harry leaving for Vermont, it was the perfect way to tie up this series. Everyone finally left the nest.

Friends: Not particularly orginal, but extremely well done and a touching end to the show. The final scene is especially well handled.

Boy Meets World: not exactly the best finale, but probably has the best final scene of any finale with the possible exception of Cheers.

Mama's Family: Naomi finally gives birth, the baby is named after Mama, Vicki Lawrence has a touching speech at the end, and the final moments on the show are of the family arguing. What more could you want?

Least Favorites:
Seinfield: Ug, there was just so much wrong with this finale it's too hard to think of one specific thing. Though for a show "About Nothing" it was clever to have them be sent to jail for doing nothing. Still, it was basically just a clip show and a poorly handled finale.

The Cosby Show: Boring, dull, too many characters...basically the problem that had plagued the show it's last 3 seasons. And I HATED the ending where he and Claire walked off the set and out the studio door. That just...bugged me. Not sure why.

Three's Company: Never try to end a sitcom while at the same time trying to set up the spinoff. It doesn't work!

Designing Women: The show had gotten pretty bad by the time it ended and the finale just reflects that. Without Jean Smart and Delta Burke the show was lost.

[robyrob]

Favs:

Newhart - what can I say
Happy Days - ALMOST the whole gang together again

Worst:

can't think of any, other than the non-existent Married with Children finale due to the speedy unannounced cancellation

[Little]

Best- Newhart , M*A*S*H, Mary Tyler Moore
Worst- Cheers, Seinfeld, Moonlighting

[slackermonkey]

You thought "Cheers" was worst? Why?

[Brian]

Seinfeld had the most disappointing series finale. It could have been done a lot better.

The best:

Barney Miller
Newhart
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Odd Couple
MASH (possibly the best of the bunch)
Happy Days

[TJL]

Okay, at the risk of sounding biased, "M*A*S*H" is the best example of a series finale.

The worst? The most recent one I can think of is "The Drew Carey Show." It's too bad ABC never let Drew and company have a proper sendoff, instead of just just showing some final episodes (filmed over a year ago) that had some "finale" type plot points.

[tvfan0101]

The M*A*S*H series finale is an incredible piece of television. One of the best. I also thought The Mary Tyler Moore Show had a good finale. I honestly did not think the finale for Seinfeld was that awful. Although, to be honest, it is the only episode I have seen all the way through, so I guess I cannot judge it in comparison to the rest of the series.

The Drew Carey Show was treated horribly by ABC and I have yet to see the finale, but I cannot imagine it is that terrific. The series was thrown into such a state of flux in the last two seasons, plot-wise, production-wise, broadcast-wise, etc, etc.

Anyone remember the final episode of I Married Dora? Now that is one memorable finale - for the handful of people who saw it.

[EmoJoe]

Best:
Boy Meets World. Touching and heartwarming, and a good way to sum up the series. What every series finale should be like.

Whos the Boss? was also great, EXTRMELEY sad though. Its a great episode, though

Worst:
Full House. Didnt even sum up the series, just an episode about Michelle falling off her horse. Maybe it would work as a season finale, but NOT a series finale. Facts of Life was dreadful, too. It basically wa sjust the pilot of the spin-off that never happened.

[TJL]

Originally posted by tvobscurities


Anyone remember the final episode of I Married Dora? Now that is one memorable finale - for the handful of people who saw it.

Yes, bad show, good finale.
Well, the last minute of the finale was good.

[Joker85]

Yeah the Full House finale wasn't all that great, but they were rushed into that. The final scene itself was touching, and it was good to see Steve back. And I've never seen the Who's the Boss finale, but I heard it was good.

Others I forgot to mention:
Fresh Prince: Forced finale, excellent final scene. Very, VERY sad.
The Nanny: pretty good sendoff, even though the show should have ended a year earlier.

[Kristen]

Best:
Golden Girls
Mary Tyler Moore
Wings
The Nanny (Though I'm not really much of a Niles/CC fan)
Who's the Boss? (That final scene is just "awww!" lol)

[spunkygirl]

Best: Boy Meets World, with the exception of M*A*S*H it has to be one of the best series finale's ever. Stayed true to the series, and had the saddest ending Showed the right amount of clips, didn't overdo it, and when Feeny says "I love you all, class dismissed" was so sad

M*A*S*H I loved it, one of the best

Who's the Boss? was great

Wings was great

The Nanny was great too

Growing Pains was great, but could have been better

Cheers was good

Worst: Full House, didn't get a true ending, cause of the last minute cancellation

Step by Step love the show, but no series finale.

Cosby Show's was terrible, disappointing for such a great show as it was at one point.

Seinfeld, disappointing

Roseanne's finale wasn't all that good

[Brent88]

Good-I can't name one
Bad-Family Matters(Was meant to be a Season finale), Full House(same, although it WAS re-written when it was learned it would be a series finale and Roseanne's completely sucked.

[Superstar]

Best:

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch- A great ending to the show, tied up alot of loose ends and Sabrina and Harvey finally got together

Worst:

Boy Meets World: Another clip show