Worst series ending concepts

[DonTadow]

Oh, and Enterprise is the only series ending I've seen that actually was an episode of another series...giving it the award for worst in my book. It was a mediocre episode, at that.

Yeah that was pretty terrible. I was trying to explain to some friends the ending of Enterprise and the response from one guy was
"You mean the only way they could get people to watch the last episode of the series was to present it as a bad episode of a much better show".

Sad thing is that after DS9 they had so many GOOD ideas for shows. Hopefully they'll pick back up the universe right after DS9.

 

[Desdichado]

Kinda like kissing a pretty girl after a first date and finding out that she actually has no teeth.

That's not so bad; you just tell her to kiss you a little lower...

Anyway, I didn't like the ending to Newhart, but then again, I was just a few years too late, I guess, and never really understood what the big deal with the Bob Newhart show was, whereas I grew up with Newhart. Of course, after it kinda turned into the Larry, Daryl and Daryl show the last few seasons, I was ready for it to end, I suppose.

I also hated the Seinfield finale--total disappointment. I still think of it as a clip show too, and the big joke of the whole episode; that all the jerks to to prison, just wasn't a funny enough joke to pin an entire episode on, much less a series finale.

I hated the Mad About You finale, where Paul Rieser and Helen Hunt were divorced and it's told from the point of view of their grown daughter, but then again, I hated that show anyway. I'm not quite sure how my wife convinced me to watch as many episodes as I did. Although that show really did make Paul Rieser's death scene in Aliens that much more satisfying to me, at least.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

You have to take the word of whatever was actually broadcast on a show like B5. The commentary on the destruction of the station came from Zack Allen, who, as the security chief, should know enough about it to not be full of BS.

well, being as this is a thread about series endings that people find cheesy, I suppose every single opinion can be invalidated by the supremacy of in-story logic. I found it cheesy to fulfill the different phrophecies of B5 being destroyed with a weakly excused intentional "boom". I appologize for the part I played in actually going back and forth and arguing what ifs on that opinion.

 

[sniffles]

@Kahuna Burger:
Joe Straczinsky had the entire show plotted out for its full 5-year arc, so if he wrote a prophecy that said B5 was going to blow up, it was going to blow up.

In my observation of other peoples' reactions to series' endings, the only thing that makes a series ending seem "cheesy" is the fact that it's the end. People who really enjoy a show don't want it to end. So they will usually consider the ending 'bad' no matter how it's done.

 

[Vigilance]

I have to give the nod to Enterprise.

Plenty of finales are bad, its a very very hard thing to do. TV by its very nature is supposed to last, so when you end it, doing so in a way that leaves the fans feeling satisfied is hard.

DS9's ending was really rough for me, since it was a show I wanted to last as long as Gunsmoke. The X-Files' ending reminded me why it had gone from being a "must see" to an "occasional watch if I remember to tape it".

But Enterprise? Very very rarely do you feel as though a TV show has actually flipped you off.

That was *exactly* how the finale of Enterprise made me feel.

It left such a bad taste in my mouth that I am *glad* they put the franchise on hiatus. I would not have watched any series that started soon after that.

Chuck

 

[Vigilance]

A side note about turning all the potentials into Slayers, from a gaming perspective. That's an example I always use in Mage of a Prime 6 level effect: Making a worldwide metaphysical change.

Personally, I thought it was a really cool scene, and I loved the Buffy finale.

Agreed.

Also, it serves as rich ground for new series (and they did touch on it in the 5th season of Angel, with the Slayer who was *insane*).

As for the Slayers having no guidance, that was the new mission for the Scoobies. In the Angel Episode with the insane slayer, its revealed that Xander is tracking down new Slayers in Africa, Willow and Kennedy in S. America and Buffy in Europe.

Giles was rebuilding the Watchers' council who were going to do what they had always done, train the Slayers.

Also, making Buffy not be the one and only solved a problem for Joss doing things with the Buffy-verse in the future: he didn't have to kill Buffy to do another series or comic about a Slayer.

To me, a series about a slayer that had to begin with "and this is how Buffy died offscreen" would suck and Joss knew it.

BTW- did I mention that Joss is trying to get a new show on the air and that I cant wait?

Chuck

 

[Crothian]

Oh, and Enterprise is the only series ending I've seen that actually was an episode of another series...giving it the award for worst in my book. It was a mediocre episode, at that.

Bob newheart did something like that, only less obvious and much better done

 

[Kahuna Burger]

@Kahuna Burger:
Joe Straczinsky had the entire show plotted out for its full 5-year arc, so if he wrote a prophecy that said B5 was going to blow up, it was going to blow up.

so says the church of Joe. Things were changed due to actors leaving, the possible lack of a 5th season, etc. I don't know if jms had a different ending in fire planned orriginally or not.

In my observation of other peoples' reactions to series' endings, the only thing that makes a series ending seem "cheesy" is the fact that it's the end. People who really enjoy a show don't want it to end. So they will usually consider the ending 'bad' no matter how it's done.

If I had retained any respect for B5 after the disaster of the 5th season, I could get behind this theory.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Bob newheart did something like that, only less obvious and much better done

I stand corrected.

That, however, was FUNNY. The saddest thing about Enterprise is that the people running the show thought that ending it that way was a tribute instead of an insult.

 

[Elf Witch]

Actually, in Blake's 7, no one dies. It's all left as a mystery. Apparently because that way, if there was ever a movie or sequel series down the road, whoever wanted to come back could.

I disagree you see Blake get gunned down blood flowing free. Then you see everyone but Avon go down . But he is surronded at the end and then you hear the guns go off as the picture fades.

Terry Nation was furious about the ending and wrote so in many articles. The producers of the last season said on record that everyone was dead. The actor who played Blake agreed to come back only if Blake was killed.

Now yes there is wiggle room you can claim the it was actually Blake's clone that died and the rest were just stunned. There has been tons of fanfic written to that effect. Oh and I always maintained that in the end Avon hit the floor and the guards shot each other.