Spinoff - best & worst TV show endings

[luvsJack]

I agree with others. MASH was the best.

The worst, I don’t know. I get so caught up in the characters of my favorite shows that any ending is “not good”.

 

[fla4fun]

I've never watched Parenthood. I might have to do some binge watching and check it out.

I tried, but just couldn't get into Parenthood. I gave it half of the first season, thinking I would eventually connect since I liked a lot of the actors in it, but it never happened for me.

I liked the ending to Life Goes On, where they showed what happened in the future to the characters. It gave a very satisfying finish and tied up loose ends.

I would put any show that was cancelled on hiatus on the "worst" list, since their last episodes most of the time are not really finales. There isn't any closure and there is always some kind of unresolved cliffhanger. One of the worst in that respect was My So Called Life. I loved the show, but it just stopped - no resolution of any of the storylines whatsoever and there were a lot of them that needed to be resolved. Very frustrating for the viewer.

 

[Hikergirl]

Best show ending: Newhart

Worst show ending: Dexter

I agree with your best choice, and I'm worried about your worst. I'm binge watching Dexter now, I just started season 7.
I'm loving the show, I don't want it to be my worst choice.

 

[RedAngie]

I really can't say. I gave up on most shows before they ended.

 

[cabanafrau]

The worst was fairly obvious -- HIMYM. I agree that it did ruin the series for me. Special nods to Seinfeld and Will and Grace in this category.

First thought for best was Newhart, but Six Feet Under was pretty special in a completely different way. I struggled with Sopranos because I was bitter the show was ending anyway, but over time I've had to acknowledge it was pretty perfect given where things stood in the story.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I agree with your best choice, and I'm worried about your worst. I'm binge watching Dexter now, I just started season 7.
I'm loving the show, I don't want it to be my worst choice.

Dexter is worth finishing for certain. Just don’t care for the way they ended it.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Oh yeah, SOA really upset me. As a parent I just couldn’t wrap my head around him choosing the club over his boys. I knew that’s how it had to end but it made me irrationally angry just the same.

The whole last season of SOA was pretty messed up. I kind of had to force myself to finish it. It was just so over the top.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Best: M*A*S*H
Funniest: Newhart
Fun: Cosby, final scene where Cliff and Claire dance right off the set
Worst: Two and a Half Men - seriously, a piano falls on a Charlie stand-in?

I am a little surprised at the juxtaposition between Newhart and St. Elsewhere. Having it all be a dream makes this several posters' favorite, but having St. Elsewhere be all in the mind of a child with Autism makes it several posters' worst ending?

 

[Allison]

I am a little surprised at the juxtaposition between Newhart and St. Elsewhere. Having it all be a dream makes this several posters' favorite, but having St. Elsewhere be all in the mind of a child with Autism makes it several posters' worst ending?

Sure. Why not? What makes a good ending for one show doesn't mean it transfers to a good ending for another completely different show.

 

[cabanafrau]

I am a little surprised at the juxtaposition between Newhart and St. Elsewhere. Having it all be a dream makes this several posters' favorite, but having St. Elsewhere be all in the mind of a child with Autism makes it several posters' worst ending?

I don't think the viewer was meant to invest in the construct of Newhart as true life. Viewers of St. Elsewhere were lead to believe we were watching the stories of the staff and patients of a hospital in a very real way.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

I can't argue with Six Feet Under being one of if not the best.
The Sopranos made me mad, but it really was artistically a great way to end it.

Worst, Dexter. But it was in freefall the last few seasons anyways.
LOST was awful too, but that show went off the rails about season 3.

 

[cabanafrau]

I can't argue with Six Feet Under being one of if not the best.
The Sopranos made me mad, but it really was artistically a great way to end it.

Worst, Dexter. But it was in freefall the last few seasons anyways.
LOST was awful too, but that show went off the rails about season 3.

It took me quite a while to come to terms with the Sopranos. Like I said, mostly I was bitter the show was ending. Once I could really step back and think about it, given the way the storyline had gone in the lead up to the end I was okay with the idea of ambiguity. Once James Gandolfini passed I actually had a little gratitude for the ambiguity.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Sure. Why not? What makes a good ending for one show doesn't mean it transfers to a good ending for another completely different show.

And it really only worked with Newhart because of his previous show.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

I was so disappointed with the ending of Lost. I binge-watched the whole series in a few weeks and was absolutely hooked. The ending didn't even make sense to me when I first watched it. It was so unexpected to me that I just couldn't even make sense of it. Then when it finally clicked, I felt like it didn't do justice to the series or characters.

Nothing sticks out as the best, but I also haven't seen the majority of the shows others have listed on here.

 

[Floridaman999]

Dexter is worth finishing for certain. Just don’t care for the way they ended it.

I honestly thought they were just setting up the beginning plot for the eventual movie with the way they closed it. I guess I was wrong and now I am a bit miffed over how they did it if that truly is the end of the story.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

I honestly thought they were just setting up the beginning plot for the eventual movie with the way they closed it. I guess I was wrong and now I am a bit miffed over how they did it if that truly is the end of the story.

I honestly don't think they knew how to end it.

To me this is a problem with a lot of shows. They have no ending in mind when the show is originally written.

That's what made Breaking Bad so great. It was written with 5 seasons in mind. They knew what they wanted to do and how they wanted it to end.

A lot of shows get renewed and have to clamor to find a new interesting plot line for a season. Eventually you run out of ways to extend a story you already told. The Walking Dead is currently experiencing this IMO.

 

[cabanafrau]

I honestly don't think they knew how to end it.

To me this is a problem with a lot of shows. They have no ending in mind when the show is originally written.

That's what made Breaking Bad so great. It was written with 5 seasons in mind. They knew what they wanted to do and how they wanted it to end.

A lot of shows get renewed and have to clamor to find a new interesting plot line for a season. Eventually you run out of ways to extend a story you already told. The Walking Dead is currently experiencing this IMO.

I agree and disagree with your idea in general, I have no idea about Dexter in particular because I didn't follow the show.

Breaking Bad's writing team had tremendous skills and I cannot argue with how brilliantly they executed the series. However, the show I tag as worst ending of all time had their ending from the beginning and stuck with it -- despite not leaving much room for that idea in the overall writing of the series -- and then making sure to set the audience up for heartbreak in the final season in order to shoehorn that ending into place. HIMYM would have been better to either depart from their original plan altogether, or to have left some room in the overall series arc for the ending to resonate with viewers. Instead a lot of us felt angry and heartbroken for all the wrong reasons. Not sure I'd invest in a series from that team again, yet I trusted the Breaking Bad team so much I gave another series from them a try despite loathing the character they brought over from BrBa to serve as the lead. Those dirty rats made me love him -- and created my favorite series of all time.

 

[AppleDumpling]

I liked MASH, Newhart, and Mary Tyler Moore.

Disliked Seinfeld and The Wonder Years (why’d they have to make the Dad die?).

 

[RangerPooh]

Why I can't think of more shows is beyond me right now...

Best:
-Mash- was a satisfying ending to the series.
-Gilmore Girls- (original series run) it was good but could have been longer. Left me wanting more.

Worst:
-Rosanne

 

[Teresa Pitman]

Going back a long way, but I was really disappointed in the ending of Quantum Leap.