Talk:Series finale

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I changed the description for the Farscape season finale, as it was not exactly accurate and sounded a bit too cheeky. --- Is that actually what happened on the Cheers finale? All I really remember is them sitting around the bar talking, and then Sam telling some customer the bar was closed. But then that was 10 years ago :)

  • Yes, indeed! :)

Contents

[edit] Did the 1990 Finales get VFD'd?

Did the 1990 Series Finales page get VFD'd? It's blank all of a sudden. Joylock 06:26, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why is Futurama listed without a series finale?

It resolved what was probably the longest-running plotline on the show, Fry's feelings for Leela. -- Antaeus Feldspar 17:50, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Alpha or chronological?

Do we want the list of finales to go in alphabetical order or chronological order? I incline to the former.

Agreed. Chronological makes little sense in this context. Cburnett 17:03, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] From finale (television)

Series episodic television programs eventually come to an end (except for Doctor Who), and when the production companies which make the shows know about it (or will admit to it) sufficiently far in advance, they often instruct/permit the writers to craft a Series Finale, which can tie up loose plot threads, satisfy viewers and fans, and, in some cases, set the stage for later series in a given fictional universe.

Some series also make a special dramatic point with their Season Finales, often using them as a cliffhanger to draw their audience back in for the following season.

One of the most difficult tasks in writing series episodic television is the job of writing a season finale when you don't know if it is also a series finale; very few instances of this exists, of which fewer were popular with fans.

Occasionally, as in the fifth season finale of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, a season finale will be portrayed as a series finale by a network which is losing a series to another network--the jumping of a series from one network to another, uncommon in earlier days of television, is happening more and more frequently these days; examples include:

  • Buffy, The Vampire Slayer
  • JAG

--Christopherlin 06:29, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I would like to ask, what exactly is notable about the following series:

   * Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (1990)
   * TaleSpin (1991)
   * Sonic the Hedgehog (1993)
   * The Lone Gunmen (2001)

other than The Lone Gunmen being a spinoff to The X Files, I don't feel any of the above series aew notable. I think better examples are needed here. Plus I agree with A. Feldspar above that Futurama did wind up having a series finale. The writers pretty much saw the series cancellation coming and wrote up a closer (The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings) that they felt would provide enough closure in the event that the inevitable happened. -- SterlingNorth 07:27, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The thing is, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin were shows that had beginnings, but no closures. Darkwing Duck had a plot thread revolving around the resurrection of Taurus Bulba that was supposed to be resolved in its fourth season, which never reached production because the show was canned. And Sonic the Hedgehog ended on a cliffhanger that was supposed to be solved in its third season, but ABC cancelled the series.

[edit] Lone Gunmen

Lone Gunmen is listed under shows without a finale. "The Lone Gunmen" itself didn't have a real finale, but an episode of the X-Files ("Jump the Shark") revolved around them (including Jimmy) and showed their fate (they lock themselves in with a man carrying a biological bomb and sacrifice themselves). This is worthy of a mention.

[edit] Finales That Aren't Finales

I changed the list of shows in the "shows without a series finale" bit because the previous list? (see above post!) Was ridiculous.

Feel free to change mine though, I just thought of some off the top of my head.

[edit] Quantum Leap

That's not how I remember it ending... I thought Sam was given a chance to deliberately save Al's first marriage, cutting Al out of the program in the new continuity, and causing Sam to be lost in time forever. in fact, I clearly remember onscreen text stating "Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home." 24.91.43.225 3 July 2005 09:44 (UTC)

Isserex's comment: It just says that "Dr Beck never returned home". It never said why he did not return. It could be because he chose (as Bartender Al said) or his changing of history.

[edit] Differentiating US series from other countries

Over the past month or so, I've noticed the addition of a few foreign-country series that had series finales. While this is fine (since Wiki articles are supposed to be written from a worldwide POV), I would propose placing all non-U.S. series in a separate section; I'm presuming these all to be British series, anyway. Whatayathink? [[Briguy52748 17:12, 17 January 2006 (UTC)]]

[edit] Non-notable finales

I am not sure what the criteria here are for "notable shows without finales." Apparently all a show needs is a couple of fans to assert its nobility on this page and it gets listed (Joan of Arcadia? My Wife and Kids?)


Okay, well, thanks to some inexplicable editing, there are now only THREE shows in history that have had notable finales, and one of them is Knight-Rider. What happened?? I agree that not every show in history should be listed here, but the current list of three is absolutely preposterous. If only three shows are allowed to be listed, they should certainly be something other than the completely unacceptable choices (excluding M*A*S*H; that was a big deal) that are there now. Chalkieperfect 00:51, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Non-finale shows placement

Anyone else think these, too, should be given their own page(s)?Caswin 00:14, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

No, but describing the plots of the non-finale episodes is unnecessary for this page. A simple list of series (and possibly episode titles) with related links would be better. Kkachi 15:19, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rocko's Modern Life/ As Told By Ginger

I don't think that the Thanksgiving episode schould be considered the seris finale as Put to Pasture/Future Schlock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Put_to_Pasture_/_Future_Schlock) where more of a series finale, just cause it was the last new episode schouldn't make it the series finale.

Another example being As Told By Ginger, it's season finale "The Wedding Frame" (which is only available on DVD but showed abroad) was released to DVD which close up its loose ends in the series (http://www.hey-arnold.com/Ginger/Season3.html) though it also lasts episode shown was a Thanksgiving episode "Ten Chairs" .

[edit] Friends series finale

Unless there are objections, I am going to remove the Friends/Joey reference from this line: "sometimes a character or two may be set up for a sequel series (i.e., Cheers begetting Frasier; or Friends begetting Joey)" because as I recall, the Friends finale did not set up Joey. Friends ended with the character Joey planning to stay in the apartment in New York City. Then Joey began, and he had basically changed his mind and decided to move to Los Angeles. --Mathew5000 00:35, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Done. [1] --Mathew5000 02:05, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Notable shows that ended without a series finale -> New page?

Should the section in this article "Notable shows that ended without a series finale" be moved to a new page, it's getting a tad long for a single heading, more-so for just a simple list. I vote for a new page like the other sections for this content to be moved to

Seconded! It's crazy. Caswin 01:38, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
I agree that it's much too long, but on the other hand, is there really any use for an article on "TV shows that didn't have a series finale"? That seems awfully silly to me. At any rate, that section is a total mess. Way too many entries, many of them very poorly written, and the majority of them having no significance whatsoever (I do not happen to agree that Darkwing Duck is "one of the most notable shows" of any type). Chalkieperfect 01:00, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] get rid of non-notable "buffy" and "knight rider" finales (fan cruft); add "Newhart" and "St. Elsewhere"

Buffy finale, fancruft. Ditto Knight Rider. Must we put up with this?


See Why doesn't TV know when (or how) to BOW OUT? for discussion of notable finales, esp. Newhart's "most unexpected moment in TV."

--Ling.Nut 19:44, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Fancruft? There the detailed breakdowns of the episodes, what's so "fancruft" about it? Buffy's finale IS noticable, and Knight Rider's spin-off canocity is unclear to the point this was the closest thing to a conclusion

If the powers-that-be-utter-morons had'nt deleted the series finales articles, or had at least merged them all in one, we'd have shows like Newhart already there in contrast to what we have now.

I'll see what I can do about including the others, but I should'nt be having to clean up the mess the idiots have directly caused themselves by thinking with the "delete button" first, and what was good for any future version of an article later. I really should bring this up with 'em, and tell them to save any information that comes with too many articles on the same subject.

Dr. R.KZ. 19:49, May 7th 2007 (UTC)

I second the motion that Newhart should be included. The last episode was one of the best, most truly originial shows ever in the history of television. While it did not have the giant ratings of M*A*SH or the Fugitive, it was one of the most critically praised programs ever shown on tv. The series was great as well. The fact that it did not win any Emmys means nothing. The Emmys have a very long history of giving the same awards to the same people and same shows year after boring year.204.80.61.110 18:26, 11 June 2007 (UTC)Bennett Turk

Knight Rider is not notable. Buffy is, somewhat. Newhart and St. Elsewhere definitely need to be included. JAF1970 16:55, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Quantum Leap

Oops. Forgot about Quantum Leap. JAF1970 20:23, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Prisoner

Completely forgot "The Prisoner" too :p JAF1970 07:13, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] spoiler tag not needed

How in the world is a spoiler tag needed on a section that makes it clear that the finales of various shows are being discussed? Our readers are not so stupid that they cannot realize that reading about finales is going to give away the endings... — Carl (CBM · talk) 05:12, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The King of Queens?

That show isn't particularly historic, and its finale isn't exactly special. JAF1970 04:13, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Roseanne

Roseanne did have a memorable finale (everything was a dream after Dan's heart attack). JAF1970 23:57, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Home Improvement

I have removed an unsourced statement regarding one of the co-stars in Home Improvement being written out of the finale, and speculative reasons as to why. My rationale is WP:BLP. Feel free to restore the information if a valid source can be provided. 23skidoo (talk) 16:40, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Allgoodthingsfinale.jpg

Image:Allgoodthingsfinale.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 04:37, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Happy Days

What about the Happy Days finale? 76.126.29.36 (talk) 03:07, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Um, what finale? JAF1970 (talk) 04:03, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] About Animated Series finale

I think the reason why animated series finalies are unimporant.Beause in America only cartoons for children hide their agenda of their last episodes to prevent the kids from knowing hat theuir shows ended.(including disney channe lstars shows).And second of all Only japanese shows show like that —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.83.40.224 (talk) 17:07, 4 June 2008 (UTC)