Grover C. Magnus 
In the early days of television, showrunners often didn’t bother to sort out the details of a long-running show. In a world without cable and numerous reruns, a series finale was just another episode. But as viewers got emotionally involved – and syndication and reruns increased – there was a need for finality.
Newhart possibly had one of the best, with star Bob Newhart waking up married to his The Bob Newhart Show co-star Suzanne Pleshette and directing her new series had all been a dream – a climax so memorable that Bryan Cranston later parodied it after the end of breaking Bad. (His affable Malcolm in the middle the character, Hal, had apparently dreamed of being a methamphetamine dealer.)
And then there are shows that end with such astonishing strangeness that it seems inconceivable that viewers could feel anything but confused. The final of Saint-Elsewhere came up with the show and its many characters were all in the mind of a young boy with autism – a theory that challenged the canon of all television thanks to appearances of other television characters.
It was weird, but on TV it can certainly get weirder. Check out eight other shows that have left viewers stunned and confused.
1. Dinosaurs (1991-1994)
This Jim Henson Productions series on a nuclear family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs turned out to be a modest success for ABC. For four seasons, the Sinclairs – Father Earl, Mother Fran, and children Robbie, Charlene, and Baby Sinclair – provided an animatronic take on prehistoric life. Baby Sinclair even gave birth to a popular slogan: “I am the baby. I must love myself! “
While many viewers have done so, Dinosaurs was expensive to produce and was not intended for the long term. And while dinosaurs aren’t known to speak or hold jobs, the show has taken other parts of their existence at face value. The series ends with the dinosaurs, unaware of their effect on climate change, inviting the Ice Age and therefore their own extinction. Earl’s employer uses chemicals that kill plants irresponsibly, triggering a chain reaction of environmental disasters. By the end of the episode, the snow begins to fall, and it’s obvious that the characters viewers have grown to love, including Baby Sinclair, are doomed.
“From the moment we first talked about the series, we discussed the idea that it was the domestication of these dinosaurs that made them disappear,” said series co-creator Michael Jacobs. at Vulture in 2018. “What humans knew about dinosaurs was that, in the end, they were extinct, so we always had that idea behind our minds. The show would end by completing the metaphor and putting it down. showing this extinction. “
2. Family affairs (1989-1998)
Family affairs is better known as the ABC sitcom which introduced the world to Jaleel White, aka Steve Urkel. Although he was originally conceived as a minor supporting character for the Winslow family, Urkel has become a pop culture sensation. For the finale, which aired on CBS after the show’s network change in 1997, the show dropped any pretense of grounded reality. In the two-part movie “Lost in Space”, Urkel sells a patent to NASA and is sent into space before being briefly abandoned. Steve almost runs out of oxygen before he can return to Earth. (The episode attempts to weave a subplot of newly-created Eddie Winslow as a cop who was shot down during an altercation, a stark contrast to Urkel’s space odyssey.)
While it would have been difficult for the show to top that, it wasn’t intended as a finale. The producers had learned of its cancellation too late to give it a more definitive farewell.
3. MANTIS (1994-1995)
Before the explosion of new century superhero cinema and television, comic book-style adventures were rare. One exception was MANTIS, a season-long Fox series that starred Carl Lumbly as crippled scientist Dr. Miles Hawkins, who regains the ability to walk and resist bullets with the help of an upgraded costume. (The Mechanically Augmented Neuro Transmitter Interception System, for the acronym-curious.)
MANTIS was criticized early on for some confusing casting decisions. In the TV movie that launched it, Lumbly was helped by characters played by black actors. In the series, the characters had been traded for white confidants.
It might not have been a big loss when the show was canceled, although the decision to take on Lumbly against a giant dinosaur contrasted starkly with an otherwise well-founded premise. (The dinosaur was also largely invisible, presumably to save on special effects.) To fend off the beast, Hawkins sets off an explosion, killing himself and her friend Leora Maxwell (Galyn Görg) in the process. The end.
While MANTIS perhaps fallen flat, Lumbly saw some form of superhero redemption. He appeared in the Disney + Marvel series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in 2021, playing Isiah Bradley, one of the first recipients of Captain America’s Super Soldier Serum.
4. ALF (1986-1990)
Nothing was more endemic to 1980s television than ALF, a sitcom about a furry alien from planet Melmac who moves in with the Tanner family to avoid detection. (Shooting ALF, who was a puppet, proved problematic for his human co-stars, who often had to avoid holes in the ground to allow the puppet show.)
For the 1990 series finale, “Consider Me Gone”, ALF is able to intercept a radio signal from other people of its species colonizing a “New Melmac”. Even if that means saying goodbye to his adoptive family, ALF decides to join his fellow aliens, but is instead apprehended by government officials eager to learn more about the alien. The show’s producers were expecting a fifth season, which takes place on a military base, but did not get one. The impression viewers have is that of ALF possibly sentenced to life in prison. (The notion was cleaned up with a 1996 TV movie, ALF project, in which he is a guest of the government but apparently unharmed.)
5. Dallas (1978-1991)
Most people remember the CBS prime-time soap opera Dallas for the mystery involving who shot oil mogul JR Ewing (Larry Hagman) or the season it was all a dream provided by Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) presumed dead.
No less memorable was the series finale in which JR contemplates the many selfish and morally corrupt choices he made in pursuit of wealth and self-righteousness throughout his life. The two parts is a riff on It’s a wonderful lifeexcept that JR slowly realizes that the people in his life would have been much better without him. “Sue Ellen is doing it on her own,” said JR, dismayed that anyone could thrive without him.
Prompted by a malevolent spirit named Adam who appears to him in a mirror – who is assumed to be a demon, thanks to a not-so-subtle red suit and glowing red eyes – a downcast JR appears to kill himself, however, who was reconnected in the sequel. made for tv Dallas movies.
6. Little house in the meadow (1974-1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSkscIpnRZQ
Based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s bestselling semi-autobiographical book series, Little house in the meadow gave 70s viewers a glimpse into border life in the late 1800s. It would likely be the last place you’d expect an explosion set worthy of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the show has it. provided as a final TV movie, The Little House on the Prairie: The Last Farewell. In the film, the town of Walnut Grove is reduced to rubble so that it does not fall into the hands of an earth baron. Series star Michael Landon suggested the end because the land leased for the show was to be returned to its owners in its original state and the buildings were to be gone anyway.
7. The hills (2006-2010)
While reality shows are generally not affected by series finals, MTV shows The hills approached things differently. The at times spooky series starring a group of twenty-some people – including Lauren Conrad, Spencer Pratt, Heidi Montag and Kristin Cavallari – navigating life and love in Los Angeles was ostensibly chronicling rather than orchestrating their lives. . But that was called into question in the last episode, when Brody Jenner is seen standing on a Hollywood backlot and surrounded by backdrops. The implication was that The hills may have been as fictional as any scripted show.
8. Byker Grove (1989-2006)
While Doctor Who remains the BBC’s longest-running series, other shows have been on it for a long time. Byker Grove, which was established in 1989 and ran until 2006, centered on the various dramas of a youth club in Newcastle, England. The overall effect was one of realism – the series touched on adolescent topics like sexuality and racism.
It was all the more shocking that the show ended the way it did. For the 2006 finale, “Two Ex Machina”, the entire cast realizes that these are fictional characters in a TV show and that the show’s writers intend to abolish Byker Grove. . Newly possessed of this terrifying self-awareness, the characters attempt to write their own ending before being attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. (For those who matter, this is the third time dinosaurs have played a part in this final list.)
It gets stranger. Despite the discovery of a buried treasure that would likely see the actors “buy” the grove and prevent it from destroying, the dynamite explodes and everyone perishes. Something to ponder the next time you feel like complaining about the end of Dexter.
Do you like television? Do you spend most weekends lounging on the sofa watching your favorite TV shows? How would you like to learn some incredibly fascinating facts about the best series of the past 20 years and the people who made them? So grab our new book, The Curious Viewer: a range of streaming shows for ages 20+, available now
