The Sopranos
Whether you loved it or hated it (and just about everyone hated it),The Sopranos’season finale shocked fans when it abruptly cut to black while Tony (James Gandolfini) sat in a diner with a hit on his head that could be carried out at seemingly any moment.
Once they realized the black-out wasn’t a mistake, fans debated whether or not Tony was killed. But series creatorDavid Chasewasn’t interested. More than a decade later he told theNew York Times, “I’ve got to say I’m just bored with it. I also feel like, Jesus, there were 86 episodes and you’re fixated on that? Can’t we talk about something else?”
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Because the originalStar Trekwas cancelled without having a proper finale,Star Trek: The Next Generationwas the first in the franchise to have a well thought-out ending that fit the series as a whole. The writers went with a time-travel theme, setting a precedent for the series finales of two of its successors,Star Trek:VoyagerandEnterprise.
InTNG’s finale, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) goes back in time, revisiting moments from earlier in the series that viewers never got to see, like addressing the crew upon his first arrival at the ship, with (now dead) Lt. Tasha Yar at his side. We also get to see bits of the future—like the gray streak in Data’s hair—but Picard warns the crew that the timeline has shifted and anything can happen.
Six Feet Under
Six Feet Under, one of the first dramas to ever air on HBO, is a show about funeral directors that regularly featured a main character’s ghost after he passed. So the finale, which showed how every single main character on the show dies, had a major impact on the series as a whole.
In the final moments of the finale, Claire (Lauren Ambrose), leaves home, finally no longer driving the family hearse, and heads toward New York. The strains of Sia’s “Breathe Me” ensure we’re crying before we’re even shown (in montage form) the final moments in the life of each member of the Fisher clan.
The Office
The AmericanOfficewas based on a British show of the same name, which pioneered the “faux documentary” style sitcom, later seen in such hits atModern FamilyandParks and Recreation.But unlike on those shows, onThe Officewe got to actually find out who the characters were giving all of these interviews to.
In the series finale, we not only see the camera crew that’s been filming a documentary about the Dunder-Mifflin crew, we find out what became of their film. The finale jumps a year in the future for when the gang reunites in Scranton and answer questions about it on a panel.
WhenRoseanneoriginally aired, no one dreamed that beloved TV shows from the 90s would later be revived thanks to something called streaming series. So no one thought it was a problem when Roseanne Barr decided to take the Connor family in a truly bizarre direction during the show’s final season. And besides,John Goodmanwas off filmingThe Big Lebowski.
After the Connors wins the lottery, Dan (Goodman) cheats and Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) meets a literal prince. But in the series finale, Roseanne revels that not only were these plot twists fake, the entire series was fake—Dan is dead, her daughter’s boyfriends are reversed, and many more oddities. The surreal moment didn’t sit well with viewers and writers pretended it never happened when the series was revamped in 2018.
As the airdate of the series finale ofSeinfeld, one of the greatest comedies of all time, approached, many critics wondered how the show could satisfy everyone who hoped to see their favorite bit character in the final episode. Somehow, the writers managed to pull it off, setting the episode in the courtroom and allowing the gang’s past foils to come testify as to their characters.
Peterman, David Puddy, Mr. Pitt, Uncle Leo, the Soup Nazi, Marla “the Virgin” Penny, Sidra “They’re Real” Holland, lawyer Jackie Chiles, baseball player Keith Hernandez, and of course, Newman are all on hand to explain their take on the events we saw throughout the series. And in the end, the ultimate sentence is handed down by none other than Judge Art Vandelay, a long-running gag turned serious.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
One of the best workplace comedies ever made, theMary Tyler Mooreshow revolved around a tightly run newsroom of professionals—except one. Ted Baxter, played byTed Knight, was the bumbling fool who ruined the rest of the crew’s hard work on-air so often they placed bets on it.
The season finale ofMary Tyler Moorechanged the way you look at every joke about Ted. When the characters’ TV station is taken over by new management in the series finale, management fires every single WJM employee you’ve come to know and love—except Ted.
The only thing better than hanging out in a bar where everyone knows your name? Hanging out at one with an owner like Sam Malone (Ted Danson). ThroughoutCheers’ run, Sam dated his fair share of Boston ladies. But his most memorable romance was with his longtime workplace foil, Diane Chambers (Shelley Long).
Sam and Diane’s “will they or won’t they?” relationship gave a sexual energy and suspense to the first half of the series, until Diane leaves Sam at the altar at the end of season five. Six years later, Shelley Long returned for the finale, where the couple plays out their dilemma once again. The ultimate answer was “they won’t,” but we’ll never know if it stuck.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The series that showed howWill Smith’s life “got flipped, turned upside down” had a finale that did the same, with the entire Banks family picking up and moving to the East Coast. Left behind is Smith, who tries many of his characteristic shenanigans to keep the family’s Bel Aire mansion from selling.
But sell it does, and in the end, the Fresh Prince is alone. Knowing that he doesn’t get to spend forever with his aunt, uncle, and cousins in the end changes how you view the entire series. Happy family moments that are the hallmark of the show are filled with even more meaning and heart.
The Fugitive
The series finale ofThe Fugitivedidn’t just change the series forever, it changed all series forever. The 1960s action-drama about a doctor on the lam for a crime he didn’t commit was aired relatively early-on in television history, and no one had ever thought much about having an ending for a genre that was supposed to episodic and long-running.
ButLen Goldberg, ABC’s vice president of programming, convinced higher-ups that it would be good for ad rates, and Dr. Richard Kimble was allowed to confront the one-armed man who killed his wife and be cleared in her murder. The episode was viewed by 45.9 percent of American households.
