The final credits for Kids in the Hall show the boys lying together in a large grave (still alive) while dirt is being tossed on them. The headstone read something like "Kids In The Hall 1989-1994". The very end of the credit sequence shows Paul Belini dressed only in his signature white terrycloth towel with a flower in his hand dancing a little jig on their graves and gets his only line- something like "I never liked them".

The Young Ones ends I think with "Summer Holiday" where the guys end up robbing a bank, and Neil steals a double-decked bus for their getaway car. When Neil turns to participate in a conversation with the guys during the getaway, he accidentally steers them off the road, through a Cliff Richard billboard and then OVER a cliff (ba-dump-bump). After the bus gets smashed you here all four guys say "Phew! That was close!" and then the bus explodes. Credits roll saying "The Young Ones were..."

I am surprised that no one has mentioned Get A Life. In the last episode the main character ( I can not remember his name for the life of me) jumps out of an airplane and his parachute doesn't open and he lands on a bed and dies.

I was just about to mention that! I saw it years ago, but can still remember the bed exploding.lol

What about Newhart?

In the last episode, Bob Newhart wakes up in bed with his TV wife from the original Bob Newhart Show (Suzanne Plachette). It turns out that the entire series had been a crazy dream.

So all the characters ceased to exist when he woke up, hence they all "died" except for him.

If Newhart counts, then so does St. Elsewhere. :)

Millennium: Peter Watts dies in the last episode.

Original 1960's Fugitive Series: One Armed Man
(I know he was not in every episode, but
was the whole focal point of the show)

Jack Arnold in Wonder Years.

Spike in Cowboy Bebop

Goku in DBZ, and DBGT

I'd go with Sheridan in B5...

Kung Lao along with most of the cast, good and evil, in Mortal Kombat: Conquest

Mayniac

True. Definitely the best season finale was Part IV "Blackadder Goes Forth". That was a really great closing. Here's hoping they come up with another series.

BTW, the interview with Richard Curtis on the complete box set is great too. After the first season, IIRC, they always wrote the last episode of each series first. Easier/better having a distinct closing than a whacky opening.

Tuan Jim

Actually leaving out the pathetic epilogue (which I like to pretend never happened), St Elsewhere still counts. The elderly Dr Auschlander, played by Norman Lloyd, dies in the final episode after a prolonged battle with cancer.

In Quantum Leap, Sam propels himself into limbo (i.e. he ceases to exist) in order for Al to inform his wife that he did not die in the war and to wait for him.

Cool thread, by the way.

- Mike

I think you can assume that Jessica did die at the end of Soap. I year or two later she showed up on Benson as a ghost. I dont remember too much about the episode but the killing by firing squad was discussed.

That's right! I had forgotten:)

Just to nitpick, Sam doesn't go to limbo in the finale of Quantum Leap so Al can tell his wife to wait for him. Sam leaps to her house and tells her to wait for Al, and it is implied that Sam is still leaping through time, although without the help/knowledge of Al and the rest of the crew. He is like a "guardian angel" now, and from the end of the episode, it appears that he is no longer leaping into host bodies.

I never watched this show but remember reading about it. In the 80's there was a show called "Valerie" (because it starred Valerie Harper). The network ended up firing her (I think because she was holding out for more money) so at the end of the first or second season they killed her off in a car accident. The next season the show was renamed "Valerie's Family" and they brought in Sandy Duncan to take her place.

I remember this show, but I thought they killed her off in a fire?

And to nitpick just a little further, he does continue leaping into people, just without Al. But if you think about it, he'd probably still have someone...Roddy McDowall?

Like I said...I never watched the show but remember reading about it along time ago. I did a little search before my orginal post to make sure my memory was correct. I only remembered that she was killed off. What I found in my search was that it was by car accident. There were some people that thought it was from a fire but it seemed that the "fire" that burned down there house was something that had happened after they had killed her off in the car accident.

But I could be wrong. The only reason I remember it is because I found it intreresting that they killed off the Star of the show that the show was named after.

First show I thought of. Great show, and anyone who didn't watch it ought to be ashamed of themselves.

It's been a while, but wasn't it the case that the episode in which Peter Dragon died was not originally intended as the finale? I seem to remember reading that there were more episodes after he dies, but once they realized they were cancelled, they dedcided to end it with the death episode.

I hope these are released on DVD someday.

Don't know if that counts....the next episode which was unaired on Fox had Peter recover from his heart attack. They showed the remaining 5 unaired episodes on FX when they re-ran the series.

They die, but they are all revived both times- so they don't end a season with anyone dead.

The ends of both seasons of Magic Knight Rayearth lose a few important people. And, unlike a lot of anime, they don't come back to life. :p

Um.....Buffy at the "end" of the show on the WB and briefly at the beginning of the next season on UPN....

If you count the made-for-tv movies as episodes, then Bill Bixby's David Banner/Hulk died in "The Death of the Incredible Hulk."

Sheridan died in B5, as has been said, but the death of the lead was planned from Day One. Of course, it probably was going to be Sinclair at some point, but supposedly that was part of JMS' arc all along.

Regarding Quantum Leap, we really don't know what Sam's new status quo is. We know he leaped bodily to tell Al's fiancee that he was alive, and we know he never returned home. We don't know if he was in contact with the now-happily married Al or not in this newly altered timeline. Maybe if they ever make a reunion movie, it will be better spelled out.

-Gren

Thats a serious spoiler title! :)