Jay G.

Almost none of that is correct. McGoohan only wanted to produce seven episodes, but the channel wanted more, so they finally agreed on 17 for the final number. The first part of the two-part finale was actually produced very early on, but its air date was pushed back when the number of episodes expanded. So the second part of the two-part finale was produced a year after the first part, but was produced almost immediately on the heels of episode 15.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_Ou...isoner)#Trivia

costanza187

I dont know if its been said yet, but I hated the ending of Dinosaurs.

spejic

From some sources, it seems to be the other way around. The show was canceled after the episode "The Girl Who Was Death" was filmed, so McGoohan only had a few days to write the end episode to "Once Upon a Time", which was actually filmed early in production (a full year before the finale) and was always designed to be the first part of the series end. And rather than being something he just dashed off, the fact that George Markstein had left the show at this point meant that McGoohan had total creative freedom to do exactly what he wanted all along.

If you think that The Prisoner was a sci-fi spy thriller, then you might think the ending was a bad one. But that is the wrong way to approach it - the ending was what the show was all about. It was certainly outrageous, but it was also great and influential.

alk3hol

The finale was the former. :-)

Matthew Chmiel

Easily one of the darkest, but most fitting series finales ever.

Andalusia

My fav finale would be "Six Feet Under", and I'll be damned if I wasn't choked up after watching it.

I didn't mind the "Seinfeld" finale. It wasn't the funniest, but I did like the idea of all the characters coming back to testify against Jerry and the others. And the bit with them thinking the plane was going to crash was hilarious.

nemein

I've found it more to be those who really loved the show hated the ending, but those who just kind of watched it/didn't really get into it loved the ending. I'm sure there are exceptions on both sides of course.

Lee Harvey Oswald

Can someone tell me what happened on Dinosaurs finale? This was the show with the "not the mama" dino...correct?

TGM

from wikipedia:

The series finale of Dinosaurs concerns the irresponsible actions of the dinosaurs toward their environment, and the ensuing Ice Age which leads to their demise. The episode begins with the failure of a beetle swarm to show up and check the spread of a form of creeper vine. The reason is later shown to be the destruction of the beetle's breeding ground to create a wax fruit factory. The WeSaySo Corporation takes charge of the attempt to destroy the vine, which it does by spraying the planet with defoliant. The operation destroys the vine, but kills off all plant life on the planet as well. B.P. Richfield assumes that the creation of clouds will bring rain, allowing the plants to grow back, and so decides to create clouds by dropping bombs in the planet's volcanoes to cause eruptions and cloud cover. The dark clouds instead instigate global cooling, and viewers are left in no doubt as to the fate of the dinosaurs. The final scene of the series depicts a color-warped broadcast from newscaster Howard Handupme, eerily staring into the camera in a slowly freezing studio, and droning, "Goodnight...Goodbye." The credits then roll over a shot of the Sinclairs' house, slowly disappearing beneath a snow drift, while a melancholy string instrumental plays. The episode contains a clear, dark message of environmental responsibility, and, while not overt in its portrayal of the extinction of the dinosaurs, the episode was still a marked change from its normal humor and merited a parental warning in the TV listings.

Jason

The series finale of "Enterprise" was a disaster of epic proportions, especially when the final season was the best one of the entire series.

I am starting to think that the series finale of Battlestar Galactica is going to end up being a train wreck. I hope I'm wrong, but with all the metaphyscal hogwash they're adding, I can see it being as incomprehensible as the ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

GoldenJCJ

Yeah, it's taken me, what?, 15 years to come to terms with this. The fact that Al's life was so bad throughout and the fact the Sam is able to remedy all of that makes it worth while, especially when you consider the episode where

It still hard to accept that that was Sam's fate.

DeanoBKN

The finale to Six Feet Under still haunts me to this day, so powerful...

I just finished ESPNs Playmakers and the way it ended just screamed for a second season. (I was shouting with the team to give you an idea haha) Too bad the NFL made them cancel it.

Chauzer

i liked the everwood finale

Nick Martin

I hated it...only because it meant that the show was over.

riley_dude

One that one one mentioned was China Beach.
I didnt care for Quantum Leap because it was not intended to be the finale. It was cancelled.
Worst though is Enterprise.

Tarantino

I don't remember the Wonder Years finale.

I didn't like the Seinfeld finale.

Arrested Development, I loved.

The end episode to season 5 of Curb Your Enthusiasm I hated.

= J

nateman

wow i have never heard seinfeld and underrated in the same sentence.

GREAT:
Third Watch- season 7 was a non-stop thrill ride rite to the best series finale ever. third watch was my favorite drama and was highly underrated over its 7 year run. i would have to say that season 7 of third watch was the best season of a tv show in history (in my opinion).

Coach- this is hands down my favorite show in tv history. alot of coach fans thought the final 2 years of the show (In orlando) were not that great, i on the other hand thought they were excellent. the series finale was an emotion one for me, after 9 years of underrated greatness coach ended on a high note. over its 9 season run coach was never as popular as other sitcoms, but it was the best. jerry van dyke ended the series with the lights going out and him still sitting on the couch in Haydens cabin saying im not leaving. classic series all around.

Okay:
Roseanne- alot of people did not like the last few years of the show. i was one of them. the only high point of season 9 was the theme song. the series finale however wasn't all that bad in my opinion. im not saying it was good either it was just okay. at least it was something different. the thing i never understood was before the series finale episode roseanne made up in her book that she won 108million dollars but yet they still lived in that house and the only thing they really fixed up were the kitchen and the living room. if i had 108million i would burn my house down and go buy a 10million dollar home.

Alf-a great season 4 cliffhanger that made people wanting a season 5 that never happened. 10 years later we got a movie that we wish never happened. i loved this show and i was pissed when it got cancelled.

BAD:
Will & Grace-no room for a spin-off with my favorite char.'s jack & karen (sean & megan). the finale itself was alright but it really didn't do it for me for such a great series.

Unfinished:
Dead Like me-really didn't have a great series finale and it wasn't really ment to be a series finale it got cancelled i think.

Boomtown-this could have been the greatest crime drama show in history if it wasn't for the piss poor ratings. it never really ended. it had season 1 then a couple of episodes in season 2 then it got cancelled. NBC became my most hated network because of this but this year they have had some of the high quality shows but i am still mad, at least NBC still has scrubs on the air but if they cancel that they will be back to hated.

3Lbs-good show, to bad CBS only let 3 episodes air.

Heist-another good show cancelled by "our friends" at NBC.

GLAD ITS OVER:
Seinfeld-when this show ended i was happy as hell, i never liked this show and thought it was one of the top 5 most overrated shows in history.
now its on every syndicated channel now.

Friends-again overrated and glad to see this god awful show end.

xVladx

Funny thing about that, actually...

B5 spoilers ahead:

DVD Josh

GLAD ITS OVER:
Seinfeld-when this show ended i was happy as hell, i never liked this show and thought it was one of the top 5 most overrated shows in history.
now its on every syndicated channel now.

Friends-again overrated and glad to see this god awful show end.[/QUOTE]

I can't take either of these seriously when you say that ALF is one of your favorite shows of all time.

Michael Corvin

dhmac

Suited the show perfectly? Nope, not even close.

Seinfeld was always a show in which one of the main appeals was that the audience identified with the 4 main characters in a lot of situations, particularly ones that mirrored real-life situations. And the "golden era" of the show started when it began featured 4 separate storylines of the 4 main characters that then overlapped and tripped each other up by the end of the episode (it truly was a "situation" comedy, instead of a smart-alecky, one-liner comedy that characterizes most network sitcoms). Also very important - the show almost always spoofed real-life people with comedians playing funny caricatures (the Johnny Cochran-caricature Jackie Chiles, J. Peterman, George Steinbrenner, etc., etc.).

So the finale not only wasn't very funny, it didn't fit the show at all. The finale had the 4 main characters as criminals who had committed crimes against society (which essentially makes us, the audience who identified with them, criminals too). Instead of a funny caricature spoofing Geraldo, it had the "real" Geraldo, who is a ridiculous joke - true - but completely humorless in real-life (A comedian playing a caricature of Geraldo would've been a million times better). And instead of 4 overlapping stories, the finale had just a single storyline, and a very weak one at that (Not risking your own life to capture an armed robber as a "crime"?!??).

To me, the biggest mistake of the finale was bringing back Larry David to write it. Although he was the co-creator who was most responsible for the quality of the show, he had simply been away too long and was (IMO) rusty at writing the show. So, due to his time away, the finale had the feel of one of those lousy reunion shows that some TV series would have, where the show reunited for a special years later and the writing in the special almost always is terrible - so much so, that most fans watch it once and then avoid it from then on. I think if the rest of the active writing staff of the show had simply written a finale without Larry David's involvement, the series would've had a good finale. Instead, as it stands, the finale is the single worst episode of the entire series.

I remember one review at the time that summed it up best when it basically said the Seinfeld finale was one that seemed to completely miss every reason the show was appealing in the first place. I couldn't agree more.

nemein

Personally I thought the end of Seinfeld fit perfectly since all the characters were self-absorbed and callous throughout the series (which is why I didn't care for the series) and someone finally called them on it. Karmic justice was finally servered

DVD Josh

Exactly. The more I think about it, the more I like the series finale. It wasn't so much funny as it was fitting. Best line of the whole ep was "damn, you people have a nickname for everybody".

Michael Corvin

Exactly. The general consesus of the entire run of the show by fans and critics alike is that these are all asshole characters that you aren't supposed to relate to. Characatures, if you will. The funny came from the absurdities of the situations these pricks would get themselves into and generally the self-centeredness of the resolution of said situation. In that regard the finale was the perfect resolution. I agree however that it wasn't terribly funny, but it was fitting. Their outcome was as absurd and callous as the nine years of situations they got themselves into.

Nesbit

I believe the producers knew the show was doomed and filmed the finale before other episodes to ensure there would be a fitting end to the show.