Great TV shows with really bad final episodes

[underpants]

M*A*S*H*- sad and preachy at the same time
Sopranos- no one seemed to like the ending (I missed that series)
Seinfeld- really really bad
The West Wing - at that point no one really cared
ER- no one even knew it was still on the air


Any others?

[Dr Morbius]

1. Star Trek,

The last episode turned out to be Turnabout Intruder, and it's horrible. ST:TNG's final episode was decent but not great. True, TOS didn't do a "final" episode. Many of my favorite series ended prematurely.

I don't watch enough TV to have seen all that many final episodes. Of the above list, I saw only the final episode of M*A*S*H. Everybody did.

[Orrex]

15. I disagree with you re: TNG

I'd say that All Good Things is among the best Trek offerings ever aired. Certainly it's the best Trek finale, which admittedly isn't saying much.

[Dr Morbius]

18. OK, fair enough.

I always felt the idea would have been better explored in a single hour episode as opposed to the two-hour thing. TNG loved the two-hour episodes since their success with The Best of All Worlds, which I think is as good as the series ever got. From that point, every season contained a two-parter and ended with a cliffhanger two-parter. For me, that got old pretty quickly. Then the two-hour finale disappointed me a little. Riker's personality changed; he was an Admiral in the future but a complete jerk. Data had somehow chosen to become useless. Data? Really? Jean-Luc Picard had married and lost Beverly; was this character ever as foolish as he was depicted in the finale?

That all said, it had a lot of cool stuff too. Even though I think the idea would have been better explored in an hour, the anti-time idea was worth a story, and the resolution of the relationship/conflict with Q was also satisfying, and the future Enterprise - with the truly devastating firepower - was really cool. Which is why I called it good but not great. It is the best Trek finale, I quite agree. It's one of the better TNG episodes, in my opinion.

You know, I'd have to admit that I think the series itself was good but not great. So we may well be discussing this from entirely different perspectives in the first place. We disagree; I'm fine with that and hope you are as well.

[Orrex]

20. I'm cool with that summation

Various channels have been running TNG episodes lately, and it can't be denied that a lot of them are awful. Still, there are enough bright spots in the series to make it my overall favorite, warts and all.

[CreekDog]

31. they keep getting assigned missions

despite almost destroying the ship, having the crew go crazy or both on a weekly basis. :shrug:

[Orrex]

40. LOL!

Good point, though I seem to recall Kirk losing control of his ship on more than one occasion, too.

Of course, if any crew member were mentally/psychologically compromised as often as Data, he'd have been forcibly retired long before season seven!

[CreekDog]

46. And why for the first half of the series are all the problems so bad that...

a teenager can solve them --and in 6 or 7 minutes. :wtf:

[Orrex]

49. That baffled me for years, until I learned the obvious (in retrospect) answer

Eugene Wesley Roddenberry.

[Posteritatis]

73. If we're talking bad Trek finales it's hard to top Enterprise's catastrophe. (nt)

[Orrex]

74. Agreed.

It may actually unseat Spock's Brain as the "worst Trek ever."

[Duer 157099]

2. L O S T

Let me be the first to say it.

[underpants]

3. The last five scenes have been decided from the beginning

I read that today.

They say that their goal is to make their mothers cry, whatever that means.

[MorningGlow]

33. Oh you KNOW that's coming

Teh Lounge is going to be 10 times uglier than after BSG ended. No matter how it ends, somebody's gonna hate it, because it's not what THEY wanted to happen. :eyes:

[elocs]

50. I'm waiting for the snowglobe...

:rofl: Now that would be funny.

[6000eliot]

56. My favorite ending of all time.

I especially like that the whole series turned out to be an autistic child's fantasy.

[elocs]

64. I have to admit I don't think anybody saw that ending coming.

I can remember watching near the end when there was that night picture of the hospital and wondering, "what is with the shaking picture?"

[Frank Cannon]

78. You beat me to it.

[fishwax]

4. I thought the ending of The Sopranos was great

The initial reaction was pretty mixed, but I think it's reputation has grown since then. Personally, I thought it was a great finale.

I agree with you about the Seinfeld finale--very disappointing.

[muffin1]

5. I enjoyed The Sopranos finale, too.

I wasn't sure what I thought when it happened. I was SO on edge to see what would happen, and then...
but I thought about it often the next few days, and it grew on me. Now, I think it was one of the best endings I've seen.

I'll also admit the Seinfeld episode has grown on me, too - after viewing it a few more times on DVD. They kept the characters true, in that they were totally self-absorbed throughout the series, and they didn't try to give them a 'kinder side' just because the show was ending.

[Auggie]

7. Sopranos could have been longer, IMO

Maybe by another 30 minutes. Seemed to move too fast for the amount of story that needed to be told. I still loved it –- just seemed a bit choppy to me.

[fishwax]

52. perhaps I'll give the Seinfeld episode another shot

It has been several years since I've seen it.

[Iggo]

59. I love that ending.

Not at first, though. It took a couple of days.

[bikebloke]

6. Deadwood

Though maybe it originally wasn't intended to be the final. Too many things happening in that episode were left hanging.

[annabanana]

42. I'm sure they thought they'd have more time. That was a rockin'

show. I was cheesed when it didn't come back.

[Archae]

8. Cracked.com did an article along this line.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18490_the-7-most-soul-crushing-series-finales-in-tv-history.html

That final episode of "Dinosaurs" had me saying, :wtf:

[Drunken Irishman]

13. I thought that was a great final episode...

If you're gonna end it, might as well kill off every one of 'em!

[WinkyDink]

9. The Wonder Years. Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!

[Bucky]

37. I loved the Wonder Years finale. The whole show was about losing childhood.

He had to lose the girl in the end. What serious person ever marries his 6th grade sweet heart? TV's full of that shit. In real life everyone out grows their first love.

[WinkyDink]

83. Well, I wanted my TV free from "real life" right then.

[carlyhippy]

10. Roseanne-the whole final season went outer limits

Just didn't end on a good note.

[bigwillq]

17. I liked the last season

but it certainly went way off course. I thought the final episode was pretty good, too.

[BlueIris]

66. I was wondering if anyone was going to mention that one.

I have never, in the history of television, seen one show so completely alienate its viewing base in quite so dramatic a fashion (not even "The X-Files" ninth season effed-up that badly.) The family's lottery win was just so...wrong. And to try to whitewash the wrongness with that bizarre finale made it even worse.

[havocmom]

11. Follies de

DU springs to mind

[WillParkinson]

12. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Of course I thought the whole last season tanked, but the final episode was the worse, in my opinion.

[NewJeffCT]

24. I didn't hate the finale

but, I think the whole last season was a disappointment. Whedon knew it was the final season, so it seemed like he packed 3 seasons of ideas into that one season, but never fully developed any of them.

[fishwax]

35. I thought that the first time I saw it as well

We've been working through the series again recently, and are about to wrap up Season 6, so I'll have to see if Season 7 and the finale have grown on me at all ...

[Lucian]

14. Angel.

The whole last season was :wtf:. Don't get me wrong, I loved the show, but the finale seemed...rushed. I know they had to end it, but they should've put a little more time into it.

[Iggo]

60. The last episode was kinda lame...but the last scene was great.

Although I felt like I'd seen it before. Hmmm...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kohjnYP4Mnw/SwC6cuinp8I/AAAAAAAAAUo/d6cxJIKFO2w/s400/butch_cassidy_sundance+final+do+filme.jpg

[WillParkinson]

70. I thought the season finale was excellent

Especially the final scene.

Even though it did not continue on the air, the show did continue to live on in comic book form. Wesley was a ghost, if I recall correctly, in the comics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel:_After_the_Fall

[ChoralScholar]

16. I agree that ER's finale wasn't as good as it could have been

but I don't think it was REALLY BAD.

West Wing seemed to just end, rather than finalize. I didn't watch the others you mentioned.

[Demoiselle]

19. Have to disagree with you about Seinfeld.

It explained to me why I had been laughing uneasily at the show for its entire run.
They were all incredibly self-centered...it was funny because we recognized ourselves in that self-involvement, but, funny though it was, they finally got called on it.
Does that make any sense? Anyway, I thought it was brilliant.

[CreekDog]

34. No, it wasn't funny

But the whole show was about shallow, self-centered characters.

Though what made the storylines a lot of fun was that the running theme of the show was people (in general and specific) running afoul of social mores and conventions (not washing hands, not going along with trivial things, showing up with friends at a party even though one wasn't specifically invited, not returning library books, etc.)

[Iggo]

61. I'm with you, Dem.

It's one of my favorite episodes of that show, along with the one where Susan dies.

Both were totally hilarious, and even funnier after the initial fan reaction.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

21. The last Seinfeld episode not only nails down how self-absorbed the 4 main characters are, ...

... it shows how virtually EVERYone is self-absorbed. Note how at the end of the trial even their relatives are focused on beating the traffic out of town or some such thing-- no one really cares that Jerry, et al are going to prison. Even the townspeople who staged the show trial were really just trying to look good, not to serve justice. So in a way we ultimately see that the only difference between us and Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer is that they got caught.
..

..

..

How's that for overthinking a damn TV show? :silly:

[Demoiselle]

39. Nah, you're not overthinking it.

It really was that sophisticated. (My opinion, of course.)

[elocs]

51. Really, too much in life is overthunk. n/t

[mochajava666]

71. I agree with your analysis

but I think it could have been done better. The whole idea of what goes around comes around, and exposing their narcissistic shallowness was a very good concept for the finale.

I just wish it was funnier. Kramer causing the plane into an emergency landing at a different airport was too much of a reach. The best part was Newman blissfully eating popcorn at the trial.

[begin_within]

95. Wait, what?

Can you start over? I wasn't listening.

[Touchdown]

22. Dallas, with the Devil telling JR to kill himself.

stupid!

[LibDemAlways]

62. Dallas really jumped the shark toward the end.

Having JR marry some jailbait hillbilly whose relatives were like something out of Deliverance was just stupid. They should have quit while they were ahead. I forgot about the devil, but it sounds like the writers had run out of ideas.

[NV Whino]

23. Battlestar Gallactica

They just couldn't figure out how to end the damned thing.

[NewJeffCT]

25. I was fine with the finale

until the very end/wrap up with everybody on "earth" and the Athena/Helo baby becoming "eve" and something about it all being god's plan or whatever. Turned me off so I haven't watched a second of Caprica.

[wickerwoman]

28. Yeah, and they punked out.

The President was supposed to die before they got to earth and then they got there and didn't want to kill her off. So they didn't. Even though the main plot driver for four seasons was that the prophecy meant something. WTF?

[Mojambo]

41. This was a VERY bad finale, but it was softened a bit by the fact that the show had been sucking

for quite a while before the finale.

I had ZERO expectations for the finale simply because the show had been getting progressively worse since about midway through the 3rd season.

By the end it was a shell of itself.

[smoochpooch]

48. Yeah, they kind of painted themselves into a corner and didn't leave themselves a good way to end.

As soon as Starbuck stopped being a sarcastic badass and became a weirdo in season 4, it was over.

What really bothered me was the whole notion of a "Final 5." Wouldn't they have actually been the "First 5?" Sounds to me like the writers and Moore kept sitting around wondering who the final 5 cylons would be and they just adopted the name without thinking if it made sense.

The finale did the best with what they left themselves.

[hyphenate]

26. A show called "The Others"

which was about a small group of talented people with psychic powers. The last episode had them all die in terrible ways.


I never saw it, but I hear the last episode of "St. Elsewhere" was not very cool.

[Orrex]

30. Didn't "The Others" last about four episodes?

I wanted it to be cooler than it turned out to be, alas.

[hyphenate]

54. I knew it was more than 4

but I checked--standard 13 eps in all. Last summer, I believe it was, the NBC/Universal network at Chiller showed it a couple of times, so I've got them all on DVD--somewhere. I have to begin alphabetizing my collection of disks at some point.

[csziggy]

77. I know - I saw it on Chiller and kept looking for the next episode

I could not believe they would end it like that!

It did not help that I saw it while recovering from surgery so I was doped up for most of the series.

[gratuitous]

27. This list is sooo incomplete

Withoug listing "My Mother the Car" and "Hello Larry."

[wickerwoman]

29. St. Elsewhere

Classic lame ending device.

Not a great show, but the worst series ending I've ever seen: the 4400.

The Sopranos wasn't bad- just not great and certainly not fitting such an amazing show generally.

[MorningGlow]

32. Quantum Leap, unfortunately

I have such a soft spot for that show, but the last episode should have been grander (and should have made more sense). As it was, they were canceled, so they rushed to bring in people who had been on the show throughout the seasons, but they could only fit in a few. Seemed haphazard. And I did not like it one bit that Sam never came home, sacrifice for his best friend Al or not. x(

[Mojambo]

45. That finale was hurt by the fact that they didn't know whether it was going to be a series finale

or not.

So they did kind of cobble it together.

Have you read the script for the alternate finale they would have used if the show was coming back?

Here it is...

The final episode, "Mirror Image," was intended to have a much different ending. The original ending was written under the assumption that there would be a sixth season. When the series was not renewed, this ending was replaced at the last minute, after much of the post-production work on the episode had already taken place. A "wet copy" of this episode includes the alternate ending and survives through underground video tape trading on the Internet. If you are intersted in obtaining a VHS copy, e-mail Jerry Seward.

In the meantime, you can download it in .avi format.

What follows is the original script for the ending in its entirety. Most of it must have been nixed early on because even the surviving alternate ending cuts out after the picture of Al's family.

the proposed cliffhanger into the 93/94 season
this picks up where Sam tells Beth that Al is coming home...

130A CLOSE ON BETH

She catches her breath and tears flood her eyes as we move to....

131A SILVER FRAMED PHOTO OF YOUNG AL

sitting on the mantle. We hold for a beat and pull back past another photo. This one is of Al, Beth and four older children. our move takes us past other family photos of Beth and Al and their children. We continue until we reveal that we are in....

132A AL’S DEN

in his home at Project Quantum Leap. It is the year 2000 but this room is a classic den with leather and wood and a warm, comfortable look. Our move continues until we find....

133A THE OBSERVER AND BETH

sitting in an overstuffed chair. He's smoking a cigar and staring at a silver framed photo in his hand. She's sitting half on the chair and half on him. Beth's older and her hair is streaked with gray, but she's still a radiant beauty ... especially when she smiles.

OBSERVER
Wherever he's leaped, Sam’s still himself.

BETH
Because no one's in the Waiting Room?

OBSERVER
There's no other explanation.
(beat)
Ziggy’s starting a nanosecond search in the morning but I got a feeling Sam’s leaped beyond his lifetime?

BETH
Into the past or future?

OBSERVER
(firmly)
The future. Don't ask me how I know, I just do.
(beat)
He's in the future, way in the future... far beyond his lifetime.

BETH
How’d he get there?

OBSERVER
The bartender sent him.

BETH
The bartender?

OBSERVER
Why not? Anyone who has the power to leap Sam through time can be anyone he wants to be ... a bartender, a train conductor ... a steambath attendant.

Beth takes a second to absorb that, then looks down at Al.

BETH
He’d know where Sam was in the future.

OBSERVER
How do I ask him? As a hologram, he couldn't hear me.

BETH
If he's God, I think he'll hear you.

OBSERVER
Good. But without Sam in that bar, I can't get there.

BETH
You could if you leaped.

134A CLOSER ON BOTH

The Observer looks slowly up to Beth, realizing she's hit on the solution.

OBSERVER
I might not come back.

BETH
You'll come back. Anyone who came back from Vietnam can come back from anywhere.

OBSERVER
Thirty five years and you still amaze me.

He pulls her into his arms and passionately kisses her. Then, he's out of the chair and gone.

135A CLOSE ON BETH

watching him go.

BETH
(to herself)
So do you.

Over her face, we hear the....

ANNOUNCER’S VOICE
Here's the windup and the pitch.

CUT TO

136A INT. AL’S PLACE - NIGHT - CLOSE ON RADIO

The dial glows yellow from this old Philco model set in the backroom of the bar. We hear the crack of a bat and the roar of a crowd as the announcer Rosey Rosewell supplies the color. We pull back from the radio.

ANNOUNCER'S VOICE
It's a long fly ball to left field.
(excited)
Open the window Aunt Minnie, here she comes!

our pull back reveals Ghee standing next to the Philco. The miners at the bar stop their raucous celebration and turn to the radio to hear the crash of broken glass that's Rosey's sound effect for a Pirate home run. The miners cheer as the Rosey continues.

GHEE
Do you believe this!
(beat)
They trade Kiner and now half the team’s hitting home runs.

137A ANGLE ON THE BAR - SFX

Al smiles and slides a draft to Miner Ziggy and then picks up Mutta’s glass to refill it.

MINER ZIGGY
Nobody on the Pirates will ever break as many window canes as Ralph Kiner did.

MUTTA
Panes not canes. Window Panes.

MINER ZIGGY
I said panes.

MUTTA
You said canes.

A blue light materializes next to Miner Ziggy, coalesces with electric, arcing into Al and dissipates. Mutta and Ziggy seem oblivious to Al’s sudden appearance and speak to him as if held been there all along.

MUTTA
(to Observer)
Didn't Ziggy-say canes? Window canes?

OBSERVER
(swiss cheesed)
I don't remember what she said?

MUTTA
She?

OBSERVER
Ziggy.

MINER ZIGGY
You must be a friend of Sam’s.
(explaining to Mutta)
Sam knows a Ziggy who's a woman, an ugly woman.

Ghee joins them.

GHEE
He must have seen you in your dress at the Beer Barrel Reunion.

OBSERVER
You cross-dress?

MINER ZIGGY
Cross-dress?

OBSERVER
Dress like the opposite sex.

GHEE
My Aunt Anna does that.

OBSERVER
Dresses like a man?

GHEE
No, like a woman.

Ghee slaps the bar and, laughing at having put one over on the Observer, moves off with Mutta and Miner Ziggy.

138A FEATURING AL

He wipes the counter in front of the observer who is now slightly isolated from-the miners.

AL
What'll it be?

OBSERVER
Information.

Al shoves the punchboard to him.

AL
Twenty-five cents a punch. Hit the jackpot and I'll answer your question.

OBSERVER
I got to gamble to get info from God?

AL
Who said I was God?

OBSERVER
Sam did. He said you were God or Time or Fate.

AL
(laughs)
Why not an alien while you're at it.

OBSERVER
(stunned)
Oh, my God....

AL
What?

OBSERVER
We didn't think of that!
(realizing)
It makes sense. You could be a higher intelligence from the outer reaches of the universe!

AL
I'm afraid the only alien here is you, Al.

OBSERVER
Why me?

AL
Because you're the only one who doesn't belong here.

OBSERVER
What about Sam?

AL
He's not here anymore ... he's on the job.

OBSERVER
In the future, right?

AL
Right.

OBSERVER
(pissed)
Without me!

AL
I didn't think you were needed.

OBSERVER
(incredulous)
You didn't think I was needed!
(beat)
Who flew the X-2? Me! Who taught him Elvis' moves? Me! Who showed him how to box, shoot pool, draw a six-gun ... kiss the girl!

AL
(amused)
You.

OBSERVER
You're damn right, me!
(quickly adds)
If you're God, excuse the language.

AL
If I'm God, you're excused.

OBSERVER
Sam wouldn't have righted a single wrong if it wasn't for me.

AL
Well....

OBSERVER
Okay. Maybe one or two, but he needs me. And more important... I need him.

139A CLOSER ON BOTH

Al thinks this over for a moment before speaking.

AL
The past has been mere prologue. Where Sam has gone, there is great danger.

OBSERVER
Cut the Star Wars dialogue! Are you going to send me with him or not?

AL
You'd no longer enjoy the safety of a hologram.

OBSERVER
I was kinda hoping that would continue.

AL
You'd be a Leaper, like Sam, with all the inherent risks.

OBSERVER
I still want to join him.

AL
That's all it takes.

OBSERVER
What do you mean?

AL
You just have to want to do it.

Al steps aside and the Observer looks into the mirror.

140A THE OBSERVER’S POV - THE MIRROR

Everything has changed. The bar, the miners, all have leaped far into the future and are space warriors enjoying a night at a space station bar. But the biggest shock of all is the observer ... he's a future version of a blonde bombshell.

141A ON THE OBSERVER

He spins around on the stool to find himself in the space station bar. Ghee, wearing the uniform of space pilot, leans in next to him with a leacherous grin on his face.

GHEE’S VOICE
I've been in a hundred rec bars from here to the Magellic Clouds and believe me, you've got the greatest set of cassabas I've ever targeted.

OBSERVER
Oh, boy.

TO BE CONTINUED

[mitchum]

36. The Simpsons

and I don't even have to claim to be psychic

[Taverner]

38. ALF, St Elsewhere, Seinfeld

However BEST last ep goes to Six Feet Under

That ending montage STILL makes me cry!

[MadBadger]

43. Because you didnt care anymore, The Wing's final episode was bad.

Very Very funn

[JanMichael]

44. The US version of Life on Mars (they had to wrap it up quick - cancelled)

The UK version was a thousand times better.

[Kat45]

55. I didn't like that episode at first but then I kept thinking about it

and I thought it fit. I liked it. How did the UK version end?

[LanternWaste]

47. Freaks and Geeks

Lindsey sneaks outs for two weeks to follow The Dead, and Sam becomes "cool" when one of the upper classmen stoners plays D&D with him.

Babylon 5 Adios, Captain Sheridan.

Home Front: Too much to recap, but it was swell.


Oops-- I just woke up from nap and was thing "best endings..." Need something cold to drink I guess.

[fishwax]

53. okay

I was really wondering what you hated about the Freaks and Geeks finale. What a great series, all the way around :D

[AngryOldDem]

57. St, Elsewhere....

...that was a BIG FU to a loyal fanbase, but the quality of the show toward the end probably should have been a clue as to what was coming. But the end wasn't nearly as clever as the writers thought it was.

The West Wing did bring things full circle, but my main beef with that was it started to become just another soap opera once Josh and Donna leapt into the sack. The election episodes where they alternate between analyzing exit polls and screwing are just annoying. I did like the final scene with the Bartlets on the plane going home. MASH just drowned in its own PC.

Shows need to know when to leave, and how to make a graceful exit.

[Iggo]

58. I thought the final episode of M*A*S*H sucked.

But the final few seasons of that show sucked.

It got...I dunno...clean.

(And if I have to hear BJ talk about Peg one more fucking time, I'm taking a goddam hostage!)

[deutsey]

67. Yeah, I think the show should've ended with the '78-'79 season n/t

[BlueIris]

69. No kidding.

There are a few watchable eps in the last four years, but...I would have to be um, pretty medicated to try to get through them.

[Seneca]

63. I saw the 'Seinfeld' finale in a rerun recently

I was very pleasantly surprised how much it improved with age. Stripped now of the hype and hoopla surrounding it in its time, it played out much like a typical episode. In fact, true to its genre-defying form, it seems now it purposely refused to conform to the typical sitcom formula of making the finale an "event". As someone who had watched it since the "Seinfeld Chronicles" pilot in 1989, I was especially pleased with the 'perfect circle' ending. The last line of the finale was the first line of the pilot, just trading the diner setting for a jail cell. The mantra of the show was "no hugs, no lessons", and true to form, they treated sitting in the cell as a mere inconvenience, with no signs of remorse for the wrecked trail of people's lives behind them.

As for my vote for most disappointing finale, I would have to say "Cheers". Even in reruns, it is remarkably humdrum and anti-climatic. Sometimes, there is something to be said for making the finale an "event."

[BlueIris]

65. I thought the "Angel" series finale sucked big, bumpy rocks.

But then again, so did much of the last two seasons of that show.

[BlueIris]

68. How could I have forgotten "Alias"?

Oh, that bit. What hurts me was that I actually thought there was a little bit of potential left in the last couple of episodes to make the finale watchable. But it turned out to be appalling. (And I'm dreading what I'm sure will be the eventual spin-off alluded to in the final scene.)

[Frank Cannon]

79. In all fairness, the entire last season of Alias kind of sucked

Although it was redeemed somewhat by the presence of Rachel Nichols.

[BlueIris]

80. The entire last season of "Alias" was some of the worst t.v. I've ever watched.

Right up there with the 5th season of "24" and HBO's repulsive "Mind of the Married Man."

[mochajava666]

72. Twin Peaks

Northern Exposure

[fishwax]

75. yeah, two shows that really went off the rails

Sad, too, considering how good they were in their early stages.

[foxglove1]

84. great show

space above and beyond

[DutchLiberal]

88. They dropped the ball halfway through the 2nd season, but only briefly...

The mass audience only watched because they wanted to find out who killed Laura Palmer. They didn't really care about all the other storylines or the universe that Lynch and Frost were trying to create. That was just for the fans. Once ABC pressured them into revealing 'the killer' (although we all know that he wasn't *really* 'the killer'), the mass audience abandoned the show.

Still, I think they could've kept the audience if they didn't waste the next three or four episodes on meaningless storylines that didn't add anything to the TP-universe and which made the show look kinda silly. They fully recovered with the introduction of Windom Earle, IMO, but too bad the general audience didn't care to keep watching to see that.

[fishwax]

93. I don't think they ever quite got it back

When the second season came out on DVD a few years back we watched the series through, and there was some great quirkiness, but I didn't think it ever got back its unsettling charm (or charming unsettling-ness). I agree with you that ABC pressure killed the show--not only because of the LP storyline but because their meddling basically drove Lynch away from the show. The finale which Lynch directed) actually wasn't bad, but the second season was really up and down, imo.

[Orrex]

81. The finale of Twin Peaks was fantastic IMO

But to get there, we had to endure an awful lot of bottom-of-the-barrel crap. The whole "runaway James" and "Civil War Ben" subplots were unwatchable idiocy.

When Twin Peaks was good, it was incredible. When it was bad, it was incredibly bad.

[mochajava666]

82. I'll have to watch the finale again

I couldn't stand the James and Ben story lines too, but liked the whole Black Lodge stuff.

Cooper's love interest should have been introduced sooner, IMO. I felt like she was thrown in there at the end like a Star Trek security team man which doesn't last past the opening scene.

Despite some really bad story lines, I think Twin Peaks still is the best series that network TV has ever done. For cable, I go with The Sopranos, which ending I didn't like either.

[DutchLiberal]

90. Annie was thrown in to replace Audrey as Cooper's love interest...

At least that's what I've read. It was supposed to be a relationship between Cooper and Audrey, but MacLachlan didn't feel that was right for his character, to date a high school student. And boy, was he right!

[Winston Wolf]

91. Best. Ending. Ever.

The ending to Twin Peaks couldn't have gone any other way. David Lynch's recurring theme of corruption had to rear it's ugly head once more and strike at the audiences' hearts. David Lynch has always loved the conception of a dark road, like to road to the Black Lodge, because he knows that the darkness is like a magnet to madness.

As for not enjoying the whole Ben Civil War sub story, that's a shame really. I found that whole exchange to be one of the more funnier moments of Twin Peaks. I thought it was much better than most if not all Andy/Lucy story lines, particularly anything to do with those two and a certain "Dick" we all know.

However, the worst is by far "Runaway James". When I watched it for the first time, I was hoping that his side story would just be scenes of him driving around, saying nothing. That would have been perfect for him.

And nothing was worse than the Harold Smith bullshit, and Donna's ridiculous flashlight signaling/breaking and entering/distracting whatever the fuck plan was so bad that I almost punched the T.V.

...and then I got upset, so I said, "Let's go skinny dipping!"

[mochajava666]

94. Wecome to DU!

I'll definitely have to watch the finale again. I guess I wasn't into the second season as much, so by the time the finale came around, I had lost some interest.

[DutchLiberal]

89. They recovered from that long before the finale...

You remember the whole Windom Earle storyline, right?

[Orrex]

92. Of course--it was instrumental in the finale, after all.

My point was that they stuffed an awful lot of awful crap into two brief seasons, more's the pity.

Incidentally, the dream sequence at the end of (IIRC) the second episode of season one is probably the best handful of minutes ever filmed for non-cable tv.

[DutchLiberal]

87. At first, I went: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

But now I look at it as *the* most fitting ending for the show. It always did everything different, it always was unconventional, and to have this creepy, horrifying ending really is in place with the feeling of the series. I still get goosebumps thinking about it...

[GirlAfire]

76. West Wing

Jimmy Smits replacing MARTIN SHEEN? WTF.

EDIT: Oh, you asked for others, but I just mentioned one you already had. Just noticed West Wing was already listed. Well, I don't watch much tv, so... that's all I can think of!

[foxglove1]

85. Space: Above and Beyond

Another great show ... sad to see it end

Myron

[DutchLiberal]

86. Frasier: too much happening at the same time...

We've got a marriage between Martin and his girlfriend; Daphne who gives birth to her and Niles' son; and Frasier leaving for San Fransisco to do a tv show; and some storylines for the minor characters. All crammed into 45 minutes, it's just too much.

Besides, Martin's girlfriend was only introduced halfway the season and seen in maybe 4 or 5 episodes, so nobody cared about them getting married. Frasier was facing a dilemma about going to San Fransisco for a new job or chasing his new girlfriend who moved to Chicago. But she, too, was only introduced halfway through the season and seemed like girlfriend nr. 7264 in the show, so again: why should we care?

It's too bad. The writing had been so consistently strong for most of the show, and then they ended it with this mess.