The inaugural "Best Of" is about television series finales. There have been several great ones over the years, some more inspirational than others. Then there are bad ones. ( I will post those at a later time.)
5. M*A*S*H - after a long run of 11 seasons, Radar, Colonel Potter and Hawkeye Pierce all said farewell in the most watched finale in television history. Anticipation was building for what seemed to be a very vague fade-out, when it turned into anything but. The final shot is one for the hall of fame after Honeycutt rides away on his motorcycle and Hawkeye gets in the chopper and flies away for home – seeing the message Honeycutt scribed in stones for his friend: “Good bye.”
4. Star Trek: The Next Generation – said adieu to first-run syndicated airwaves in May of 1994 for a not-so-bold leap onto the big screen. The movie franchise paled primarily due to the explosive last episode which bookended the series with the pilot, and initiated the return of one of the most popular reoccurring characters. One of the more interesting ways to end the series, the powers-that-be provided us with an ending with had a feeling of closure and finality, but was not wrapped in a pretty bow, implying the crew would continue to boldly go where none have gone before. Even the most cynical of non-trekkers got teary-eyed with Picard’s last line; “..and the sky’s the limit.”
3. Newhart – an innkeeper, his smart-assed wife, the spoiled maid, Larry the neighbor with his brother, Darrell, and his other brother, Darrell – were in living rooms across the country for the better part of the 80’s. They said good bye in what was to be the most surprising of fashion when Bob Newhart awoke in the bedroom from his first long-running 70’s sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show. Next to him, Suzanne Pleshette – his wife from that series as well. The gist was simply that the 70’s Bob was having a dream about the 80’s Bob for eight years. The ending was a total surprise and just as much of a secret until it aired in May of 1989.
2. Roseanne – ended her 9 season run in May of 1997 after betraying her fans for an entire season. Roseanne’s appeal was her blue-collared approach to humor – something with which real-life folks highly identified. In the last season, the Conners won the lottery, putting them in the hoity-toityness of society. Soon after, Roseanne’s ratings dropped. But the final episode brought everything full circle – having the entire last season as simply a chapter in the book Roseanne Conner was writing about the entire series. In it, she discovers that money will not solve problems – and her spirituality suffered as a result of her newfound fortune. The show was prophetic, poetic and very sad when we learned of the death of Dan, John Goodman’s character, in the previous season.
1. Six Feet Under - by far the most ingenious and the most creative of all the series buried its five year life in 2006. Prior to, fans of the show got to watch a death every week and how that seemingly random event affected the family in multiple ways. Then Nate passed away before the ending episode, and we watched a tormented family go through more hell. In the finale, a car-ride into the future showed us just how all of these characters’ lived their lives before their deaths, with the youngest of the bunch living to a ripe-old age of 102.
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