Seeing as how my TV Theme Song thread was such a success, I'll start a similar one.

What shows do you think had the best final episode?

I'll list mine in the morning. I don't even know why I keep making threads about TV shows. I haven't watched TV in nearly a year (besides Futurama, of course).

Newhart had the best ending ever. Of course it helped that he had a series before hand.

Farscape had a mindfuck of a final episode. They killed off the two main characters in the final minutes and then said "To Be Continued."

The masochist in me appreciates that.

A tie:
the brady bunch
the love boat

Because they were over after that. (I know, I know, the bradies had more crap to follow, but at least it wasn't every week.

M*A*S*H

"Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake's plane was shot down over the sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no surivors."

While it was hard to see it go after just three seasons, it was the right choice. Imagine how bad it would have gotten if they'd kept the series after that, replacing characters, and inevitable doing "deep" episodes about war.

M*A*S*H
Star Trek: The Next Generation

Those are the only two TV shows that I can think of that were still worth watching when it came time for the final episode.

In Response to Dynedain (#5302):

I actually had issues with the last (2 hr) episode of MASH, because i always thought of Hawkeye's wackiness as a defense mechanism, a way of coping, not actual insanity. It sort of depressed me to see them take it that way, and make him actually nuts. :( but i still loved it.

In Response to saskia (#5304):

I think it really was like that, but something pushed him over the edge into insanity.

I can't actually remember the episode very well. I only saw part of it, and it was as a rerun, and I didn't know it was the last episode.

Hey, let's change this to Best AND Worst final episodes for TV shows.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I realize that there really aren't very many shows that get a real "final episode". Most just get cancelled.

Best:
Voyager
Cowboy Bebop
Dinosaurs (I barely caught the end of this, but it ended with the start of the ice age)

Worst:
DS9

In Response to FeldmanSkitzoid (#5312):

well, it was sorta like that. a woman smothered her baby to keep them all from being found by snipers and he kinda went nuts, etc. I just didn't like that approach, but I'm picky.

I can't remember what the actual series finale was, but I always loved the season finales of Newsradio. It seemed as if the writers knew that NBC didn't support the show and they'd probably all be fired, so they decided to just go fucking nuts. Then they'd come back for another season and have to do it all again. I especially liked the one season finale where they were inexplicably an office building floating through deep space.

Millennium had a great series finale, if only you pretend it was cancelled after the second season. Which I prefer to do.

In Response to BoxJam (#5299):

Pedantics are encouraged here, right?

M*A*S*H was on the air for 11 seasons. The episode that ended with Lt. Col. Blake's plane crashing was not the last episode. After Col. Blake left, Major Burns took interim control of the camp. After just a few episodes, a new Colonel was assigned the 4077th, Col. Sherman Potter.

Potter remained in command of the 4077th until the final episode in 1981, which is still the most watched television program ever.

Best:
* Definitely, M*A*S*H.
* The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (before Leno took over)
* Star Trek: TNG
* Babylon 5 (if you consider that the 4th season was supposed to be the ending of the series).
* MacGyver

Worst:
* The X-Files (the end of the fifth season was good, but after the movie the series sucked)
* The Ed Sullivan Show (they didn't know they were being cancelled until several weeks after the last one. So, there was no finale.)

Did everyone totally miss the Seinfeld finale?

I thought it was a nice bit of poetic justice, and marked the ultimate expression of the style and themes of the show.

Oh, and I really liked the finale of that one show, what was it called?, where all the characters went off to start whole new exciting adventures in other places, and then at the end, the whole cast came out and did a big theatre bow, and everyone was hugging and crying and laughing, and sharing fond memories of how much their lives had been changed by participating.

That was the best.

Oh, wait, no.

That was the worst.

In Response to Clan_Hanna (#5334):

glad to know someone other than me thought it sucked after the movie. I thought the movie blew too, for that matter. I liked the earlier episodes...the ones about natural phenomena or whatever that weren't as much conspiracy theory as cool stuff. Once the conspiracy became too pervasive, I kinda lost interest, although i still have a large collection somewhere of pictures of Mulder. *shrug*

In Response to saskia (#5340):

I actually liked the consipiracy stuff....and the season leading up to the movie was incredibly well done....but everything after that, and the way they handled the conspiracy...killing off characters just for the sake of killing off characters...just sucked

In Response to zamphir (#5338):

No, I didn't miss the Seinfeld finale....I have seen most episodes of that show...and I still haven't found a single one of them funny, especially the final episode.

I think the other show you are thinking of is Cheers

In Response to Dynedain (#5342):

some conspiracy is good. I think it just got too all-pervasive.

The first episode I ever watched was the season finale where Mulder is trapped in the subteranean burning trailer. what a way to start...;)

In Response to Clan_Hanna (#5333):

I recommend you re-read Boxjam's post over and over until you get the joke.

In Response to Clan_Hanna (#5333):

Pedantics are encouraged here, right?

No.

Even pedantry is not encouraged. It's viewed as it's own reward.

In Response to Dynedain (#5343):

Er... if you didn't like the show, why did you watch most of the episodes?

In Response to TheMooseKing (#5365):

It was hard to miss Seinfeld, even if you never watched it. I never did, and I've also seen most of the episodes.

In Response to FeldmanSkitzoid (#5366):

If you've seen most of the episodes, in fact if you've seen ANY of the episodes, you've 'watched' it.

You were saying that you're not a fan? Sure, I'll give you that. But it doesn't sound like you hate it nearly as much as I hate 'Everybody wishes Raymond would die'.

And I think it was actually 'Growing Pains' I was thinking of. Or maybe 'Saved by the Bell'. Or the new 'Family Affair'. What, that's not cancelled yet? Inconceivable!

In Response to zamphir (#5367):

oh, but saved by the bell was such a great show! (insert gagging here)
I will admit, that at the time I liked it. Now, however, I am appalled at that fact.

and I must be a weirdo, because I think all five or ten times I ever saw Seinfeld...I didn't like it.

The best final episode I've ever seen is for Lexx. I mean, they kill the unkillable dead guy, and they ride off into the cosmos in a giant baby insect space ship thingy.

In Response to TheMooseKing (#5365):

because running against its syndication in my local timeslot (and it is on a couple times a night) are things like Teen Idol, 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, The Bachelor, etc, etc....and I don't have cable because Cartoon Network and HBO (the only things I would get cable for) aren't worth the monthly cost to me.

Needless to say, I've been catching a lot more PBS specials recently (there was a really good one about a month ago comprised entirely of WW2 color footage)