https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vTm8Ns70kc Was looking for something else and came across this Anyone got any other examples of bizarre episode endings?
The one in the OP is a great one. When I first saw this thread, my first thought was of another Magnum episode, "Did You See the Sunrise?": [yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7vW1oEKP1k[/yt] It can be a comedy punchline, too, right? From WKRP in Cincinnati's American Thanksgiving episode, "Turkeys Away" ("As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."): [yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf3mgmEdfwg[/yt] I also think that "The City on the Edge of Forever" qualifies.
The related videos to the OP gives another example from Miami Vice, though not as weird as the Magnum P.I. one, which is hard to top. [yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTSJ0s1A20s&spfreload=10[/yt] Crockett is clearly implied in dialog and actions to have murdered an unarmed Hackman in revenge for killing his pregnant wife (played by Sheena Easton in a big stretch as a pop singer, hence the rather incongruous pop song that accompanies Sonny's walk-off). Crockett went on an Archer-style RAMPAGE after finding out about the pregnancy, which she didn't get a chance to tell him before she was shot and fell into in his arms. Pretty standard good guy crossing the line and committing murder when it's personal and the bad guy is really really bad trope, like the other Magnum P.I. clip posted above. What makes it weird is that NBC's censors wouldn't allow Crockett to straight up murder the guy out of revenge, so they demanded a reshoot where it's revealed that Hackman actually had a gun in his hand out of nowhere as Sonny walks away, thus justifying the revenge killing but taking away from a huge dramatic moment in Crockett's development as a character, showing him as a broken man willing to compromise his ethics for revenge. It was a precursor of the Greedo edit in the Special Editions.
^ Crockett probably planted the gun. Doesn't make the ending any less strange, really, but it is IMHO more believable than Hackman managing to hide the gun from Crockett who has been staring at him for several minutes.
Yeah, you can easily explain it and maintain the original premise, because Crockett is shown strapping on a backup piece before going after Hackman. The weird part is just that the NBC censors demanded the gun be edited into the shot after the fact to imply that Hackman was armed all along. Their intent was to show that Crockett wouldn't kill an unarmed man.
That was great, I can remember very well when that was first aired. My brother and I just about couldn't believe it. "What the... Whoa!" We always wanted to catch that one in reruns later on. That's the oddest one I can think of, personally. Because it was part of the episode's B-plot, you just never expected something that abruptly drastic to come of it. Magnum and Ivan, sure, very memorable, but that was the central showdown of a two-parter.
I think this one isn't as strange because the Magnum ones are so incongruous with the bulk of its light entertainment.
The South Park episode with Scott Tenorman. That kind of thing wouldn't be surprising in South Park now, but at the time South Park episodes tended to end with Cartman being humiliated or getting his comeuppance in some way, and to that point he had been a giant jerk but hadn't done anything truly sociopathic. Also you could fill an entire page with Twilight Zone endings.
There was this one early Law & Order episode (you can tell it's early because Michael Moriarty is in it) which features heavy involvement with drug gangs...anyway pretty much every character in the episode who isn't a main character ends up getting killed. And the last scene (taking place in Ben Stone's office) about a little girl: Adam Schiff: She was picked up at school by her uncle. Ben Stone: She doesn't HAVE an uncle. edit: it's "Prince of Darkness" from the third season (Paul Sorvino's last episode).
^ Reminds me of ReBoot's second season finale, "Web World Wars". Not only was it a very grim and violent ep by the series' standards, but it ended with the bad guys winning,and the main character maybe permanently banished. I was old enough to know that some stories had non-happy endings, but I sure as heck didn't expect it from my (only) cartoon show!