TV series without finales
- Thread starter tharpdevenport
- Start date
In this age of Direct to DVD and Cable netlets and such, I don't really see the need to NOT have a finale even if a show is cancelled, would it be so hard to at least whip out ONE final story and release it on DVD or something, especially if the show did have a cult following that was enough to do say dozens of online petitions or letter writing campaigns and such? At least SG-1 was able to wrap up the Ori storyline in a Direct to DVD release. Even if the budget is only slightly more than what they'd spend on a couple of episodes, it would at least give the series a good 'end', especially when they plan on striking the sets and other actors are already starting to move on.
Well Joss played it safe with Buffy and made each season self contained (with the exception of season 6, but it was already renewed for season 7) so I imagine he'll continue the trend with Dollhouse.
ER might have ended with life going on as normal, but it's hard to say that it didn't have a finale. It really had almost a season to wrap up many threads. It was a proper ending for the show, if not an ending for the characters.
Caroline in the City ended on a cliffhanger. 
Not that anyone really cared by that point!
Crossing Jordan didn't get a real finale, but it wrapped up fairly well in its last episode, anyway.
Not that anyone really cared by that point!Crossing Jordan didn't get a real finale, but it wrapped up fairly well in its last episode, anyway.
Did Dark Skies get a proper ending at all? I know it only ran for the one season, but I can't remember what happened at the end. Wish they could get it out on DVD, but apparently that's proving to be impossible due to the cost of licensing the music or something. I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that the producers had planned for each season to take place in a different deacde, bringing the show from it's original 60's setting, up to modern day. Sounds like it would have been kinda cool.
Painkiller Jane ended on a kind of cliffhanger, but the show was becoming far too predictable anyway so I wasn't bothered.
Nope no ending.
Each season was supposed to be around a decade leading up to the alien invasion in the year 2000, or 2012.
You've seen it?
You've seen it?
They aired it at a few different events.
You've seen it?
They aired it at a few different events.
And expect a DVD release this summer - and possibly more.
Miracles and Jericho were finale-less, due to the Curse of Skeet. (OK, Jericho had some kind of finale, but it just whetted my appetite for more.)
Alien Nation's final episode was a cliffhanger. It was sort of resolved four years later in TV movie form, but not without a retcon.
The final three episodes aired in Germany a month ago. I was really scared that the last episode was going to end with a cliffhanger (only two minutes left and the shit was hitting the fanYou've seen it?
), the last scene is kinda slapped together, it's obvious that it was suppsed to be a cliffhanger, but it works suprisingly well. I won't spoil it, but I'll say that it was a really nice and upbeat ending.
Jericho was at least enough of a finale, although it obviously foreshadowed a potential story for a film.
Really, other than Spike getting his soul back in the closing moments, Season 6 was pretty self-contained as well.
Similarly, I give Wonderfalls props for having a pretty self-contained Season 1 with a nice happily ever after ending for the final episode.
Odyssey 5 ended on an excruciating cliffhanger. Angela is kidnapped. And we get some major revelations about the aliens that completely change pretty much everything we'd come to assume about them & project Bright Sky.
Tru Calling not only didn't get a proper finale, it wasn't even allowed to end on a season finale. FOX suddenly cut its 2nd season episode order from 13 down to 6.
7 Days didn't have a proper finale but I think it could have if they'd just flipped the last two episodes and ended on "Born in the USSR." That was a nice little bit of intrigue to end on where Frank Parker has to stop the Russians from developing their own Project Backstep. (Instead, the final episode was some weird New Orleans voodoo thing called "Live from Death Row" where Frank Parker has to stop his old army buddy from being wrongfully executed.)
Gunsmoke had three or four sequel TV-movies, so if they were going to wrap it up, they could have.
I wish they would have wrapped up Coronet Blue, a summer replacement series from the late 60's with Frank Converse. The title referred to the only two words an amnesiac could remember after almost being beaten to death. We never found out what the words meant.
Also, Soap ended with a triple cliffhanger. I was so frustrated that a few years later, I wrote a final episode.
--Ted
I wish they would have wrapped up Coronet Blue, a summer replacement series from the late 60's with Frank Converse. The title referred to the only two words an amnesiac could remember after almost being beaten to death. We never found out what the words meant.
Also, Soap ended with a triple cliffhanger. I was so frustrated that a few years later, I wrote a final episode.
--Ted
ST:TOS, ST:ENT, The Flash, The Tick, Home Movies, CRUSADE(Killed before it even hit the air-waves!) The Oblongs, Robocop The Series, The Critic, and too many more to mention.
