Most Bizarre Series Finales of All Time

Every television show has to end eventually. Most are canceled well before their time and never given the proper chance to wrap up their story lines. 

Some are and end their stories with a completely unexpected or bizarre route.

Life on Mars (US)
The premise behind the original UK and US remake of Life on Mars was the same. Sam Tyler (John Simm in the UK version and Jason O'Mara in the US version), a detective from the 2000s finds himself transported back to the 1970s. He's still a detective but he has to play by 1970s cop rules with 1970s technology. The shows were a welcome reprieve from traditional modern procedural police shows. Both series also had solid elements of surrealistic mysteries as Sam and the viewers try to figure out why he is stuck in the 1970s. The UK version lasted two seasons by choice of the show-runners. The US version was canceled after only one season, but was allowed to film a series finale to wrap up all the loose ends. 

The UK Life on Mars ended with Sam coming out of his coma and back to the 2000s- the 1970s world was a coma induced fantasy. After his journey to the past, he finds the modern world cold; he cannot feel anything in the present day. To get back to the world he was most at home in (i.e. The 1970s), he goes to the top of a building, and jumps off with a smile on his face as David Bowie's “Life On Mars” reaches its crescendo. He succeeds in his mission and happily drives off with fellow 1970s detectives as he hears himself about to flatline over the car's radio. This ending hit all the right emotional notes and finished out Sam's story with class and dignity.

The American version was a bit different.

After a decent final episode, the final five minutes or so take the show into a brand new direction. The 1970s weren't real, much like in the original show. But the 2000s weren't real either. The 2000s were a computer program Sam chose to play while he was in suspended animation traveling in a rocket ship to Mars in 2035. Interference from space led a programming glitch which trapped him in the 1970s. His crew from the 1970s were his shipmates from 2035. There was also something regarding father issues that never fully got resolved or understood since the characters at the end of the series were mostly unrelated to the characters we watched over the past season. Then the rocket ship opens and we see the cast standing there looking at the CGI Mars landscape in the cheapest spacesuits since B-grade 1950s sci-fi flicks. 

The creators claimed that was the ending they always intended. If so, it's good the show only lasted as long as it did. After one season, the future ending came across as a ballsy “fuck you” for canceling the show. If the series had lasted longer or had a bigger fan base, the ending probably would have gone down as “Sopranos-level” disappointing.

Newhart
“Newhart” was the second sitcom from Bob Newhart, featuring the dry comedian as an inn keeper in Vermont. His first series was the classic “The Bob Newhart Show,” which had him as a dentist. After being hit by golf ball, Bob wakes up in bed next to his wife from his first series (Suzanne Pleschett), in the same bedroom as his first series, and as his character from his first series. It was one of the best used instances of “it was all a dream” and one of the strongest outs for a comedy series.

Seinfeld
“Seinfeld” is one of the best sitcoms of all time. Not only funny when it first aired but it still maintains over a decade later. The finale shocked audiences by having the four characters arrested and sent to prison. Controversial to this day, if nothing else it showed that “Seinfeld” was still willing to take risks and provide something wholly unexpected to its audience.




 The Sopranos

Journey's “Don't Stop Believing” and suddenly cutting to black. Taking the scene alone, and looking at it in hindsight, it was actually good: well shot and edited, very suspenseful, led to a lot of speculation, cleverly ambiguous. Of course I understand why people were upset and frustrated and I agree that some closure would have been nice but there is a lot to appreciate in that ending scene. 

The bigger problem was that the rest of the episode (and season) kind of stunk. They kept hammering over and over the boring and repetitive “Depressed AJ” plot at the expense of other story lines, a good deal of plots were dropped or rushed (not just from that season but the show as a whole), most of the mob guys seemed virtually ignored, deaths seemed anti-climactic, and the show lacked an overall feeling of consistency. 

“Don't Stop Believing” was the least of “The Sopranos'” problems.





Family Matters

The final seasons of “Family Matters” completely abandoned any pretense of realism or common sense. The Winslows adopted an inner city black kid named 3J, Steve Urkel managed to clone himself, make himself cool, make himself into Bruce Lee, transport himself to Paris and time travel with Carl to pirate times. 

ABC dropped “Family Matters” for its final season but CBS picked it up. Harriette Winslow was recast by Judyann Elder after JoMarie Payton played the role for nearly 200 episodes. Laura Winslow realized that she actually loved Steve- the boy that had stalked her repeatedly and consistently for over a decade- and not Stephan Urquelle, Steve's super douchey Nutty Professor-esque alter ego. Steve continued to destroy the Winslow's house, showing no remorse, while the audience was still supposed to feel bad for Steve when Carl got angry at him.

The final episode was an edge-of-your-seat two parter. Steve wins a contest and goes into space with NASA. After a mishap during a space walk, he's caught adrift in the cold void of nothingness. He's able to fix his predicament by hot wiring a satellite and using its rocket boosters to bring him back to the space shuttle- all with the best graphics 1998 television had to offer. And Laura agrees to marry him.





Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs was a short lived ABC series (1991-1994) about dinosaurs who act and talk like real people. It was like “The Flintstones,” except they were dinosaurs. Rather, they were people in foam rubber/latexy suits. The show was most famous for the baby dinosaur who wore an egg shell like a diaper and whose catchphrase was “Not the mamma!” when referring to its father. 

This wacky, zany family show ended on an unexpectedly dark and depressing note: the ice age was coming. The series finale was all about the Dinosaurs universe confused at the climate change and wondering how they can weather the storm. But of course they could not, they were dinosaurs. Though the show doesn't tell us explicitly what happens, it's pretty obvious that they all die.






7 7th Heaven (Series Finale 2)
After a ten year nightmare, "7th Heaven" finally ended. But the newly formed CW (from the WB and UPN) decided to bring the show back for another season. Gone were a good deal of the original cast, most of whom were not even to make guest appearances throughout the final season. In were three orphans who made home in the Camden house for some reason, along with a bunch of other latchkey kids who still associated with the family. 

This final episode had Eric Camden (Stephen Collins)- magically cured of a heart condition- getting an RV and deciding to take a trip across country, without informing the church he had worked at for over a decade. The inhabitants of the RV included, some members of his family, the three orphans from the season, Simon's ex-girlfriend with her bastard child, Simon's ex-girlfriend's boyfriend who was going to medical school but decided this road trip would be better, and the boy from across the street. 

Unlike the first series finale, this episode lacked appearances from Watson, Biel, and Gallagher. However, it did have the return of the “homeless magical Negro” character that appeared earlier that season, who may have been an angel- the type with the wings and halo, not the show's typical “angel” (i.e. a condescending term they use to describe mentally challenged people)- who wished them luck on their road trip.


7th Heaven (Series Finale 1)
"7th Heaven" was never a good show. It got everything wrong on every level (writing, directing, set design, acting, characters, continuity, morals) that it actually went into this place beyond badness.

"7th Heaven" was supposed to go off the air at the end of its 10th season when the WB was closing its doors back in 2006. The episode was even promoted as “the series finale.” It centered around a wedding where son Simon (David Gallagher) was going to marry Rose (Sarah Thompson), but didn't for some reason. A lot of boring nonsense happened throughout. The episode ended with oldest son Matt (Barry Watson), oldest daughter Mary (Jessica Biel) and middle daughter Lucy (Beverly Mitchell) all announcing that they were going to have twins. Having twins, according to the show's ethical code, is the highest level of achievement a woman can reach. Crazy matriarch Annie (Catherine Hicks) also had a set of twins of her own in the show's third season and those two grew up to be among the creepiest pair of twins since Jeremy Irons in “Dead Ringers.”


Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
“Studio 60” was Aaron Sorkin's third foray into network television after “Sports Night” and “The West Wing.” For those who don't remember, or are too lazy to look it up, it was about the making of a Saturday Night Live-esque skit comedy show (“Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”). Despite a strong pilot, the show steadily lost its critical acclaim and ratings due to its poor characters, extreme pretentiousness (even by Sorkin standards), half-baked political commentary, and remarkably lame and unfunny sketches written by “comedy geniuses” (Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford's characters). Instead of canceling it after 13 episodes or less, as networks are apt to do for fledging show, NBC uncharacteristically allowed the show to run a full 22 episode season. 

The final five episodes were unique, to say the least. This show, which was originally about a show within a show devoted its last 5 hours, a chance most series don't even get, almost exclusively to a hostage situation in the Middle East. The soldier-brother of a secondary character WHO WAS STANDING IN A FIELD IN AFGHANISTAN! was kidnapped by terrorists. The crew of the ”Studio 60” and network executives worked with a Blackwater-esque organization to figure out how to save the hostage, whom we never saw or cared about. Each episode followed on the heels of the previous one, like a bad “24.” To couch this in real world terms- imagine Seth Meyers, Will Forte, Lorne Michaels and Jeff Zucker working from 1 am late Saturday/early Sunday until dawn to save Bobby Moynihan's brother. 

Barely any time was devoted to the fake Studio 60 or most of the ongoing story lines. 

It was a bizarre way to end a series that never came close to living up to is potential.


St. Elsewhere
One of the most talked about television show endings came from NBC's 1980's realistic medical drama: “St. Elsewhere.” “St. Elsewhere” was about the staff of an urban teaching hospital in Boston and ran from 1982 to 1986. The show featured such actors as Howie Mandel, Denzel Washington and William Daniels (Mr. Feeny from “Boy Meets World”). 

The final moments of the series had a startling surprise. The real hospital morphs into a hospital inside a snowglobe that an autistic boy, named Tommy Westphall, is staring at. The boy's father was one of the main doctors except in reality he was a simple construction worker. The implication is that all the events that transpired over the previous six years were just a product of the boy's mind. 

This ending still remains in our consciousness until today, not just because of its somber twist but because, due to cameos and crossovers from various characters on various other shows, the “Tommy Westphall Universe” continues today his fictional universe spans from “I Love Lucy” to “The X-Files” to “Arrested Development” to “Chuck” and “Lost.” 

The clip is a parody of the scene from the underappreciated sitcom "NewsRadio."





Quantum Leap
Though not intended to be a final episode, the series finale of Quantum Leap effectively functioned as a series finale thanks to the coda placed at the end of the episode.

A show that followed a familiar pattern with episode (ie. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) finds himself in someone else's body in the past, says "oh boy," rights what once went wrong, leaps into someone else's body, end of episode) took a surreal turn for its last episode. Sam leaps into his own adult body on the day he was born back in the 1950s is in a mining town bar filled with people from prior leaps and where people ponder life, death and God. His hologram-advisor/pal from the "present" (Al (Dean Stockwell)) is unable to find him leaving Sam Beckett to fend for himself. 

At the end of the episode, Sam leaps to points unknown. Title cards informs us that the once playboy Al is happy in the "present" with the wife and children he never had and that "Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home." 

Despite being off the air for 16 years, there's never been any real closure or answers from anyone involved with the show as to what happened after Sam made his final leap.