Giving a Show a Proper Ending

[DirgeNovak]

Earth 2 (NBC, 1994) was amazing. And it ended of a fucking cliffhanger before being canceled after a single season despite being fairly popular at the time.

It should probably have ended with the colonists arriving on the planet after 3-4 seasons. Leave a door open for a sequel, but finish the characters's quest... that's the best way to end most shows IMO.

 

[X10J]

If we're counting internet shows as well, I'd like to add "Unforgotten Realms" and "Anthony Saves the World."

 

[LikeDustInTheWind]

I would also like to add Heroes to this list. Stupid writers strike pushed it to it's premature demise.

I at least wanted to see what part of the season would have been after the ending we saw. The whole world learning about the heroes and all that cool stuff.

Lost ended without a real ending. In fact, that entire last season can fuck right off.

I actually liked the ending after I thought about it a bit but to each his own I guess.

 

[Maxtro]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Angel.

The ending was terrible but it's all the writers could do with the short notice given that the show was being canceled. It's a shame that Sarah Michelle couldn't even make it.

 

[fmazz]

Invader Zim. It just kind of... Ended. That's it? The Valentine's day Platypus? If I could go back, I'd end it with Zim winning. Dib goes to wake up the sleeping masses, but fails, and humanity is destroyed, with him being the only survivor. Zim, sick green thing that he is, finds Dib, but leaves him alive, drifting dead in space forever. Silence for the rest of his miserable human life, forever haunted by the fact that he lost.

Nick got rid of IZ because they flashed a picture of a bloody Gir in some episodes. Ironically the writers of IZ put a bloody Gir in some episodes because they heard rumors that Nick was going to get rid of IZ for not being aimed towards kids. So they went down fighting. Sort of.

 

[Knocker]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Angel.

The ending was terrible but it's all the writers could do with the short notice given that the show was being canceled. It's a shame that Sarah Michelle couldn't even make it.

I would vote Angel, however it would be no where near as good since Andy Hallett (Lorne) is no longer with us.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Im thinking of my wife and kids (theres a lot of shows really you could say Technically Gilligan and the crew never got off the island) and it ended on the cliff hanger that seemed to be like it should have had a two parter.

I'd end it with jay and michael going through a rough time, threatening to leave each other, then michael getting his vasectomy as if it say im so committed to you jay, but jay doesnt listen at first, then she does as the baby mmoves or something and they decide to stay, finding that love gain.

Cheesy? yeah, but then again, it was one of those kinda shows.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Dragon Ball Z.

Should have ended atfter Gohan obliterated Cell.

Gohan rose, Goku went on to live in heaven with King Kai, and Vegeta finally did a good deed.

Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball's creator, wanted to end it there, but he was convinced to keep it going due to fan demand.

And it led to the 2nd worst saga :|

 

[The Funslinger]

Dragon Ball Z.

Should have ended atfter Gohan obliterated Cell.

Gohan rose, Goku went on to live in heaven with King Kai, and Vegeta finally did a good deed.

I might be wrong, but I heard that was where the manga ended.

It's definitely where the new Kai remake is ending.

There are comics for the Majin Buu Saga. Although I don't know if they came before the cartoons or not. What I really don't understand is that Gohan is given nothing to do in the Buu saga. Except lose. He's built up from the fight with Raditz as being this apparently powerful hero. Then he does nothing.

OT: My Name is Earl. I'm sure I have others, but I'm drawing a blank.

Edit: Although it's not really an ending, I should like to know what happened to Paul mcGann's incarnation of the Doctor after the movie. Apparently they're doing radio plays of some of his adventures, but I doubt they'll have his demise.

I'd also like to know why the Time Lords basically existed all the way up to the seventh doctor, still there with the eighth doctor, then bam. Ninth doctor rolls around and they're dead. Really makes you feel like The Blitz from How I Met Your Mother (e.g. when you leave the room, something huge and awesome happens.)

At the end of his movie, he's heading to Galifrey with his two companions and you don't really know exactly what happens after that. Then in the first episode of the new series, you see Christopher Eccleston examining his face in a mirror as if he had never seen it before.
What this implies to me is that the 8th Doctor spent the rest of his life in the Time War. Then gets killed to regen and meet Rose.
I'd rather leave that gap to the imagination. No matter how amazing the "Nightmare Child" and "Horde of Travesties" end up being made they could never live up to my expectation.

I never watched My Name is Earl.
-
I really wish Spider-Man Unlimited had a better conclusion. There were some crazy ideas in that show and some fun twists on the story, I wish it had a chance to finish.

Pokemon needs an ending. Ash has been 10 years old since 1997.

No, he couldn't have just regenerated. When Rose met that guy wanting info about the doctor, he had all these pictures and stories pertaining to the ninth incarnation. If that was stuff he ended up doing with Rose, then she would pop up, too. Maybe the mirror thing was part of that idea, but they didn't fully follow through with it. Yeah, I wouldn't want to know some of the precise events, but really the reason why they left Gallifrey in the shadows was so that the writers could manipulate it in later episodes if they so wished. Not the best reason. It probably wouldn't live up to the hype, but I think more references to slowly hint at what happened would be good. I think it's implied that the doctor somehow committed double genocide on the Time Lords and Daleks, but I'm not sure.

As for Pokemon, the people who make the anime basically said that as their target audience was basically being restocked every few years, they were free to go in circles as they wish. Possibly the most evil thing I've ever heard from TV execs, but ah well. People looking for deep story have penned a number of theories to justify it. The main one being that when Ash and Pikachu got attacked by Spearow and Pikachu unleashed that huge attack, Ash was knocked into a Coma, dreaming all these adventures, never growing or changing. I don't follow it though, and haven't for years, so I wouldn't know.

 

[The Funslinger]

Invader Zim. It just kind of... Ended. That's it? The Valentine's day Platypus? If I could go back, I'd end it with Zim winning. Dib goes to wake up the sleeping masses, but fails, and humanity is destroyed, with him being the only survivor. Zim, sick green thing that he is, finds Dib, but leaves him alive, drifting dead in space forever. Silence for the rest of his miserable human life, forever haunted by the fact that he lost.

Nick got rid of IZ because they flashed a picture of a bloody Gir in some episodes. Ironically the writers of IZ put a bloody Gir in some episodes because they heard rumors that Nick was going to get rid of IZ for not being aimed towards kids. So they went down fighting. Sort of.

Oh God, I caught odd episodes of that. It was the trippiest thing ever! It was awesome!

Of course I only really ended up paying attention when they moved it to its late night slot on Cartoon Network (here in Britain, at least.) Which I only ended up being able to watch when I had the house to myself.

Spoiler: episodes I remember

The one where Zim was put into boot camp, thinking he was going to receive a fleet of ships. The Tallest and everyone were taking bets on how long he would last.

Another one where Zim abducted Dib and made him slow motion. He was running from Zim's lab the entire episode to warn people about an even slower explosion.

A Dib oriented episode, where he had some sort of computer thing that granted spells. He had one left, which made his sister unable to eat meat or something.

One where Zim was going to land his leader's ship on Dib's head. I think nano robots were also involved, but that might have been something else.

Edit: forgot to close my spoiler x3

 

[ShindoL Shill]

My Name is Earl for the simple reason it got cancelled mid-cliffhanger. who the fuck is Earl Jr's dad!?

seriously, let the show have all of its allotted episodes before taking it out back and shooting it. or, y'know, let some other company buy it (some other company was thinking of buying MNIE)

I would end Scrubs properly by erasing the 9th season from existence.

i'm going to mostly agree. i like to look at it as the creator wanted to:
as a spin-off. the creator didnt want to do it, which is why the title card has 'Medical School' at the bottom corner.

that and fir-

nah done to death. Red Dwarf. they have the whole kochanski thing left hanging, even after Back to Earth

 

[Scarim Coral]

Quite frankly some of the 80-90's cartoon shows had never been given the proper ending treatment like-

Jayce and the Wheeled warriors
Bucky O'hare
M.A.S.K (I think?)
Visionaries
Centurions

Also these never get a proper ending either
The Zeta Project
The Bots Master
Invader Zim
Hey Arnold

 

[Magicmad5511]

My Name is Earl. It ended on a complete cliffhanger, which isn't even my main gripe. I just wanted to see Earl finally finish his list and be happy with life, is that too much to ask?

Definitely this.

Another one though is 'Reaper' for me. It had a lot of promise and the character of the Devil was cool(he wore a suit). Then it just ended, Sam and Andi together and an angel saying God moves in mysterious ways. No true ending, with it even opening up more questions with Andi having lost her soul and becoming a slave to the Devil. They could have at least redone it so Sam won the contest and won his and Andi's souls. I would have been happy with that ending.

I hate that it got canceled, especially when it did. I was shocked and a bit angry. Chances are it was due to religious controversy which gives me another reason to be annoyed by religion.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

Seeing as everyone and their dog is gonna say Firefly, I'll buck the trend and say Dollhouse. Yeah, it did get a 'proper' ending, but the whole second season was stupidly rushed, every episode had enough plot for a quarter of a season

Just shows you how desperate Joss was to not let Fox kill off another show without an ending

I heard somewhere that the ending to season looked the way it did because the show almost didn't get a 2nd season. I am glad they at least got to tell a complete story and it all fit together pretty nicely. And yeah that was always a metric shit-ton of information being thrown at you, but I think it worked. I definitely think it could have been stretched into at least another season and still been awesome.