Most early television series consisted of stand-alone episodes rather than continuing story arcs, so there was little reason to provide closure at the end of their runs.
One of the few dramatic series to have a planned finale during this period was Route 66, which concluded in March 1964 with a two-part episode in which the pair of philosophical drifters ended their journey across America and then went their separate ways.
[2] This remained the highest viewership percentage in U.S. television history until the 1977 finale of the TV mini-series Roots (on the same network) and later the 1980 resolution episode of the internationally prominent "Who shot J.R.?"
In 1989, the Britcom, starring Rowan Atkinson as a Blackadder in 1917 WW1, goes "over the top" with his regiment, leaving their fate unknown as fade to a field of poppies.
[14][15] For example, The Sopranos' finale caused millions of viewers to temporarily believe they had lost cable service due to an abrupt blackout.
Elsewhere finales, the mixture of comedy and resonance that wrapped up The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the redemption arc that concluded The Fugitive.
[20][21] Examples of universally acclaimed finales from earlier in the millennium include those of Britain's The Office ("Interview", 2002), The Shield ("Family Meeting", 2008), and Six Feet Under ("Everyone's Waiting", 2005), the last of which TV Guide ranked at No.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Boy Meets World, Martin, Liv and Maddie) Series finales will sometimes include clips or characters from the series' past (e.g. Seinfeld, Suits, Martin, Star Trek: The Next Generation), and the ending moments of the episode often take place in the show's primary setting.
"The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", "Into the Wild Green Yonder (Part 4)", "Overclockwise", and "Meanwhile" have all been written to serve as a final episode for the show.
The penultimate episode of Season 19 was also intended as a series finale, as revealed by showrunner and executive producer Matt Weitzman.
[28] The series finale of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (itself an epilogue to I Love Lucy) was unintentionally fitting: stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were about to divorce and end the show, a fact that the show's guest star for what would be the final program, Edie Adams, did not know when she chose the song she would sing on the program.
"[29] The series also ended with Lucy and Ricky making up and kissing, while in reality Ball and Arnaz would not (the two would eventually reconcile later in life, although both would go on to marry other people).
The final episode of the season, "Limbo", after seeing Magnum wander around as a ghost for nearly the entire run-time, closes with him appearing to walk off into heaven.
However, following outcry from fans, who demanded a more satisfactory conclusion, an eighth, final season was produced, to bring Magnum "back to life", and to round the series off.
[31] Another instance of premature endings was with the Rural Purge of 1971 where networks (notably CBS) axed still-popular TV series in an effort to move to more sophisticated programming.