Going Out In Style: TV's Best Finales

As the water cooler talk continues over "The Sopranos" controversial finale, it's too early to say if it will join the pantheon of great television endings. But there are a handful of "final episodes" that deserve to be included in that list--at least in the USA.
Back in 1960, the long-running "Howdy Doody" aired its final episode with a shocker: Clarabell the Clown, who never spoke a word during the 13-year run of the children's series, turned to the camera and softly told his audience, "Goodbye, kids." It was a fitting end to one of the best-remembered kids programs.
Seven years later, "The Fugitive" ended its run with a true resolution that kept viewers tuned in for four seasons. Dr. Richard Kimble finally caught up with the "one armed man"--the person who really killed Kimble's wife. The suspect was killed by Kimble's pursuer, Lieutenant Girard, in an act of faith. But a witness to the murder finally came forward and confirmed Kimble did not kill his wife. As narrator William Conrad summed it up: "August 29th, 1967. The day the running stopped." And that finale drew the largest audience for an American program up to its time.
In 1977, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"--one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time--called it quits with a now-classic finale, where the entire staff of WJM's news department is fired--except for the one man who probably contributed to WJM's low ratings, news anchor Ted Baxter. The last few minutes proved to be tender, sentimental--and a satisfying closure to a story we came to know and love for seven wonderful seasons.
Arguably the best ending came in 1990, when Bob Newhart's second sitcom ended its run. In the final episode of "Newhart," Dick Lowden found himself beaned by a golf ball outside his Vermont inn. Soon after, the scene came up to a vaguely familiar bedroom--and it soon became clear: Bob Hartley (Newhart's character on the 1972-78 "Bob Newhart Show") dreamed that from 1982 until 1990, he ran a little bed and breakfast in Vermont and had a blonde wife named Joanna with a fondness for sweaters. We knew it was Bob Hartley because his on-screen wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette) was right next to him in bed, miffed because Bob/Dick told her she should start wearing more sweaters. Newhart later admitted in his autobiography that it was his real-life wife Ginny who came up with the idea. She should have been a writer.
And finally, my award for the most unexpected series finale came from a short-lived 1987 comedy on ABC called "I Married Dora"--about a man with three kids who marries their maid to keep her in the states. Few people bought the premise, but the producers brought the short-lived sitcom to a satisfying conclusion in the last episode. The father leaves on a jet plane despite the pleas of "Dora" and his kids. But moments later, he returns to the airport:
DAD: It's been canceled.
Dora: The flight?
DAD: No, the series!
The camera then pulls out to reveal the entire cast and crew of "I Married Dora" waving good-bye and entering the television trivia books. Some shows with overblown and unsatisfying finales could have learned a lesson there.
Until next time, happy viewing!