Lets face it, most great tv's series finales are bad! Mash sucked!, Cheers was horrible, Will and Grace was so bad it hurt. Newhart certainly knew how to end a series! With Bob waking up back in bed with Emily (Suzanne Pleshette) from the first series! I heard a rumor that Bob Newharts real life wife thought out this and he liked it so he went with it. "Newhart" was exellent but the best episode of both series was the second series finale!
shareSix Feet Under's finale was very well thought out. I'd give it the edge over Newhart.
I also liked Moonlighting's finale, where they just canceled the show & the crew started taking down the set. Bruce Willis & Cybil Shepherd came out of character....hilarious.
Shhh!!! I am in season 2 of Six Feet Under, don't tell me how it ends! But I love the series so far!
shareI did like just one little part of the Will & Grace finale cited by
the first poster. I'm a Queen fan so when the four principals toasted
each other as Queen's ebullient "You're my best friend" (Written by
bassist John Deacon for wife Veronica in 1976, and they are STILL
married, with 6 kids) I was delighted.
But the Newhart finale was pure unadulterated genius, to quote Wile E.
Coyote.
You mean like Dallas and Roseanne? It was all a dream!
Dallas only wiped out one season with a dream. But Newhart (and St. Elsewhere) made the whole series a dream
share
Don't forget Roseanne.
Roseanne's finale wasn't a dream, it was a story that Roseanne had written =D
shareI believe Roseanne only wiped out a season or two, from Darlene's wedding on when Dan died.
So say we all....
I thought the ending was hilarious and a great surprise. As an earlier poster noted though, it a similar series ending had already been done on St Elsewhere.
At the time, many people thought it was a horrible way to end the show. There was so much criticism of it - but I loved it. I thought it was very much in the keeping of the spirit of the show. Just like Newhart.
The "dream" season in Dallas was just lame though.
Probably the best series finale for a comedy. Also, a lot of people down Seinfeld's finale, but I thought was great, but it wasn't the Newhart finale. Great show with a great cast. Probably one of the most underrated shows on TV.
shareDallas was pathetic, period, but wiping out a season to bring an actor back was how stupid the show was.
John Beck appeared on Phil Donahue and referring to Dallas, said, I don't exist!
St. Elsewhere WANTED to satirize the Dallas ending and it fell flat. Fans of St. Elsewhere were not the same people who watched Dallas or thought about both shows the same way, so it just didn't measure up.
St. Elsewhere also had an episode where someone died, an elderly woman, after receiving a package and opening it to find a human head. The head had been delivered to her by accident. The head's name was Belvedere.
The 'in-joke' was to be because Mr. Belvedere received higher ratings than did St. Elsewhere.
That then shows the problem with St. Elsewhere. Too much focus on what others were doing.
But yes, Newhart's dream ending was in response to both Dallas and St. Elsewhere and a perfect response it was.
Not sure what Roseanne was trying to do; backtrack over what people hadn't liked about the direction she took the show in? It didn't go over well either.
Even as bad as it go, some of the episodes can be fun to watch still for the guest stars, but I don't make a point of rewatching Roseanne.
One more show that did this was an English sitcom called Brittas Empire, which ran for about eight years or so, and the central character woke to find all the people he worked with were strangers on the train. Only his wife was real.
I thought it was amusing, but it seems this didn't sit well with the English audience.
Dallas finale was a dream, but was left in a cliffhanger like every other season but for years people were to believe that JR actually killed himself, but it turned out 5 years later that JR just shot a mirror.
Now I first seen the finale of Newhart when I was a kid, "The Bob Newhart Show" aired on Nick @ Nite while Newhart came on The Family Channel. I laughed so hard when I saw how everything was a dream. My mom said, "You actually get it?" I mean when I seen the finale I was only 8. I loved watching Newhart in the evening times back then.
My job is to inform, not persuade- Dan Rather
This series had so many silly characters that even those who liked the series (like I did) had to think that it tended to jump the shark in this way.
The final episode was made to address the silliness issue, IMHO.
So now it all made sense. Only a psychiatrist could ever dream up such a wacky crew.
Cats are underdogs.