Cancelled TV Shows That Never Provided A Proper Ending

[The Voice of Reason]

Okay now that my curiosity is piqued what did happen at Bitter Creek?

The story reportedly goes that the general in charge of the military unit that was massacred at Bitter Creek made a series of fatal mistakes and went crazy during the battle. McCord was the only survivor.

Because the general was McCord's mentor, and he didn't want to see the man's reputation tarnished, McCord never re-veiled what really happened at his court martial, thus he was kicked out of the military.

 

[Ultimajock]

Okay now that my curiosity is piqued what did happen at Bitter Creek?

The story reportedly goes that the general in charge of the military unit that was massacred at Bitter Creek made a series of fatal mistakes and went crazy during the battle. McCord was the only survivor.

Because the general was McCord's mentor, and he didn't want to see the man's reputation tarnished, McCord never re-veiled what really happened at his court martial, thus he was kicked out of the military.

...that, and he tells Lockhart that, if the true details of what happened at Bitter Creek ever were made public, the Apache reaction would be even more vengeful than it had been at Bitter Creek in the first place...

 

[jwgreek8606]

WKRP never had a proper ending either. I heard that WKRP showed reruns during the summer and ratings were high and they had plans to bring back KRP, However it was too late. Gary Sandy, Loni Anderson, and Howard Hesseman had committed to other projects. But it would have been nice to see a relationship between Andy and Bailey and Johnny and Jennifer blossom.

 

[spencerkarter85]

Here's some television series that I know that didn't have a proper (or call it a dissapointing) ending.

All My Children (ABC 1970-2011) left its viewers confused about who got shot in Pine Valley. AMC and it's sister show OLTL were supposed to be resurrected into internet-only soap, but it failed. Which means, we don't know who got shot in Pine Valley.

Family Matters (ABC 1989-1997/CBS 1997-1998) didn't had a proper ending either, the show left after Steve Urkel return from space and he and Laura gets engaged. Unfortunately, that same year Family Matters ended Michelle Thomas (who was Myra) died from cancer at a young age after her short stint on CBS' The Young and The Restless.

Dark Shadows (ABC 1966-1971) didn't had a proper ending. It left its viewers in 1841 Parallel Time instead of the present time of 1971.

Space Cases (Nickelodeon 1996-1997) didn't have a proper ending either.

Memphis Beat (TNT 2010-2011) which I used to watch the show religiously until it ended it's second season finale with "The Feud" (which Millennium's Lance Henrikson guest stars) and the last scene of the series where Dwight Hendricks (Jason Lee), Charlie White (Sam Hennings), Officer Davey Sutton (DJ Qualls), and Reginald Greenback (Leonard Earl Howze) were singing a rendition to a Gladys Knight favorite Midnight Train to Georgia. Then guest what, it got cancelled after 2 seasons and 20 episodes total. As a result, I've sort of boycotted TNT for cancelling my favorite show, that's why I started a FB group called Boycott Turner Network Television. BTW, I follow DJ Qualls on Twitter and Mark Arnell (who was Dwight's singing voice) requested me as a friend on FB recently.

BTW, What ever happened to Sgt. J.C. Lightfoot (Abraham Benrubi) who was in the first season of Memphis Beat and later dissapeared without explanation?

If Memphis Beat continued into season three, we could see Charlie White promoted to Sergeant, and Dwight solving more cases.

 

[azumanga]

Space Cases (Nickelodeon 1996-1997) didn't have a proper ending either.

It seems that many continuing series on Nick did not have a proper ending, either:

"100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd" was about a high school bullied who was punished by a mysterious figure who not only turned him into a dog, but also had him become a pet for one of Eddie's victims. The only way Eddie can become human again is if he accomplishes 100 good deeds, each one covered in an episode. Unfortunately, the series ended after 40 "deeds".

"Hey Arnold" ended when Arnold found a map to a South American country -- this has given him a clue to where his parents are, which would have continued in a theatrical feature. However, the film was never made, as creator Craig Bartlett moved to Cartoon Network to produce a busted pilot, "Party Wagon" -- one of the conditions for that "Hey Arnold" film to have been made is that Bartlett would had to sign a non-compete clause, which would prevent Bartlett from working for anyone other than Nick; it was a contract that he refused to sign, and with good reason -- it was a contract like that that sunk Klasky-Csupo, the animation studio responsible for Nick's popular series, "Rugrats" -- but that's a different story.

Speaking of which, one of K-C's other series for Nick, "As Told By Ginger", had an episode with closure, in which Ginger's mother and her boyfriend got married, then flashed forward to when Ginger, now an adult, released her memoirs, "As Told By Ginger". However, the way Nick treated this in the US was bad -- the concluding episode featured characters and situations that was covered in episodes preceding it -- which were never telecast on Nick.

 

[spb]

Has "The Incredible Hulk" (1978-82) been mentioned yet?

 

[onairb]

The Hulk had his 'ending', not during the series, but in the 1990 TV-movie 'The Death of the Incredible Hulk', the third of the reunion movies aired by NBC. There were supposed to be further movies, but Bill Bixby's deteriorating health forced him to curtail his acting career(he supposedly had come up with a way for the Hulk to survive his apparent death from [SPOLIER] falling off of a helicopter, and that unmade movie would have co-starred Nicholas Hammond as Spider-Man..or more accurately, as Peter Parker, with an uncredited stuntman wearing the Spidey-suit!) ;D

 

[flashback]

it may have been mentioned but the 2009 version of V definatly ended without any resolution.

 

[therealjm12]

..actually, there was a flashback sequence in the second episode (31 January 1965, guesting Claude Akins and June Lockhart) that showed what happened at Bitter Creek, and a later sequence in which Connors and Lockhart discuss why he's keeping the facts a secret. It's just that the remainder of the series didn't dwell on it...

Just saw that episode a couple weeks ago. Thanks again, ME-TV!

 

[Bob1370]

"Some other shows that just ended without any sort of closure: Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman, Joan of Arcadia, the original Star Trek series,"

You could say the original Star Trek got a blockbuster conclusion, and all the closure anyone could ask for, in the form of the first seven Star Trek theatrical films, culminating in "Star Trek; Generations", the seventh film in the franchise, which brings the original crew's story to an end in the film that unites the crews of Star trek; The Original Series and Star Trek; The Next Generation (which had its own relatively satisfying conclusion in the original series run, although that crew had several theatrical sequels).

Kirk's final words, which William Shatner wrote into the script of Star Trek; Generations himself; "it was...fun. Oh, my..."

 

[Mark Giardina]

..actually, there was a flashback sequence in the second episode (31 January 1965, guesting Claude Akins and June Lockhart) that showed what happened at Bitter Creek, and a later sequence in which Connors and Lockhart discuss why he's keeping the facts a secret. It's just that the remainder of the series didn't dwell on it...

Just saw that episode a couple weeks ago. Thanks again, ME-TV!

For those who missed that episode please fill us in on what happened.

As I gather Chuck Connor's character (Jason McCord) was trying to protect the reputation of some army general and thus was drummed out of the service. But was he injured in the battle and left after it was over, or what ???

 

[KERCAlum]

"Some other shows that just ended without any sort of closure: Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman, Joan of Arcadia, the original Star Trek series,"

You could say the original Star Trek got a blockbuster conclusion, and all the closure anyone could ask for, in the form of the first seven Star Trek theatrical films, culminating in "Star Trek; Generations", the seventh film in the franchise, which brings the original crew's story to an end in the film that unites the crews of Star trek; The Original Series and Star Trek; The Next Generation (which had its own relatively satisfying conclusion in the original series run, although that crew had several theatrical sequels).

Kirk's final words, which William Shatner wrote into the script of Star Trek; Generations himself; "it was...fun. Oh, my..."

Star Trek: Generations was a slap in the face to all the Star Trek: TOS fans from Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. Kirk didn't really get a hero's death; he fell down a ravine while clinging to a bridge. And the sequence in the beginning of the movie where the Nexus blasts a hole in the Enterprise-B was a joke. The entire movie was designed to "pass the torch" from the TOS crew to the TNG crew (which had already had a successful 7-year run in their own series, and had featured McCoy, Scotty, and Spock in several episodes). I'd have to say the proper (if not entirely satisfying) sendoff for the TOS crew was ST VI The Undiscovered Country.

As a series, though, Trek got no respect in its third season from the network, which basically lied to Roddenberry about its time slot (going from Mondays to the Friday death-slot of 10:30 ET), which led Roddenberry to leave the show and the writing later took a real nose dive. The final episode, "Turnabout Intruder," was actually better than most of the other 3rd season episodes, but Kirk's final words in that episode were kind of eerie - "If only...if only."

 

[trapper12]

Lost In Space needed a happy ending where they get home. I never could figure why with all the visitors that came to that planet why they didn't ask for a few gallons of gas for the Jupiter 2 or at least ask someone to call the intergalactic auto club for assistance.

 

[WMC2006]

Lost In Space needed a happy ending where they get home. I never could figure why with all the visitors that came to that planet why they didn't ask for a few gallons of gas for the Jupiter 2 or at least ask someone to call the intergalactic auto club for assistance.

That might have been enough gas for a 3 hour space tour, at which point, they would crash land on Gilligans's Island. Then the Lost in Space crew could borrow some of the Howell's, Ginger's and MaryAnn's clothing (because didn't all of the Lost family/crew wear the same uniform every week?), grab a couple of MaryAnn's coconuts (pies), some Howell money, somehow find more gas on the island (maybe drain the Minnow's tank?) , and then leave the castaways behind just like all the other island visitors.

I could be another Sherwood Schwartz. ;D

 

[oldiesfan6479]

As a series, though, Trek got no respect in its third season from the network, which basically lied to Roddenberry about its time slot
(going from Mondays to the Friday death-slot of 10:30 ET)...

The time slots for Star Trek "TOS" (the original series, for you non-Trekkies) were:

season 1 '66-'67 Thu 8:30/7:30
season 2 '67-'68 Fri 8:30/7:30
season 3 '68-'69 Fri 10:00/9:00

At the end of season 3 (summer '69), it was moved to Tue 7:30/6:30.

 

[landtuna]

I love good Science Fiction. Maybe that's why I have always thought Lost in Space was the most irritating program series ever (even though it starred one of my favorite actors, Guy Williams.

Runner-up goes to Star Trek.

 

[CleveFan]

I thought "The Jeffersons" deserved a better ending. The last episode with the Girl Scouts-type group was a bust, which signaled how tired the show was by the mid-1980's. It was a lot funnier in the 70's.

 

[ShawnHill1]

I thought "The Jeffersons" deserved a better ending. The last episode with the Girl Scouts-type group was a bust, which signaled how tired the show was by the mid-1980's. It was a lot funnier in the 70's.

I agree...I never did get to see the series finale, however. The show, like many of the comedies from the Norman Lear factory, was a lot of edgier in terms of dialouge back in its earlier years. By the time The Jeffersons went into the 1980s, it started to become a more formulaic sitcom--they turned the adversial conflict between George and Tom Willis into bumbling best buddies, which is fine in the interest of character evoultion. However, it became George and/or Tom getting into hare-brained scheme after another.

Even with that said, I think The Jeffersons would have reached its end by '85 regardless...Marla Gibbs started on 227 by the following season, with Sherman Hemsley's Amen premiering the year after, plus writers/producers Ron Leavitt and Michael Moye were setting up the framework to launch Married...with Children. After eleven years, I think everyone wanted to move on to different things.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Another show that did not provide a proper ending was the short-lived Space Above and Beyond.

As far as sci-fi shows go, this had a decent plot to it and could have lasted much longer had it been given the chance. Same could be said for Firefly.

 

[Bob1370]

"Lost In Space needed a happy ending where they get home."

A lot of shows during the 60s ended abruptly without their central storyline ever being resolved. Sometimes it was a deliberate decision made because of syndication potential. A show that remains unresolved remains fresh enough to draw new viewers in repeats, and that was starting to be a significant ancillary revenue source for producers back then. If the producers knew the end was near for a long running show and had time to decide either end it without a finale or create a last episode to tie up loose ends, they'd sometimes leave it open-ended so it would sell better in reruns.) Sometimes it's because networks started cancelling shows more abruptly when they began running out of gas but were still on the bubble and potentially renewable for one more year...when cancellation came after a season's production was coming to an end, as it did then, there'd be no time to prepare a finale to wrap things up. (That's what happened to Star Trek and Lost In Space, both of which were on the bubble at season's end--and the bubble burst.) Sometimes, as in the show Run for Your Life, which we discussed above, it was a combination of the two--cancellation coming after season's end, to a show whose producers had already determined to preserve future syndication value by never wrapping up the storyline no matter how long the show lasted.