How Would Have YOU Ended A Popular TV Series?

[Mark Giardina]

Some silly and some not so silly responses from me. Please feel to add your own comments.


The Sopranos. The screen goes black and then you hear gunshots.

Lost in Space. The Robinson family gets rescued by the starship Enterprise.

Gunsmoke. Matt Dillon proposes to Miss Kitty but she has the hots for Festus.

Bewitched. I would have ended the series after Dick York left for medical reasons.

The Fugitive (original one). Dr.Kimble sues the city of Stafford, it's police department, and the state of Indiana for false arrest. He later marries his girlfriend and resumes his medical practice.

Lassie. I would have ended the series after Timmy and his family left the show. The program wasn't the same with the forest ranger.

Battlestar Galactica (new version) Adama and the survivors of the Cylon holocaust find Earth, land in America but are declared illegal aliens and deported.

My Mother the Car. The car runs over Jerry Van Dyke and kills him after the first episode airs.

Leave it to Beaver. After putting up with his BS for years, June Cleaver strangles Eddie Haskell to death with her pearl necklace.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Wonder Years: Kevin, Paul, Winnie and the gang all graduate from high school in 1974, with a brief glimpse into their post-HS lives. I would have kept Jack Arnold alive at least into the early/mid-1980s rather than the statement in the actual ending that he would pass away 2 years after the show ended (in 1975) and Wayne would take over the furniture factory. Winnie still goes off to Paris to study art for 8 years and she and Kevin still write daily (but have her come back at least once every year or two to visit for the summer). Kevin and Winnie get married shortly after her return to the US, in late summer 1982.

 

[azumanga]

Wonder Years... Kevin and Winnie get married shortly after her return to the US, in late summer 1982.

Of course, it would have been something if one of them (or both) went to Hollywood a few years later after that to pitch a television show based on their lives...

 

[visaman]

Of course, it would have been something if one of them (or both) went to Hollywood a few years later after that to pitch a television show based on their lives...

John Boy Walton sues Kevin for stealing his schtick.

 

[cwf1701]

Adam-12, do a update version of the Pilot episode, but with Reed getting a new officer.

 

[bpatrick]

Of course, it would have been something if one of them (or both) went to Hollywood a few years later after that to pitch a television show based on their lives...

John Boy Walton sues Kevin for stealing his schtick.

The Brady Bunch sue the Lambert family ("Step By Step") for stealing their schtick.

On a more serious note, I agree with the poster who thinks "Bewitched" should have ended when Dick York left. The Dick Sargent episodes are almost completely forgettable. And for similar reasons, Andy Griffith should have hung up his sheriff's badge when Don Knotts left; no wonder that WFMY runs Andy twice a day, with the color episodes in the lower-audience-level 10 AM slot, and the black-and-white ones at more-accessible 5:30 PM.

 

[KeithE4]

Adam-12, do a update version of the Pilot episode, but with Reed getting a new officer.

Adam-12 would end when Reed gets a new partner - a middle-aged, slightly nervous, former Deputy Sheriff who recently arrived from a small town in North Carolina. ;D

 

[FreddyE1977]

Seinfeld

Elaine has married David Puddy and moved to New Jersey. They have two kids who have embraced
their father's passion for face-painting. Jerry has gotten back together with the Tractor Story Girl
who has moved in with him.

Jerry is now struggling and living in a rat-infested apartment in the Bronx, having lost all of the money
he had in sizeable investments with Bernie Madoff. He is criss-crossing the country in a frantic schedule
of stand-up appearances, trying to refill his bank account. When he is not catching a plane or spending
time with Tractor Story Girl he is ducking his Uncle Leo's attempts to hand him cash, or calls from his
parents once again pushing for the Macy's Executive Training Program.

Elaine comes to realize that she cannot stand the tedious life of a suburban housewife, and
realizes that she still has feelings for Jerry. She enlists George to assist her with another attempt
at the "roommate switch" technique which he had tried for Jerry years ago. To Elaine the plan seems
foolproof because Puddy and Tractor Story Girl seem perfect for each other. But the plot falls apart
when Puddy thinks that manage a trois is a menu item at Arbys.

NBC contacts Jerry and tells him that they are once again interested in picking up the pilot for his
series "Jerry". They say they want to show the pilot once again to gauge audience reaction. Jerry is
elated because if it works this time it means the end of his money troubles.

Kramer by this time is working as a temporary control room tech at NBC, filling in for the vacation of his good
friend Bob Sacamano. Fifteen minutes before airtime Kramer knocks over his dish of lowfat yogurt and
sends the tape machine into a frenzy, destroying the only existing copy of the pilot for "Jerry". NBC
scrambles for alternate programming and puts on a forgotten unseen pilot for The Kenny Bania Show.
It becomes a huge hit and tops the prime-time ratings. NBC picks it up for a 39 week initial run.

Kramer loses his temp gig, but comes out of it okay as he then lands a gig as the official TV commercial
spokesman for Beefareeno.

George gets a job as the Assistant Traveling Under-Secretary for the New York Knicks. The NBA then
immediately goes into a lockout, meaning George can collect unemployment, which is hunky-dory with him.
He enters a national Frogger tournament at Madison Square Garden. He wins first place, a trip to the World
Championships in Buenos Aires, where he encounters the Soup Nazi in the hotel kitchen. George gets into
a fight with him over his cold mulligatawny and is hauled off to an Argentine jail. In stir he meets up with
members of the Van Buren Boys gang, who break him out of prison and he makes his way back to New York
where he can once again say, "I won a contest".

While playing a show in Little Rock, Jerry meets one of the former NBC executives who had met with him
many times over the pilot for "Jerry". He is now an executive with TBS. He offers Jerry the late-night post-
Conan show formerly hosted by George Lopez. Jerry accepts and moves to Atlanta along with Tractor Story
Girl. (This spawns a new spinoff series about the adventures of Jerry Seinfeld living in the deep South.).
The guests for his first show include Keith Hernandez and Kenny Bania.

Elaine divorces Puddy and moves to Paris, where eventually she ends up living with Frasier Crane.

 

[DToTheJ]

Some silly and some not so silly responses from me. Please feel to add your own comments.

The Sopranos. The screen goes black and then you hear gunshots.

That actually would have been a minor improvement from what we saw!

 

[Bob1370]

Freddy has actually come up with a good way to do either a Seinfeld reunion OR a Seinfeld comeback show. There's enough material in there to carry story arcs for at least five, maybe six seasons. Have you sent the treatment to Jerry and/or Larry David yet?

 

[TexasTom]

Star Trek: Enterprise -- Captain Archer (played by Scott Bakula) "leaps" out at the end of the final episode, returning to the Quantum Leap project from which he'd been lost so many years before. This would also give Quantum Leap a better ending than it ever got.

 

[spencerkarter85]

Here's my take how I would end some popular TV series:

All My Children (ABC, 1970-2011) had a disapointing finale with who gets shot in Pine Valley, we don't know. Instead of a character getting killed off in a final episode, I would end it with Erica Kane marrying Jackson Montgomery.

Family Matters (ABC, 1989-97/CBS, 1997-98) ended unexpectedly with Steve Urkel coming back from space and Laura and Steve got engaged. I would end it with the wedding of Steve Urkel and Laura Winslow. Another wedding with Stefan Urquelle and Myra Monkhouse.

Dark Shadows (ABC, 1966-71) instead of ending the series in Parallel Time 1841. I would end the series with using writer Sam Hall's predictions from a 1971 TV Guide article.

Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001-present) should have ended when Miriam McDonald (Emma Nelson) left.

Memphis Beat (TNT, 2010-11) Should have ended with Dwight Hendricks getting remarried and Whitehead getting promoted to Sergeant.

 

[Kurt Toy]

Gomer Pyle USMC-Gomer is court-martialed for attempting to kill Sgt. Carter by strangling him after suffering a nervous breakdown. He is then discharged and shamefully returns to Mayberry.

 

[Markieo]

Have Gilligan get murdered by the other castaways, they get rescued within 24 hours, the judge calls it justifiable homicide, the case is dismissed., everyone else (including the TV audience) lives happily ever after!