Sitcoms - and why they end the way they do

Since I was a child I have always been a fan of sitcoms. Despite them mainly living for the "laugh about the moment" and being dorky most of the time they still have a plot and the characters that are developed.

However, no matter how often I think about the many sitcoms I liked, and still like for the aspects I loved long ago there is always the conclusion of the series themselves that pretty much ruins it for me. Of course a series must end but then it should at least end in a satisfying way for most of the characters and the audience. Just because a series loses some viewers and its decided to end it it does not mean you cannot write a more fitting ending.
Now of course some people actually like endings that I did not really like but when I think about the whole story, the characters and the show that they made I always see things that would need to be lead to an ending fittng for them that they actually deserve. I can end a show in a funny way and still I don't need to lose focus on the good things the characters have experienced until the end and even if a shows ends abruptly the finale does not necessarily need to look like that.

When it comes to this, there were three shows that I was not happy with how they have ended, those were:

Full House
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
The King of Queens

And exactly one sitcom that I thought of as the best sitcom finale and while not being absolutely perfect, pretty perfect nonetheless, perfect especially because the main point of 10 seasons has been used to end the show.

Tell me your thoughts.

What finale did you think was perfect?

Honestly, I love sitcoms. Loooooove. I watch a lot of Friends, Will & Grace, How I Met Your Mother, That 70's Show, The King of Queens, Eveybody Loves Raymond, Cheers, etc etc, and I've noticed that there hits a point in the show where you can just tell it's going downhill. Like you just know. I've reached that point now in That 70's Show, which I am rewatching atm, and I'll keep watching it but it just... I don't know. It isn't the same and that makes me a bit sad.

Anyways, my point is, at a certain point in sitcoms, the main characters become more and more exaggerated. They definitely don't end the way they started. Which is fine if it's done right because people change over 10 years, but they don't become caricatures of themselves, which is what happens when it's done wrong. So some of the time, the finale is on par with the way the show has become, which is subpar.

I will say this. I loved the finale episodes of Will & Grace. I think they did a great job. I had so many feels. Cheers was okay. I think they undid some of it with Fraiser (like Woody got a good job and whatnot and in Fraiser he was back to tending bar?) and Friends was good. Wasn't great, but it was good. I would be a liar if I said I didn't cry.

There's only two ways for a sitcom to end:

1. It was all a dream
2. Walking out of the house for the last time, and the main character turning around and giving a bittersweet smile, then shutting the door

Or some combination of these two.

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Originally Posted by shion

What finale did you think was perfect?

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Friends with Ross and Rachel finally being together.

People do change indeed but sometimes something ruins the ending. King of Queens would have been good in my opinion without the epilogue which was just a "let's end it funny" moment. That does not change that their life is a mess again. Also I did not like that Carrie became more and more irrational, she was during the whole show and while Doug was a dork and totally doing idiotic things that are also not acceptable she was just evil, not properly responsing all the time. I did not care for a long time but this should not have been like this. Carrie began to finally understand a bit during the final but then Kelly talked to her, which was annoying as her character often did crap - as her reactions sometimes and her leaving Deacon from one moment to the next showed. It was fitting for Carrie to not agree with Doug but it would have been nice to let her change a bit, as it was shown first. At least they reunited afterwards.

The show was my most favourite sitcom for a long time and this ending is not what it deserved and it did not satisfy me personally. So much try to be fun was given priority instead of a "finally you are also lucky" happy ending character moment.

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Originally Posted by Jinx

2. Walking out of the house for the last time, and the main character turning around and giving a bittersweet smile, then shutting the door

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Sounds good to me if this is really the last moment.

I've seen nearly ever episode of Full House and Fresh Prince... but I honestly don't remember if I've seen the endings of those. I probably have, but they don't stick out. Some of the only endings that I know I've seen that stick out to me are:

The I.T. Crowd -I really enjoyed it. Not the best ending, but probably the best ending they could give for the show.

The Office (US) - The last few seasons were absolutely awful with only some good moments here and there, but the ending was pretty satisfying. Yes, the show should have ended a lot sooner, but they did well with what they had by that final episode.

The Office (UK) - Good.

Roseanne - Awful awful awful. I love this show way more than I should, and that final season, including the final episode, just felt like a smack in the face in a lot of ways. It was just so weird, too.

Family Matters - I honestly can't remember it, which may say a lot. This show was getting really weird as time went on, though.

Boy Meets World - Very satisfying, heartfelt ending. Again, a lot of people take issue with the later seasons (at least amongst my friends), but the ending was pretty great I felt. If I remember right, it had a lot of recycled footage, but it was a nice send off to the characters and a nice moment of looking back on everything they went through.

This is all I can think of off the top of my head. I feel like it's really hard to make a proper ending to a sitcom though, just from the nature of these kinds of shows.

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Originally Posted by shion

... How I Met Your Mother ...

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While the show itself has many things that get boring for me, it pretty much had a perfect ending from the first episode as Ted began to tell the story and no matter how the story is told and ends, it is not as much in the present as he who tells it. He is happy and has a family, his wife and he has kids and he tells them how it came to all that so the ending of the story is not even really the "most present ending" once it ends and so it cannot really end bad for me, as the show is already the story of Ted's family life "how I got my happy ending which I today live through with you" and not just one moment that was is happy ending in the past (of course it will always be but as we can see he still lives "happily ever after").

I do like sitcoms. The Simpsons is one of my all-time favorite shows. I also very much liked Malcolm in the Middle and enjoyed How I Met Your Mother for a while.

I rarely ever stay with one of them until the end, though. At some point I just lose interest. Maybe they just run too long. Or rather, they don't go the way I'd prefer them to go. And here's why:

Recently I've been a bit into slice-of-life anime and they share a lot of similarities with the sitcom genre. It's just that Key's works in particular are comedic, but the comedy never takes absolute center stage and there's always a more emotionally involving plot underneath the surface. The moments in which it becomes the main focus are the most memorable and it feels as if that's what the show was all about. It just appeals to me more than a sitcom in which it almost seems to be the other way round. The comedic factor takes center stage and no matter how serious the series might be at particular points, it cannot separate itself from its comedy to convey a more deep, meaningful, thought provoking story. At least that's how I perceived them.

A lot of people disagree with this I hear but I thought Seinfeld had the perfect ending for the show. You get cameos from a lot of the best characters, the main characters learn absolutely nothing and absolutely nothing of any real value happened. The show ended the way it began and the way it was for its entire run: focused on the silly minutia in the lives of four awful people.

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Originally Posted by Jinx

There's only two ways for a sitcom to end:


2. Walking out of the house for the last time, and the main character turning around and giving a bittersweet smile, then shutting the door

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This was how Growing Pains ended.

I think Seinfield had a good ending as well. Very fitting for a show that claims to be about nothing. It really was nothing.

How did How I Met Your Mother end? I gave up at like S6.

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Originally Posted by Shiny

How did How I Met Your Mother end? I gave up at like S6.

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It did not end yet. I talked about the ending because technically the "narration" part is the ending as it happens in Ted's present and his life is a good one, as he wanted. The story he tells is not over yet.

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

Any other ending would have been a disservice to the very spirit of the show as far as I'm concerned. And anyone looking for anything more was either watching the wrong show, or forgot what it was all about to begin with in the last episode.

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You could say that about every sitcom. Staying one-dimensional does not necessarily mean staying good.

I loved the finale of Friends, especially the joke about where to get coffee.

I only caught Will and Grace a few times on tv when nothing else was on but I did catch the finale and felt the feels. If I had seen the whole series I probably wouldve been a mess of feels

The Office (US) was much funnier after Micheal Scott left. There was a larger variety of jokes which were a lot less awkward. Finale was good I guess.

The Office (UK) finale was ok. Nice wrap up for everyone.

Extras had a brilliant ending. I love a cheesy speech in front of large crowds of strangers. Especially given the message of the show.

30 Rock had a good finale, especially with the finale parody at the end

3rd Rock from the sun I prefered the alternate ending to the official one (I like the one where he comes back after Mary's memory is erased and abducts her) It's a lot more fitting with Dick's selfish personality and the general flow of the show where Mary is dragged through ridiculous circumstances but still manages to enjoy the adventure. Also she doesnt have to deal with her friends and family asking where Dick went.

American sitcoms, on the whole, are pretty hard to stomach. There's good ones don't get me wrong (the US Office, Fraser, Seinfeld, even Modern Family works), but on the whole they were broad humoured nightmares. They always seemed to want to carry a message in them and it always felt and looked crass. Even some of the good ones did it at times.

They were churned out constantly and ferociously and because each network always had another in the works on getting more popular when one lost the viewers it was no big thing to just cut the cord and watch it drift.

In the UK and Ireland TV shows have a shorter run. They usually chose quality over quantity. They came in 'series' of 6 or at most 9 and unlike America there were usually only one or two writers who had invested their lives into them.

All that lead to an increased likelihood that if they did have to wend they had the time to end them right, and the will and heart to end them properly as it was their own babies they were killing.

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

A lot of people disagree with this I hear but I thought Seinfeld had the perfect ending for the show. You get cameos from a lot of the best characters, the main characters learn absolutely nothing and absolutely nothing of any real value happened. The show ended the way it began and the way it was for its entire run: focused on the silly minutia in the lives of four awful people.

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Yeah, I disagree with this. I felt like the cameos from all of the characters was a cheap way to get fans to reminisce instead of coming up with something original and a good, solid, home-hitting ending. Instead of doing that, it was essentially a "yeah, they deserved that" copout endig.

Seinfeld should have ended with each of them in separate settings perhaps in a way that tied them all together somehow and a manner that catered to the nature of their characters; perhaps George going off the handle in his George-like way, Kramer causing misplaced awkward distress to someone and being chased away, Elaine getting upset and her feathers ruffled over something trivial, and Jerry suffering someone's idiocy, and then showing the endings of the more important ensemble characters like Newman, et al.

The ending was a charicature of the show itself, and I didn't like that. Also, it was stupid.

I have actually not seen a lot of finales of the shows I watch because I can't handle how ridiculous they get. I am a sucker for the Friends finale, though, as mentioned. The last seasons leading up to it were stupid as all hell, but you bet your ass I cried my stupid eyes out at The Last One.

edit: Also, the Newsradio finale was a heinous crime and I will never forgive Lisa Miller for (SPOILER)not ending up with Dave. :colbert: I can appreciate the liberties they took with Dave and Lisa's relationship, though, in order to make it non-typical and non-obvious, unlike every other sitcom couple in existence. I still don't like it, though, because they were meant for eachother. :doublecolbert:

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Originally Posted by Shorty

Yeah, I disagree with this. I felt like the cameos from all of the characters was a cheap way to get fans to reminisce instead of coming up with something original and a good, solid, home-hitting ending. Instead of doing that, it was essentially a "yeah, they deserved that" copout endig.

Seinfeld should have ended with each of them in separate settings perhaps in a way that tied them all together somehow and a manner that catered to the nature of their characters; perhaps George going off the handle in his George-like way, Kramer causing misplaced awkward distress to someone and being chased away, Elaine getting upset and her feathers ruffled over something trivial, and Jerry suffering someone's idiocy, and then showing the endings of the more important ensemble characters like Newman, et al.

The ending was a charicature of the show itself, and I didn't like that. Also, it was stupid.

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The ending wasn't a caricature of the show. It was the show. Funny things happening in the lives of four awful people and absolutely nothing being learned by any of them or them improving in anyway, in the end only even having each other because who else would stick around and be friends with people that messed up? It was a show about nothing. In the end, nothing really changed aside from them going to prison for a year and, presumably, once that year was up they'd get released and go back to their lives still having learned nothing.

Any other ending would have been a disservice to the very spirit of the show as far as I'm concerned. And anyone looking for anything more was either watching the wrong show, or forgot what it was all about to begin with in the last episode. I admire the writers for having the balls to just basically do the same thing and even all but blatantly point out for those who never got it that they were awful human beings. Great way to end in my book. Any other ending would have felt either out of place or not fit with the spirit of the show and only been more disappointing than people found the ending we got.

Agree to disagree. The ending jumped the shark and was too much for my taste in the show.

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Originally Posted by Shorty

Agree to disagree. The ending jumped the shark and was too much for my taste in the show.

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I think an example of jumping the shark is the ending you described. I'm with Vivi22 on this one!

They had two rules, no hugging, no learning, and they stuck with it to the end.

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Originally Posted by Scotty_ffgamer

Roseanne - Awful awful awful. I love this show way more than I should, and that final season, including the final episode, just felt like a smack in the face in a lot of ways. It was just so weird, too.

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yeah, the last season actually surprised me it was awful that they just kind of threw in "and everything was just a big (SPOILER)OLD BOOK" but yeah i agree.

Every American TV show jumps the shark eventually. It's an inevitability with the large churning out of episodes and seasons.

However I liked the end of Seinfeld. There was no dumb ending based on sentiment. It was decent.

all of those episodes forever.

i can't watch end episodes of series because i either end up angry or crying, i haven't honestly watched tv in long enough to avoid it

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Originally Posted by Scotty_ffgamer

I've seen nearly ever episode of Full House and Fresh Prince... but I honestly don't remember if I've seen the endings of those. I probably have, but they don't stick out.

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Full House series finale was the two part episode where Michelle lost her memory. Originally they were going to have one more season, but John Stamos didn't like the idea of moving to a younger network like the WB and the rest of the cast felt it was time to move on. That's why Full House's ending doesn't pop, because at the time of writing there was no solid plan that that was going to be the end. Other than the bit at the end where they talked about always overcoming obstacles.

I don't remember the ending of Fresh Prince either.

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

A lot of people disagree with this I hear but I thought Seinfeld had the perfect ending for the show. You get cameos from a lot of the best characters, the main characters learn absolutely nothing and absolutely nothing of any real value happened. The show ended the way it began and the way it was for its entire run: focused on the silly minutia in the lives of four awful people.

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Agreed. I love Seinfeld and that ending was perfect.

Roseanne's ending still makes me O_O

Roseanne was the absolute worst in terms of Series Finales, even though I bawl my eyes out like a baby watching it. So. Stinking. Sad. But it makes me happy that Darlene, David, & Aunt Jackie are somewhat together again in Big Bang Theory!

I don't think I ever saw the Full House finale.. I don't really care for that show nowadays anyway... I used to love it, but now? It's just...Too wholesome.

I didn't care for That 70's Show after Jackie & Hyde broke up and Jackie started dating Fez. Finally saw the last episode and really wasn't impressed.I definitely stopped watching after Topher Grace left the show.. That new guy was annoying.

I -did- really appreciate the last episode of Home Improvement, though. I think it was very well done, indeed.

The Office (US) I stopped watching after Jim and Pam got married and had the baby.. I think that was when it started going downhill for me officially.

I've heard all kinds of explanations for that Roseanne finale. Ranging from her regaining creative control that she had lost during the events the finale undid, to her buying some other show that didn't work out and she was trying to make Roseanne into that show.

Does Arrested Development count as a sitcom? Because the original ending of that was perfect. Even though I wanted them to make ten more seasons.

30 Rock is another example of a great sitcom that had an almost incomprehensible ending. At least it was to me. Maybe I just need to watch it again.

Count me in the camp that didn't like the Seinfeld ending. The episode itself was ok, but the last few minutes were weird and didn't make any sense. :huffy:

The Office (US) had one of the best endings for a show. It was full of heart, featured the return of past characters, allowed the current characters to move on, and stayed true to the tone of the rest of the series.

It's' tough to end a sitcom because most of them are just about the lives of the characters. How do you end that without killing them all or making them break up in some way? Sometimes I wish a show would just end with them going off on one more adventure instead of all moving away like in Fresh Prince, Full House, and Friends, but I can see how that wouldn't be a satisfying finale for many.

Echoing everyone who said they hated the last season/finale of Roseanne. Lord in heaven, it was SO BAD. Although I did think the last few minutes where she told people how their lives really were was sweet and always gets tears. The final shot of her sitting on the couch or whatever, just heartbreaking, because you know that trout doesn't get better. I always found it really confusing that she switched Darlene/David and Becky/Mark. How does that work, exactly? Are you saying that the last four or five years is a lie, and not just the last year or so?

I'm not looking forward to the HIMYM ending. If the last few seasons (and this season, especially) have been any indicator, it's going to be horrid. Which sucks, because I used to love this show so much. At this point I'm just watching because I know it's about to end.

I honestly don't think any sitcom has ever been good in the history of forever. It was just something to watch to kill time. I don't, and will never see the appeal of shows like Modern Family, Seinfeld (the whitest show in the world by the way), Community, Big Bang Theory, etc.

And their laugh tracks are horrible. Things get real uninteresting in the first ten minutes of the show with 20+ laugh track inserts (looking at you Big Bang Theory).

While by definition both Community and Modern Family are sitcoms, the production value and script-writing is so much better than your average sitcom. But you can't really lump them in with the likes of HIMYM or Two Broke Girls or something.

I just pictured a Community scene where there's a laugh track and Abed is the only one who can hear it. Assuming that hasn't already been done.

Not a sitcom, but Gossip Girl's ending was absolutely perfect.

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Originally Posted by Shiny

I honestly don't think any sitcom has ever been good in the history of forever. It was just something to watch to kill time. I don't, and will never see the appeal of shows like Modern Family, Seinfeld (the whitest show in the world by the way), Community, Big Bang Theory, etc.

And their laugh tracks are horrible. Things get real uninteresting in the first ten minutes of the show with 20+ laugh track inserts (looking at you Big Bang Theory).

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Most British sitcoms have an audience recorded laughter but it's never ever spoiled it for me. They're usually pretty good.

The secret to a good Sitcom is not dragging it out and having a smurfton of episodes. Brevity is the soul of wit. It's like, yeah, Ray's mother is still pushy and his brother is a big mopey whiner, Sheldon is still a dick, Ted is still a lonely dork etc. etc. We get it. We've heard this joke dozens of times. Not funny anymore. It's always interested me that American shows can have 20+ episodes in a season, whereas British ones have often been traditionally six, and on the whole I find British sitcoms to be funnier than American ones. Having said that, Fresh Prince lasted ages and was still funny, and It's Always Sunny is hanging on in there!

I think as well, when you start getting all hokey and making the focus be the events the character's lives (Obligatory Wedding Episode and Baby Story Arc are not and never will be funny) rather than funnies you're on shaky ground and bordering on soap opera territory.

The key question here echoing Paul's comments is 'Why are seasons so long in American shows?' I mean, even when you look away from shows like sitcoms which often have 20+ episodes a season to dramas like Dexter or Sons Of Anarchy (tbf, I love both and always want more) having 12 episodes in a season, if not 16 - 18 even is a little much. With UK shows it can be as few as 3 hour long episodes per season, a longer season will engender 6 - 9 episodes.

I think America's missing the fact that too much of a good thing, can be worse than less. Something I think that British TV with exception of it's huge pantheon of soaps which are now shown 5 - 7 days a week with casts which are and do interchange at times, has done correctly.

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Originally Posted by Iceglow

The key question here echoing Paul's comments is 'Why are seasons so long in American shows?'

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Answers: 1) ratings, and 2) money.

I'd prefer to cut a story short in a golden age than to see it live long enough to become a twisted shadow of what it was before. I have never not seen this happen. Even 30 Rock was stretching it at the end.

I think it's also to do with the writers. In the UK there is usually only one or two. In the Us there's a group of them so it's weasier to churn our episode after episode.

I don't mind long seasons when it works. Fraser worked, the Us Office worked (until season 7), however most of the time it doesn't and seasons seem spread over thinly with some obviously weak shows in the mix.

The number of episodes in a season doesn't really matter. It's the total number of episodes that makes a difference. Most sitcoms just go on way too long. Arrested Development was a show many believe was cut short too early (and it probably was) but maybe that was for the best as it kept the show fresh and never allowed it to stale (like it did in the recent revival).

The Simpsons is a show I think has been able to keep its variety over time. Sure, it's no where near as great as it used to be, but for a show that's 20+ years old I still find myself laughing at new jokes. Seinfeld is also a show I felt did not rehash a lot of material, but others seem to disagree. I definitely see this in shows like Raymond or Big Bang Theory, however. :ffvisleepy:

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Originally Posted by Cuchulainn

Every American TV show jumps the shark eventually. It's an inevitability with the large churning out of episodes and seasons.

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Which is why Breaking Bad ended after just 5 1/2 seasons, but honestly it probably could've been awesome if it had one more season. A few of the episodes -- particularly the gunfight episode -- felt rushed.

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Originally Posted by Scotty_ffgamer

Boy Meets World - Very satisfying, heartfelt ending. Again, a lot of people take issue with the later seasons (at least amongst my friends), but the ending was pretty great I felt. If I remember right, it had a lot of recycled footage, but it was a nice send off to the characters and a nice moment of looking back on everything they went through.

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I agree. The final scene with Mr. Feeny was very touching.

Did you know they're making a spin-off? It'll be Girl Meets World, about Cory and Topanga's daughter. Those two so far are the only returning cast members at the moment but they want to at least have cameos from all the old cast members.

I think they've shot the pilot and all they're waiting for is for someone to pick the show up, I could be wrong though.

I think Big Bang Theory should have lasted for just one more season to better wrap things up. Raj could use a partner and what is Penny's last name!!!??? What happened to Leslie?? I still have so many questions! :(