Series Finale - what do you prefer?

[Chicago Jake]

A local UHF station shows old Magnum P.I. episodes once per week. This week, they showed the series finale. In case you don't remember, the series ended with pretty much EVERYTHING ch-ch-changing. Rick got married (maybe), TC got back with his ex-wife (maybe), and Magnum found his long lost daughter, left Robin's Nest, and rejoined the Navy. Wow!

I've noticed that in some television series, when they end, they like to ch-ch-change everything, like Magnum P.I. did. However, other series like to end on the premise that NOTHING ch-ch-changes.... the same characters are still there, doing what they always did.

Which is your favorite way for a beloved series to end: ch-ch-changes? or status quo? My personal choice is for everything to stay the same. I like to think that all my favorite characters are still there, doing what they always did. All the barflies are still at Cheers, and everyone still knows their names. (Well, except for Frasier, who moved back to Seattle.) That kind of crap.

So....what do YOU think?

Also: what are your favorite examples of series that ended each way? (ch-ch-changes or no ch-ch-changes)

[Merlot Joe]

Leave it alone and end the show.

[Ardbeg... innit]

I can go either way on this. I think it depends on the show and HOW the finale is handled.

L&O is a prime example of a series whose premise and history point to everything ch-ch-changing but everything staying the same. The show attempted to tell stories of the reality of life, in that the the characters came and went, and there was something of realism attached to what was portrayed. In the finale, the show simply ended. You know that the crimes would continue, careers would take individuals through ch-ch-changes, etc. For L&O it was the perfect ending.

OTOH, Newhart (Bob Newhart's show where he plays a B&B operator) had probably the "most ch-ch-changing" finale, and IMO one of the best finales in TV history. The show completely destroys the concept of the entire series by turning into an extended dream sequence with a throwback to his "The Bob Newhart Show".

If the series is serial in its storyline, I am hugely disappointed if the story does not come to an end. The Star Trek franchise has pretty good examples of serial and non-serial storylines and for the most part, handles each type fairly well. Voyager and Enterprise were much more serialized than TOS, NG, DS9. Those two series wrapped up their storylines rather well (regardless of the overall quality of the series), and I think in hindsight they were the better for it. NG and DS9 were consistent internally, but not near as serialized. In NG the characters and the situation onboard are pretty much left with "continuation" as the model while in DS9, everyone takes off in different directions, but they are career ch-ch-changes and to be expected. As Quark says for the last line of the series "the more things ch-ch-change, the more they stay the same"