The Best TV Character Ever

yes, but they also have to do something particularly lame to try to boost ratings.

Why does it have to be lame? Why can't it be smart? Happy Days should have called it quits when Richie (Ron Howard) left the show.

Shows don't know how to end anymore. They used to just end. Now they fight to hang on with stoopid stuff.

Then they end with such fanfare and hype that nothing could possibly live up to it all.

Some folks just don't know how to say goodbye.

Feh.

I thought Seinfeld had a great ending.

Mr B was recently saying that about The Office.

"Friends" was annoying that way. There was actual character development, and then when they realized they had to drag things out, they regressed. Then developed. Then regressed. Just got annoying (especially Rachel's character).

I also liked the ending toWill and Grace.

Hiyo Silver!

You would have thought that a man who wears a mask all the time would have been more interesting. He wasn't much. Another western hero type--with no face. How annoying that must have been for Clayton Moore. A big star nobody recognized.

I agree and to be honest the Seinfeld series finale was the first episode of the series I have ever watched.

I have subsequently watched the entire series via the medium of full season DVD sets.

My brother, Sam, had the same experience. Watched the finale to find out about the hype and got hooked on the reruns.

That's kinda how I got hooked on Dallas. I didn't watch it the first few seasons until the "Who Shot J.R." cliffhanger. I started watching the summer reruns and by September, I couldn't wait for the new season to start. Watched it until the very end. Unfortunately, Dallas was another show that went on one or two seasons too long.

It never fails tho'. They all go for too long it seems. Just thinking about the shows I loved but stopped watching because they grew lame—Frasier, Golden Girls, Designing Women, even Little House on the Prairie. After the kids had all grown up and were married, the storylines grew increasingly silly. Why can't popular shows go out on top instead of ending up at the bottom of the heap and then just throwing in the towel?

I agree that many shows lose that quality that made them worth watching, after a time. I recall a show called The Good Guys, with Herb Edelman. When they learned they were soon to get canceled, the producers began filming script rejects to fill the space.

The best surprise ending EVER of a series IMHO was Bob Newhart Show at the VT inn he owned. The last episode was an in-a-dream-ending that flashed back to his previous TV-series wife who was played by Susanne Pleshette.

the brits are great for really funny short run programs, there are long running british tv shows, but many are short series, maybe 6 episodes a season, maybe three seasons, the british office is a prime example, 12 episodes (6 x 2) and a couple of 45 minute xmas specials

short and sweet, leaving you wanting more, and all the better for not giving it to you

A Touch of Frost was great for this, it ran from 1992 until 2010 (15 series), with only 42 episodes (they were 90 minute tv movies), and no more than 5 episodes a series, the last 9 series were mostly 2 episodes, as the lead character was getting older, the shows were so good and the gaps in production meant you could hardly wait for the next series to arrive, so much better than years of the same thing week after week in my opinion

Jacob Bronowski Assent of Man, a 13 part PBS series. Outstanding telly.

read the book and loved it, never got to see the series

found a very nice hardbound edition at a yard sale a few years ago to replace my battered paperback copy

That should be Ascent of Man. A great series...I still have the book, too.

i missed that too

I very nearly posted: The Ass-end of Man when I saw it.