Parting is such sweet sorrow. There have been several series finales this season, from the WB’s “The Steve Harvey Show” to ABC’s “Once and Again,” from UPN’s “Roswell” to Fox’s “Ally McBeal.” But possibly the most anticipated ending is that of Fox’s “The X-Files.” Because the series has so many loose ends to tie up — and the chances are good that more ends will dangle than not — it could fall into two categories: one of the best series-enders in history or one of the worst.
We present 10 examples of classic series finales that “The X-Files” will have to live up to — and five show endings that their creators probably wish they could live down.
The 10 best series finales
“St. Elsewhere,” May 25, 1988, NBC: One of the most talked about finales ever. Was the entire six-season series all in the head of autistic Tommy Westphall (Chad Allen), son of Boston blue-collar worker Donald Westphall (Ed Flanders)? In Tommy’s dreams, Donald was St. Eligius’ heroic chief of staff, and all those years of medical melodrama were fueled by the snow globe of the hospital that Tommy played with.
“M*A*S*H,” Feb. 28, 1983, CBS: The emotional 2 1/2 -hour send-off, the highest-rated television broadcast ever, saw gonzo surgeon Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) suffer a nervous breakdown as the Korean War ended. As the helicopters lift off, the recovered Hawkeye hovers over the 4077th MASH unit one last time, with rocks on the ground forming the word “goodbye.”
“The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” March 19, 1977, CBS: The hilarious final scene had the characters of this sharp TV newsroom comedy, all of whom had been fired by new management (except inept anchor Ted Baxter [Ted Knight]), hugging each other, and moving from one end of the newsroom to the other in a big bunch, reluctant to let go. Appropriately enough, Mary Richards (Moore) turns off the lights with a wistful last look.
“Newhart,” May 21, 1990, CBS: The inn belonging to Dick Loudon (Bob Newhart) has been turned into a Japanese hotel in the middle of a golf course. Loudon is knocked unconscious by a ball, and when he awakes, he is Bob Hartley, the Chicago psychologist Newhart played in the 1972-78 comedy “The Bob Newhart Show.” Lying next to him in bed is his “first” wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette), who tells her husband he has been dreaming and to go back to sleep.
“Cheers,” May 20, 1993, NBC: The touching ending finds ex-ballplayer Sam Malone (Ted Danson) alone in the bar where everybody knows each other’s name, his longtime love Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) once again walking out of his life. Sam is shutting down the bar, when a lone figure walks to the front door. Sam gently informs the fellow Cheers is closed–as was one of the best ensemble comedies in the last 20 years.
“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” June 12, 1999, syndicated: This sci-fi series amazingly wrapped up every single dangling plot point, including the ending of a far-flung intergalactic war. The moving final shot has young Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) staring sadly from a porthole of the DS9 space station after his father, Capt. Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), has been whisked away to be tutored by a godlike lifeform.
“The Fugitive,” Aug. 29, 1967, ABC: The drama was one of the first to resolve its long-running premise, which is now common practice on TV. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) finally catches up to the one-armed man (Bill Raisch), who killed Kimble’s wife, a crime for which Kimble is on the run. Lt. Philip Gerard (Barry Morse) finally realizes he has been chasing the wrong guy for four seasons and saves Kimble’s life by shooting the killer.
“The Wonder Years,” May 12, 1993, ABC: The bittersweet ending of the coming-of-age comedy set in the 1960s flitted from one character to another to tell what happened to them. Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) married someone other than his childhood crush Winnie (Danica McKellar); Kevin’s seemingly indestructible dad Jack (Dan Lauria) died; and Kevin’s best friend Paul (Josh Saviano) became a lawyer.
“The Larry Sanders Show,” May 31, 1998, HBO: In a parody of Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” swan song (Jim Carrey performs a riotous tune a la Bette Midler), the self-indulgent talk show host tapes his last show before management cancels him. Drunken sidekick Hank Kingsley (Jeffrey Tambor) curses Larry and producer Artie (Rip Torn) for years of abuse, but then apologizes. Larry leaves his studio with a wistful last look.
“The Prisoner,” Sept. 21, 1968, CBS: One of television’s most bizarre series brought the curtain down by letting the enigmatic ex-spy Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan) finally escape from The Village where he had been held because he had “information.” But first, he had to play one final mind game — in which it was revealed that he had been the mysterious “Number 1,” the leader of The Village, all along . . . or was he?
The 5 worst series finales
“Seinfeld,” May 14, 1998, NBC: A depressing send-off for one of television’s best sitcoms. Jerry and the gang are sentenced to prison for mocking the portly victim of a carjacking rather than helping him. The sight of the quartet sitting in jail was pathetic and morose, although Jerry’s jailhouse monologue was pretty good.
“Roseanne,” May 20, 1997, ABC: The “it was all a dream” cop-out finished off this one-time dagger-sharp comedy. Instead of winning the lottery and spending the last season as rich white trash, it turns out Roseanne has actually imagined the whole thing, including Dan’s being alive — he had suffered a heart attack the preceding season. A downer.
“Star Trek: Voyager,” May 23, 2001, UPN: The Federation Starship Voyager finally makes it back from a far-flung galaxy through a wormhole. Led by a procession of Federation ships, it heads for Earth. But what happened to the criminal faction of rebel Federation officers on Voyager, and how does half-Borg Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) assimilate with Earthlings who hate the Borg? We never really find out. An unfulfilling end.
“Twin Peaks,” June 10, 1991,” ABC: Quirky director David Lynch missed a chance to resolve a compellingly chilling storyline, in which the body of FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is possessed by the evil spirit Bob. But Lynch, who later made a “Twin Peaks” film, closed the TV series with a puzzling prequel, “Fire Walk With Me.” What happened to our hero?
“Mad About You,” May 24, 1999, NBC: A trip to the year 2021 for this romantic comedy found Paul and Jamie Buchman (Paul Reiser, Helen Hunt) divorced, among other assorted depressing future scenarios. Sure, they got back together in the end, but not before fans experienced scenes of unnecessary heartbreak and bitterness. Madness!
Secret agents won’t reveal all in the finale of ‘The X-Files’
Attention, fans of Fox’s departing science fiction series “The X-Files”: You can forget about the whole truth being out there.
The series started in 1993 with creepy stories of creatures, mutants and biological anomalies. It later included connected tales of shadowy conspiracies, coverups of alien activity and plots to fight the domination of Earth by said ETs.
And while “The X-Files” closes its nine-season run with a two-hour episode (7 p.m. Sunday, WFLD-Ch. 32) that promises to clear up a lot of the questions plaguing fans, trust that not all will be revealed.
“I don’t think we can answer all the questions,” creator Chris Carter admits, “[but] we can certainly try to give it all a certain logic.”
That lack of complete closure means that in the eyes of some, the series finale of “The X-Files” can never live up to the expectations of those who have faithfully followed FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson) and, in these last two seasons, John Doggett and Monica Reyes (Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish).
“I think surely the task that Chris and all the writers and everyone faced in fulfilling that [expectation] was immense,” says Gish. “I mean, I know filming the episode felt monumental and it felt profound. But I think the fans will be pleased. I don’t think everything will be tied up in a pretty package. That just wouldn’t be Chris Carter’s style.”
That’s typical of the series, whose “mythology” is so expansive and interwoven that much of the oldest lore has been forgotten or overshadowed by other details.
“The one thing that was wonderful in the wrap-up,” Gish says, “is that a lot of the old characters do come back. And so I was able to familiarize myself with each thread that they wove in.”
One of the infamous strands of the mythology — the fate of the supposedly dead Cancer Man, played with evil glee by William B. Davis — “will definitely be answered,” Carter says. “You’ll love the way it’s answered.”
That was the appeal of “The X-Files.” It was the rare series that required viewers to focus on what was going on, especially in those mythology episodes.
“Its format, requiring people to think in order to watch it, and to pay attention . . . it was a commitment on the part of all of us,” says Jim Farrelly, professor of English and a film coordinator at the University of Dayton.
“The X-Files” ending “doesn’t just signal the end of one of the best sci-fi series ever. It will also live as one of television’s most influential TV shows,” he adds.
“I think one of the most unique things about it was that it changed the face of Fox,” says entertainment president Gail Berman. “Fox was not seen, at the time when it went on the air in 1993, as a network of high-quality drama, a network of intense programming, the kind of programming that wins awards and gets people’s [attention].”
Explains University of Virginia English professor Paul Cantor: “In terms of production values, I think they’ve, by and large, lived up to their promise of producing something that is the quality of a movie every week.”
“At a time when people were talking about the end of history and that America was on top of everything, this show raised doubts about that and suggested the world is a more complicated and frightening place,” Cantor adds.
Details on the finale are typically sketchy, except it includes the return of Duchovny (“I don’t think it would have been right to end it without him,” Carter says). Duchovny’s absence in parts of season eight and all of season nine is arguably a big reason why the series suffered in the ratings. “The X-Files” is presently averaging 8.5 million viewers, down from 13.2 million last season and from a peak average of 18.3 million in 1996.
What is known is that Mulder is on trial for murder, which leads to a military tribunal in which he must attempt to save his own life, justify the existence of the X-Files and prove that skinny gray men from another planet really do exist.
Carter says that after he decompresses a bit, he’ll start the second “X-Files” movie in the summer of 2003, a stand-alone film that “needs to be true to” Scully and Mulder, but one that he will try to “sneak” Doggett and Reyes into somehow.
“I’ve really put this in front of everything in my life over the last 10 years,” Carter says about ending this journey. “We’re really trying to come full circle here and make it satisfying.”
— Allan Johnson
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What are your favorite — or least favorite — TV series finales? Tell us at CTC-arts@tribune.com.
