"Dreamscaperers", the penultimate episode of Season 1, ended with Gideon successfully getting the deed to the Shack, with the episode ending with him destroying the shack.
The Season 2 midseason finale, "Not What He Seems", ended with the Author of the Journals, who turns out to be Grunkle Stan's twin brother, stepping out of the portal.
"Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future" ends with Bill Cipher destroying the rift from the portal, which initiates Weirdmageddon and leads to the Grand Finale.
Peg + Cat only had one during the one-hour special where the pig is about the squash the planet Earth. Luckily with the help of their friends from around the world, they were able to save the earth in no time.
Taken up to eleven in the episode "200" which ends with three separate cliffhangers.
The episode "Professor Chaos", which appears to end on a cliffhanger: "Will Professor Chaos' latest plot succeed and be the final undoing of Earth? And which boy has been chosen as the replacement for Kenny? And which of these South Park residents was killed and will never be seen again?" (The first two were already the focuses of the plot, but the last ones comes out of nowhere). "These questions will be answered... right now: No, Tweek, and Ms. Choksondik."
South Park also squeezed the concept for all the humor and frustration they could in the "Who is Eric Cartman's Father" two-parter, "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut" and "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut". They teased the fans mercilessly by splitting the two episodes up with an unrelated full-length April Fools' DayTerrance and Phillip episode.
Super Sunday: Each of the four animated shorts — Jem, Robotix, Inhumanoids and Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines — featured a cliffhanger-type ending each week for approximately 13 weeks, before each short came to a conclusion. These were as follows:
Jem: On the night of the Battle of the Bands (a talent contest with a finale similar to today's American Idol), series antagonist Eric Raymond — the corrupt manager of the Holograms' rivals the Misfits — holds Jerrica's friend Ashley hostage, hoping to extort money from the Holograms and force them to forfeit the contest to the Misfits (and with it, control of Starlight Music). It initially looks bad as the Misfits fall into a trap set by Raymond and his henchmen, but Rio arrives to save the day. In the end, as the Holograms are performing their ultimately victorious song, Raymond tries to escape with a briefcase containing the deed and thousands of dollars, but is ultimately arrested. Originally aired as the final installment of a 15-part cliffhanger-type series, this became the pilot episode for the daily cartoon.
Robotix: After 14 installments where the peaceful Protectons and warmongering Terrakors battle on the ailen world of Skalorr, the final battle commences where Terrakors' leader Nemesis steers the ship both factions are battling on into an asteroid belt. Eventually, the Protectons get the upper hand and are able to escape the ship shortly before it (along with the Terrakors) crash into an asteroid, presumably destroying the enemy forever. As the Protectons and their new human friends begin plans to rebuild their fallen world, Nemesis still lives. This was possibly the set-up for a daily cartoon that never came to pass. One aspect that is not resolved: the fate of Kanawk, an engineer who had betrayed his human friends to join forces with the Terrakors; during the final battle, he tries to sabotage lead Protecton Argus, but he grabs Kanawk and flings him aside against a wall, presumably killing him.
Inhumanoids: Following a climactic battle, D'Compose is re-sealed in amber casing and Tendril is imprisoned by the Granites. Finally, Magnokor succeeds in neutralizing Metlar even as Blackthorne is arrested by Earth Corps. Senator Masterson provides the Earth Corps team with a new headquarters facility, but a tissue sample secured from Tendril during their first encounter with the monster has mysteriously gone missing, which would be addressed when the series was picked up for a full 13-week season in the fall of 1986.
Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines: During the final installment, where the series protagonists — researcher Jennifer McGraw and Yank Justice, the owner of a monster truck show — battle the ruthless billionaire Adrian Ravenscroft at the Fountain of Youth, Ravenscroft drinks the Fountain's water and becomes a young man. But Yank and his allies ram the Fountain with their trucks, reversing the effects of the Fountain. Ravenscroft tries to flee but is turned back into an elderly man and walks into an alligator-infested swamp, presumably dying. Meanwhile, a large earthquake reveals a large treasure in gold, jewels and other rare artifacts from under the former Fountain. While several of the Bigfoot show members celebrate its discovery, Yank and Jennifer are unimpressed and drive off into the sunset. This is the only series that did not have a hanging conclusion that would lead into a possible (or actual) series.
The 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series is fond of the season-ending cliffhanger: three of its seven seasons (1, 2, and 4) end this way. Season 4's cliffhanger is notable for being in danger of never being properly resolved, since for never-quite-adequately-explained reasons, the people behind the show decided to skip season 5 and go from season 4 to season 6 without explanation, ignoring the cliffhanger. After several delays, the "Lost Season", as it came to be called, began airing on February 2008—a year and a half later than it would have, had it aired normally.
Also spoofed by the show on a number of occasions. At the end of "Treehouse of Horror II", the last few seconds reveal a surprise ending where Mr. Burns' head has been grafted unto Homer's body. The episode ends with a (fake) cliffhanger and a teaser for next week's episode, where Homer is denied a free spaghetti dinner because Mr. Burns has plans to meet with the queen of Holland that night. Of course, it's all a spoof and the next real episode has everything back to normal.
Beast Wars tended to pull out the stops at the end of a season. According to the writers, they were never sure if there was going to be another season, so they wanted each cliffhanger to possibly be the end of everything.
Big City Greens: Though it's episodic and does have its rather odd ending scenes, the show has its first huge cliffhanger occur in the Season 2 episode "Reckoning Ball" after Chip Whistler takes over for his retiring father as the CEO of Wholesome Foods. He reveals his apology to the Greens to get them to sign the contract which proves they forgive him for his mean deeds was only an act, and he used their innocence and gullibility to seize full control of the company and, since his dad is not around, is focusing on running them out of town sometime soon, setting him up as the Arc Villain for the remainder of the season.
Frisky Dingo: Subverted. An episode ends with an almost literal cliffhanger as a woman is hanging from a ledge of a tall structure. Then, in the On the Next sequence, Killface says "Oh my God, she fell".
My Little Pony 'n Friends: These are used very often in multi-part episodes. Typically, the episode is cut during a high-tension scene where one or more characters are in dangers of life, limb or capture, with the crisis being resolved in the beginning of the next segment.
"The End of Flutter Valley, Part 6" ends with Sting and Morning Glory cornered by an angry bull with no way to escape, while they desperately call for Megan to help them.
"The End of Flutter Valley, Part 8" ends with the green furbob, still indecisive over whether to go down the stonebacks' hole, glancing back and seeing a swarm of angry bees bearing down on him.
"Bright Lights, Part 2" ends with the heroes cornered against a cliff and facing down an approaching and very angry mob, with no clear means of escape.
"Bright Lights, Part 3" ends with Molly strung up and helpless in a rope trap, with the villain Zeb approaching and ready to steal her shadow.
"The Magic Coins, Part 2" ends with the heroes dangling helplessly over a ravine after Niblik the troll raises his drawbridge while they're standing on it.
"The Magic Coins, Part 3" ends on a literal one, with Megan and Wind Whistler perched on a narrow ledge above a lake of lava, with thermal updrafts too strong for Wind Whistler to fly in and their perch rapidly crumbling beneath their feet.
"Woe Is Me, Part 1" ends with Baby Shady being swept off in a river of mud and going under.
"Fugitive Flowers, Part 1" ends with Masquerade bound and helpless in the flories' vines, and dragged offscreen as the evil flowers gloat.
"The Quest for the Princess Ponies, Part 2" ends with the Rainbow of Light — the show's main way of defeating major villains — falling into the increasingly dangerous Jewel Desert, seemingly beyond retrieval.
"The Golden Horseshoes, Part 1" ends with the heroes backed into a corner by a trio of goblins set on capturing them.
"Flight To Cloud Castle, Part 1" ends with Heart Throb, Locket, Twilight and Garth thrown from the flying castle and sent flying at high speed towards a cliff.
"Mare in the Moon" ends with the return of Nightmare Moon. The only forces capable of putting a stop to her plan are either inactive or nowhere to be seen. Resolved in part 2 when the Elements of Harmony are reactivated and used to save the day.
"The Return of Harmony, Part 1" ends with Discord successfully mind breaking the mane cast (who cannot activate their trump card in this state) and establishing a reign of chaos upon Equestria. Resolved in part 2 when Twilight gets the gang back together, allowing them to put Discord back where he belongs.
"A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1" ends with Twilight being shunned by her friends, family and mentor. To make matters worse, "Cadence" banishes her to the caverns of Canterlot.
"The Crystal Empire, Part 1" ends with the reveal that Twilight was wrong and the characters needed to find the Crystal Heart instead of making one, resulting in Cadance's power running out and King Sombra's shadow form washing over the Crystal Empire as the protective dome fails.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle, Part 1" ends with Twilight witnessing what she thinks is Luna falling to evil and turning into Nightmare Moon a second time.
"Twilight's Kingdom, Part 1" ends with Discord betraying Equestria, and Celestia telling Twilight her plan to rid themselves of their magic, shocking Twilight.
"The Cutie Map, Part 1" ends with Starlight Glimmer successfully stealing the main characters' cutie marks and talents and imprisoning them.
"The Cutie Re-Mark, Part 1" ends with Twilight and Spike cornered by a band of spear-wielding pony guerrillas, who think that they are changeling spies.
Fluttershy: All servants of Queen Chrysalis found in these woods must be... destroyed!
"The Crstalling, Part 1" ends with the Crystal Heart being shattered as a result of Flurry Heart's cries, plunging the empire into a cold winter.
"To Where and Back Again, Part 1" ends with the changelings having kidnapped several powerful ponies around Equestria, including the main characters and the princess, meaning that Equestria is virtually defenseless and leaderless, and leaving Starlight and her team outside the Changeling Hive to rescue everyone, with Starlight scared of what to do next.
"Shadow Play, Part 1" ends with the return of the Pony of Shadows to Equestria, threatening all who live on the land just as he did in the ancient past.
"School Daze, Part 1" ends with Chancellor Neighsay shutting down Twilight's Friendship school, believing the non-ponies to be dangerous.
"School Raze, Part 1" ends with Cozy Glow revealed to be Tirek's apprentice and intending to steal all of Equestria's magic.
"The Beginning Of The End, Part 1" ends with King Sombra destroying not only the Tree of Harmony but also the Elements as well, as the Mane Six watch in horror.
"The Ending Of The End, Part 1" ends with Twilight tearfully teleporting away while the others are completely overwhelmed by Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy's power.
My Little Pony: Pony Life: "The Great Divide" has Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash realizing that competing isn't how friendship works and are worried they might hurt each other's feelings. Just as they are ready to quit, the games have commenced leaving all six ponies hopeless. Cue happy credits music.
The first season (Mumfie's Quest) of Magic Adventures of Mumfie had its first twelve episodes end with the phrase "But what happened then will have to wait until next time!". This was removed from the film version.
Every episode of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle ends on a cliffhanger except for the ones which end a serial.
In the end of Season One of Trollhunters, Aaarrrgghh was turned to stone and Jim adds the Eye of Gunmar to his gemstone collection. This conjures a black and dark gold armor with red highlights (as opposed to his much brighter looking usual black and silver armor with blue highlights) that is unattached to the amulet that he wears as he ventures into the Darklands, alone.
Season 1 of SpacePOP ends with Athena wearing the Ring of Grock in front of Geela, who's watching from a video screen, and the ring suddenly begins to glow, to be resolved in Season 2.
Hey Arnold! ended on arguably two of the most controversial cliffhangers in western animation (the mystery of Arnold's missing parents and Arnold's response to Helga's Anguished Declaration of Love), given that 15,000 fans just signed a petition to resolve it. And they have succeeded, with the cancelled Grand Finale film being put back into production and finally being released in 2017.
Parodied with The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "I See A Funny Cartoon In Your Future." As a homage to Rocky & Bullwinkle, there is a break in the action tailing off with a cliffhanger (literally—the girls are hung over a cliff thanks to the antagonist employing three voodoo dolls of them), an Either/Or Title, a faux commercial, then a resumption and resolution of the story.
A recurring motif in DuckTales (2017) is for the season finale to end on a Cliffhanger that will serve as one of the main plot lines of the following season.
Season one's finale, "The Shadow War!", ends with The Reveal that the triplets' mom and resident Walking Spoiler, Della Duck, is still alive and is trapped on the moon.
Season two's finale, "Moonvasion!", ends with The Reveal that Scrooge's board of directors has been Evil All Along and are actually the high command of F.O.W.L.. Additionally, among the agents shown at the meeting are Black Heron (who was believed dead after her debut episode), the seemingly benevolent Gandra, Rockerduck and Jeeves (who only appeared in a flashback episode that took place over 100 years ago), and Unexpected Characters Steelbeak and Phantom Blot (who himself was previously undercover as a seemingly inconsequential minor character).
The Owl House played it straight at the end of "Agony of a Witch" and how! Eda is captured by Lilith, she sacrifices herself to save her own witch apprentice, and Luz came out of the episode crying, distraught over what just happened. The last thing viewers see is Luz completely heartbroken and the words "To Be Continued" over a black screen. Had the season ended that point, the fandom would have rioted.
In Central Park, Season 1 "Dog Spray Afternoon", Birdie broke the narrator rule of revealing important information to the main character. By the end of the episode, Birdie believes everyone forgot about it and there's no consequences for his actions, until we meet a new busker who reveals he's the new narrator now. He even states this is a cliffhanger.
The Ruff & Reddy Show, Q.T. Hush, Tom Terrific and Crusader Rabbit were four other shows featuring cliffhangers. The middle two shows had five-episode cliffhangers while Ruff ran through 13 episodes and Crusader blazed through 20 episodes.
Each episode of The Perils of Penelope Pitstop were followed by a cliffhanger teaser of a following story that resumed the next week.
Seasons two through four of Danger Mouse were five-episode cliffhangers with each season containing six stories.
Young Justice (2010) was cancelled after two seasons, and the second season finale ended on a massive cliffhanger: Darkseid. This cliffhanger was resolved thanks to the show being Un-Canceled for another season.
Unresolved Cliffhangers:
The Amazing World of Gumball: The Season 6 finale ends on a literal cliffhanger; Rob is hanging off of a cliff made by the void in Elmore Jr. High before falling into the void where the episode, and the series itself, ends. Thankfully the long awaited movie was announced to give the series closure.
The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes ended on a cliffhanger including Thor villain Surtur. throughout the season, specifically the episodes "Acts of Vengeance", "The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill", and "Powerless", were setting up Surtur bringing about Ragnarok while also having the Enchantress as a brainwashed slave. While this was mentioned in "Assault on 42" very briefly, the arc was never continued after that due to the show's cancellation.
Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! ended on a huge cliffhanger at the beginning of what would have been the main climax of the series. One more season of the show was intended, but Disney decided not to go for it, so everybody was left at the beginning of the final battle.
The pilot episode for the obscure show/toy line Computer Warriors ends on one. The viruses who are the villains have been trapped on CD's, but they're picked up by the owner of the computer they all came out of and taken over to a friend's house. The Computer Warriors fly into cyberspace to intercept him, going out on a To Be Continued. It's unclear if this was only ever meant to set up the plot and the kids at home were supposed to finish the story by playing with the toys, or if there weren't more videos because the line didn't do very well.
Duckman ended with three characters — Duckman included — getting hitched, and his late wife Beatrice suddenly appearing alive and well at the end. Writer Michael Markowitz seems unwilling to divulge the ending, leaving it up to the fans to guess what may have happened. Everett Peck's passing in 2022 didn't help matters either.
DuckTales (2017): "The Duck Night Returns!" ends on a cliffhanger with Jim Starling revealed to have survived the explosion, and turns into Negaduck. He was never seen again since that episode, not even appearing in "Let's Get Dangerous!".
The second season of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) ended with Snively emerging from the elevator he hid in, proclaiming that, now with Robotnik seemingly out of the picture, he would soon wreak havoc on the Freedom Fighters, accompanied by his new partner who was only seen by a pair of glowing red eyes (Word of God later stated those eyes to belong to Ixis Naugus). The show was then unceremoniously cancelled when Disney bought ABC.
Season 4 of ReBoot ended with the main characters trapped in the Principal Office, which had been taken over by the returned, upgraded Megabyte, who infected Phong and Welman and captured Enzo. At first it seemed that there wouldn't ever be a resolution (not helped by the death of Tony Jay, the voice of Megabyte). Luckily, an official online webcomic was released picking up where the series left off.
The very last shot of another Mainframe production, War Planets: Shadow Raiders, had the Beast looming over the helpless Planet Reptizar as it began to devour it. Especially frustating since they were building up for an epic showdown that failed to materialize. But looking at ReBoot, it seemed to be a signature "trademark" of the former Canadian-based animation studio to always keep ending every new season on a perilous thread, rather than simply giving audiences a self-contained story. Lessons about not being renewed for another season... were clearly not learned.
The children's show Between the Lions has a segment called Cliff Hanger, which stars the cartoon protagonist of that name. At the beginning of each segment, the announcer always says "We find Cliff Hanger where we found him last... hanging from a cliff!" And of course, by the end of each segment he's always right back where he started. Subverted in one episode, where the author decided to finally get him off the cliff because he's tried of writing the books. This angers Lionel, and he asks that the author get him back on the cliff. Which he does.
Can't...hold...on...much...LONGER!!! (And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger!)
In Danny Phantom's season 3, Valerie found out that her employer Vlad is half-ghost and Dani is half-human and resolves to get revenge on Vlad, but after that episode, nothing was ever heard of this ever again. In fact, Valerie practically fell off the face of the earth for the much of that season.
Though this subplot didn't get resolved, the show itself did have a proper finale (which is more than most Nickelodeon shows get) so this is more a case of What Happened to the Mouse?.
We never do learn where Zuko's mother Ursa is at the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender despite Zuko confronting his father Ozai about it.
Undergrads ends with the love triangle between the main character and his two closest female friends still unresolved.
Spider-Man: The Animated Series: The series got one for the last season with Mary Jane getting kidnapped by Hydro-man, Spider-Man gives chase, and gets his ass handed to him, but that's OK because MJ has Water powers now! But it turns out she's actually just a clone, then Madam Web comes in and says that Spider-Man must take part in a 3 episode Story Arc based on the 80's limited series, Secret Wars (1984), after that he teams up with alternate versions of himself from other dimensions, to stop an evil version of himself that bonded with the Symbiote from destroying reality and gets transported to our dimension where he meets up with Stan Lee after that Madam Web vows to help him find the real Mary Jane... and that's it, that was the end of the last episode.
From That Other Wiki John Semper mentioned in an interview if he had continued on with the show, Spider Man would have gone through past time periods and found Mary Jane in Victorian England. Spider-Man would battle with the real Carnage portrayed as Jack the Ripper.
Zig-zagged: A handful of Mighty Mouse cartoons from the late 1940s and early 1950s with Pearl Pureheart and Oil Can Harry open with the resumption of a cliffhanger, when a previous episode never did exist.
The Fairly OddParents!'s Season 1 episode "Spaced Out!" ends with Cosmo losing his nickel. This ends with the screen zooming out with a narrator onscreen saying what happens next. Cue Yugopotamian aliens watching.
The series finale for Stroker and Hoop ended with Stroker and Hoop (Plus their friend "Double Wide") being dropped from a magnetic crane and over a giant cliff. Guess we're supposed to assume that they died.
A source states that Stroker and Hoop are killed in the fall and go to Hell. Coroner Rick and Double Wide have to die and get them out of hell. Supposedly, they do.
The stinger for the final episode of Wander over Yonder shows a defeated Lord Dominator storming off through space and grumbling about how Wander and his friends will get what's coming to them. The camera then pans down to a crashed NASA probe which becomes enveloped in green lightning and from inside come monkey noises that give way to laughter like Lord Hater's. Unless the fans are successful in convincing Disney to greenlight a third season, we may never know what that was all about.
Wolverine and the X-Men (2009) ended on a HUGE one at the end of Season 1. Even though the Bad Future involving the Sentinels was successfully averted, there was '''ANOTHER one involving Apocalypse, Mister Sinister, and a mind controlled Cyclops. Not to mention, as part of setting up this arc, Angel was brainwashed and turned into Archangel by Mister Sinister and never got broken out of his control.
BattleTech (1994) ended after the first season, so it was never explained what happened to the population of Sommerset after the battle between the Strikers and Nikolai Malthus. The official canon of the game states that the series is a poorly received docudrama based on the Clan invasion in-universe, so there won't be a straight answer from that vector. Of course, the game also states that Sommerset was never evacuated in the first place, either.
The Season 2 finale of World of Winx ends on an unresolved cliffhanger where the Winx's identities as fairies are revealed to the world, and Venomya reveals herself to be Baba Yaga.
My Adventures with Superman: The episode "Hearts of the Fathers" (and therefore the season) ends with none other than Brainiac meeting with a Kryptonian, telling him he's found a new planet for him. Though Brainiac warns him of Earth putting up a fight, the Kryptonian declares that Earth will kneel regardless.
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