Grand Finales of live-action TV.
In General:
- Game Shows:
- The finales of game shows typically have the host, in the final segment, thank the viewers for watching, and he'll often thank the producers and others behind the scenes for making the show possible. For longer-running shows, the entire production staff might be invited out to share camera time with the host.
- Often, particularly with the longer-running shows that give away merchandise prizes, there will be larger prize budgets and "special" chances to win big. For instance, the original nighttime Let's Make a Deal:
- NBC primetime 1967: The Big Deal of the Day contained a Cadillac Eldorado convertible and a fur coat, a combined value of more than $10,000 ... easily the biggest Big Deal in show history to that time.
- 1970s syndicated: The final syndicated episode from 1977 had no zonks, and a Big Deal worth more than $16,000 — which was a Cadillac Seville 4 dr. sedan.
- 1980s syndicated: A special "birthday" episode featured guest appearances by Jay Stewart and Carol Merrill.
- Averted with the original NBC Wheel of Fortune, when it was nearly canceled after its August 1, 1980, show note . In fact, host Chuck Woolery and hostess Susan Stafford — throughout the show — made it clear this was supposed to be the final show, and the final segment saw them give heartfelt thanks to viewers, staff, Merv Griffin and others. And then the fade out and "Big Wheels" played to completion over the extended closing credits. And then a funny thing happened: Just hours after the "finale" was taped, Silverman conceded that the daytime Letterman show was a failure and cut it back to 60 minutes, and ordered new episodes of Wheel. The result: On the episode aired Monday, August 4, Woolery hastily explained that they had a reprieve and were glad to be back; that and there were some very obvious edits to the August 1 "finale" episode. Incidentally, the actual final daytime Wheel episodes on NBC (June 30, 1989 and again, when it broke for two weeks to be retooled and air on CBS; and again on August 30, 1991, eight months after it had returned to the Peacock Network), there was no announcement of a "final" episode.
- Sale of the Century: The 1983 NBC version ended its run in March 1989 with a series of special Instant Bargains throughout the final week, including a "Garage Sale" (a special Instant Bargain featuring several prizes and that any of the contestants could buy). As the week progressed, the stage became more bare, and on the final day, host Jim Perry invited the entire production staff out to thank them for six years of success. The final shots included the backstage/production crew at their monitors, waving to the camera.
- The finale of the original Concentration on March 23, 1973 had been noted at least twice during the telecast, and the final rebus puzzle was "You've Been More Than Kind". But their sign-off at show's end was rather perfunctory, with host Bob Clayton thanking viewers over the past 14-1/2 years as Tony Columbia strikes up "Auld Lang Syne" during the ending credits. Announcer Wayne Howell would quickly intone "This program was pre-recorded. This is Wayne Howell. Have a safe and happy weekend. Bye!"
- The finale of short-runner 50 Grand Slam had everyone keep their winnings regardless of whether they won or lost, and host Tom Kennedy's sign-off plugged a new version of Name That Tune he would be hosting in the same time slot beginning next Monday.
- The 1981 finale of the original version of The Hollywood Squares involved a tournament of champions where the eight highest scoring contestants of the show's 15th season played against each other for a total of $100,000 in cash and prizes. note
- The finale of History IQ was the final game in the show's tournament of champions, which comprised the latter half of its second season. In the final game, no bonus round was played; the two contestants played an extended Speed Challenge where the contestant with the highest score when time was called was declared the winner of the tournament and received $250,000.
- The final episode of the original version of Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? had a contestant who won the show's top prize of $1,000,000.
Series:
- 12 Monkeys has the two-part "The Beginning", which sees Team Splinter (along with several allies who died over the course of the series, courtesy of the ever-present time travel) engaging in a Final Battle with the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, launching an assault on Titan in a desperate last gambit to stop the Witness from unleashing a Time Crash. And after the fighting is done, Cole allows himself to be erased from time in order to break the Stable Time Loop the series has been running on, preventing the existence of both the plague and the Witness. However, time itself feels he's owed a happy ending, thus allowing him to exist anyway, and leaving him and Cassie to have their perfect ending together.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ends with the SHIELD team having their Final Battle with the Chronicoms and Nathaniel Malick, which is followed by a one year Time Skip and a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue showing where the various team members have done now that they've gone their separate ways.
- The final episode of Angel was Grand, but not Final, ending just as our heroes launched into a doomed charge against a demonic army. The message here was not "It's over, go home", but a final statement that the battle would never end.
- Most of the last season of Arrow is built around the lead-up to Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019). The final episode, therefore, is more of a coda about the characters dealing with the fallout from the event, specifically as they all come together to mourn Oliver's death and honor his legacy. While not as grand as some other examples on this page, it's still a fitting tribute to the show's run and everything that came before it.
- Ash vs. Evil Dead ends with the Dark Ones unleashing Hell on Earth, including the massive Kandar. Ash manages to kill it, but in the process is rendered comatose; he awakens an indiscriminate time later in a post-apocalyptic future, and rides off to keep fighting the evil.
- The A-Team's chronological finale was "The Grey Team", though the lost penultimate episode "Without Reservations" was aired Out of Order with it in reruns.
- Babylon 5's last episode, "Sleeping In Light", which also doubles as a Distant Finale, and was actually filmed before the final season, as the writers didn't know whether the show would be continuing.
- Battlestar Galactica's "Daybreak". They rescue Hera, and Cavil dies, in the midst of an epic struggle involving almost all the humans, Cylons, and ships we've seen in the series. Kara finally finds a habitable planet, and it turns out to be ours...150,000 years before our time. Yes, two Earths.
- Oh, and the Galactica? It's superstructure is so heavily damaged from the Final Battle that another jump would tear the whole ship to shreds. So she's evacuated by everyone except the hybridized Anders, who then pilots the whole fleet into the Sun so that the new human civilization can start over from scratch and not make the same mistakes as the previous ones.
- The Big Bang Theory ends with a double-length episode in which Sheldon and Amy win the Nobel Prize for their research in super asymmetry, Sheldon realizing that his friends helped him get to where he is now and him thanking all of them during his award speech, and Leonard and Penny discovering they're going to have a baby. Oh, and they finally fixed the apartment's elevator.
- Blackadder:
- Blackadder Goes Forth ended with all the main characters (sans Melchett) being sent over the top of the trenches and presumably being shot to death. One of the saddest and most emotional endings for a series.
- The special Blackadder Back & Forth, which ends with Blackadder using a time machine to achieve the very first Blackadder's goal: becoming king.
- The ending of Blake's 7 was similarly a curiously open ended Grand Finale, in which all the characters were shot down in a massive gun battle. It wasn't clear whether any of them survived. The show's producers suggested that if a Season 5 were ever made, the survivors would be the characters played by any of the actors who wanted to return. Since there never was a Season 5, the internal reading should probably be that they all died.
- El Camino is this to the entire Breaking Bad universe. The film manages to tie most of the loose ends of the series, as well as conclude Jesse's storyline. It certainly closes the circle of the series' universe, with Better Call Saul representing the prequel, Breaking Bad the center, and El Camino the end of the entire storyline.
- The Brittas Empire ends with the Series 7 episode "Curse of the Tiger Woman", which has Gordon (and Carole) find out that he is the father of Carole's twins (resolving a plotline from Series 2), and has a more apocalyptic than usual plot involving poisoned cooking and a marsh gas build up threatening the centre. The episode ends with Brittas being pecked unconscious by a goose (with the centre about to blow up), revealing that the entirety of the Series was just a dream that Gordon was having on the train on his way to the interview for said Leisure Manager job.
- As usual, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Chosen" had to top everyone else, with a triple play — destroying the Hellmouth, defeating the First Evil and its army, and permanently changing the magical rules that define who becomes a Slayer and how. And completely destroying the entire city of Sunnydale, leaving only an enormous crater.
- Burn Notice ends with Michael faking his death so he can permanently leave the spy life behind for good, and settle down with Fiona and his orphaned nephew Charlie in what is presumably Ireland. His nemesis Simon is dead, and so is the Season 7 bad guy. Madeline makes a Heroic Sacrifice allowing Michael and Fi to escape. Sam and Jesse remain in Miami, continuing to help out clients. And Michael begins narrating his past adventures.
- California Dreams did this by having the entire band break up at the end of high school to disperse to different parts of the country (and one to Europe) to end the show. Unfortunately, it created something of a Downer Ending in the process (though Jake did take his record deal after all).
- Chuck: "Chuck Versus the Goodbye" wrapped up the final arc of the season with Team Bartowksi embarking on their (fourth) last mission to stop the latest Big Bad, recover the Intersect and help Sarah recover her lost memories, all while running on the usual Rule of Cool with a healthy dose of Continuity Porn. The episode is littered with call backs to the pilot and the return of old characters, locations and Running Gags, culimating in Jeffster performing at a concert hall to delay a bomb from killing General Beckman while newly re-Intersected Chuck disarms it with the Irene Demoana virus.
- Once the last adventure is over, there are a lot of little character resolutions: Casey leaves Burbank to find Verbanski and leaves his apartment to Morgan and Alex, who are moving in together; Jeff and Lester are offered a record contract and leave the Buy More; Ellie and Awesome get new jobs in Chicago and move there with Clara; Subway takes over the Buy More; and as Sarah's memories slowly return, she start falling in love with Chuck all over again.
- The Colbert Report's finale was suitably impressive, with Colbert first shooting Grimmy during the last-ever 'Cheating Death with Stephen Colbert' segment, becoming immortal, then after a commercial break, he begins to sing Vera Lynn's WWII standard "We'll Meet Again". The camera then pans to both Jon Stewart and Randy Newman (on piano) joining him. Then, over 150 former guests begin to gradually come out on stage to join him, along with several pre-taped sequences including the show's crew, Tek Jansen, astronaut Scott Kelly on the ISS, troops in Afghanistan and others singing as well. Once the stage clears and the studio is empty, we find Colbert on the Colbert studio's roof, where he joins Abraham Lincoln, Santa Claus, and Alex Trebek in Santa's sleigh to live in eternity. Before he rides away, he breaks character briefly, to thank the guests & crew that have been on the show over the last nine years. He then throws the show back to Stewart, who wraps the show (inferring slyly it's been one big Daily Show segment) up as a 'great Report', before showing a Moment Of Zen of Stewart & Colbert breaking character during a show hand-off from 2010.
- The last NBC Columbo from the 1970s ended on a nice note. Columbo drinks a toast with his last murderer (an Irish gunrunner) and his last words are a quote referring both to the amount of whiskey they'll drink, and the show as a whole: "We'll go this far, and no farther." Little did they know then that ABC would take them farther a decade later.
- The final episode of Corner Gas involved Brent getting a big break as a standup comedian. This would involve him leaving Dog River. Will he go or not? The episode ends with a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
- The Crocodile Hunter concluded in 2004 with the three-hour special "Steve's Last Adventure".
- The last episode of Dad's Army ended with the platoon being stood down after a false invasion alarm had interrupted the celebration of Jones's wedding. The men toasted the happy couple and then broke the Fourth Wall by turning to the camera and drinking another toast - to the real Home Guard.
- Dark Oracle's finale episode, "Redemption" killed off the Big Bad and former villain Omen, featured Big Bad Wannabe Vern's Heel–Face Turn and wiped the comic, the source of all the show's problems, from existence.
- Desperate Housewives had a bittersweet grand finale, featuring major changes in the lives of all the main characters: Mrs. McCluskey saves Bree by falsely confessing to the murder she is on trial for and later dies of cancer. Bree marries her lawyer, Trip Weston, moves to Kentucky, and becomes a politician. Lynette accepts the CEO position that Katherine offers her in her company, moves to New York with Tom, and later becomes a grandmother of six. Gabrielle starts her own fashion website and TV show, and moves to California with Carlos, where they buy a mansion. And Susan moves away with Julie, MJ, and her new grandchild as the ghosts of Wisteria Lane watch her leave. However, Mary Alice informs us that the women never again get together as a group.
- A Different World ended with Dwayne and Whitley finding out they're pregnant and moving to Japan for Dwayne's job and a big goodbye party for them is shown. During the party, Kimberly and Spencer decide to get married.
- While Doctor Who hasn't ended, the end of the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors' tenures got a big finish, ending with their regeneration and (usually) the reveal of the next Doctor. note
- The season four finale of the classic series was intended as one for the Daleks, depicting the Doctor's last confrontation with them and ending with the Daleks seemingly destroyed. Of course, this being the Daleks, it didn't stick.
- "Survival" was the final episode of the classic series, and even though the show was cancelled rather than deliberately wrapped up and ended, the episode appropriately brought back the Master for the Doctor to face off against one last time. Once the cancellation was confirmed, Sylvester McCoy recorded a voice-over for the last scene, to give his Doctor and Ace an appropriate send-off.
- Series 4 of the revived Doctor Who could be said to have two Grand Finales. Before "The End of Time" marked the Tenth Doctor's regeneration, "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" marked the end of Donna's tenure as a Companion — and featured a Crisis Crossover with the main casts of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, as well as a team-up between all three of the new series' regular companions, and an all-out Dalek invasion led by Davros himself. The remaining episodes in Series 4 were just a denouement leading up to the Tenth Doctor's Grand Finale.
- As the Tenth Doctor's finale was also the end of the Russell T Davies era, it really went for broke — it answered a lot of questions about the Time War mythos and ended with a string of cameos from previous companions and monsters. The next series started with a clean-slate Jumping-On Point (new Doctor, companion and TARDIS set).
- The Series 9 finale trilogy, "Face the Raven", "Heaven Sent" and "Hell Bent", felt like a grand finale of the Twelfth Doctor era, even though he continued for one more year and another Doctor followed. This was due to it resolving a number of character and storyline points, some of them dating back a decade, and concluding with a Bittersweet Ending that effectively wiped the slate clean for the Doctor. Twelve's true finale, "Twice Upon a Time", ended up being a comparatively more low-key affair.
- Now for the others. The First Doctor's regeneration was a surprise, not being as blockbuster as the others, since it was the first step into unfamiliar territory for the writers. Six was unceremoniously offed due to a tenure plagued with Executive Meddling (at least until Big Finish Productions came to the rescue almost three decades later), while Seven received a similar fate in the TV movie after the show was cancelled. He returned for The Cameo and Changing of the Guard that was more like a kick in the pants than a graceful end. Eight's regeneration wasn't shown until the end of Eleven's era, and the War Doctor's regeneration wasn't a "traditional" regeneration sequence as Christopher Eccleston declined to return.
- Doom Patrol (2019) concluded with the episode "Done Patrol", where Immortus and the Butts are defeated in the final confrontation by being banished to the void between time through song, most of the team have their longevity restored by Immortus after her banishment caused her to mellow out, Rita Farr dies of old age because it was too late to restore her longevity (though she at least reunites with her lover Malcolm in the afterlife), the Doom Patrol disband to move on with their lives and Cliff Steele succumbs to Parkinson's after visiting his family during his grandson's first birthday and using an enchanted crystal given to him by Immortus to view glimpses of his grandson's future (concluding with him meeting his own grandson).
- Drake & Josh ended with the hour-long movie "Really Big Shrimp" where Drake finally gets the big break he wants to become famous, Josh's boss Helen gets married, and the Premiere Theater burns to the ground. Even so it would be followed a year and a half later with a Christmas movie.
- ER ended with a feature-length episode providing a conclusion to Carter's story arc, with lots of characters Back for the Finale, heaps of Call-Back and Book Ends, plus a strong sense of And the Adventure Continues.
- Friends concludes with Ross and Rachel finally getting past their Will They or Won't They? woes with a declaration of their love and a vow to "stop being stupid" while Monica and Chandler watch their children being born, and Phoebe and Joey accept the changes occurring. The friends also start a new era of their lives, leaving the apartment complex and city that was their home for so long. The episode ends with the friends going to the coffee house one last time and one last look at the now-empty apartment. Despite the happy ending, many viewers found it one of the most bittersweet ending of any show ever, and both the cast and crew couldn't get through the final scenes without crying.
- The Fugitive for all intents and purposes really invented this trope. There were shows that had series finales before this one (including Leave It to Beaver and The Dick Van Dyke Show), but The Fugitive was the first show to set up a continuing overaching plotline that ran through the whole series — and which was then definitively resolved in the finale. The premise? Lead character Dr. Richard Kimble is on the run, having been falsely convicted of murder. To clear his name, he must track down the mysterious One-Armed Man he saw fleeing the scene of the murder, while avoiding capture by the police ... particularly by the resourceful, determined and coolly unstoppable Lt. Gerard. Finally, after four years and 120 episodes — and innumerable near misses and spectacular escapes — the last episode actually featured the long-awaited three-way confrontation between the One-Armed Man, Kimble and Gerard. Resolving a long-running show this way was unheard of in the 1960s, and audiences tuned in overwhelming numbers for it. The original 1967 airing of The Fugitive series finale was the most watched episode of anything in TV history ever up to that point, and is still one of TV's most-watched moments to this day.
- The now-obscure remake in 2000 ended on a cliffhanger — the show was cancelled before anything could be resolved.
- The Golden Girls wrapped up its 7th and final season with one. Blanche, having set Dorothy up with her uncle Lucas in order to go on a date that night, is gotten back at when the two decide to fake an engagement to freak her out. However, Dorothy and Lucas actually fall in love, and then marry in the final episode. The last moments of the episode are that of Dorothy, giving the girls her last goodbyes, and, after returning twice immediately after walking out the door, finally sets off on her honeymoon. The last three girls simply come together into a hug, sobbing as the credits roll.
- Gotham ends with a Distant Finale that jumps ahead ten years from the events of the previous episode (which tied up the finale season's Story Arc). Jeremiah Valeska regains activity and sets in motion an Evil Plan that is thwarted as Bruce returns to Gotham after a decade away, finally ready to become the hero he was born to be.
- Gullah Gullah Island ends after 4 seasons with the episode "Polliwog Day" where the characters celebrate Polliwog Day for all the polliwogs. Especially Binyah Binyah Polliwog! Even the "Polliwog Day" song shows a montage of flashbacks from other episodes.
- Hannibal Will frees Hannibal, they reunite at one of Hannibal's old safe houses that their adoptive daughter used to reside in. They lure Arc Villain Francis Dolarhyde out for a final confrontation, then they kill him as murder husbands. Will embraces Hannibal and then he throws them off a cliff together in a final shot. In a post credit scene Du Mauri waits at the dinner table and presents one of her legs for the meal.
- Happy Days had an ultimate sitcom-style ending. Joanie and Chachi finally got married, Fonzie adopted a young boy, Richie returned to see everything off, and Howard ended the episode by thanking the audience for being a part of their family, then name-dropped the title. (But never explained where Brother Chuck vanished to, unless you consider the outtake where Howard does a spit-take and exclaims "Hey, where's Chuck?!")
- Hometime rather fittingly ended its 29-year run on PBS with an episode titled "The Last Episode". The program ends with a celebration of 29 great seasons on public television, after an acknowledgement that this is, indeed, the end of the series.
- The Honey, I Shrunk the Kids TV series ends after 3 seasons with the episode "Honey, I Shrink, Therefore I Am". After the shrink ray has been downplayed since season 2, it finally appears for the finale as Amy accidentally gets shrunken again. Meanwhile, Chief McKenna wants to propose to Trudi, but fears that she doesn't love him as much as he does her, and she thinks the same thing. In the end, Amy is brought back to normal size with Wayne's help, The Chief works up to courage to propose to Trudi, Diane announces that she's pregnant (most likely with Adam from the movie sequels), and they all live happily ever after... and then, they all get shrunken.
- Since Horrible Histories was sketch-based, it didn't have much of a plot to end, but it did have a song
outlining the achievements and misdeeds of several time periods covered by the show and featuring damn well every character that had appeared in the show. - House ends with the titular character pulling off an elaborate scheme to fake his own death so he can be with Wilson during his last months to live, even though it means he can never practice medicine again. The series ends with both friends riding motorcycles off into the sunset.
- iCarly ends on a high note, with Carly's dad returning home to take her to the school's father/daughter dance. After saying he must depart back to Italy, Carly decides to join him, which leaves her to abruptly suspend the web Show Within a Show as she leaves the country, leaving Sam with the power to do good things and improve her life, Spencer to pursue his artistry dreams, and Freddie to get into something that will make him popular.
- The official grande finale of Iron Chef had the four current Iron Chefs go against each other to be crowned 'King of Iron Chefs', then said 'King' go against Alain Passard to fulfil some Unfinished Business. Sakai won the title of 'King of Iron Chefs' (in an ingredient he had a losing streak against, no less), then defeated Passard in Battle Long Gong Chicken.
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider Kuuga ends with Yuusuke defeating N-Daguva-Zeba, ridding the world of all the Grongi and going on to travel the world.
- Kamen Rider Agito ends with the Overlord of Darkness defeated, but not destroyed. But he seems to have learned his lesson about letting humanity evolve without his interference, allowing the characters to live out their lives in peace.
- Kamen Rider Ryuki ends with Shiro Kanzaki accepting the death of his sister and ceasing the Rider War entirely. The credits show each of the Kamen Riders living their lives as normal people.
- Kamen Rider 555 ends with the defeat of the Orphnoch King, essentially dooming the Orphnoch race to extinction, but the main character, who's an Orphnoch himself, seems okay with this and the final shot of the series implies he'll soon die someday.
- Kamen Rider Blade has two finales:
- The finale of the series proper starts with Hajime being the final Undead left, having won the Battle Fight. Since he is the Joker Undead, his victory means the end of all life on earth. It seems as if he and Kenzaki will have to fight to the end, but Kenzaki takes a third option and turns into an Undead himself, resetting the Battle Fight and averting the end of the world. Unfortunately, neither of them could ever meet again, as they would be forced to fight.
- The Movie, called Kamen Rider Blade: Missing Ace is an alternate finale to the series, which features an alternate timeline in which Kenzaki defeated Hajime. It is soon revealed another Joker undead existst, who tries to sacrifice Amane to gain the ultimate power. However, Hajime pulls a Heroic Sacrifice, allowing the Riders to defeat the other Joker.
- Kamen Rider Hibiki has a strange Grand Finale. The final battle seems to be starting at the end of the penultimate episode, but the final episode skips said battle entirely and feels more like a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
- Kamen Rider Kabuto reveals Zect has been controlled by Native Worms, who execute a scheme that would turn all of humanity in Native Worms. Gatack and Kabuto foil said scheme in an epic battle.
- Kamen Rider Den-O ends with the defeat of Kai and the Death Imagin, allowing the proper future aka Hana's timeline to exist.
- Kamen Rider Kiva features two time periods, with each period having its own Grand Finale. 1986 ends with Otoya accepting the powers of Dark Kiva and teaming up with his son Wataru from the future to destroy the King of the Fangires. 2008 ends with Wataru teaming up with his half-brother Taiga to destroy a resurrected King the Fangires. Near the end of the series, Nago and Megumi marry, but are interrupted by Wataru's son from the future, warning them about the Neo Fangire so so the adventure continues.
- Kamen Rider Decade has its Grand Finale take place in a movie. In the movie, Decade embraces his position as the Destroyer of Worlds, destroying each and every Kamen Rider and ultimately allowing himself to be destroyed by Natsumi. It is revealed that the destruction of each Kamen Rider will cement their place in the collective memory, rendering them functionally immortal. After this reveal, he and Kamen Rider Double team up to defeat the true villain of the movie: The Remnant of Dai-Shocker
- Kamen Rider Double has its true climax take place in the penultimate episode, where Jun Kazu, the Man Behind the Man is defeated as Phillip sacrifices himself in a final battle. The real final episode is more of a low key story, where Phillip is revived by his sister.
- Kamen Rider OOO ends with the defeat of Doctor Maki, the death of Ankh and Eiji traveling the world in search of a way to revive Ankh.
- Kamen Rider Fourze ends with Gentarou defeating and befriending the Big Bad, who revives Kengo in his final act before dying.
- The series finale of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson featured a musical cold opening with a slew of celebrity guests, Ferguson randomly introducing a new character from a pipe on his desk, a viewer mail segment including a message from someone who had allegedly only started watching the show on its finale week, and Jay Leno as the final guest. At the end of the show, they decided to reveal who was actually in the Secretariat horse costume ... only to discover it was actually Bob Newhart! Cue a cut to Nigel Wick in his bedroom having dreamed the entire series, Drew Carey being offended that the Drew in Wick's dream had become a fit and successful game show host, everyone in a snow globe like the St. Elsewhere finale, and "Don't Stop Believing" being cut off by a Smash to Black.
- Law & Order just ended with the episode "Rubber Room" in which it's another school shooting...except it's a sacked teacher who snaps and plots the rampage.
- Then again, for something that was originally meant to be a Season Finale, the final scene, with all the detectives and D.A.'s gathered in the same spot, enjoying a round of drinks, and having a pleasant time (rather than reflecting on the crime) brings a nice close to the series. Especially since this episode was a rare (for the series) straight, unironic example of Everybody Lives.
- Leverage episode "The Long Goodbye Job" is filled with call backs to their pilot episode "The Nigerian Job". The team go for a "black book", a record that has the names of all the rich and powerful who ruined the world economy. Nate proposes to Sophie and they leave the team to be run by Parker. And the Adventure Continues.
- Lexx goes Where It All Began, Big Bad: Prince makes Kai alive again but he dies sacrificing himself like the first scene of the series and destroying the Lyekka asteroid. Prince and Priest escape on a rocket with a load of school girls. 790 destroys the Earth out of frustration, but then the Lexx dies of exhaustion and old age. A baby Lexx is born for Stan and Xev to continue searching for a home with.
- Life on Mars: Sam Tyler commits suicide by jumping from the top of a tall building. And saves the lives of his friends in 1973, gets the girl and drives off into the sunset.
- The US version featured him waking up in a spaceship as part of a mission to find literal life on Mars. Several of the themes from both series were weaved in to make a bit more sense, but the ending voided any and all chance of ever having an American Ashes to Ashes (2008).
- By contrast, the finale of the UK series was voted on a Sky 1 special to be the No. 1 TV show ending out of a list of 49 other competitors.
- The sequel series Ashes to Ashes (2008) had to wrap up multiple storylines:
- Alex finally put all the pieces together about the numbers, the ghost copper, and the grave in Lancashire; 6620 is the serial number of the dead copper who's buried up in that farm in Lancashire (the one with the weathervane that she's been seeing all season, and that was on the TV report in her hospital room in 3.01)… aka Gene Hunt. Gene was a 19-year-old PC in 1953 when he surprised a burglar in a barn on Coronation Day, and was shot through the head. His will was so strong that he didn't pass over, he created a Purgatory for coppers with issues like himself and remade himself into its guardian, the badass Gene Genie, Manc Lion, head-bashing sheriff, like John Wayne or Gary Cooper. His job is to help the coppers that end up in his realm work through their issues, then help them cross over, only he forgets every single time what's really going on.
- Sam figured out what was going on and, together with Gene, faked his death so Gene wouldn't question why he was gone.
- Meanwhile, everyone — including Alex — is already dead. Alex died in her hospital room in the present day/reality. Shaz was a copper during the 1990s who surprised a carjacker and was stabbed to death with Chekhov's Screwdriver. Chris followed his superior officer into a shootout in the 1960s and was shot in the line of duty. Ray committed suicide on Coronation Day as well, after murdering a young kid and his DCI covered it up. Each of them are made to rewatch the circumstances of their deaths by Keats, who, by the way, is the Devil himself — or at the very least, a high-ranking minion. Keats tries, and almost succeeds, in tempting the team away from Gene, actually breaking the world (destroying CID) to peel back the construct and reveal the star-covered sky everyone's been seeing. Alex's loyalty to Gene still holds, and she reforms the office.
- The final scene is Gene taking the team to what is revealed to be the Railway Arms pub, where Nelson, the bartender from Life On Mars, is waiting as a Saint Peter figure to help them cross over. Ray, Chris, and Shaz reconcile and cross over. Alex and Gene finally kiss, but it's goodbye, and she crosses over, leaving Gene to go back to CID where the newest dead copper comes barging in, shouting about his iPhone, and Gene offers him some friendly advice: "a word in your shell-like, pal".
- Little House on the Prairie ended with a bang. Walnut Grove gets purchased by a Jerkass developer, but instead of allowing the townspeople to buy the land back from him, he decides to allow everyone to stay...as his employees. In retaliation, they have a meeting at the church/school and decide that they'd rather blow the town up and leave with nothing rather than allow the developer to have everything they have worked for. So all the men get dynamite and they blow up Walnut Grove. Jerkass returns to the town with the Army in tow and demands that everyone be arrested. The Army refuses to do so, the other mayors he's courting see his true colours and back out of the deals he tried to make for their towns, and the citizens of what used to be Walnut Grove leave singing "Onward Christian Soldiers".
- The writers of Lost knew their finale's end date three years in advance, they certainly made theirs epic. The source of all the show's mysterious happenings was revealed for the first time - and was promptly turned off, risking the island's imminent destruction. And then... was turned back on again. The lead character had a final knife-fight on crumbling cliffs in the rain with the Big Bad - a villain who'd appeared in every season and in the very first episode and who'd taken the form of another main character, the lead's philosophical rival. Several characters escaped the island once and for all, flying off in a 777 as the runway disintegrated beneath them. The season's flashes were revealed to show the characters in the afterlife, letting the final scene reunite almost every main character after death. And the final shots were an exact reversal of the show's opening shots, with the lead character returning to the show's opening spot, falling there, and closing his eyes as he died.
- Lucifer (2016) was originally supposed to end in Season 5 with Lucifer becoming God after fighting his twin brother Michael, but Netflix renewed it for Season 6 leading to a different ending. The sixth season had Lucifer's and Chloe's daughter from the future Rory telling them how he abandoned them, with Rory being told where and when Chloe last saw him but not why he left. While it appeared that Lucifer had succeeded in changing his destiny they soon realize that Chloe and their loved ones had actually lied to Rory in order to protect the time loop: Lucifer learns his true calling is to help damned souls come to terms with their guilt so they can go to Heaven, and Rory figures out that he leaves Chloe to do this because if he doesn't Rory would never be angry enough to go back in time in the first place and cause the events of the season. Meanwhile because of Rory's actions and causing Lucifer to realize he doesn't want to be God, Dan is able to forgive himself to go to Heaven while Amenadiel takes on the role of God. Upon her death decades later Amenadiel takes Chloe down to Hell so she can help Lucifer with his new purpose.
- MacGyver: "The Stringer" (who happens to be a photojournalist, as well as MacGyver's son, born to a woman killed in China. In the final scene Mac leaves the Phoenix Foundation and he and his son go Walking the Earth - on motorbikes).
- B R Chopra’s adaptation of Mahabharata ends with Yudhistir having an Awesome Moment of Crowning as he becomes Emperor of Hastinapur and all the territories now left bereft of kings due to the carnage of the Kurukshetra War. All elders retire to meditate in the forest, a New Era Speech is made, and Bhishma secure in the knowledge that his beloved kingdom is now in safe hands, chooses to die. Time ends his narrative.
- How about The Mary Tyler Moore Show? Under new management, the crew—except for Ted—is given their marching orders. Their final goodbyes was most memorable.
- The ultimate Grand Finale, in terms of sheer viewership and dramatic power, has to be the final movie-length episode of M*A*S*H entitled "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen". It ended the Korean war, irrevocably altered several characters, and brought an era of television to a close...plus it holds the record to this day for the highest single-episode ratings of any scripted show ever. Not even the Super Bowl could top it until 2010.
- Merlin pulls no punches when it comes to their Grand Finale. The prophecy that was first introduced way back in series 1 — that Mordred would one day kill Arthur — finally comes to pass, with Mordred defecting to Morgana's side and the two of them waging war on Camelot. Merlin powers up in the Crystal Cave and kills Morgana. Arthur is killed by Mordred, kills him in turn, dies in Merlin's arms and is taken to Avalon. Guinevere becomes the sole ruler of Camelot by her husband's edict, with Gaius and the remaining knights swearing their loyalty to her. Gwaine is killed in battle. Finally, Merlin is seen in a Distant Finale scene in modern times, still awaiting the return of the Once and Future King.
- The last three episodes of Monk gave Adrian his detective badge back before allowing him to realize he'd been happier without it, solved Trudy's murder, discovered and became close to Trudy's long-lost daughter, sent Randy Disher off on a job of his own as the Police Sergeant of a town in New Jersey and hooked him up with Sharona, and to top it all off implied that Adrian is finally getting over his OCD.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a Grand Finale both for when it was cancelled on Comedy Central (necessitating a Post-Script Season when it returned), and later, when it was cancelled on the Sci-Fi Channel. The Scifi channel ending satisfied the Excuse Plot storyline by showing Mike back on Earth with the bots, living in an apartment and watching The Crawling Eye, the first movie to appear on the show (not counting the KTMA episodes.)
- Newhart: "The Last Newhart", one of the most memorable sitcom finales among fans and critics. A Japanese tycoon purchases the entire (unnamed) Vermont town instead of the Stratford Inn, which series protagonists Dick and Joanna Loudon co-owned. After everyone goes their separate ways, the action picks up five years later, where Dick has progressively gotten more frustrated with his life as he deals with crazier loons than what populated the inn years earlier, and his wife has even gotten nuts; he's also unable to get over a golf course being built around the inn without his permission. Then, the old folks — handyman George Uttley, Larry (along with his brother Darryl ... and his other brother, Darryl), and the vain Stephanie and Michael Harris with their daughter (a vain clone of her yuppie parents) — all come back and drive Dick to the brink of a nervous breakdown. The Darryls speak for the only time in the series' history ("QUIET!!!" to shut their annoying girlfriends up). Eventually, Dick snaps when he is unable to bring order to the inn, and is making good on his vow to leave the Stratford Inn when he is knocked unconscious by a wayward golf ball. The screen goes black ... and when a light comes back on, the scene shifts to Dr. Robert Hartley's bedroom from The Bob Newhart Show, and his wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette in a cameo of her famous role). The whole series of Newhart, it seems, was but a (bad) dream that Bob had one night.
- The ending was a parody of the ending of St. Elsewhere.
- Nightly Business Report ends with an announcement by Bill Griffeth that this was the end, and also Thanking the Viewer and showing a clip of the great Paul Kangas "wishing all of you the best of good buys".
- Nip/Tuck ends with Sean and Christian making Liz a partner in the practice, effectively calling it McNamara/Troy/Cruz. Liz, who is pregnant via donated sperm from Sean, is happy but decides to leave for parts unknown when Sean decides that he wants to be a part of the baby's life, which she doesn't agree with. Christian, feeling that he is the reason Sean is not living a more fulfilling life, kicks him out of the practice and gives him a one-way ticket to Bucharest so that he can work in an orphanage doing pro-bono surgeries. Matt decides to make a life with his transsexual lover Ava. Julia moves to England and remarries, taking Annie and Conor with her. Christian is left alone to run Troy/Cruz. Their final patient is an elderly porn star who gets his heart surgery scar removed. He later dies with a smile on his face while filming a sex scene in his latest movie. The final scene is Christian, seeing the ghost of Kimber in a bar and wishing her well, then meeting a new young starlet who's thinking about plastic surgery — exactly the way the series begun (with Christian meeting Kimber in a bar).
- The finale of NUMB3RS is just a relatively routine case on the work side (albeit one with some personal elements), but features major changes and moments of development for the characters. Charlie and Amita get married before their move to England to teach at the University of Cambridge. Larry seems to have found what he was looking for, and plans to take over for Charlie. The garage is being remodeled into a guest house so that Alan can finally have a place of his own while still living on the property. David accepts a promotion and is moving to DC. And, as of the last few minutes of the episode, Don and Robin are engaged, and Don mentions accepting a promotion of his own.
- Once Upon a Time: The heroes have a showdown with the Wish Realm version of Rumplestiltskin, climaxing with Original!Rumple sacrificing himself to destroy his counterpart. Afterwards, Regina casts an inversion of the Dark Curse in order to bring all the Fairy Tale Realms and their curse-scattered occupants to the same place — namely, Storybrooke. Then, in a closing scene echoing the pilot's scene of Snow and Charming's coronation, Regina is chosen to serve as the Good Queen of the United Realms.
- Our Miss Brooks: In cinematic series finale, Miss Brooks finally marries Mr. Boynton.
- Pair of Kings had to pull this off at the announcement that Season 3 will be the last by Adam Hicks who played King Boz realising that the hole left by Mitchel Musso is too big to fill. The Driving Question as to why the kings had to leave the island in the first place and how their parents died were answered in the last four episodes. The mummy all the way back at the beginning? It is Kaita the bat-rider, the leader of the tarantula people and the Bat Medallion was his ticket back to the world of the living. The king's father foolishly fought Kaita on his own and got himself killed. Since the kings are still infants, the family had to escape along with a tarantula shaman, who is Rebecca's father. The kings are visited by their parent's ghosts who told them to stand together instead of fighting alone. After uniting the tribes of Kinkow (even the tarantula people with Rebecca as their representative), the kings used the power of unity together with their rings to blow away Kaita for good into Mount Spew, cleansing the Dark Side of the island.
- The Diffys finally fix their time machine and apparently return home in the grand finale of Phil of the Future.
- Every Power Rangers series had its own conclusion.
- The original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers ended with the episode "Rangers in Reverse", which had the villains take over Angel Grove after neutralizing the Rangers by reversing time and causing them to become children. The loose ends were tied up in a 10-episode miniseries titled Mighty Morphin' Alien Rangers, which had a team of Rangers from the planet Aquitar coming to Earth in order to handle the monsters being unleashed upon Angel Grove by the villains while Billy, Adam, Rocky, Aisha, Kat, and Tommy went on a quest to return to their normal ages and restore their Power Ranger powers. The conclusion of the miniseries ended with the Rangers' Morphers and the Command Center being destroyed with Zordon and Alpha 5 presumed dead.
- The last episode of Power Rangers Zeo that aired was a Christmas Episode titled "A Season to Remember", which had an elderly Tommy tell his grandson about his adventures as a Zeo Ranger on Christmas Eve, but the chronological finale of the series is "Good as Gold", where the Zeo Rangers defeated the Machine Empire, who had insult added to their injury when Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa got back at them for upstaging them as the main villains.
- Power Rangers Turbo was wrapped up with the two-part episode "Chase into Space", where Divatox causes the Turbo Rangers to lose their powers and blows up their lair. So the ending isn't completely bleak, the last scene of the episode shows Ashley, T.J., Cassie, and Carlos following Divatox into space in hopes of preventing her from causing further damage, setting up the events of the next Power Rangers series.
- The finale of Power Rangers in Space was the "Countdown to Destruction" two-parter, where the Space Rangers tried to take down an alliance consisting of Astronema and almost every major antagonist from the previous shows. In the end, Zordon makes the big sacrifice by having Andros kill him so that his death unleashes an energy wave that reforms some of the Power Rangers' adversaries (Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, and Divatox) and destroys others (Goldar, Elgar, the Machine Empire, and the countless foot soldiers). Notably, the two-part episode was originally intended to be the end of Power Rangers period, but ratings persuaded Saban to continue the franchise.
- Power Rangers Lost Galaxy concluded with the three-part episode "Journey's End", where the Galaxy Rangers defeated Trakeena and returned their Quasar Sabers into the stone they removed them from at the start of the series, finally returning the inhabitants of Mirinoi who had been transformed into stone to normal.
- Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue finished its run with the two-part episode "The Fate of Lightspeed", where the Lightspeed Rangers succeed in sealing away the demons forever and change their minds about retiring from being Rangers after solving Mariner Bay's demon problem.
- The three-part episode "The End of Time" serves as the finale of Power Rangers Time Force (the last Power Rangers show to complete its run prior to Disney obtaining the rights to the franchise), where the main villain Ransik willingly gives himself up to the Time Force Rangers to be returned to the year 3001 and face justice for his crimes after almost killing his daughter Nadira and Wes becomes the new commander of the Silver Guardians on the condition that Eric be his partner.
- Power Rangers Wild Force ended with the Wild Force Rangers defeating Master Org in a final battle in the two-part episode "The End of the Power Rangers".
- Power Rangers Ninja Storm concluded its run with the two-part episode "Storm Before the Calm", where the Rangers faced off against Lothor and all the evils he has released from the Abyss of Evil.
- The conclusion of Power Rangers: Dino Thunder occurred in the two-part episode "Thunder Struck", where the Dino Rangers sacrifice their powers and Zords to take out Mesogog and his clone army.
- The two-part episode "Endings" wraps up Power Rangers S.P.D. and ended with Emperor Gruum finally defeated and captured as well as Sky and Bridge respectively promoted to Red Ranger and Blue Ranger.
- Power Rangers Mystic Force ended with the two-part episode "Mystic Fate", where the Mystic Rangers lose their powers but regain them in time to finally finish off the Master.
- Power Rangers Operation Overdrive concluded with the episode "Crown and Punishment", where Flurious reassembles the Corona Aurora and tries to use its power to take over the world, only for Mack to destroy him with a powerful energy beam.
- The final episode of Power Rangers Jungle Fury was "The Final Fury", where Dai-Shi is beaten for good by a final attack from Casey, Lily, and Theo.
- Power Rangers RPM (the last Power Rangers show produced before Saban bought back the rights to the franchise from Disney) was wrapped up with the two-part episode "Danger and Destiny", where Venjix is defeated and the Earth can finally recover from the damages it has endured.
- Not counting specials that aired afterwards, Power Rangers Samurai ended with "The Ultimate Duel", which had Deker demanding Jayden to face him in an ultimate duel or else he'd start attacking innocent people. The last episode of the second season Super Samurai that wasn't a special was "Samurai Forever", where the Samurai Rangers defeat Master Xandred in a final battle.
- The finale of Power Rangers Megaforce, again disregarding holiday specials, was "End Game", where the Megaforce Rangers gave it their all to defend the Earth from Vrak, Metal Alice, and the Messenger. The second season Super Megaforce had a finale in the episode "Legendary Battle", which had the Megaforce Rangers take down Emperor Mavro with the help of the Ranger team of every previous show.
- "One More Energem" is the ending of Power Rangers Dino Charge and had the Dino Charge Rangers having to stop Sledge when he obtains possession of two Energems. Other than the obligatory Christmas Episode, Super Dino Charge was wrapped up with the episode "End of Extinction", which had the villains defeated for good and the Dino Charge Rangers preventing the extinction of the dinosaurs from ever happening.
- Once again ignoring the Christmas Episode that aired after the series finished its run, Power Rangers Ninja Steel was finished off with the episode "Galvanax Rises", where the Rangers engaged in a battle with Galvanax. "Reaching the Nexus" serves not only as the Grand Finale to Super Ninja Steel due to having the Rangers defeat Madame Odius in a final battle, but also marks the conclusion of the Saban-owned Power Rangers franchise after the rights were sold to Hasbro. In addition, this season also had an anniversary crossover story featuring appearances from several veteran Rangers coming together to combat a nemesis that had been pestering them off-screen. The special revealed that some seasons of the show take place in alternate realities/dimension, and provided further closure to Tommy Oliver, revealing he had become a father to a son called J.J.
- The series finale of Prison Break has the main couple getting married, the gang's final prison break (breaking Sara out of a women's prison before the General's assassins can kill her), and a Heroic Sacrifice (Michael gives his life so that his wife and unborn child can be free).
- The Prisoner (1967) finally escapes and destroys The Village and finds out who #1 is...or does he? Not according to the semi-canon Graphic Novel Shattered Visage.
- Punky Brewster ended its four-season run (2 on NBC, 2 in syndication) with her dog Brandon getting married to a girl golden retriever named Brenda. The final shot is a photo of the cast during the ceremony as the show's logo is superimposed on the bottom right.
- Quantum Leap ends with God Himself telling Sam that he has always been the master of his own fate and that, contrary to what he believed, Sam has done a lot of good by helping people throughout history one at a time. The lives he touched, touched others, and those, others. Realizing something of his own value, Sam gives up a chance to go back and saves his friend Al's marriage to Beth (Al's first wife and true love). The ending consists of a few text lines confirming that Al and Beth have their Happily Ever After and Sam Beckett never returned home.
- Radio Enfer has the Season 6 finale, which centers on Jocelyne and Giroux's wedding, along with the students getting ready for the prom and going their separate ways.
- The Red Green Show ended with Harold, the resident nerd, getting married, Dalton renewing his wedding vows with his wife who appeared onscreen for the first time, Mike becoming a police officer, and Bill appearing outside of the black and white Adventures with Bill segment for the first time since season 2.
- Robin Hood had a sort-of one of these, wherein most of the main characters die, including Robin. They also blew up Nottingham Castle.
- Bizarrely, it wasn't actually meant to be the grand finale at all, but merely the set-up for the next season. Then the show got cancelled.
- The 1997 finale of Roseanne is initially uplifting — until it's revealed that the entire final season has been in-universe Fix Fic written by the title character to cope with things not turning out quite so happily. Then, when the series was revived in 2018, even the 1997 finale was retconned out of existence, along with almost everything else that happened in the show after about season 5. (The birth of Jackie's son Andy being the most obvious example.)
- Scrubs "ends" with "My Finale". This episode was the finale of the series in its current format as well as the swan song/goodbye to JD as the main character. The episode features JD's last day at Sacred Heart before leaving for a new job to be closer to his son Sam. He manages to get goodbyes from most of the cast, even getting to part with the Janitor on good terms and getting to hug Dr. Cox. JD is left somewhat disappointed by his ending and imagines a line-up of guest stars from past seasons seeing him off, including dead characters such as Mrs. Wilks and Jill Tracy, but this fantasy ends when JD sees the futility of living in the past, so he instead decides to look forward to his future due to inspiration from a patient about taking control of one's future. The final montage shows JD imagining his future life to Peter Gabriel's "Book of Love". JD and Elliot are shown marrying and having a child, then reuniting with Turk, Carla, Dr. Cox and Jordan for Christmas in a peaceful setting. Sam and Isabella are even shown being engaged in another fastforward. The montage ends with visions of JD and Elliot kissing, and Dr. Cox willingly walking into JD's hug. In his final narration, JD feels that his fantasies should come true, just this once. The last words said in the finale are "Good night", said between series creator Bill Lawrence and star Zach Braff. The final scene is J.D. walking to his car and driving away as an instrumental version of the theme song plays.
- Seinfeld ended on an appropriately anti-climactic note as the group is charged with violating a Good Samaritan law by joking about a mugging they witnessed rather than lifting a finger to help the victim. The trial saw a slew of bit characters they'd screwed over come back to testify about what rotten people the four were, and ended with their conviction and they just start a conversation about nothing important while waiting in the jail cell.
- The Shield had a pretty brutal, but well-fitting finale. "Family Meeting" is a Pyrrhic Victory for almost everyone involved, with Vic also being hit with a Humiliation Conga and Ironic Hell of a job.
- The finale of Six Feet Under has Brenda finally getting over her fears for the well-being of her newborn daughter, Willa, and makes peace with Nate. Ruth finds herself a new purpose in helping Brenda help raise Maya and Willa. Dave and Keith finally put their relationship in place so they can raise their adopted sons. Federico leaves the Fisher Funeral Home in order to start his own business. And Claire leaves to work in New York even after the initial job offer she received was axed. As a whole, the entire cast is able to shed their dysfunctional selves and find a semblance of peace. The last six minutes of the finale shows the future lives and deaths of all major characters.
- Smallville has the fittingly titled "Finale". Clark finally flies for the first time and finally becomes the hero he's destined to be.
- Spider-Man (Japan) concluded its run of 41 episodes with "The Hero's Shining Hot Blood", where Spider-Man destroyed Professor Monster in a final battle, finally avenging the death of his father at the hands of the evil Iron Cross Army.
- The Stargate-verse has a very interesting relationship with this trope.
- Stargate SG-1 is notable for not having a grand finale, as the show was unexpectedly cancelled when the creators were anticipating an extra season. The finale "Unending" was a character-centric affiar involving a Reset Button after which the team went on to business as usual. The Myth Arc was then resolved in two direct-to-DVD movies: Stargate: The Ark of Truth concluded the Ori invasion arc, including all the major plot developments that had been intended for season 11, and Stargate: Continuum wrapped up the last remaining plot threads involving Ba'al.
- This aversion was notable because several earlier seasons of SG-1 had ended with Series Fauxnales – including what would've been a full-blown five-part Grand Finale ending for season 8 that resolved the original Myth Arc. The two-parter "Reckoning" and the extra-long "Threads" brought about the fall of the Goa'uld, Replicators and Anubis all in one fell swoop, and then the two-parter time-travel adventure "Moebius" followed as a Dénouement Episode.
- Stargate Atlantis, on the other hand, did have a proper Grand Finale with "Enemy at the Gate", which featured climatic battles between Tau'ri forces and a super-Hive ship and concluded with the city of Atlantis ending up back on Earth. Interestingly, they only manage to destroy the enemy by using the same method used to kill Ra in the original film. Still, the Wraith are far from being defeated, leaving room open for a follow-up.
- Stargate Universe also didn't get one, being Cut Short after two seasons. The series ends on a cliffhanger with all the characters aboard the ship put into suspended animation except for Eli.
- Star Trek note
- Star Trek: The Next Generation ended with the two-parter "All Good Things..." which had Picard traveling back to Season 1 and forward into the future, meeting dead and departed crew members, seeing his friends grow old, witnessing the dawn of life on Earth, making causality his bitch, having a Heroic Sacrifice three times over, saving the whole of reality from an anomaly that threatens to destroy time, proving both his worth and the worth of the human species to Q, changing his crew's future for the better, and playing poker. However, TNG continued in four films, the first of which came out only six months later.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended with the two-parter "What You Leave Behind..." – having dealt with the Dominion conflict for five seasons and Sisko's Emissary role for all seven, the finale wrapped up both stories back-to-back (and moved about half the cast off the station to boot).
- Star Trek: Voyager had a two-part finale "Endgame" in which Voyager finally made it home - years ahead of schedule, with a little help from Janeway's Future Badass self.
- Star Trek: Enterprise ended with "These Are the Voyages...", a Distant Finale intended to be a Grand Finale to all four preceding shows (which had run continuously on broadcast TV for 18 years altogether), bringing back TNG characters Riker and Troi for a framing device that tied into the Next Gen episode "The Pegasus". The result was near-universally unpopular, with most fans of the show agreeing that the series' true Grand Finale was the preceding two-parter of "Demons" and "Terra Prime" that ended with the formation of the Coalition of Planets as a forerunner to the Federation.
- Star Trek: Picard ended with "The Last Generation", which is as much a finale to the entire TNG era as it is to just this show, as the original TNG cast (including the rebuilt Enterprise-D) unite for one last mission to save Earth from the last remnants of the Borg. It then ends on an And the Adventure Continues note, with the older characters happily settled into their later years and the younger ones setting off on a new mission, with Q appearing to tell Picard and Crusher's son Jack that his own trials are about to begin.
- The Steve Harvey Show actually had two, but they were aired out of order. The Graduate from the Story episode the kids graduate. Lydia goes to Princeton, Romeo to an unnamed university, and Bullethead to Community College was supposed to air first, but the show had been Screwed by the Network and canceled so the Happily Ever After episode Regina accepts a job at a fancy prep school in California and Steve follows her; Ced and Lovita win the lottery and she goes into labor immediately after learning the news. We never learn the sex of their baby. was shown as the Grand Finale with the graduation episode shown later. They continue to be shown in this order in syndication.
- Supergirl (2015): After a Final Battle against Lex and Nyxly, aided by every ally from across the series, Kara and her friends celebrate Alex and Kelly's wedding. Following this, Kara takes Cat Grant's advice and goes public with her Secret Identity, in order to do the maximum amount of good she can rather than dividing things between her two lives.
- Supernatural: Season 15 sets up a final conflict between the Winchesters and God himself, the true mastermind behind every misery in their life. After tormenting them for a while and wiping out the rest of the multiverse, in the penultimate episode, "Inherit the Earth", God erases the rest of humanity, intending to leave the Winchesters trapped on a dead planet for the rest of eternity knowing they failed. After finally defeating him, the real final episode, "Carry On", is a Dénouement Episode in which Sam and Dean are Killed Off for Real.
- That '70s Show finally ends its eighth and final season by Jackie and Fez becoming a couple, Randy not fully appearing in this episode, Kelso coming back to visit and Eric Forman returning home from Africa to win back Donna. It also closes out the 1970s, beginning on December 31, 1979 and ending just after the start of January 1, 1980.
- After Timeless was canceled following the end of Season 2, ending the series on a massive cliffhanger, fan outcry led to NBC choosing to produce a special two-part episode, "The Miracle at Christmas", which aired as a TV movie to tie up all remaining plot lines: Rufus, who was killed in the Season 2 finale, is saved thanks to Flynn performing a Heroic Sacrifice to alter the timeline, the Love Triangle between Wyatt, Lucy and Flynn is resolved, and there's a final showdown with the remnants of Rittenhouse. Then, in the Distant Finale, Lucy goes back in time one last time to close the Stable Time Loop by giving her journal to Flynn, sending him on the Roaring Rampage of Revenge that kickstarted the series.
- Every entry in the Ultra Series has had one, with some being grander than others. Most end with the protagonist losing the ability to transform or the Ultraman having to leave Earth, usually after fighting an extremely formidable Monster of the Week or the series' Big Bad.
- Veep spends most of its final episode at the party convention, where Selina throws out all her remaining shreds of morality to secure the nomination. After a brief Time Skip to confirm that Selina ends up winning the election, there's then another time skip of 24 years to depict Selina's state funeral and show what became of all the other characters in the meantime.
- The Walking Dead Television Universe:
- The Walking Dead (2010): As the horde of variant walkers overrun the Commonwealth, the Coalition members ally with Mercer's rebellious troopers to overthrow Governor Milton in light of her prioritizing her own safety, before working together to destroy the horde. A year later, Ezekiel is now Governor of the Commonwealth, which the now fully rebuilt Alexandria and Hilltop are properly allied with. As setup for the forthcoming spinoffs, Maggie decides to send out expeditions to explore more of the world, Daryl goes off to find Rick and Michonne, and we see that Michonne is still looking for Rick, who is trying to escape the CRM.
- Fear the Walking Dead: Troy's remaining followers unleash a horde on PADRE, which causes enough damage by the time Madison manages to lure them away and destroy them that the island is left uninhabitable. Because of this, and believing Madison to have died in the process, the rest of the group splits up PADRE's resources and go their separate ways to help as many people as possible. Madison, who actually survived, is nursed back to help by Tracey, and are found by a likewise still alive Alicia; the three decide to let everyone continue to believe they're dead in order to motivate them, and set off for Los Angeles in order to find people in need of help.
- The Walking Dead: World Beyond: Huck sacrifices herself to destroy the CRM's supply of nerve gas before it can be used to attack Portland. Afterwards, the protagonist group splits up, with Iris and Elton heading to Portland to warn them of the CRM's plans while Hope stays with the scientists in a new secure location to continue their study of how to end the zombie plague. Meanwhile, Silas infiltrates the CRM's ranks, while Jadis scapegoats and arrests Lieutenant Colonel Kubleck. In The Stinger, we learn that France is dealing with a variant zombie that are faster, stronger, and seemingly more intelligent.
- The West Wing ended on the day of Santos' inauguration, with creator Aaron Sorkin making a cameo in the swearing-in scene. Jed Bartlet left office but not before finally signing Toby's pardon in the last second, and gave his own little book of the US Constitution to the soon-to-be-in-law-school Charlie ("You're going to need it more than I do"). All the cast (old and new) are on deck, with Josh and Donna moving into their respective office as chief of staff for POTUS and FLOTUS, CJ gave Josh a slip that says "WWLD" ("What would Leo Do?") before leaving the White House and heading to California and Danny. Kate and Will Bailey don't know what to do in the afternoon now that they are not working at the White House anymore, and so settle on going to see a movie with Charlie. Finally, on Air Force One heading back to New Hampshire, Bartlet opens the gift that Leo's daughter Mallory left him: the framed cocktail napkin on which Leo wrote "Bartlet for America" that started the journey so many years ago.
- Wizards of Waverly Place ends with Alex becoming the family wizard. Professor Crumbs retires and passes on full wizardry power to Justin, who becomes the Headmaster of WizTech. Max inherits the family business.
TV Movies:
- Bionic Ever After?, the last of 3 TV movies that reunited the cast of The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, closed the series' stories and mythos with lead characters Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers finally getting married.
