And The Adventure Continues / Live-Action TV

• The 10th Kingdom: After Virginia and Wolf make it back to New York City from the Nine Kingdoms, Virginia mentions in passing that while she and Wolf were "happily ever after" for a while, their lives were interrupted by another crisis in the kingdoms, ending the story that the adventure was just "The First Book of the The 10th Kingdom".
• 24, season 3 ends with Jack Bauer shedding a few tears for everything that has happened in the last 24 hours before being called to an assignment again.
• American Horror Story: Murder House ends with Constance Langdon in the process of raising the Harmons' three year-old son—who is heavily implied to be the Antichrist.
• In Angel, the final episode ends just as the heroes are just going into the start of the apocalypse battle — the message being that "you never stop fighting." There are probably some other reasons for the ambiguous ending, as the show was suddenly canceled by the WB. And the series was picked back up in comic book form, anyway.
• Ash vs. Evil Dead: Ash defeats the demon Kandar the Destroyer, only to be rendered comatose. Awakening in a post-apocalyptic future, he ends the series riding off to keep fighting the evil.
• The last episode of The A-Team ended with this discussion:
  Hannibal: Chasing thugs through the park... it's got a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
  Face: It has a terrible ring to it.
  Murdock: Just think, if we get a pardon, we may never have to eat a knuckle sandwich again.
  B.A.: I wouldn't bet on it, Crazy Man. Looks like Hannibal's on the jazz again.
  Face: What, what, wha-
  Murdock: No, you—you tell me right now, you tell me right to my face, you tell me that you don't have a plan.
  Hannibal: Well I—I was thinking, what are we gonna do when this thing's over? I mean, what are we really qualified to do?
  Face: Go after... thugs in the park?
  Hannibal: And... outlaw motorcycle gangs, organized crime figures... why, there's a world of slimeballs out there.
  Murdock: I knew it. I just knew you had a plan.
  Hannibal: Comforting, isn't it?
  B.A.: I'll get the van.
• The Avengers (1960s) ends with Steed and Tara accidentally launched in a rocket, and Mother saying to the camera that they'll be back.
• Bones ended with the last villain dead, the characters all okay, and the first prep for rebuilding the blown up lab. It was rather obvious the adventures would continue and it fit with the overall theme the ending had of “things happen, life goes on”
• Burn Notice ends with Jesse and Sam heading off to Carlito's to meet someone else who needs help.
• Chousei Kantai Sazer X ends with Sazer-X, the Three Shoguns and Yui are all made the new guardians of the Cosmo Capsules and being brought to a different place with them. The Three Shoguns return to space, Gordo and Patora open up a university together, Kane returns to his home planet to reunite with his family with Ein and Zwein tagging along with him, Ad goes to his home planet to reform his people's warrior culture, Remy stays on Earth to build a life for herself there and Takuto leaves for England to work as an F1 engineer alongside his father.
• A rare instance of this trope ending a single episode—in Chuck, one story ended with the title character getting ready to enjoy a short vacation from spy work while his partners/handlers were called away called on another mission. Chuck decides to forego the vacation and come along.
• The 2014 revival of Cosmos ends on this note. It uses the discoveries of dark energy and dark matter to highlight that humanity is at the beginning, not the end, of our scientific journey and emphasizes the importance of scientific literacy. The episode closes on a shot of the unmanned Ship of the Imagination, inviting the viewer to explore the cosmos.
• The Defenders (2017): So far, all of Marvel's Netflix shows have ended in this manner due to the restructuring of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The obvious intention is to leave the characters in a place where their stories can be picked up again in the future if the producers so desire, while still tying up most loose ends in their currents plots. Details below:
  • Daredevil (2015): With Kingpin Out-Gambitted by Matt and in jail for life, Matt restarts his law firm as a three-way partnership with Foggy and Karen (as a private investigator). Meanwhile, Ben Poindexter takes the final steps toward becoming Daredevil's archenemy Bullseye.
  • Luke Cage (2016): Per Black Mariah's will, Luke becomes the new owner of Harlem's Paradise and de facto ruler of Harlem's underworld. He accepts not because he wants to become a criminal mastermind, but to prevent a violent gang war from the resulting Evil Power Vacuum. He reopens the club while former allies Claire, DW, Misty, and Tilda look on, waiting for his next move.
  • The Punisher (2017): The final episode of season 2 shows Frank fully embracing his Punisher persona, unleashing wanton street justice on some gang members.
  • Iron Fist (2017): After a six-month Time Skip, Danny is now a globetrotting hero and something of a Mage Marksman, while Colleen has stayed in New York as the new Iron Fist, complete with a starter pack of rogues consisting of Mrs. Yang, Typhoid Mary, and possibly Luke Cage.
  • Jessica Jones (2015): Jessica ties up all loose ends in New York City and is ready to board a train to El Paso and make her way to Mexico for a new life, when she has a last-minute change of heart and decides to continue her work in New York.
• Desperate Housewives ends with the main characters eventually leaving Wisteria Lane, but the ending narration notes that as new neighbors move into the neighborhood, there will still be dark secrets to hide and protect.
• Doctor Who:
  • "Survival", the last story of the original 1963-89 run of the show, ends with the Doctor and Ace, having defeated the Master seemingly for good, happily wandering back to the TARDIS to continue adventuring, with an accompanying voiceover by the Doctor: "There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace. We've got work to do." The voiceover was added once it became clear that the show was facing a lengthy hiatus at the very least.
  • The TV Movie ends much the same way, with the Doctor leaving to continue adventuring after seemingly defeating the Master for good yet again, but not before encountering another TARDIS malfunction.
  • So does "The Big Bang". "An Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express — IN SPACE? Don't worry about a thing, Your Majesty. We're on our way."
  • Unless the current show ends with the Doctor dying permanently (which will obviously never happen) or possibly retiring as a curator for a museum after becoming Tom Baker again we can only assume this is the only way Doctor Who could possibly end. After all...
    Ood Sigma: This song is ending, but the story never ends.
  • Clara and the Lady Me (née Ashildr) end their run on the series this way, with their own TARDIS at their command and new adventures ahead of them. Even though Clara knows she must ultimately return to the trap street to face the Raven, she is quite happy to take "the long way 'round" to get there.
• Don't Look Deeper: At the end, Aisha's been restored from backup and a full body replacement is being made for her safely in China, outside of her manufacturer's control, where she's hopefully safe and free to create the life she wishes.
• Elementary's final episode, "Their Last Bow", ends with Joan and Sherlock continuing being private investigators after Joan took a several month leave for chemotherapy.
• The series finale of ER ends as a series of ambulances carrying patients from a mass casualty pulls into the ambulance bay of the hospital, effectively showing that the circle keeps turning, the adventure continues and there will always be work for the doctors of the ER. The series also pays tribute to the old gang; prospective medical student Rachel Greene—daughter of original main character Dr. Mark Greene, who died roughly halfway through the show's run—joins in on the action after being introduced to emergency medicine by a Back for the Finale Dr. Carter, implying that within a few years there will be another Dr. Greene at County General. In a neat bit of Book Ends, Dr. [Mark] Greene called to "Dr. Carter" at the end of the first episode; the series ends with Dr. Carter calling to (future) "Dr. [Rachel] Greene." Meanwhile the old gang—including Drs. Corday, Weaver, and Rasgotra—are shown to be happily settled in to their lives post-County.
• Everybody Loves Raymond: The finale changes almost nothing and other than an extended Last Supper inspired shot and a little bit of drama, it is a regular episode that, if shown out of order, would probably be unrecognizable as a series finale by casual viewers.
• Father Ted ends with Ted abandoning his move to America, destined to stay on Craggy Island forever.
• The final episode of Full House ends with the Tanners looking back on their latest dilemma and acknowledging that they will have many more adventures ahead of them.
  Jesse: But we stuck it out and we got through it.
  Joey: Just like we always do.
  Danny: Just like we always will.
• Played with in Galavant. On one hand, Gal and Isabella retire to the beachside and Richard and Roberta to the countryside. On the other hand, Madelana is still pursuing the DDEW and Sid and Gareth going to save her from herself. Also, Richard has a dragon now.
• The Korean drama "The Girl Who Sees Smells" ends with the couple getting a call to solve a case of nine people who disappeared on the same day.
• García! closes with Section Nine shutting down for good, all of its documents being declassified, Winters defeated... and García setting off to Paris to look for clues on the whereabouts of Neffenberg, who is shown to be in Yerevan looking for new subjects to resume his experiments.
• Guerrilla: It ends as the group goes off into exile, while pledging they will continue the fight.
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys had a lot of episodes and a couple TV-Movies that ended with Herc walking down a road, either because he knew he was needed somewhere or he was just looking for another adventure to go on. In the Grand Finale's final scene, Iolaus asks him if he would ever actually settle down and lead a normal life. Hercules admits he's always considered the possibility, but he's just not ready to slow down yet; he'd rather keep on walking, so the show ends with the two heroes heading off into the sunset to see what other adventures await them.
• Highlander had a final scene with Duncan surrounded by mist after defeating the episode’s villain. It was possibly a call back to season 5’s “Homeland” and Duncan saying legends just disappear, or fade into the mists to have adventures someplace else
• Hill Street Blues: The final scene is the precinct office, still in business after a fire. The last words: a police officer answers a phone with "Hill Street."
• Kamen Rider:
  • Kamen Rider Kiva—just as two major characters tie the knot, Wataru's Kid from the Future comes rushing in, seeking help against the "Neo-Fangire". All the Riders suit up, the Arms Monsters transform, and they all leap at the screen. Wonder if the Neo-Fangire had any connection to Dai Shocker...
  • Kamen Rider Decade's story ended with the heroes continuing to travel through many worlds, with homeless main character Tsukasa declaring that the journey itself is his home world.
  • Kamen Rider Double ends with the protagonists taking down a Big Bad Wannabe, followed by this conversation:
  Phillip: Shotaro, you haven't forgotten the catchphrase, have you?
  Shotaro: Of course not! Those who make this city cry will forevermore hear our call...
  Double: Now, count up your crimes!
  • Endless game, last episode of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, starts a new story for the CR crew, where they work together with Bugsters to cure the Game Disease and work towards a future where Bugsters and humans coexist.
  The Game is forever.
• Kung Fu (1972): In the final episode, "Full Circle", once Kwai Chang Caine is sure that Danny and Zeke are safe and all their enemies defeated, he declines Danny's offer to work on his ranch and wanders off on a new journey.
• The Magicians: In order to kill the Dark King and re-kill The Beast once and for all, the gang destroys the land of Fillory after magically placing its inhabitants in stasis. Afterwards, Margo, Josh, Alice, and Fen disappear after casting a spell to create a new Fillory. Months pass; Kady rejoins her hedge witch friends, Eliot becomes a teacher at Brakebills University and begins a relationship with Charlton, while Penny and Julia are together raising their daughter and travelling the cosmos in search of their missing friends. We cut to New Fillory where the first four are getting ready to release the Fillorians from stasis now that their new home is ready, and they discuss the work ahead of them and the fact that their lives will continue to be a mess of magic and intrigue, which they find oddly comforting. It's implied that the gang will eventually be reunited, and the series ends with Margo pushing the button to release the Filliorians.
• After Monk finally solved the mystery behind his wife's murder, we see him going to advise on a crime scene before the final credits roll.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 ends with Mike and the bots freed from years of having to watch bad movies on the Satellite of Love, so they move into an apartment together and... watch bad movies on the couch.
  Crow: This film looks kinda of familiar, doesn't it?
• Most every season finale of Odd Squad ends this way.
  • "O is Not For Over" ends with Olive and Otto leaving Precinct 13579 and heading up the tubes to their new, co-run precinct, followed by two agents who enter Precinct 13579 after them, whose identities are not revealed until the Season 2 premiere, "First Day".
  • "Odds and Ends", the second part of the Season 2 finale, ends with Olympia, Otis and Oona charging into battle against invading laser chickens using various gadgets they pull from their Hammerspace spines. Oprah, who is promoted to the department and position of "The Big O" and was set to leave for the Big Office prior to the attack, also joins in on the battle, stating that she can stick around a little longer.
  • "End of the Road", the third part of the Season 3 finale, ends in a similar way to "Odds and Ends". Orla asks if Odd Squad should still exist now that the powers of every villain in the world are safely captured in Olizabeth's box (given to the Big O by her following her Heel–Face Turn), but before anyone can answer, an alien Kaiju rises from behind Tube Central Station. Everyone — the Big O, Olizabeth, Orla, Oswald, Omar and Opal (likely the latter's final battle with everyone following her departure from the Mobile Unit) — all take out various gadgets from their Hammerspace spines and fire it at the odd creature.
• The Outer Limits (1995):
  • In the final scene of "Double Helix", Dr. Martin Nodel, his son Paul, Hope and six students board the alien ship which will take them to the homeworld of the race that seeded Earth with their DNA 60 million years ago. It also serves as a Sequel Hook given that the storyline is continued in "The Origin of Species".
  • In the final scene of "The Human Operators", the operators of Starfighters 31 and 88 plan to search for other starfighters so that they can free their operators.
  • In the ending of "Something About Harry", Zach has now joined the alien hunters as one of their agents.
  • At the end of "Time to Time", Lorelle Palmer has officially joined the time-travel-for-hire agency Chrononics in 2059.
• Perry Mason ends with the camera backing away as Perry, Della, and Paul discuss an upcoming case.
• Person of Interest:
  • The series ends with the destruction of Samaritan and the fall of Northern Lights and Decima but at the cost of Root and Reese’s lives. The Machine is revealed to have saved herself and is restored to Finch's servers, after which she calls Shaw with a new irrelevant number, implying Shaw will continue to do the job.
  • In the third-to-last episode of the series, Team Machine travel to Washington D.C. and discover that three of their former irrelevant numbers — a rakish tech billionaire, an ex-soldier and ex-bank robber, and a thief and conwoman — have teamed up and are receiving and helping irrelevant numbers of their own. Coming before the Grand Finale, the episode sets up that the adventure will continue even if Team Machine don't survive the series...
• Power Rangers: While many series have the Rangers lose their powers in the finale, the epilogue will sometimes reveal that some have taken their experiences to heart and continue to be heroes or chase excitement in their civilian lives (or, in some case, they keep their powers and continue being rangers).
  • Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue ends with the demons defeated and the Rangers able to take a breather...but they still have their powers and are all first responders, so when they hear an emergency occur nearby they all rush off to help in the final scene.
  • Likewise, at the end of Power Rangers S.P.D., though Jack has left the force to pursue his true calling of helping the poor, the remaining Rangers — sporting new colors — stop by to visit, then rush off to another call.
  • Power Rangers Operation Overdrive has a variation—there's no more need for the team as superheroes, but Andrew finally lets Mack join him on an Archaeology Adventure like the one that prompted the need for superheroes in the first place.
• At the end of Brazilian Soap Opera A Próxima Vítima (The Next Victim), the detective was called to solve another murder.
• Psych concludes with Shawn and Gus finally closing down Psych... so they can open up a new detective agency up-north, that way Shawn can be with Juliet while the two can continue solving crimes and going on adventures.
• The end of Quantum Leap is not just this trope, it's And the Adventure Will Never End: "Sam Beckett never returned home."
• The last episode of the original run of Red Dwarf ended with the closing credits:
  the end?
  THE SMEG IT IS!
• Revenge (2011): At the end of "Two Graves"Nolan is approached by a young man whose mother has been wrongly convicted of embezzlement and murder.
• Sanctuary: The series finale ends with a presumed-dead Magnus introducing Will to a new, underground version of the Sanctuary with "Shall we begin?"
• The Sarah Jane Adventures, partly due to the tragic loss of Elisabeth Sladen, ends by paying tribute with a retrospective montage and the tagline, "And the story goes on... forever."
• Seventeen Moments of Spring is a 12-episode miniseries about Colonel Stirlitz, a Russian Deep Cover Agent in Nazi Germany in the last few months of World War II. The series, while showing film clips of the Russian victory in Berlin, the Red Square victory parade, and the Nuremberg trials, makes a point of not revealing what happens to Stirlitz. The last scene has Stirlitz stopping his car on the way back to Berlin, stepping outside, and taking a moment to contemplate. The narration informs the viewer that with six weeks left in the war, Stirlitz is going back to Berlin, and back to work.
• Season 4 of Sherlock ends with a montage of new adventures.
• Spooks ends on a particularly bittersweet version of this. Ruth is dead, her name added to MI5's enormous memorial wall ^note which lists every character who died over the course of the show's ten-year run, but Section D still has a job to do, and despite being in the grips of one of the most painful Heroic BSODs in TV history, Harry picks up the phone and gets back to work.
• Stargate SG-1:
  • The series ends with the team heading through the gate on yet another mission. Things aren't completely settled, but with the "nullification" (read: death) of the Ori, and the knowledge of the Asgard in Earth's hands, we are confident of a final victory against the remaining, corporeal followers of the Ori (which is shown in the 11th season first SG-1 movie "The Ark of Truth"). Both sequel movies end in this way too.
  • The ending to "Proving Ground", in which a group of cadets have gone through several training scenarios believing that they're the real thing, only for a "real" incident to occur after they finish the last scenario. At the very end, the leader of the group of cadets asks O'Neill if they're really done this time. O'Neill answers yes, just as the SGC's sirens start up again.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation:
  • The series was so classy it got two of these for its finale, and neither of them felt cheap. The first comes in Q's courtroom, where Q drops some cryptic hints on the fate of humanity, including this dialogue:
  Q: That is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars, or studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence.
  Picard: Q, what is it that you're trying to tell me?
  Q: [leans forward to whisper in Picard's ear and then coyly pulls away] You'll find out. In any case, I'll be watching. And if you're very lucky I'll drop by to say hello from time to time. See you... out there.
  • Then, in the next (and final) scene Picard, finally joins the weekly poker game with the rest of his senior officers. After he sits and has a moment of contemplation, we get this dialogue, just before we see the Enterprise fly off into space.:
    Picard: I should have done this a long time ago.
    Troi: You were always welcome.
    Picard: [starts to deal] So, five card stud, nothing wild, and the sky's the limit.
  • While most episodes have the Enterprise continuing on its mission, the pilot also uses this one:
    Picard: Let's see what's out there. Engage.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  • Given that the series takes place on the eponymous Space Station they couldn't have it shooting off to see what's out there, so there's a variation where the main characters are shown at the end of the pilot episode dealing with the mundane problems involved in running the station.
  • The episode "Our Man Bashir", an Affectionate Parody of Bond films, ends with a Shout-Out to the 'James Bond will return' message when Julian Bashir predicts that his holodeck secret agent alter ego will return for more adventures. Unfortunately he didn't, thanks to legal threats to the Trek scriptwriters from the owners of the Bond franchise.
• Star Trek: Enterprise ended its final episode by combining the legendary "Space, the final frontier" narration split between Picard era, Kirk era and Archer Era Enterprises. In this case since the show was a prequel, we most certainly know that the adventure continues. Even though the final episode was sub-par, that was about the best final scene you could hope for.
• Star Trek: Picard: The final episode ends in a similar way to The Next Generation, with Picard and his friends in a poker game. The Stinger shows Picard's son Jack meeting Q, who says that Picard's Humanity on Trial ordeal is over, but Jack's is just beginning.
• The Strange Calls: At the end of almost every episode, the wrap-up of the episode's plot is interrupted by a new strange call with another weird situation for the characters to deal with, which is never shown onscreen.
• The Supernatural season two finale "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part Two" ends with Dean loading up the Impala's trunk and saying "We got work to do". They had just defeated the Yellow-Eyed Demon, the Big Bad of the first two seasons, and the show had yet to be renewed by the time this episode originally aired. So despite a few lingering threads like Dean's crossroads deal, the demons that escaped the recently opened Hellgate and the revelation that Sam was fed demon blood as a baby, it would have served as an overall serviceable series finale had the CW chosen not to continue it.
• Super Sentai:
  • The finale of Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman sees the Hoshikawa siblings, having defeated the Silver Imperial Army Zone and reconnected with their parents, boarding Star Five and heading into space to bring their parents home.
  • The GoGo Sentai Boukenger finale has Satoru head off into space on the GoGo Voyager to search for more Precious, with Sakura tagging along for a Maybe Ever After with him. Gekiranger vs. Boukenger shows what they were up to in space, with the implication that they also had a Relationship Upgrade offscreen.
  • Engine Sentai Go-onger ends with the Go-Ongers on their way to fight the remnants of the Gaiarc forces who are attacking another dimension. This doubles as a Sequel Hook for Shinkenger vs. Go-Onger.
  • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger ends with the Rangers departing Earth in search for the Second Greatest Treasure in the Universe, which Marvelous believes is on The Empire's homeworld.
  • By the end of the Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger epilogue, the Ganglers have been reduced to a few remnants that have the last pieces of the Lupin Collection, and the (now unmasked to the world) Lupinrangers still intend to steal back all the pieces—including the ones the Patrangers are currently using as equipment—to wish Arsène Lupin Back from the Dead for Noël, putting them at odds with each other yet again.
• Voyagers!: Bogg is cleared and it's revealed that Jeff was always destined to be a Voyager himself, so the two can continue roaming the time stream together.
• The finale of Warehouse 13 does it twice. First, as Pete seeks reassurance from Mrs Frederic that the Warehouse won't be moving any time soon, Artie announces they have a ping, and they all start talking at once. The characters gradually fade away ... and we move to "several decades" later, where Claudia is watching a bunch of new agents also all arguing about a ping.
• We Are Who We Are: The series doesn't end with a definitive conclusion. Caitlin and Fraser run away together while exploring how the pair identify in sexual orientation or gender.
• The Grand Finale of the 2017 series of The Worst Witch ends with everyone celebrating Mildred's promotion as Mildred embraces her new friends, as well as Ethel, symbolizing that more adventures for them are yet to come, but as for the viewers, their journey at Cackle's Academy has come to an end.
• Xena: Warrior Princess: In the final episode, Xena dies and chooses not to get resurrected, but Gabrielle takes up Xena's weapons and Xena officially makes Gabrielle her successor, then Gabrielle is comforted to see Xena's ghost is sticking around. In the final scene, Gabrielle and Xena receive word that Egypt needs help from "a girl with a Chakram", so they get on a boat and start sailing there.
• Every episode of Zoboomafoo ends with Zoboo leaping back to Madagascar and the Kratts running off to visit some new environment.

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