Endings....

I can appreciate that producers want you to keep you hooked on a tv show but I don't have the patience for soap opera style weekly cliffhanger endings that go on forever. Waiting years between "The Empire Strikes Back" & "The Return Of The Jedi" is probably responsible for that attitude. However, there is 'some' wonderfulness incurred if all the waiting leads to a great ending. I even gave up on "24" after season 3 and vowed to wait for the future DVD sets for marathon viewing. I have yet to actually make time to do that. I have also avoided "Lost" and most weekly reality game shows. I have sat through a season or two of "Survivor" & did have a fondness for the first couple of seasons of "The Mole" with Anderson Cooper as host. My affection for "24" & those other shows would never have happened without TIVO though. I actually recorded all the episodes and waited till the seasons were done before watching them. Even at 80 hours though, there is only so much room on the hard drive for storage and other shows I want to time shift. I tired of "Desperate Housewives" after season one and as big a fan as I am of "The Doctor", I also prefer the classic series/stories of "Doctor Who" edited together in a continuous movie type format, as it was on my PBS station, as opposed to its original 30 min weekly cliffhanger format, sorry purists. The old series was an aquired taste anyway. Had I been subjected to cliffhangers, the sub-par FX AND quick jumps from filmed exteriors and videotaped interiors, I never would have sat through the show to begin with. All of this leads up to the fact that all popular episodic television deserves a great ending for it's fans. I've never seen, nor cared to see, The Sopranos. Everyone I know said it was a great program and I don't doubt their word but I am probably the only male on the planet who didn't care much for "The Godfather". The fan outcry in the media about the universal dissappointment in the final episode actually made me glad I never did see it. I really hate when great programs get a lousy ending or send off, like "M*A*S*H" & "Seinfeld". I do, however love a great ending. I'm sure I am forgetting a bunch but among the greatest show endings were, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "St. Elsewhere" & "The Fugitive". I was never a big fan of, but occasionally enjoyed "Newhart". The final episode though, with Bob waking up in bed with Susanne Pleshette was the best ending to an episodic program ever.