BEST TV SERIES FINALES
“Friends” (2004, NBC): Ross and Rachel (David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston) finally end up together as the entire gang leaves their familiar apartment gathering spot to head for their other prime meeting place ... where, of course, they intend to get coffee.
“Frasier” (2004, NBC): In what was the “Cheers” spinoff’s first ending, since there’s now a revival, the radio psychiatrist (Kelsey Grammer) decides to leave Seattle - and reroutes from San Francisco, where he was going to
begin a new job, to follow his then-latest love (guest star Laura Linney) to Chicago. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (1977,
CBS): Moore decided to end her television-newsroom sitcom while it was still riding high, allowing for a beautifully crafted finale both funny and touching - and also ironic, since much-mocked anchorman Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) became the only employee kept by WJM-TV’s new management. Lou Grant’s (Edward Asner) declaration of “I treasure you people” - which preceded his staff’s en-masse move toward the exit and a chorus of “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” - echoed the sentiment of countless fans.
“Newhart” (1990, CBS): According to Bob Newhart, the studio audience knew as soon as they saw it that the set of his “Bob Newhart Show” had been re-created for one of TV’s great surprise endings, as the star turned over in bed and told his former series “wife” Suzanne Pleshette that he’d just had a dream about owning a Vermont inn.