With the finale of Breaking Bad last night I got to thinking about which were some of my favorite endings? Which were the ones that irritated me? How can you truly end a show satisfactorily? I mean seriously we are about to lose a friend we have invited over once a week for many years. How do you best say good-bye? Here are some that I thought of…

5. Dexter. Only because this is so fresh but I have a feeling that no matter how long of time passes by I will not ever be happy with this ending. First of all let me say the show lost its way somewhere along the path. Season one Dexter is compelled to kill. He is driven by his dark passenger. The mere sight of blood tunes him up. Then by the end he kills with reason not desire; with clear presence of mind not to feed a rage with in him. So the ending was, no shock, also  down this path. I would have been okay with merely seeing Dexter on The Slice of Life heading towards the dark clouds never to be seen again. Presumed dead. No more. Instead I get “he made it and is living in the great north woods for a spell”. The message here? It’s okay to kill if you A) have a really good reason, because they got away with murder, and B) you are really good at it, good enough that no vigilante killing people who get away with murder kill you.  What would have been the best ending? Deb kills Dexter. This serves a couple of purposes. One is that law enforcement does its job. Two Deb finally does the right thing. Three the classic Universal studios edict: the monster must die.

4. Newhart. This one was wonderful. Now I do not mean the Bob Newhart show, psychologist, I mean Newhart, inn keeper. For those of you who do not know there were two shows starring bob Newhart. One he played a psychologist in New York. The other he was an inn keeper in…New England? The ending was fantastic; I had never seen such a thing ever before or since. The last scene of the Newhart show Bob wakes up in bed and begins to tell his wife this strange dream he had. “I was running an Inn and people were always coming in and out causing trouble” his wife sits and it is revealed that it’s the wife from the first show. The second show had been a dream. This was wonderful

3. Cheers. This was an excellent one too. This, for me, was a show I used to sneak to watch so I consider it my first real choice in television. I watched as Sam and Diane’s affair grew ended and rekindled. I watched as Kristie Alley showed up and the show changed. I remember Woody replacing Coach. They were pen pals, the sent each other pens it was Coach’s idea. So when this went off the air I was there. What a simple understated way to go. A silhouette appears on the stair well outside. Sam simply says “we’re closed” roll credits. You know that bar is still open. You know Cliff is still boring the hell out of everyone. Most importantly you know you can find Norm sitting at the corner every day.

2. St. Elsewhere. I never really watched this one; perhaps I will seek it out for next summer. But to hear about the ending it has got to be one of the all-time greatest endings. You get to the end of the final episode and learn that everything had simply been in the mind of an autistic boy staring into a snow globe. I get chills just saying the words.

1. M*A*S*H*. The Granddaddy of them all. It is still the high water mark for ratings. It is still what an ending is expected to be. It wraps up everything so well that the spinoff of After M*A*S*H* was doomed from the beginning. I mean seriously everybody is dropping by to see the Potters?  Even Henry Blake who was believed to have been killed on his way home shows up to tell his tale. But that’s another list, bad spin offs look for it soon. M*A*S*H* “goodbye and farewell” is the gold standard. And not just because I was the only fifth grader talking to teachers about it at recess the next day.

Did I miss yours? Let me know.