Banned From TV: The 10 Most Controversial TV Series Finales

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There’s nothing more satisfying (or depressing) than seeing one of your beloved television shows come to an end. With the end of Breaking Bad still stuck in our craw, we rounded up the 10 most controversial series finales which disappointed fans and critics alike.

It’s no secret that we all love television here at Hip-Hop Wired. If you don’t, then we’re seriously questioning your mental and emotional health. Week after week, hundreds of millions of people tune into their favorite television shows awaiting the next adventure or tale to develop in front of their eyes.

But as the adage goes, “What begins must come to an end,” and over the course of TV’s history notable series have come to an end. Whether it was by their own choosing, low ratings, or just simply due to cancellation — the creative team behind these programs are forced to craft an ending that ties all of what viewers have seen in past seasons and put it in a bow. By providing a strong conclusion that leaves fans and critics feeling justified in having invested so many hours over the years, it is quite the tightrope walk that have dogged even the most critically acclaimed television shows (Seinfeld anyone?!).

Due to the recent lost of AMC‘s Breaking Bad from television screens, we decided to take a look at the most controversial television series finales that make you say, “WTH?”

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The Sopranos

Credited as the “WTH” heard around the world, HBO and the production team behind the popular crime-drama dropped the ball with this series finale. Families everywhere thought that their cable connection went out when the screen went black during The Sopranos final scene. Turns out that it was just the end of the show—forever. Millions of fans were angry because the future of Tony (the late James Gandolfini), Carmela, Meadow and Anthony Jr. were left unknown.

Smallville

Actor Tom Welling played a young Clark Kent for ten long years. In all of that time, millions of fans were anticipating seeing him as Superman when the show decided to wrap up. Instead, we got a final episode that was stuffed to the gills with fan-treats, such as the return of Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) and the marriage of Clark and Lois (Erica Durance). Although it was rushed with the Apokolips plot line and all, Smallville faltered heavy by placing Welling in “The Costume,” which was all cheeky-done CGI. Even in the final scene, where he runs towards the camera before ripping open his shirt to reveal the “S”, you are still wondering what it was all for once the credits rolled.

Lost

A confusing show if you’ve never delved into its canon, this series finale aimed to solve all the riddles, puzzles and philosophical musings put forth by J.J. Abrams. At least that’s what fans were greatly hoping. Instead, what we were treated to was a line straight out of The Notorious B.I.G.‘s rhyme-book. The “flash-sideways” timeline revealed that “it was all a dream,” as Flight 815 and its passengers never crashed on the island. Theories were bantered around shortly after the show’s ending, which found many believing that the castaways subconsciously created a limbo as a way to recognize one another after they died. Nonetheless, Lost‘s series finale was unable to live up to the sum of its greater parts.

Quantum Leap

Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) was a quantum physicist from the near future who becomes lost in time following a time travel experiment. Simple enough of a plot, right? In the series finale, the Donald Bellisario-written closer found Sam at a mining town on the exact moment he was to be born. Odd, but the space-time continuum would allow, right? As Sam runs into a bar, he’s surrounded by people he’s saved before but with different names (continuity issues), where a bartender reveals that he could God, Fate, or even Time itself. Worst, the bartender says that he has control over his leaps thus by negating the entire plot of the show. To make matters even dire, once Sam learns all of these, he leaves fans with these words: “Dr. Sam Becket never returned home.”

Yes, the writer misspelled the lead character’s name for all to see. What a bummer, huh?!

Roseanne

The show embodied what came to be known as the American blue collar truth. Comedianne Roseanne Barr created a show that spoke to the working class TV watcher. Yet, when the program reached its ninth and final season, the series-ender was simply crazy. After the Conners won the lottery, things quickly turned Bizarro, as the finale ripped out the rug from under viewers in the closing minutes. Not only did the family not strike it rich, Roseanne’s sister (not mom Bev) was the one who was gay, and the entire journey was but a dream — the imaginings of Roseanne the Writer. The epic kick in the tea bags was that Dan (played lovingly by John Goodman) had been dead for a while from a heart attack.

ALF

In the series finale, the being from Melmac finds out that two surviving members of his race are nearing Earth. With an escape from the Tanner family in sight, everyone tries to get ALF ready for his journey. After throwing him a going away party, the alien is aligned with his out-of-this-world brethren, only to have the Alien Task Force jump in and capture him. As the episode closes, the spaceship that symbolizes his freedom flies away and ALF is left in the ominous care of the military. Not quite the way a child should see his favorite space being go out, but we can just hope they used anesthetic on the funny guy.

Dinosaur

We all learned in school what happened to the dinosaurs, but ABC’s popular show found Earl Sinclair revising history. The end of the Dinosaurs show found television junkies watching Earl poisoning the world’s plant life and subsequently blocking out the sun. With the environment out of whack, global temperatures dropped well below freezing and the imminent extinction of every living thing on the planet was ensured. To help the younger viewers cope with the finale’s last moments, Earl explains to Baby Sinclair how there’s no place for them to go and that he’s sorry for killing them all. TV Guide even had to include a special warning that declared the episode might “frighten or disturb younger viewers,” because kids aren’t really used to seeing puppets die a slow death due to the environment.

Dexter

Showtime‘s serial killer drama found its fans not just disappointed by the series finale, but baffled. With all the bodies and blood piled up over the course of numerous seasons, the universe (and cops) refused to punish him for his sins. Instead, the episode saw Dexter simply exchanging his old life in Miami for a new one in the forest. That falling sound you heard the Monday morning after was the Internet exploding in agony.

David The Gnome

The Nickelodeon animated children’s series followed the life of a gnome couple, David and Lisa, and their wondrous adventures. In the series finale, David and Lisa must travel to The Mountains of Beyond because it is their time to die. A hard concept for children to understand, given the nice nature of the show, and made worst since neither David nor Lisa are really that interested in dying. In the end, David and Lisa say goodbye to their friends, give each other one final kiss, and turn into apple trees—which would be tasty food for their friends.

The lesson learned is that you can’t be mad at growing old.

Xena, The Warrior Princess

Not too many shows would find it apt to kill off its main character in the final episode of the show. It’s not a decision easily accepted by fans of the program either. But in “A Friend In Need Part Two,” television audiences saw Xena (Lucy Lawless) impressively fight off a massive army before eventually being beheaded. On the positive side of things, her death ensured that 40,000 damned souls could be set free. But the clincher was that for fans hoping that Xena would resurrect herself on the big screen, she had to stay dead in order for the souls to stay at peace.

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments section.