With the Primetime Emmy nominations out this week, I’m thinking that the Emmy committee should’ve added a new category this year: Best TV Series Finale. So many long-running shows/series came to an end over the last 12 months, including HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire”, NBC’s “Parenthood”, Disney Channel’s animated hit “Phineas & Ferb”, and CBS’s “Two and a Half Men” and “The Mentalist”. The Academy of TV Arts & Sciences would have had a large pool of contenders to choose from, but since they didn’t, I have. Here are my selections for the Top 5 goodbye episodes of the year. And “Mad Men” is NOT one of them:
“Hot in Cleveland” – TV Land’s groundbreaking first series ran for six years and became the third sitcom success story in the incredible career of star Betty White. I watched the show on-and-off during its run and always found the plots to be very over-the-top, and the humor pretty obvious. However the closing scenes of the finale were surprisingly sweet and sentimental.
“Glee” – FOX’s singing series took a major ratings dive following the death of star Cory Monteith. This last episode nicely honored Monteith and finished-out with breakout star Jane Lynch (who played modern TV iconic character Sue Sylvester) delivering a classic farewell speech, followed by an ensemble performance of “I Lived”.
“The Newsroom” – Lasting only three seasons, writer Aaron Sorkin brought his storytelling style to the world of TV news, with Jeff Daniels as his anchor, Will McAvoy. Sorkin received a lot of criticism for focusing too much time on relationships and not enough on the actual news process. Daniels was by far the best part of the show, and he shined brightly in the swan song, guitar and all.
“Parks & Recreation” – When series’ end, fans always want to know what’s going to happen to their favorite characters. Are they going to fine to be OK? “P&R” answered that question, and then some, with a look way into the futures of Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson, Tom Haverford & Co. The result was a one-hour finale funnier than the majority of the regular episodes over the past few seasons.
“The Late Show with David Letterman” – A appropriately majestic tribute to one of Late Night TV’s greatest ever. The show included an all-star Top 10 list, several look backs at classic moments, and good ol’ Dave’s heartfelt goodbye.