Today, I want to know which TV character you think had the most egregious absence in the series finale of a TV series.
Pop Culture Theme Time is a feature where I put a question to you to see what you think about a particular theme. I might later revisit the theme for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns or Top Five.
Now, let it be known that TV series finales are a relatively modern invention. Before the 1960s, shows just ended without any fanfare, and even during the 1960s and early 1970s, shows rarely had any fanfare in their series finales. It was really only in the 1980s that series finales became a “thing,” and even then, there are plenty of shows that were canceled without the opportunity to do a true series finale, shows that felt that they were going to continue for another season, so the “series finale” was just a regular season finale (also, occasionally, the final episode of a series is used as a spin-off, so the full cast isn’t it. I’m not talking about those types of finales).
Plenty of shows DO have “true” series finales, and usually, famous cast members who left the show will return for the finale, but sometimes, they don’t, even when they really really should have. Which TV character’s absence from a TV series finale do you think was the most egregious?
While it was absurd that Anson Williams wasn’t in the Happy Days finale, I’m going with Emmy Rossum’s Fiona Gallagher, who had left Shameless before its final season, but I think everyone figured she’d at least show up for the last episode, but it wasn’t to be. It was her FAMILY, so it was REALLY weird that she wasn’t there.
Okay, that’s my pick, what about you?
And feel free to suggest future Pop Culture Theme Time topics to me at brian@poprefs.com!
Jadzia Dax from Worf’s flashbacks on DS9. They showed him somehow remembering being Duchamps in “Our Man Bashir” which was a hologram who looked like Worf, not actually Worf, but they didn’t show his WIFE who he was with for two ENTIRE seasons, married for one of them.
I would pick the 1994 Quantum Leap episode Mirror Image for its poor treatment of 2 female characters.
Admittedly both had only appeared in 2 episodes each (and different actresses in each episode) but both had so much personal significance to the lead characters that they deserved much better than they got – which in both cases is worse than simply not appearing.
Donna Eleese-Beckett – Sam’s wife, left waiting for him but in the ending he never returns
Tina Martinez – Al’s ladyfriend – one of the 2 characters in the opening scene of the first episode – bringing her back could have served as a bookend – instead her relationship with Al is retconned out of existence (which begs the question of why Dr Ruth had to fix the relationship issues)
I get Tina not being there when the finale made a point of retconning her out of existence, but yes, Donna got done DIRTY.
Does Robert Reed not being the last episode of The Brady Bunch count? Not a true series finale I know.
Would have been nice to have included Gary Burghoff in M*A*S*H* finale. Have him call the base or some such event.
Charisma Carpenter being ignored in Angel was wrong, but many things with Josh Whedon choices were wrong in hindsight.
The total absence of Chuck in the Happy Days finale. He was totally retconned, I remember in his final speech saying “My two wonderful kids.” He’s the anti-Dawn.
It kind of stunk that Kevin Williamson didn’t see fit to include Meredith Monroe as Andie McPhee for the last episode of Dawson’s Creek.
Williamson, as I recall, hadn’t been involved with the show for several years by the time the show ended, but he returned to co-write the finale, which had Dawson & all the other characters coming back together after a five year time skip. Williamson devoted a lot of time in the finale to Jack McPhee being in a relationship with Pacey’s brother Doug, a character who hadn’t really been a big part of the show since Williamson was writing it. (And, IIRC, Doug hadn’t even been positively established as gay before the finale, even though Pacey relentlessly mocked him as being closeted.)
According to this Dawson’s Creek wiki I found, Meredith Monroe DID film scenes for the series finale, but all of her scenes were cut in the aired version and only appear on the DVD. That’s pretty shitty, right? A well-regarded actor who was a regular agrees to return for the finale, you make a deal with them, fly them out to North Carolina and everything, but then you just cut all their scenes out? WTH, Williamson?
https://dawsonscreek.fandom.com/wiki/…Must_Come_To_An_End#Trivia
Here’s her stuff from the finale if you’re interested:
https://youtu.be/YyozhqAgWt4?si=I0m7G1RKEEk73kI2