This isn't meant to talk about shows that should end, although I'm sure it would be easy to write a blog on that. It's more about shows that have ended without actually ending. We're pretty lucky now that in many cases (although not all, unfortunately), a show with a devoted following will get a proper sendoff that attempts to wrap up most if not all loose ends and gives viewers a chance to say goodbye to their favorite characters. It wasn't always like that. It used to be that shows frequently went off without any resolution. What was even worse, it was way before we had an Internet reporting things, so you never really knew for sure what was happening. Shows would end their regular season, you'd wait through the summer for new episodes, and then when fall came they simply wouldn't be on the schedule. You also had shows that got cancelled midseason, but again, all you knew was that they disappeared without explanation. There was a show called B.A.D. Cats. I think it's considered one of the worst shows ever by most of the few people who actually remember it, but I loved it. It was basically a mindless cop drama with a ton of car chases, so it worked for me. In fact, I think we need more shows like that now. The main characters drove a cool 1970s Nova. Depending on the episode, it inexplicably switched between one that was white and really beaten up, and one that was brand new with a black and yellow paint job. I preferred the beaten up. That was one of the shows that simply disappeared without a trace, and for weeks, maybe months afterward, I kept checking the schedule for it, and of course it never came back. Nowadays I think we know when a show's been cancelled even before some of the stars do. B.A.D. Cats isn't on this list. But these shows are, in no apparent order:

Mork & Mindy

This seems an odd choice, doesn't it? However, after watching some of the episodes on the Sci-Fi Channel this past Friday, it actually inspired this list. In the last few episodes Mork met an alien from Neptune, who it turned out had sinister intentions. He winds up blowing up Mork and Mindy's apartment, hunting them down and trying to kill them. As a result, Mork decides to go public with his true alien nature, hoping that he'd be able to get some protection, but it didn't help. They accidentally wind up traveling all the way back to prehistoric times, and then try to return home, to be continued. The storyline was incredibly out-of-character for the entire series, but I guess they were desperate for ratings and were going to try anything. The next episode had Mork reporting to Orson on marriage, and the series ended. I don't remember much about the original run of the series, but did watch the reruns and could never figure out why they skipped the conclusion to that last saga. After watching it again on Friday, I was inspired to investigate further, and I learned that I didn't miss anything. There was no conclusion. It doesn't exist. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps while shooting the arc the show got cancelled, and they just closed down production and said "Screw it" to the finale of that one particular storyline. It still bothers me, though, that they left it hanging like that.

Otherworld

This is another series that most people won't remember, and in fact most people weren't even alive to see. I don't think I ever even watched it in its first run, but it sounded like something I would love to see. It only ran for eight episodes, hardly enough for syndication. Fortunately, back in the 90s the Sci-Fi Channel (back when it was actually interested in playing sci-fi shows) used to cycle through a number of shows that never ran for enough episodes to allow them to get on the regular schedule. Otherworld was one of them. A family visits Egypt and picks the absolute wrong place and time to be there, as a rare planetary alignment transports them from Earth to a parallel world. That world was filled with individual zones, each one having its own distinct personality, and it is believed that if they can get to the planet's capital, they will be able to find the way home. Of course, they never actually get there. It was a really interesting series. I don't know if it could have sustained a multi-season run, but I wish it had at least finished.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002)

Boy, did Cartoon Network ever drop the ball on this one. I loved the original series. In fact, I recently broke down and ordered the DVDs, and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. But most if not all of the episodes could be seen in any order, so there wasn't such a need for continuity. Then this second series came out. I remember when I first found out that CN was going to show a new Transformers series (Armada, which never should have happened, IMO), and I was so happy that I thought the only way I could be happier would be if they also came out with a new He-Man series. To my shock, that did happen. Unlike the original series, this one had an actual origin episode, and seemed to be building towards something big. But CN immediately screwed up. I didn't even know a second season had started until I accidentally found it on TV, about two or three episodes in. They did little advertising for it, and in typical CN fashion, kept changing the schedule so that you never knew when you were going to get a new episode or even when it was going to be aired. It ended on a cliffhanger, and the series was promptly cancelled. Sad, really. I read about some of the things planned for the third season, and it had the potential to be amazing. I guess there's always a chance that someone could pick up where they left off and continue, but I doubt it will happen.

Quantum Leap

Technically this show did have an ending, but I'd like an ending that didn't seem to contradict everything we were told in the previous seasons. Plus the whole last season seemed disjointed. They introduced the idea of an Evil Leaper, and it seemed like she was going to be a major player throughout the season, but after just a couple of episodes her storyline was resolved and ended. I guess I should be grateful that there was a resolution in this case, but still, it seemed rushed and I wouldn't doubt that the storyline was supposed to be meatier that what we got, but fears of getting cancelled forced them to rush it. The series ending was unsatisfying to say the least.

Ranma ½

Years ago a friend told me about a Japanese show in which a boy turned into a girl whenever get got wet, and his father turned into a panda under the same circumstances. I found the premise to be fascinating, and after watching a few episodes decided that I had to get the whole series. Alas, if only there were some type of resolution. One of the things I always appreciated about Japanese series was that they tended to have a definite ending. It might not be a satisfying ending, and it might not even be one that you could understand, but there was an ending. But not with this show. The manga did a better job of wrapping it up, but left it open-ended. The anime really leaves you hanging, and nothing was really resolved. That show went off nearly two decades ago, so I doubt it will ever be revisited, but it would be nice.

Lost in Space

Back when I was a kid, the fact that this series took place in the late 1990s blew my mind. It seemed like you could mention 1990-anything and people would immediately start imagining us driving flying cars and living in space stations. The first few episodes they seemed to be going for a realistic, gritty science fiction survival story, but quickly turned into a campy kids show. I still loved it, though, and saw every episode numerous times. Like Gilligan's Island, the first season was filmed in B&W, and as a result most stations only played the reruns from subsequent color seasons. I didn't see the first season episodes until the 80s, when TBS showed them. Anyway, it's yet another series that never actually ended. The last episode ended with them stranded on the Planet of Junk, which a lot of critics felt was appropriate considering how much the show had deteriorated through the seasons. My understanding is that there was a fourth season planned, but just never came to be. I did see the movie adaptation from a decade back. It wasn't very good, admittedly, but at least it was something. It ended on a cliffhanger, and of course, since the movie bombed the plans for it becoming a franchise quickly faded. There were actually plans to do an updated TV version, but it died in production. I guess the Robinsons are never meant to find Alpha Centauri nor Earth.

The 4400

After four very uneven seasons, we were left with more questions than answers. Towards the end I was only watching because I felt that after spending so much time on this show, I had to at least see it to its end. The end never came. I think it was assumed that USA would just keep renewing it as a filler series each summer, and a lot of people were surprised when they didn't. Maybe the writers were glad that it got cancelled, because they never had any actually idea on how to end it. They admitted that they never intended it to go beyond a mini-series, so without any original long-term plan, they must have just been making it up as they went along. They did end it on one of those noncommittal "It could be a season finale or, if it's cancelled, it could also work as a series finale," which to me means that they're saying it's probably an okay ending, but not the way they'd really want to end it. Some people have convinced themselves that it's a very satisfying ending and that no further resolution is needed. If believing that makes them happy, then more power to them. Unlike most of the other shows on the list, this one isn't so far removed that some kind of TV-movie resolution probably isn't out of the question, but the question would remain if it could really be ended in just another two hours. The sad thing is that the deeper we got into that last season, the more I considered it must-see. Plus it had Summer Glau, as a woman who could make you do anything she wanted...as if she'd need a special power to do that.

Jericho

Another series that went with the "Could be a season/series finale" copout. Honestly, I don't know why they bothered bringing it back for the second season, since CBS clearly had no interest in the show, and a seven episode season was hardly going to give them the time to resolve anything. This show, and the next one on the list, killed my interest in the serialized drama. I purposely didn't watch Lost in the beginning. It sounded like a show I would love, but just from reading the premise I figured that it would be cancelled within a month, so there was absolutely no reason to invest any time in it. Once it became an accepted hit, I had to play catch-up and have watched ever since. Something similar happened with this one. It seemed like a show I could enjoy, but I figured it'd be cancelled, so why bother? Somewhere early in the season it was deemed successful and a safe bet for renewal, so I caught up with the episodes I missed thanks to On Demand. Then CBS decided to have the fall break last several months, instead of just several weeks, which absolutely killed any momentum the show had. As we neared the end of the season, I started hearing concerns that the show was going to be cancelled. How could this be? Fortunately, some people with too much time on their hands got the cancellation reversed, but after seeing the second season, they needn't have bothered. The show had just lost so much between seasons, and you almost got the feeling that the writers were just phoning it in, because they knew that the second season was only pushing off the inevitable. It was a great series that will probably fall into the annals of forgotten shows, plus the main character had a cool car.


Drive

And this one killed the genre for me, bringing me to the point where I will most likely never bother watching another of these serialized shows again, because they have such a small chance of surviving. Take the mysteries of Lost and add them to a road race, and you've got Drive. Only six episodes were ever filmed, and only four actually aired. Fox pulled the plug after the fourth one, and after people begged to see the last two, they agreed to run them on a night when they wouldn't mind a filler show, as most people wouldn't be watching TV anyway: July 4th. Then they went back on that promise and I think aired a rerun of some movie instead, and said that if we wanted to see the final episodes, they'd be online. I debated wasting another two hours on my life on a show that would never be resolved, and several months later I finally did watch them. Of course, they ended on a major cliffhanger which, by the way, will never be resolved. The writers talked about their plans for the show, should it have continued, and basically said that they would have needed at least a couple of seasons to really tell the story, and in fact didn't even know themselves how some things were going to be resolved. I find that very annoying. How could they not know? Unlike Jericho, I decided to watch this one from the start, and got burned for it. I enjoyed the show, but can't honestly recommend it because the six episodes are only going to leave you wanting more. Unlike the scenario with Jericho, attempts to get the season extended went nowhere. I was especially interested in this show because it had the adorable Amy Acker, who I've been in love with since Angel and would love to...

I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones that popped to mind. I personally think that, especially in the case of these episodic dramas like Lost, that there should be some commitment from the networks to give full seasons, or at least make some attempt to bring the series to some conclusion. Otherwise, there is no incentive to watch any of these shows, as the odds are they're going to be cancelled long before that happens. I'm sure this is the networks' plan, unfortunately, as they'd no doubt prefer to put on the cheaper reality crap than anything actually worth watching.

Are there any shows that you wish had gotten a proper sendoff, but didn't?