Apologies first of all if there has been a topic like this before, I know one for the best endings has been created and would contain sitcoms like Only Fools and Horses and One Foot in the Grave, but I just wanted to ask/discuss what you guys thought were perhaps quite underwhelming endings to good series and why they decided to go that route... I'll list some of my examples first.
Open All Hours - This was always a kinda low-key sitcom, in terms of the fact it had very few settings, mostly the shop and occasionally the street and Nurse Glady's house and so a "big" ending would probably not have been inkeeping with the tone of the series. However, it ended with Arkwright repeatedly trying to get into Nurse Glady's bedroom via means such as ladders etc.
I thought this plot would have been better for a conventional episode of Open All Hours and it would have been nicer to end perhaps on the marriage of Nurse Glady's and Arkwright... I can just imagine them arguing over marriage expenses and how funny that could have been. They may have left to live somewhere else leaving Granville in charge of the shop and it ends with Granville in a lonely shop, finally free of his Uncle?
But... was the whole point of the series being that it never went anywhere, it never developed, these characters were prisoners, either through choice or through commitment or through neccessity, was that the idea? Does anyone know why the series ended when it did? Was David Jason too busy with Only Fools to commit to another series of Open All Hours or was it intended to end when it did and with the episode it did?
Keeping Up Appearances - Coincidentally another sitcom by Roy Clarke, it never seemed to reach any conclusion and perhaps again the running joke was that Hyacinth never climbed the social ladder, Onslow and Daisy remained slobs, Rose never settled down and Richard/Emmet/Elizabeth were never free... It did end with the rather big episode on the QE2, which I suspect was intended to be the last episode right from the off, considering it was a special and of longer length. It showed Hyacinth dancing with Onslow and finally "accpeting" him, or did she do that out of shallowness so people would see her with the winner and the VIP? I know Routledge wanted to move on and do other things but it would have been nice to see some conclusions to the characters' never-ending situations. If Roy Clarke does one thing after Last of the Summer Wine finishes it should be to do a one-off reunion with the surviving cast members. Routledge isn't up to much apart from theatre and Clive Swift is obviously still active with The Old Guys, so I'd be interested to see a well written reunion special.
Rising Damp - I'll keep this one short because you must be getting bored by now. This wasn't so much underwhelming as a little flat? I know that the whole idea was Rigsby was destined for loneliness, Ruth was destined for the single life and the whole thing was meant to be set in the one place. I just felt it was a bit lacking without Alan and also that they could have brought things out of the house, to the church, for once, simply because it would have presented a much funnier opportunity, likely a happier, if somewhat more unrealistic ending and filled in the "gap" which I thought was odd, one scene is before the wedding, next scene is after. I know it had to be that way for the joke to work but I couldn't help feeling it was a little... anti-climatic?
