From Brady Bunch to Game of Thrones, the most disappointing TV finales from each decade
From the earliest days of broadcasting, television has struggled with the season finale. Wrapping up years of story lines, resolving character arcs, and concluding multi-season story lines in a single hour or half-hour of TV is a difficult task, one that often leaves audiences unsatisfied.
On IMDb, series finales with at least 1,000 user reviews are rated 0.4 points higher than the overall average for their shows. For many shows, however, the finale marks a major negative deviation from the series average, sometimes earning the lowest rating of any episode.
In 1998, the Seinfeld series finale – watched by 76 million viewers – polarized audiences en masse, putting its characters on trial in a parade of cameos that felt more like a clip show than a narrative culmination. How I Met Your Mother compressed its eponymous relationship arc into minutes, undoing nine seasons of buildup.
Decades earlier, shows like Green Acres, Gilligan’s Island, and The Andy Griffith Show left fans hanging with finales that failed to answer lingering viewer questions or only served to set up sequel shows. These series finales marked major ratings downgrades from their full-series averages, earning them spots among their decade’s most disappointing TV season finales. A closer look at the data reveals the most disappointing season finales from each decade.
To determine the most disappointing season finales from each decade, Nifty 50+ reviewed data on user ratings from IMDb. Season finale episodes were ranked based on the difference in episode-level IMDb user rating from the average user rating for the full series. Only shows with at least 5,000 user ratings were considered.
1960s:
5. Gilligan’s Island, “Gilligan, the Goddess” (1967)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 6.8/10 (-0.6 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 7.4/10 (18,229 votes)
— Series run: 1964-1967
4. The Prisoner, “Fall Out” (1968)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.6/10 (-0.9 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.5/10 (16,003 votes)
— Series run: 1967-1968
3. The Dick Van Dyke Show, “The Last Chapter” (1966)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.5/10 (-1.0 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.5/10 (12,861 votes)
— Series run: 1961-1966
2. The Twilight Zone, “The Bewitchin’ Pool” (1964)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 6.5/10 (-2.5 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 9.0/10 (106,434 votes)
— Series run: 1959-1964
1. The Andy Griffith Show, “Mayberry R.F.D.” (1968)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 4.5/10 (-3.9 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.4/10 (18,567 votes)
— Series run: 1960-1968
1970s:
5. Space: 1999, “The Dorcons” (1977)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 6.7/10 (-0.6 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 7.3/10 (10,242 votes)
— Series run: 1975-1977
4. The Brady Bunch, “The Hair-Brained Scheme” (1974)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 6.1/10 (-0.7 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 6.8/10 (16,815 votes)
— Series run: 1969-1974
3. Kolchak: The Night Stalker, “The Sentry” (1975)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.4/10 (-1.0 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.4/10 (6,898 votes)
— Series run: 1974-1975
2. Gunsmoke, “The Sharecroppers” (1975)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.1/10 (-1.0 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.1/10 (9,871 votes)
— Series run: 1955-1975
1. Green Acres, “The Ex-Secretary” (1971)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 4.6/10 (-2.7 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 7.3/10 (8,258 votes)
— Series run: 1965-1971
1980s:
5. The Waltons, “The Revel” (1981)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.0/10 (-0.6 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 7.6/10 (10,021 votes)
— Series run: 1972-1981
4. Doctor Who, “Survival: Part Three” (1989)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.4/10 (-1.0 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.4/10 (41,095 votes)
— Series run: 1963-1989
3. Dragon Ball, “Moeru Furaipan yama! Isshun no kesshikô” (1989)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.4/10 (-1.1 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.5/10 (74,512 votes)
— Series run: 1986-1989
2. The Greatest American Hero, “The Greatest American Heroine” (1986)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 5.9/10 (-1.4 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 7.3/10 (7,275 votes)
— Series run: 1981-1983
1. Quincy, M.E., “The Cutting Edge” (1983)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 4.9/10 (-2.4 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 7.3/10 (8,034 votes)
— Series run: 1976-1983
1990s:
5. Seinfeld, “The Finale” (1998)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.8/10 (-1.1 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.9/10 (378,865 votes)
— Series run: 1989-1998
4. Northern Exposure, “Tranquility Base” (1995)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (-1.2 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.4/10 (24,249 votes)
— Series run: 1990-1995
3. Batman: The Animated Series, “The Lion and the Unicorn” (1995)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (-1.8 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 9.0/10 (134,082 votes)
— Series run: 1992-1995
2. Dragon Ball Z, “Motto tsuyoku!! Gokû no yume wa chô dekkê” (1996)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 6.9/10 (-1.9 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.8/10 (101,006 votes)
— Series run: 1989-1996
1. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, “The Eligible Bachelor” (1993)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 6.6/10 (-2.1 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.7/10 (6,591 votes)
— Series run: 1991-1993
2000s:
5. Deadwood, “Tell Him Something Pretty” (2006)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 8.4/10 (-0.2 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.6/10 (126,437 votes)
— Series run: 2004-2006
4. Naruto, “Tabidachi” (2007)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 8.0/10 (-0.4 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.4/10 (158,443 votes)
— Series run: 2002-2007
3. Only Fools and Horses, “Sleepless in Peckham…!” (2003)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 7.8/10 (-1.2 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 9.0/10 (65,052 votes)
— Series run: 1981-2003
2. The L Word, “Last Word” (2009)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 6.0/10 (-1.7 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 7.7/10 (30,226 votes)
— Series run: 2004-2009
1. Star Trek: Enterprise, “These Are the Voyages…” (2005)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 5.3/10 (-2.3 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 7.6/10 (63,101 votes)
— Series run: 2001-2005
2010s:
5. True Blood, “Thank You” (2014)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 5.4/10 (-2.5 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 7.9/10 (269,092 votes)
— Series run: 2008-2014
4. How I Met Your Mother, “Last Forever: Part Two” (2014)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 5.5/10 (-2.8 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.3/10 (771,202 votes)
— Series run: 2005-2014
3. Dexter, “Remember the Monsters?” (2013)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 4.9/10 (-3.7 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.6/10 (895,400 votes)
— Series run: 2006-2013
2. Game of Thrones, “The Iron Throne” (2019)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 4.0/10 (-5.2 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 9.2/10 (2,507,104 votes)
— Series run: 2011-2019
1. House of Cards, “Chapter 73” (2018)
— Finale IMDb user rating: 2.6/10 (-6.0 pts. lower than show average)
— Full series IMDb user rating: 8.6/10 (553,794 votes)
— Series run: 2013-2018
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