10 TV Show Finales Fans Totally Rejected
4. St. Elsewhere
Some finales are frustrating in spite of the fact the writers were clearly trying to deliver a satisfying ending, while others are basically laughable in their no-f***s-given attempt to toy with audience expectations.
Series finales don't come much more bonkers than Emmy award-winning medical drama St. Elsewhere, which wrapped up its sixth and final season with the flabbergasting reveal that the hospital and everyone working in it were actually figments of an autistic boy's imagination, who stares at a model of the hospital contained inside a snow globe. Yup.
This ending changed TV forever in its own way - the backlash against the nutty twist was so severe it ensured that nobody would ever dare try to end an acclaimed series in quite such audacious fashion.
And the fans were right to be angry - six years of audience investment were wiped out in an instant as if it were all a cruel joke.
Though it's often been said that the writers wanted to end the show in a way where it couldn't ever be brought back, there has to be something a little less extreme than this, no?
The ending has its defenders, but it is nevertheless a defining example of what can happen when creatives don't actually know how to satisfyingly end a show.