10 Insane TV Finales NOBODY Saw Coming
4. Everyone Dies - Dinosaurs
When you think of ABC's legendary sitcom Dinosaurs, you're more likely to have fond memories of flannel-clad protagonist Earl, his cardigan-loving wife Fran, and their adorable dino-children.
You'll probably want to think a lot less about the show's final episode, which rather than pull the "life goes on" card typical of sitcoms, ventures in the total opposite direction.
The finale, "Changing Nature," serves as an environmentalist parable where the dinosaur species' neglect of Earth leads to their implied extinction.
In an attempt to destroy an invasive creeper vine, Earl accidentally kills all plant life on the planet, and when an attempt to create clouds to bring rain goes horribly wrong, Earth is plunged into an Ice Age of intense cold and darkness.
The show ends with Earl apologising to his family for his part in bringing about this catastrophe, while remarking that dinosaurs won't simply disappear - a hauntingly telling comment which of course suggests the dinosaurs' extinction is imminent.
For a sitcom this is hella bleak, but for a sitcom aimed primarily at children? It's utterly devastating, and yet offers up a genuinely educational - if traumatic - message about the destructive power of climate change.