10 Most Bizarre TV Series Finales In History
7. J.R.'s Unknown Fate
The long-running Texan oil and cattle ranching drama Dallas ended in 1991 with a spectacularly out-there finale. It may have once revealed a whole season to have been a dream, but the final episode went several steps further.
It begins with lead character J.R. Ewing drunk and alone, contemplating suicide. He is visited by a spirit who shows him just how the world would have been if he had never been born. In a direct lift from It's A Wonderful Life, JR and his guardian angel watch as his brother Bobby becomes a down-and-out,and his brother Gary runs the family business into the ground.
It soon becomes clear that several people actually benefited from never having met J.R. His ex-wife becomes a highly successful actress whilst a distant relation never learns of his connection to J.R. and lives a fulfilling family life. After these revelations, the guardian angel reveals himself to be a demon and demands that J.R. kill himself to improve everyone's lives.
Staring at this demon in the mirror, J.R. raises the gun to his head and we hear a gunshot ring out, his fate unknown. In a bizarre coincidence, a month later, David Lynch's subversive soap Twin Peaks also ended with the protagonist doing himself considerable harm in front of a mirror.