2. Life On Mars
Life on Mars is the story of a police detective in 2008 who, after getting hit by a car, wakes up in 1973. I hate it when that happens. The original series aired in Great Britain to great acclaim, and a remake was quickly commissioned in the US. Despite America not having the best track record of importing television shows from across the pond, Life on Mars was a pretty decent effort and received a good amount of critical attention. Unfortunately, the show didn't garner huge numbers of viewers, and ABC announced that they would not be ordering a second season. So they had to create a finale episode. Apparently, this detective wasn't really from 1973 OR 2008. He was actually in an induced sleep state in 2035 on the first manned mission to Mars. Travel in space for that length of time obviously wreaks havoc on the fragile human mind, so to avoid potential mental issues on the flight, each passenger was plugged into a virtual reality system of their choosing. Sam elected a program that would allow him to be a police officer in 2008, but it abruptly switched to 1973 during a freak meteor shower. Holy WTF, people, I was not expecting this.
How It Should Have Ended... St. Elsewhere, take notes. If you're going to do a None of This Was Real storyline, this is how it's done. Especially if your show only got a limited run before being cancelled, you might as well swing for the fences and go out on a memorable note.