The Last Laugh: Celebrating Two Memorable Sitcom Farewells

By Michael Lyons

The month of May in the Television Industry is like graduation.  The networks all get their grades, some shows move on to the “new semester,” some “fail” and some “graduate and move on.”

This last group would be a “series finale,” where we would bid farewell to a show that had become a friendly place to visit and characters that had become great friends.

For years, prior to our current state of streaming, cable and multiple networks, the May ratings “sweeps” period would be the time when the major TV networks jockeyed for viewers and scheduled their big “events.”  Many of these would be series finales.

This month two final shows from two of TV’s greatest sitcoms celebrate anniversaries.  So, it’s fitting to take a look back at how we said good bye to the place “where everybody knows your name” and “the show about nothing.”

“Cheers” (“One for the Road, Part 3”).  Originally aired May 20, 1993

Twenty-five years ago audiences bid farewell to a show that was both a throwback and a landmark.  “Cheers” was ensemble comedy at its best and like all of television’s best sitcoms, we came to know Sam, Diane, Rebecca, Woody, Norm, Cliff, Frasier and the entire cast as our good friends, who spent time at a watering hole that looked like the world’s most inviting hang-out and gathering place.

In this final episode (the third part of an extended prime time “event”), Sam (Ted Danson) reconnects with long lost love Diane (Shelly Long, returning to the show that she had exited several seasons eaelier), Rebecca (Kirstie Alley) gets her chance to finally marry (to Guest Tom Berenger), Woody (Woody Harrelson) embarks on a new career in politics and many of the other stalwart characters look to new adventures.

The on-point comedic writing is on display in this last episode, as well as a true sense of melancholy, but one that never hangs over the proceedings as a dark cloud.  There is a sadness to this last episode, but not one in which we feel as if we will never see the characters again, but instead that they will continue to go about their lives without us.

In the final scene of the show, when Sam tells a patron at the door that “We’re closed” and then walks to the back of the bar (adjusting a picture of Geronimo, which was actually a tribute to the late actor Nicholas Colasanto, who played Coach and had passed away in 1985.  The photo had once hung in Colasanto’s dressing room), we truly feel a farewell to the “Cheers” gang in those last silent moments.

It was sad to see “Cheers” end, not just because it was the type of show that probably could have run forever, but also because it represented a time in television that was fading away in 1993.

“Cheers” was the last of a generation of “appointment TV shows” where fans would check “TV Guide” for the week and gather around their televisions at a certain time, to make sure they didn’t miss a thing.  Cable, VCR’s and eventually DVR’s took all of this away, making “Must See TV,” whenever we wanted to watch it.

But from 1982-1993, everyone made sure they stopped by a Boston bar every Thursday night at 9:00.  Cheers to “Cheers!”

“Seinfeld” (“The Finale”).  Originally aired May 14, 1998

One of the most eagerly anticipated, as well as one of the most unexpected series finales aired twenty years ago this month.  “Seinfeld” had always been a show that “veered left” of what was usually expected, so it’s no surprise that the series finale did the same.

The show had become a TV sitcom juggernaut during its nine years on NBC and one that many still deem TV’s greatest comedy.  Jerry Seinfeld was able to translate his stand up that took a different look at life’s everyday, into a show about a comedian who took a different look at life’s everyday, resulting in a sitcom that is still relatable and quotable twenty years after its finale.

In the final show, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Kramer (Michael Richards) decide to fly to Paris to celebrate the fact that Jerry and George have just landed a sitcom deal with NBC.

When their plane emergency lands in a small town and the quartet laugh at a gentlemen being car jacked, they are all arrested and put on trial for violating a Good Samaritan Law.

What follows is a parade of court room witnesses who are actually recurring and other characters that had appeared on episodes through the years...and most of whom were, in one way or another, wronged by the four leading characters.

In the end, all four are found guilty and sentenced to one year in jail.  In the last shot, they are all sitting in their jail cell (in a nice “bookend,” Jerry and George relay dialogue that was in the show’s first episode).

At the time that this final episode aired, many were not impressed, as the episode almost provided closure...but in the end didn’t.  The show even threw in a near-death and two characters coming close to saying “I love you,” but never delivered on it.  All of that is what is so great about this finale.  “Seinfeld” thumbed its nose at what was expected of a sitcom and proved why it truly was a landmark show that has never been equaled.

To paraphrase “Seinfeld,” this finale was “real and they were spectacular!”

Remembering these two TV “graduations,” twenty to twenty five years later, it’s easy to see why both “Cheers” and “Seinfeld” were both considered valedictorians of comedy.

Sources:

IMDb

TVGuide.com

Wikipedia