Random Shockingly Dark Finales Of Kids' Shows (12 items)

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  (#1) Dinosaurs

  • Stuart Pankin, Jessica Walter, Jason Willinger

  Dinosaurs was Jim Henson's final gift to the world before he tragically passed away in the early '90s. The show focuses on a family of animatronic dinosaurs, and flaunts a goofy, playful attitude, right up until its infamously horrible series finale in 1994.

  Earl — the Sinclair family's Megalosaurus patriarch — works for the Wesayso Corporation. While the company is well-intentioned, its work inadvertently messes with the laws of nature, and brings about an ice age that none of the dinosaurs can survive.

  The show's harrowing final shots show the family sitting nervously in front of their TV — their house covered in snow — hoping desperately that the news will provide them with some reassurance. Instead, anchor Howard Handupme solemnly bids them, "Goodbye," at which point the screen fades to black. 
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  (#2) ALF

  • Mihaly 'Michu' Meszaros, Paul Fusco, Max Wright

  Up until the show's finale, the most disturbing thing about the lovable, alien fuzzball was his insatiable appetite for cats. That's pretty impressive, considering that ALF (Alien Life Form) ran for 102 episodes between 1986 and 1990.

  While this is definitely a solid run, the series's dark final episode suggests that ALF was meant to continue even longer. "Consider Me Gone" ends when the friendly alien is captured by mysterious government agents who'd been keeping tabs on his every move. To make matters worse, it's implied that they plan to probe and dissect the poor guy in some underground lab. Fans had to wait six years to learn of ALF's true fate. .
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  (#3) Little House on the Prairie

  Set in the 1870s in rural Minnesota, Little House On The Prairie tells the quiet, wholesome tale of a farming community, and focuses particularly on the daily lives of the Ingalls family. The show originally aired between 1974 and 1982, and appealed predominantly to young girls.

  Well, those young fans must have been pretty depressed after they watched the show's finale, "The Last Farewell." When the townsfolk learn that the property mogul Nathan Lassiter has bought up a huge plot of "homesteading" land, they try their darndest to fight back. However, their resistance is futile, and when it becomes clear that they are fighting a losing battle, they are forced to take more drastic measures. When Lassiter arrives in town, he finds it totally destroyed and devoid of human life. 
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  (#4) Teen Titans

  • Hynden Walch, Scott Menville, Greg Cipes

  Teen Titans (2003-2006) achieved a near-perfect balance of grit and levity during its five season run. Though the feature-length Trouble In Tokyo was later created to tie up loose ends, the show's original series finale was the half-hour special, "Things Change." At the start of the episode, the Titans return to their hometown, only to discover that all their favorite shops have closed down. 

  The plot thickens when Terra — Beast Boy's sometimes girlfriend who turned into a statue in Season 2 — abruptly reappears. However, she has no memory of her past life with the Titans, or of her relationship with Beast Boy. Her apparent amnesia bothers Beast Boy to no end, and he goes to great lengths to try and jog her memory. Unfortunately, none of his efforts prove fruitful, and the new Terra actually begins avoiding him. 

  Beast Boy loses his grip, and begins frequenting the places he and Terra used to visit on dates, hoping desperately that he'll run into her. Instead, he comes face to face with the robotic doppelgänger of the Titans' arch enemy, Slade. As Beast Boy and Slade duke it out in a hall of mirrors, the villain explains that he has nothing to do with Terra's reappearance, and that it's really Beast Boy who's hurting her by refusing to move on with his life. 

  After taking down the robot, Beast Boy tries one final time to remind Terra of who she used to be. His ploy fails, and she tells him that "things change" and that the Terra he remembers is "just a memory." The two are then separated by a crowd of people, at which point the series ends. 

  It's never too early to expose children to the harsh reality that everything they care about will one day melt away into nothing. 
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  (#5) The Hero Is Killed And Buried In An Unmarked Grave In 'M.A.N.T.I.S.'

  Before horror director Sam Raimi took on Spider-Man, he championed the world's first live-action, African-American superhero in 1994. The delightfully weird M.A.N.T.I.S. follows the adventures of the titular hero, who fights crime in an exoskeleton after a stray bullet paralyzes him from the waist down. 

  The show's ending, however, is not so delightful. In the episode "Ghost of the Ice," M.A.N.T.I.S. tussles with an invisible dinosaur that threatens to wreak havoc on humanity. While the premise sounds pretty ridiculous, all comedy is cast aside when M.A.N.T.I.S. is forced to blow himself and his love interest up to eliminate the creature. After he sacrifices himself, the only thing his grieving sidekick can do is bury him in an unmarked grave.
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  (#6) The World of David the Gnome

  • Matilde Conesa, Jane Woods, José María Cordero

  This Spanish cartoon first made its way onto American TV in 1986, and ran on several different networks in the '90s and '00s. Though its gentle, gnome-based content seemed harmless to parents, several generations of children were scarred by the series's surprisingly bleak ending. 

  The show follows a married couple, David and Lisa, who look after the inhabitants of the forest in which they reside. They've been dutiful caretakers for centuries, as gnomes can live up to 400 years, but not a year longer. David and Lisa are both aware of their own mortality, and upon reaching 399, they decide to make one final trip to the Moutains of Beyond to cross over peacefully to the other side. 
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  (#7) Superman: The Animated Series

  • Tim Daly, Joseph Bologna, Dana Delany

  Following in the footsteps of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: TAS was filled with the maturity and depth, but usually managed to wrap plot lines up in a light, optimistic manner. 

  "Legacy," the series's two-part conclusion, features Darkseid being characteristically cruel. After brainwashing Superman into believing that he's a villain, Darkseid sends the Kryptonian to destroy Earth. Though an intervention staged by Lex Luthor snaps him out of it, Superman ends up as a fugitive, and is forced to run from the military. To make matters worse, Darkseid's enslaved people choose to save their leader, even after Superman liberates them. The whole thing presents a moral that children probably shouldn't internalize. 
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  (#8) Green Lantern: The Animated Series

  • Josh Keaton, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jason Spisak

  Helmed by DCAU architect Bruce Timm, Green Lantern: The Animated Series deserved a much longer run than it received. Sadly, the failure of the 2011 live-action film brought the considerably more stellar cartoon down with it.

  As a result of its premature cancellation, the series accidentally went out on a real low note. In the final episode, Aya — a female-identifying AI — makes the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good. Left with no other option, she executes a computer virus to destroy all the evil Manhunters, and is inadvertently killed in the process.

  Aya's teammate Razer refuses to accept that she's really dead,  and the final scene shows him embarking on a mission to find her. However, viewers will sadly never know whether Aya actually survived the virus, as the show did not receive a second season. 
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  (#9) ReBoot

  • Michael Donovan, Kathleen Barr, Garry Chalk

  In 1994, ReBoot's CGI visuals were a first for TV animation. The stylistic choice was made intentionally, and was meant to reflect the series's world of computer systems and viruses.

  Unfortunately, fans had to wait seven long years for the series's finale, "Crouching Binome, Hidden Virus," which nonetheless ended the show on a shockingly dark cliffhanger. Megabyte – a Trojan horse virus that serves as the show's big bad – outmaneuvers the heroes to infect the Principle Office, and is poised to hunt them all down. Though the creator confirmed that a resolution was planned, fans still have no idea what it might be. 
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  (#10) Mighty Max

  • Frank Welker, Tony Jay, Rob Paulsen, Richard Moll

  Like He-Man, Mighty Max was ostensibly an extended toy advertisement, but that didn't stop kids in the early '90s from adoring the radical boy wonder. The show follows the righteous adventures of Max, a young boy who wears a magical baseball cap that can propel him through time and space. 

  The premise is unarguably fun, and each episode actually wraps with a "Moral Of The Day" segment. However, the series didn't shy away from darker moments, and the finale was no exception. After the villain Skullmaster kills Max's mentor and bodyguard, the preteen finds himself in precariously deep water. Seeing no other option, Max forces time to move in reverse, just so he can redo the entire adventure in the hopes of a better outcome.
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  (#11) The Villain Ends Up Trapped Inside A Dream In 'W.I.T.C.H.'

  Adapted from the Italian comics series of the same name, W.I.T.C.H. is a '00s series that follows five teen girls, Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin (whose names form the acrostic that is the show's title). The ladies are known as the Guardians of the Veil, and use elemental powers to preserve different fantasy realms.

  The series ran for two seasons before concluding with the horrifically nightmarish episode "Z Is for Zenith." In the finale, the girls finally defeat the evil Nerissa by trapping her in a dream world. Nerissa has no idea that this occurs, and is fated to relive the same events over and over, ad infinitum.

  While the heroes are victorious, they are given little time to celebrate their success; it's soon revealed that one of their teachers is a double agent, who seeks to expose their secret lives. However, since season three has yet to be confirmed, the cliffhanger is never resolved. 
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  (#12) Avatar: The Last Airbender

  • Zach Tyler, Dee Bradley Baker, Mae Whitman

  Although Avatar is epic in scope and features some richly complex characterization, the Nickelodeon series still manages to work in plenty of gags and silliness for younger viewers to enjoy. In the same vein, the show also succeeds in conveying the brutality of war without ever getting too graphic. While several prominent characters don't make it out alive, their deaths are usually fairly ambiguous.

  In the final showdown between Aang and the Fire Lord Ozai, the Last Airbender writers found a pretty creative way to punish the series's villain. Rather than kill him, Aang takes all of his powers away, forcing Ozai to live on as shadow of his former self. If Aang had taken Ozai's life, the sequence might have been hard for young viewers to process, but a lifetime of punishment honestly seems worse than a quick death. 

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