Random TV Shows That Had Supposedly Happy Endings (13 items)

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  (#6) Battlestar Galactica

  • Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber

  At the conclusion of Battlestar Galactica, the surviving 38,000 humans and Cylons land on a prehistoric Earth, just as humans are starting to come into being. To dispose of all their dangerous, advanced technology, Anders flies their fleet into the sun. Following this, it is revealed that the entirety of Battlestar Galactica is actually a creation myth, or at least the fictional origin of modern humanity.

  That's all pretty cool, but destroying all that technology means that humanity has to go through thousands of years of bloody history. If humans had access to Cylon regeneration from the very start, there would be no tragic assassinations or mass genocides in our history books today. Plus, the humans and Cylons destroyed their own cultures, and probably won't be able to survive in the harsh, uncultivated Earth, considering how dependent they are on technology.
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  (#8) Girls

  • Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, Adam Driver

  Early on, Girls tells the story of a weird, narcissistic, generally unpleasant person, who is surrounded by people who share her issues to some degree. As the show comes to a conclusion, not much has changed, except that the protagonist Hannah (Lena Dunham) is now having a baby.

  First of all, the baby's name is Grover, so he's starting off life with a supreme disadvantage; the Muppet jokes practically write themselves. On top of that, there's not a whole lot to suggest that Grover is going to have a wonderful upbringing, given how characteristically awful his mother is. 

  Would anyone really be surprised if the selfish Hannah decided to give up Grover for adoption after like a year, just as the baby was starting to recognize and love her? She'd probably say that raising children is harder than she expected, or something equally pithy. 
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  (#2) Chuck

  • Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster, Adam Baldwin, Ryan McPartlin, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Scott Krinsky, Vik Sahay, Julia Ling, Bonita Friedericy

  After watching Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Sarah's (Yvonne Strahovski) love slowly develop over the course of five years, the final episode comes as a slap in the face for longtime fans. Just as things are starting to wrap up, Sarah is brainwashed, and forgets all about the couple's intimate history. 

  The episode ends with them kissing, which implies that Chuck has successfully restored Sarah's memories, but this hope is never explicitly confirmed within the show (the creators even refused to confirm or deny anything after the fact). The reality is, there's a 50/50 chance that her memories are not restored, and that the road ahead of the couple is long and hard. 

  When the show starts, the pair's love is all an act, as Sarah is tasked with impersonating Chuck's girlfriend so that she can protect the super-computer inside his brain. However, as the series progresses, Chuck's nerdy charm slowly wins over Sarah, and the two actually end up getting married at one point. If one is to believe that the finale ends on a negative note, then the couple has to go through this courting all over again, and lightning may not strike twice. 

  Even if Sarah does get (some of) her memory back, the mere fact that Chuck has to convince his wife she loves him is heartbreaking, yet the show presents this tragedy in a characteristically lighthearted manner. Sarah has it even worse, as her memory was forcibly removed from her head, meaning that her life was basically stolen. 
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  (#10) Newhart

  • Bob Newhart, Mary Frann, Tom Poston

  Newhart is the story of a lovely couple who escapes the rat race of New York to run a quaint bed and breakfast in Vermont. Dick (Bob Newhart) and Joanna Loudon (Mary Frann) seem to be genuinely happy in their serene corner of the world, as they're surrounded by odd but lovable townsfolk. Then comes the jolting finale, wherein Bob Newhart wakes up in his bedroom from The Bob Newhart Show. Emily (Suzanne Pleshette), his wife from that show, is lying next to him, and he realizes that the entirety of Newhart was actually a dream.

  It's unclear whether this shocking turn of events is supposed to be happy or sad, it just is. Viewers have a lot to think about; the life of Dr. Bob Hartley — a happily married psychologist living in Chicago — seems to be objectively good, but the dream suggests that he'd be happier living a quieter, simpler life. Then there's the fact that Joanna isn't real. She might amount to little more than Bob's personal take on the male gaze, or she could embody Bob's ideal partner and primary missed connection; either way, this finale throws all of the characters' psyches into disarray. 
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  (#7) Happy Endings

  • Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert, Zachary Knighton, Adam Pally, Damon Wayans Jr., Casey Wilson

  For a show called Happy Endings, the series's finale is ironically anything but happy. First of all, the show was canceled after only three seasons, despite having an avid fan base and generally good ratings. For the characters on the show, things didn't work out too great either. Penny's (Casey Wilson) engagement ends shortly before the series finale, Max (Adam Pally) continues to be a slovenly mess with no real direction, and Dave (Zachary Knighton) and Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) break up once again, putting everyone right back where they were when the series started. Basically, the three years viewers followed these people's lives consists only of wasted time. 
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  (#4) Frasier

  • Kelsey Grammer, Jane Leeves, David Hyde Pierce

  In the final season of Frasier, the titular character (Kelsey Grammer) starts dating a matchmaker named Charlotte (Laura Linney) who he connects deeply with, even though they theoretically shouldn't be a good pair. As the series comes to a close, so too do many of Frasier's dreams. His radio program wraps up, as does his relationship with Charlotte, who moves back to Chicago. 

  As his romance fizzles and his family moves on — Daphne (Jane Leeves) and Niles (David Hyde Pierce) have their first child while Frasier's dad (John Mahoney) gets married — Frasier accepts a job in San Francisco, where he'll have his own TV show. As he's preparing to leave, he says goodbye to his loved ones, and acknowledges how they've moved on with their lives; it's almost as if he recognizes he has no place there anymore. Then the episode ends with the revelation that he's actually going to Chicago to win back Charlotte. 

  Fans have to wonder why he's passing up such an amazing career opportunity for a woman he's only known a few months. Does he truly want to spend his life with her, or is he simply envious of his family members, who've found fulfillment through love? Plus, whatever happened to the whole Roz (Peri Gilpin) and Frasier thing? There was something there and it feels like a missed opportunity. 

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