Was it all just a dream, Slackers?!

This week I’m revisiting the series finales from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s that truly stuck the landing. Picture the night MASH aired its 90+ minute finale, when over a hundred million people tuned in, Bob Newhart delivering the single greatest punchline in sitcom history, and the entire Cheers gang finally walking out of that bar (the finale which I attended live in Boston!). These were the endings that felt perfect when they happened and somehow still do.

We’ll hit the classics: Mary Tyler Moore turning off the newsroom lights, St. Elsewhere’s snowglobe mind-bender, Quantum Leap’s quietly devastating final title card, and a handful more that make you understand why a good finale used to feel like a national holiday.

And yeah, when Game of Thrones famously face-planted in its last episode and the internet melted down, most of us immediately thought, “They could have just studied M*A*S*H or Cheers for five minutes.” If you remember what it felt like when television actually knew how to say goodbye, this episode is for you.