I have a theory that the main reason we get so many fan efforts to resurrect DC shows is that most of them tend to be left with open or unsatisfying final episodes. For a show to feel complete, there has to be an effort on behalf of the creators to bring it to a real conclusion.
With that in mind, I’d argue that no DC show has accomplished this better than Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which embraced its own impending cancelation with the sort of oddball humor and obscure pulls fans had come to love over its course. I’d say it’s one of the most inventive finales of any TV show, let alone a DC property, as the characters themselves fight in vain against a dying light.
“Our job isn’t to save the show,” Batman says, facing the very end. “It’s to save the day.”
The Fugitive, after being on a run for 4 years, Richard Kimble finds the one arm Man. Think I’ll add Star Trek Voyager also, with after 7 long years the crews of Voyager is finally trying to reach home.
Justice League Unlimited is my pick for best finale. From Superman’s wallop of Darkseid, to the final line of the show coming from Wonder Woman (“And the adventure continues.”) to the heroes that run and fly towards the camera in the final moments, it feels like a solid wrap-up to the DCAU’s Golden Age.
I’m going to have to distort the specifics of the OP’s topic while trying to stay true to the spirit.
For me, the best DC-related ‘series finale’ included the last five episodes of the second season of Justice League Unlimited:
Question Authority, Flashpoint, Panic in the Sky, Divided We Fall and Epilogue
Yes, they technically weren’t the last episodes of the series. But they were intended to be. The folks that were producing the series didn’t think that they’d get another season, so they threw everything into these last episodes. From a storytelling perspective, it was the high-water mark for JL/JLU and gave us a really touching ‘last’ episode that wasn’t just intended to end JLU with a huge final showdown, but to wrap up the entire DC Animated Universe in Epilogue.
As an aside, if we’re going outside of DC properties, it’s a tossup between MAS*H and Barney Miller for me.
For Sitcoms I’ll say Newhart when Bob wakes up next to the lovely and talented Suzanne Pleashett (sp?) to find that His entire show was a dream. This works because the tone of the first series is grounded while the second quickly became absurdist.
Completely agree with Christowhit; the entire Question arc in JLU, plus the Luthor twist, was the most satisfying ending, even if there was another season. And “Epilogue” is really the ending episode to B:TAS, Batman Beyond, and Justice League with Mask of the Phantasm thrown in. And somehow it’s good!
But it’s rare for a show to end on the right season. You have things like Firefly or Young Justice that were canned before their time, and then there’s the sitcom problem, where a show just keeps going until one person drops out and one actress has the wrong hair color in the last season.
