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Concluding the tale of a beloved character isn't a simple task. The writer must craft an exit that aligns with the character's journey, all while avoiding fan backlash. It's a delicate, painstaking process—which could be why many writers take the easy way out and deliver a lackluster conclusion.
Warning: Since this article dives into character fates, spoilers are unavoidable.
10. Mork and Mindy Found Themselves Stranded in Prehistoric Times
Mork and Mindy, a standout spinoff born from Robin Williams' guest appearance on Happy Days, quickly became a beloved sitcom. Fans tuned in each week to watch the alien Mork struggle with human customs... right up until the final episode, when they saw him face off against a menacing space invader.
In the three-part episode 'Gotta Run,' Mork accidentally makes contact with another alien named Kalnik. At first, Mork believes he's found an ally, but soon realizes that Kalnik has nefarious plans to take over Earth and enslave humanity. With no one else to help, Mork and Mindy engage in a battle against Kalnik through time, ultimately ending his life on prehistoric Earth. But the producers weren't satisfied with this already bizarre conclusion and chose to trap Mork and Mindy forever in the distant past.
In the final scene of the episode, we witness our heroes falling helplessly through the time vortex. Before we can learn what happens next, the camera cuts to an ancient cave painting showing Mork and Mindy together. This suggests that they spent the remainder of their lives stuck in prehistoric Earth, isolated from their friends and families for eternity.
9. Satan Coaxed J.R. Into Shooting Himself
While Dallas was one of the most popular shows in the '80s, it is mostly remembered today for the iconic mystery 'Who Shot J.R.?' What few people know is that J.R. was shot a second time: by his own hand, after being manipulated by the devil.
In the series finale, J.R. encounters a supernatural figure named 'Adam,' who takes him on a journey through his past in an 'It’s a Wonderful Life' fashion. Driven to madness by the vision of a world better off without him, J.R. is urged by Adam to commit suicide. Although it is strongly implied that Adam is Satan, before this twist can fully sink in, J.R. places a gun to his head. The scene cuts away to a gunshot. J.R.’s brother Bobby rushes in, looks at the floor, and exclaims, 'Oh my God!'
The writers later retconned this conclusion in the 1996 movie and the 2012 TV revival. However, for many Dallas fans, the unforgettable image of J.R. being killed by Satan remained the definitive ending.
8. Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap Never Made It Home
Quantum Leap revolved around a scientist who, after a mishap with a time machine, leaps into the bodies of people throughout history, all in a desperate attempt to return to his own time. Portrayed by Scott Bakula, Sam Beckett was a compassionate and tragic figure, with the audience rooting for his return to his previous life over five seasons. Yet, when the final episode aired in 1993, it ended with a shocking title card that read, 'Dr. Sam Becket (sic) never returned home.'
The network had canceled the show at the last minute, forcing a typical season finale to be reshaped into a series finale. The consequences were chilling. As someone who spends his life inhabiting the bodies of others, Sam Beckett lacks a physical form. This means he is incapable of aging or dying. If he never returns home, he remains trapped out there, forever leaping from one body to the next.
7. Victor Meldrew Became A Solitary Ghost
Victor Meldrew, the irritable old man who criticized stupidity, became the face of dark British comedy for a decade in One Foot in the Grave. The show was so unapologetically cynical that even when the writers killed off Meldrew in a traffic accident, there was no outcry. But then they resurrected him as a lonely ghost.
A year after the series finale, the cast reunited for a one-off charity special. Known simply as 'The Comic Relief Special,' this mini-episode features Meldrew and his wife visiting a dying relative in the hospital. At first, it seems to be set before the fatal traffic accident from the finale, but things soon take an unexpected turn.
As the episode progresses, it becomes clear that no one can see or hear Meldrew. In the final moments, Meldrew stumbles upon a copy of The Sixth Sense, and everything falls into place. He is dead, and his wife has forgotten him. The last thing audiences see of this much-loved character is a lingering zoom on his face as the horror of his situation dawns on him.
6. Jughead Became A Depressed Single Father
Though it's recently taken on a strangely intense tone, for most of its 70-year existence, Archie was the most wholesome comic imaginable. Each issue followed its squeaky-clean characters into equally squeaky-clean problems, with equally squeaky-clean resolutions, presenting a version of teenage life that was far from reality. If we were to envision an ending for these characters' eternal adolescence, we'd likely imagine them living happily in the suburbs, watching their kids grow up and attend school together.
In 1990, the international production company DiC acquired the movie adaptation rights to Archie. Their resulting film, Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again, depicted the characters as adults... living empty, miserable lives. Veronica has gone through several failed marriages, while Betty is trapped in a relationship with a mentally abusive boyfriend. But the most chilling fate belongs to Jughead. After more than 60 years as the quirky, lovable slacker, he is now portrayed as a depressed man with relationship struggles and a difficult child. He has become a psychoanalyst who ends up projecting his own unresolved issues onto his patients.
Due to negative reviews, the movie (released as Return to Riverdale on NBC) was swiftly removed from the Archie universe shortly after its release. However, even this disaster wasn't the worst fate that befell Jughead. In 2013, Afterlife with Archie transformed him into a flesh-eating zombie.
5. Pinky and the Brain Were Condemned to a Life of Slavery
Pinky and the Brain introduced us to the most charmingly villainous duo of rodents ever to grace the screen. Every week, viewers watched as their plans for world domination comically fell apart, reassured that they'd never stop trying. That is, until they were forced to flee and ended up under the care of Elmyra from Tiny Toons.
In 1997, Warner Cartoons attempted to shift the show into a more conventional sitcom format, downplaying the theme of mad world domination. The writers of Pinky and the Brain were instructed to incorporate Elmyra from Tiny Toons, reduce the attempts at domination, and add a musical number in every episode. It was such a horrendous choice that the writers even poked fun at it in the revamped theme song, with lines like: 'Now Pinky and the Brain/share a new domain/It’s what the network wants/Why bother to complain?'
The story took a turn for the worse. To explain the new direction, the writers introduced a plot where a Christopher Walken look-alike wanted the mice dead, forcing them into hiding. Unfortunately, they decided to hide in Elmyra's room, and once she discovered them, she refused to let them leave. Since the show was canceled after just a few episodes, we can only assume that Pinky and the Brain were doomed to live out the rest of their days as her miserable rodent servants.
4. Dana Scully Became Immortal
Not all strange character outcomes have been dismal. Some have even been quite spectacular, like the fate of The X-Files’ Dana Scully. Initially, Scully was written as the grounded skeptic, balancing out David Duchovny’s believer. She started as a typical, down-to-earth character, until the writers decided to spice things up by making her immortal.
In the 1995 episode “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” Peter Boyle plays a character who has the ability to see exactly how everyone will die. In one of the series’ strangest moments, he uses this ability on Scully and discovers that she is destined to live forever.
This storyline resurfaced in 1999, when a photographer reveals he’s almost 150 years old and can’t die because he avoided Death’s gaze. At the conclusion of the episode, Death comes for Scully, but the photographer sacrifices himself in her place, suggesting that she has now inherited his immortality.
During the promotional tour for the second X-Files movie, creator Chris Carter addressed a question about Scully’s immortality, stating, “It’s kind of true, if you think about it. I mean, she’ll never die.”
3. The Brady Bunch Became Severely Messed Up
The original Brady Bunch was the epitome of a wholesome, feel-good sitcom. Over five seasons, the six Brady kids and their parents got into harmless misadventures, solving their problems with love and unity. So when CBS brought the original cast back for a revival in 1990, viewers probably expected a similar vibe. What they got instead was a show revolving around alcoholism, abuse, and unemployment.
Confident older sister Marcia has turned into a depressed alcoholic. Clumsy yet lovable Peter is stuck in an abusive relationship. Little Bobby has suffered a paralyzing injury in a racing accident. Meanwhile, side characters like Wally are unemployed, and the entire extended family seems on the brink of falling apart.
The series was canceled after just six episodes, and no further attempts were made to continue the story with the original cast. That was the end of the road—20 years and several TV shows and movies later—marking the final fate of the kindhearted Bradys.
2. Gilligan Ended Up Playing For The Harlem Globetrotters
Before Lost captured our attention, the most famous stranded show was Gilligan’s Island. Over 100 episodes, viewers followed the castaways, with the ever-clumsy Gilligan both helping and hindering their attempts to escape. Much like Quantum Leap, the series concluded with them stuck in limbo. They were finally rescued in a 1979 TV movie, but in 1981, the writers decided that wasn't enough closure. Instead, Gilligan’s final fate was to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.
In the TV movie The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island, the Globetrotters face off against an army of basketball-playing robots controlled by the villainous Martin Landau. In the dramatic final scenes, two of the Globetrotters are injured, and the only way to win is to recruit Gilligan, who makes the game-winning basket.
As bizarre as that is, it isn’t even the strangest fate that awaited Gilligan. In the non-canon animated series, he ends up stranded on another planet after the Skipper’s experimental spaceship crashes while attempting to return to Earth.
1. The Assistants of Doctor Who Endured Terrible Fates
Since its debut in 1963, Doctor Who has been as much about its companions as it has been about the Doctor. For many fans, characters like Rose Tyler, Sarah Jane Smith, and Amy Pond were the real heart of the series. It’s surprising then that most of these companions faced incredibly tragic and bizarre ends.
Since the 2005 revival, viewers have watched as Rose was trapped in a parallel universe, Donna had her memory erased, and Amy Pond found herself stuck for all eternity in the past. But the fates of the original series companions were even darker. The popular ’80s companion Peri was disintegrated by Brian Blessed while controlled by a malevolent talking slug, and young Adric met his end in a spaceship crash that triggered a planet-wide explosion. In the ’60s, megastar companion Jamie had his time with the Doctor and his deep affection for him erased, and the Doctor even murdered Kamelion. Even Sarah Jane Smith, the most beloved companion in the show’s entire 50-year history, ended up alone, unmarried, and broken after the Doctor abandoned her.
For a show that’s all about discovering the wonders of the universe, Doctor Who certainly has a way of making it all feel strangely bleak.
