We can all agree that we love sitcoms! One of the aspects that makes sitcoms so appealing is that they can be a one-and-done deal, in the sense, that most episodes can be standalones. This even lowers the risk of continuity issues and eases the pressure on having the “perfect” ending.
Despite this, there are quite a few sitcoms that have sadly screwed up their series finales, leaving fans utterly disappointed. To know which ones to stay wary of, I’ve made a list of the Top 8 sitcoms with the worst endings. You’re welcome in advance.
8How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother needs no introduction. For nine seasons, we laughed, we cried, and we scrutinized every single episode to trace out who the titular Mother could be. While we do find that out in the show’s final season, the way it is handled has divided fans all over.
HIMYM series finale reveals that Ted ends up with Tracy and has two kids with her. However, Tracy passes away a few years later, which then prompts Ted to tell his kids the story of how their parents met. Upon hearing the long, at times, convoluted story, his kids convince him to pursue his feelings for Robin at last.
It’s not that folks weren’t happy to see Ted and Robin together, but it was how it happened that didn’t gel well. Figuring out “who is the Mother?” felt nothing more than a gimmick.
Another plot point that fans took issue with was the treatment of Barney’s character. The show spent nine long seasons changing Barney from a womanizer to a sensitive, loving guy, only for him to revert back to his original state in one episode. This throwing away of his entire character development certainly left a sour taste in fans’ mouths.
Still, not everyone was bitter about this ending, and at least it didn’t upend any of the characters’ lives in a major way. So, despite being a pretty controversial ending, it ranks low on my list of bad sitcom endings.
7The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air follows a street-smart Will who has to move to Bel-Air with his uncle and cousins, leading to his upbringing often clashing with his wealthy relatives.
Now, Fresh Prince’s series finale doesn’t do anything necessarily wrong, but it comes across as a half-baked narrative, especially with Will admitting that his time in Bel-Air has not led him to any achievements.
The other characters go off to do their own things and the conclusion of their stories on the screen comes off as neither sentimental nor fulfilling.
6Younger
Younger ran for seven seasons chasing 40-year-old single mother Liza who pretends to be younger in order to restart her career, and perhaps even her romantic life.
In the series finale, Liza lets go of the on-off relationship with Charles. At the end of the episode, however, we see the fan favorite Josh return to the very bar he and Liza first started their romance. It ended with him saying, “I’ve been here all along.”
The ending doesn’t seem that bad at all, but it has been criticized by ardent fans for not giving the Liza-Josh relationship its deserved resolution.
5One Day at a Time (2017)
One Day at a Time is a Latinx reimagination of the 1975 sitcom of the same name. The show centers around Penelope Alvarez, a single mother who is an Army veteran dealing with PTSD, her kids, and her Cuban mother.
While the show itself was well-received and praised for dealing with different social issues, Netflix cited viewing-to-cost issues as a reason for canceling it after S3. Pop then shouldered running the show for S4, but was only able to produce seven episodes due to the pandemic.
In December 2020, One Day at a Time was canceled permanently mid-season as there seemed to be no hopes of reviving it whilst Covid-19 restrictions were in place. This not only left a sour taste in fans’ mouths but also gave them no closure as the show did not receive a proper series finale.
4Scrubs
Scrubs was a medical sitcom following the lives of employees at the Sacred Heart Hospital. When viewers watched the show’s S8, they thought they were witnessing the show’s end as it wrapped up all its storylines in a neat and sentimental manner in the finale.
But the show came back for S9 with new characters who had more screen time than the main/regular characters, almost as if it was a reboot. The S9 finale too was quite normal, but the show was never renewed after that.
It seems like the studio thought their S8 wrap-up was a mistake and tried to revive the show, but the attempt ultimately failed.
3Will & Grace
Will & Grace ran for 11 seasons focusing on the friendship between best friends Will Truman, a gay lawyer, and Grace Adler, a straight interior designer.
As a show that championed queer representation and allyship through the titular relationship, the ending was quite disappointing. The series finale depicts the two friends having a major fallout, leading to them not talking for years until their kids move to dorms across each other.
Will and Grace’s friendship was so unique and precious that such a plot twist did not make any sense and was rather sad.
2Two and a Half Men
The 12 seasons of Two and a Half Men followed the hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper, dealing with his no-nonsense brother, Alan, and playful nephew, Jake, moving into his Malibu house and upturning his casual lifestyle.
In S9, Charlie Sheen’s substance abuse caused him to get replaced by a new main character played by Ashton Kutcher. The show did bring him back for one last hurray, only to be killed by an airborne piano!
Sheen’s character was teased to be dead for a couple of seasons, so bringing him back to such an ending was just poor writing.
1Roseanne
Roseanne enjoyed a successful run between 1988 to 1997 as a sitcom that realistically portrayed the working-class American family. So, why does it sadly stand at the number one position for the worst sitcom ending?
Season 9 of Roseanne depicted how the Conner family could finally turn their life around after winning a shocking but well-deserved lottery. However, the series finale revealed that the whole season was nothing but a dream that Roseanne had and that her husband, Dan, was even dead.
Roseanne has one of the worst sitcom endings because it changed the show’s tone and forced the audience to accept that all of S9 was a dream concocted by Roseanne mourning her husband’s death. It shows bad writing and a lack of respect for both the audience and the show’s original story.
I can understand trying to keep a show grounded, but what a nightmarish route this was! Two decades later, the studio tried to correct this with an additional S10 and a reboot, but neither worked.
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