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Which won't young people believe when you tell them? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 172 comments | Search Discussion
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2023, @04:49AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2023, @04:49AM (#1330583)

    The 80s had season ending cliffhangers all over. Even worse, given the trend of canceling shows with little to no warning, many of them were also the series finales. While it is easier to remember the ones that happened recently, they absolutely happened in the past. Cliffhanger season finales, false endings, "to be continued..." and stingers happened back then because it garnered higher ratings for the finales, which increased the chances of a show getting renewed. Cliffhangers in general were abound with shows that aired outside the prime viewing hours because it increased your chances of tuning in next time. Today, cliffhangers and false ending are all over the place for a similar reason with everything competing for your attention. Another thing that often happened is that if the show was canceled early enough, they would air episodes out of order in an attempt to provide that closure. Often time today, they don't really care because ending on a cliffhanger doesn't really matter when TV time is more expensive and you don't get as many angry letters thanks to all the other distractions you can consume.

  • (Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday October 29 2023, @11:42PM

    by istartedi (123) on Sunday October 29 2023, @11:42PM (#1330766) Journal

    The 80s had season ending cliffhangers all over. Even worse, given the trend of canceling shows with little to no warning, many of them were also the series finales

    Fond memories of being urged to watch a show with other people in our dorm. Word was, the writers had been tipped off to the show being cancelled after just one season, and they were going to do something drastic with the script. It did not disappoint. They did the classic disarming a nuclear bomb scene, except that they failed to disarm it. Then somehow they got renewed anyway, and for their first episode of the 2nd season they had the narrator say, "this all happened years ago", so we were supposed to be watching a prequel from then on out. IIRC, either the 2nd season didn't complete or that was it; but my memory could be way off so let's test it. I haven't googled yet.

    The show? Sledgehammer.

    Let's see how I did...OK looks like I at least got the number of seasons correct [wikipedia.org]

    OH, interesting. You can watch that entire episode [youtube.com] on YouTube. I wonder if it would hold up. I skipped to the end and confirmed the nuke. But now that I think about all this, it's not really a cliff-hanger is it? It's more like a cliff annihilator. It seemed really unique and special at the time.

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