Revenge cliffhanger up there with greats from Dallas and Dynasty
REVENGE tonight delivers a shock season finale. To get you in the mood, we look at the great cliffhangers in the history of TV.
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TELEVISION has a proud history of delivering nailbiting season finales.
Often we’ve been left for months not knowing what has become of a favourite character, or characters, in a drama, soap or comedy.
Here are some of the greatest narrative bombs dropped by scriptwriters in season finales.
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MADELEINE STOWE: Revenge finale “nothing off limits”
The 2014 season finale, screening tonight on Channel 7, could go down as one of the all-time greats. While Revenge is dismissed by some as not much more than a high-gloss soap, this episode is both suspenseful and shocking. The show starring Madeleine Stowe and Emily Van Camp promises two massive twists, including the death of a favourite character.
CHEERS
In its first season, Cheers delivered a masterclass in rising sexual tension between its two leads, Ted Danson’s full-of-himself Sam Malone and Shelley Long’s Diane Chambers. Where many shows today would be terrified of having lead characters hook up in a debut season, the Cheers scriptwriters bravely decided not to prolong the tension. In Sam’s office, the two are arguing when Diane says, “You disgust me. I hate you.” Sam’s reply? “Are you as turned on as I am?” They locked lips in the spring of 1983 and fans couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.
THE WEST WING
One of TV’s all-time great shows delivered a cracking first season finale. The big question was “Who’s been hit?”. Fans half expected there would be an attempt on Jed Bartlet’s (Martin Sheen) life. When shots rang out, we all wanted to know who the targets were and who survived.
BREAKING BAD
Arguably the greatest drama series ever was never more compelling than in 2011, with its horrific season finale. This is a critical moment in the inexorable downward spiral of mild-mannered teacher-turned drug lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston). Truly bizarre was the site of evil Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) staggering from a bomb blast — orchestrated by Walter — with half his face missing. Would fans drop off the show now Walter had proven himself capable of such a vile act?
NUMBER 96
This groundbreaking Aussie soap of the ‘70s was often derided by critics, but fans loved its season finale episodes. The Sydney apartment block was subject to cliffhanger mysteries surrounding the kicker snatcher, the pantyhose strangler and the hooded rapist. The biggie, however, was the bomb that took out several key characters. It left viewers waiting for the return season before the identity of victims was revealed.
FRIENDS
Sitcoms don’t generally outshine dramas when it comes to cliffhangers, but in 10 glorious seasons Friends threw up its fair share to keep fans guessing about the fortunes of the motley crew of Manhattan mates whose lives and loves were post-mortemed and plotted in their local coffee shop, Central Perk. The reason for the fuss? Largely the fortunes of Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Ross (David Schwimmer), whose on-again-off-again relationship ran for the whole 10 seasons. Fans loved the season four finale, in which Ross — all decked out for his wedding to Emily (Helen Baxendale) — said, “I take thee Rachel” as the ceremony unfolded. Season five delivered a corker cliffhanger as Ross and Rachel got hitched after getting drunk in their Las Vegas hotel room.
THE SOPRANOS
Through six dark and beautifully-crafted seasons, The Sopranos followed the fortunes of New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano (the late James Gandolfini). Season after season, viewers were kept on their toes as the body count rose and the troubled and often merciless Tony philandered his way through a succession of affairs. To say there would be a long list of suspects ready to kill Tony as the show’s finale approached was an understatement. Which made the cliffhanger ending a controversial masterstroke, debated by fans to this day — is Tony dead or alive? In the final scenes, the tension is palpable as Tony, a man who dished out life and death on a daily basis, enters Holsten’s diner, takes a seat at an empty table, a watchful eye on the door, and chooses Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin on the jukebox. Ex-wife Carmela (Edie Falco) and wayward son AJ (Robert Ilier) join him, and the scene becomes reminiscent of a bizarre family dinner and last supper. A man in a Members Only jacket lurks in the diner, glances at the table, and enters the bathroom. Tony’s daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), running late, sprints towards the entrance of Holstens. The bell rings on the door, the lyrics of the song say “Don’t stop”. Tony looks up at the door. The screen goes black. Ten seconds later, the final credits roll in silence.
MELROSE PLACE
Marcia Cross’ Dr Kimberly Shaw was only intended to have a minor role in the opening season of the hit series, but over several seasons the character evolved from bright, up and coming intern and love interest to Michael Mancini (Thomas Calaboro) to vengeful, wig-wearing, card-carrying psychopath. Kimberly was declared insane, wound up in a coma, died, had some kind of afterlife and basically terrorised the whole central cast. But her piece de resistance came in the season three finale, when, traumatised and vengeful after receiving divorce papers from her philandering husband Michael, she blew up the entire Melrose Place apartment complex in a seriously explosive cliffhanger.
DALLAS
The Who Shot JR? episode wrote the book on cliffhangers. It became TV folklore when hit series Dallas, in its second season, provoked seven months of speculation with a season-ending murder attempt on the its central character, evil oil-baron JR Ewing (the late Larry Hagman).
It resulted in an unprecedented round of fan speculation on who pulled the trigger. As the long wait for season three played out, the Who Shot JR? campaign gathered force. Indeed, it seemed whether he would survive was an afterthought as T-shirts were printed, songs written, and references and mock-confessions came in other television shows. It even got a mention in the US presidential campaign of that year.
DYNASTY
TV execs know the best way to achieve a ratings spike is with a wedding or a mystery death. Parlay that into a cliffhanger and you’ve got ratings gold. Which is exactly what creators of Dynasty struck with their most famous cliffhanger, the so-called Moldavian Massacre in the season five finale in 1985. Amanda Carrington’s (Catherine Oxenberg) lavish wedding was inconveniently interrupted by terrorists during a military coup in Moldavia. Cue a chapel with bullets screaming in all directions, and most of the major characters of the show appearing seemingly lifeless as the credits rolled. It was vintage cliffhanger. Indeed, fans seemed disappointed when, in the season six return ep, only two minor characters had died, and the central cast remained intact.
THE SIMPSONS
It’s extraordinary to think an animated series could come up with such a widely-debated storyline. The intriguing thing about the Who Shot Mr. Burns? saga is that so many Springfield residents could be excused for popping a cap in Monty’s bony, pimply behind.
Originally published as Revenge cliffhanger up there with greats from Dallas and Dynasty
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