A Look at the Star Trek Season Ending Cliffhanger’s (w/Les)

The other day I talked about TV shows that ended their season’s on cliffhangers, for good and for bad. In that article there was one glaring omission. I decided to devote a whole article to the many Star Trek cliffhanger’s. And to help me with this I asked my friend, and fellow Trek fan, Les to assist. Like with the other article in order to keep this from going on all day we are only reviewing the season ending cliffhanger’s. I may discuss the other two part episodes like “Chain of Command”, “Past Tense”, and “Year of Hell” some other time. We are also omitting the series finale’s, because those belong to a different category. Besides I’ve already talked about all of them except one.



RichB:Les, welcome back to my corner of the site my friend


LES: Hi richb. Congratulations on 500 blogs, my friend. That is quite impressive…especially when you consider that a great majority of those blogs were exceptional. AH cliffhangers!…..ever since “Who shot JR,” TV series have been attempting to recreate the best publicity that money couldn’t buy in a never ending attempt to one-up the last show to attempt it to be as outrageous as possible….and coming up short, for the most part. However, Star Trek The Next Generation finally topped it with one episode that propelled it past TOS with authority:

“The Best of Both Worlds”

500th Blog Special:TV Cliffhangers I Loved–and Hated!

500 blogs. Forgive the self indulgence for a second but that amazes me considering three and a half years ago I started these almost as a joke. I just wanted to see my name in the list of blogs on the TGWTG home page. But I kept coming up with ideas, and of course made friends that carried over here when I began posting on Manic Expression (three years ago to the day on Wednesday!!). This has become a fun hobby and nice diversion from the bad things that have happened these last few years.



I wasn’t sure what to talk about for this, and then remembered an idea I had been holding off on for awhile now. TV Cliffhangers! Oh you know that feeling, when you’re into the show and all of a sudden those three little words appear – TO BE CONTINUED. But I am not talking about two partners resolved the next week. No to be continued’s are even worst when you get a huge surprise and you’re dying to know what will happen next.,,,,and have to wait until next September to find out.



But while some cliffhangers were so good that they remain good to this day, some are not. They are lame or forced…or when the show returns for part 2 the cliffhanger is ruined when the show literally retcons it away to reestablish the status quo. Don’t tease us with a big change and then not deliver! Some are so silly that they are famous for how silly they are! Then there is one thing even worst–when there is no resolution at all!!!!!


Now to limit this I am only discussing season ending cliffhangers, and of shows I have actually watched (with one or two exceptions). My focus will be mostly sitcoms but I will mention some other shows.

A Look at the Dark Side of Typecasting

Last month I talked about typecasting, and discussed six actors who were typecast for one role. However, all six managed to rise above that and either have decent careers anyway (even if it was basically playing the same role over and over), or at least remain in the public eye by doing public appearances like conventions or appearing in reunion movies, or some find work in other fields (the way Henry Winkler became a director when he couldn’t escape from The Fonz).

But sadly, some actors do not get this luxury and the typecasting hurts their careers so much that they do crappy work to get for a paycheck, and even disappear from the public eye.  Here are some examples of actors who were typecast so bad that it didn’t just hurt their careers, it all but ended them.




Richard Moll

Bull Shannon was a very popular character on Night Court. A big brute who was dimwitted but extremely likable. When Night Court went off the air, Moll had little parts here and there and these days does lots of voice over work especially in video games. But I don’t think anyone could see him as anything but Bull.

A Look at Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary

I was going to do a formal “Top 10″ list, but since video clips are so hard to find I decided to keep it simple. Let’s talk about Saturday Night Live!!!

 

While I didn’t come into this show until very late, long story I was an idiot, I learned to really love it. Yeah it’s not the same today but for awhile, I adored this show every Saturday night. It was a major part of my life. Especially, like many, when I was in college.


Of course the show started in 1975, and I was only 1 years old so as you may imagine I don’t remember it very well. I have seen clips of course but to be honest, I don’t get it. I think you had to be there. That doesn’t mean I don’t respect it, the show wouldn’t but around if not for the original “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players” including Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. But when I watch the re-runs…. yeah.

Underrated Trek:Turnabout Intruder (TOS)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. This has been a long time coming as I wanted to do this for awhile. Today let’s talk about an episode that has problems, among other reasons, because of the time it was made. The 1960’s. I give you :

This was the series finale, and thanks to “These are the Voyages” is not the worst series finale of the franchise.  It came at the end of a painful year and you get the feeling that the cast just wanted to get it over with. But does that mean it’s all bad? Let’s take a closer look

Five Things Superfriends Just Got Wrong!

Ah, Superfriends! I used to watch this show every day after school, and adored it. It was my introduction to the DC universe and most notably Green Lantern. I loved him on the show and I was finally inspired to start getting the comics to learn more about him. The show was just awesome!


As a kid. Yeah, as an adult I can see how goofy the show could be. It was clearly modeled after the silver age of comics, espcially the awful first season which I hated even as a kid. I did like the Zan and Jayna era, and of course Challenge of the Superfriends which was freaking awesome! Ever member of the JLA, and a few they made up, againts the Legion of Doom! Hell yes!


True it doesn’t compare to modern stuff like JLA or Batman The Animated Series, but it has a special place in nostalgia never the less. As I said, this was my introduction to the DC universe and I plan on talking a lot about this series this year. One thing I wanted to discuss today was the little things that teh show just got….wrong. I mean I know about liberties and stuff, but there were some things which were just inaccurate on this show which annoys me now that I know what the characters are really like in the comics.



Here are five examples:

#5.Mister Mxyzptlk



Ah we all know the imp from the 5th dimension who popped up to aggravate Superman. His name was pronounced Miks-ill-plik. I thought that was correct for year, heck even Big Bang Theory recently used that pronunciation! Alas this was incorrect, the correct way to pronounce the name is Mix-yez-pit-leck (at least according to John Byrne). Ok to be fair, there seems to be no consents on just how to pronounce this name.