Did AMC, ATWT, GL or OLTL have the better SERIES FINALE?

[Cheap21]

none of the Ford bros were in the episode unless you hate the fact that Jess looked at a picture of Robert

[Eric83]

Not to mention Starr has been played by the same actress since 1998 and we watched her grow up on the show why wouldnt we want to see her happiy ever after?

[DRW50]

I can see why someone may not feel the finale week should have focused a lot on her, especially since she has been creatively bankrupt for 3-4 years. It didn't bother me too much, but I think the character has lost a lot of her personality and as such her plights started to feel generic.

[Steve]

I wasn't just referring to the final episode but the whole last week. There was one episode after Robert died where the other 2 Ford brothers tried to act.

Yeah, I was glad to see Starr happy, but I have no connection to or clue who the couple she met with were. I would've preferred to have her in scenes with Cassie or Dorian.

[Cheap21]

this thread is specifically asking about each show's final episode though

[JackPeyton]

My biggest issue with OLTL's final episode was it felt like 3 different shows. Everyone was so isolated in their stories. It had no community feel to it.

AMC was much better at this.

The GL & ATWT finales were beyond awful.

[alwaysAMC]

This pretty much sums it up for me.

[Soaplovers]

I watched all four finales... and here is how I would rank them....

AMC

OLTL

GL

ATWT

AMC: Even though they had the gun shot at the end, everything else I think ended exactly how it was suppose to. I actually think Erica/Jack ending up happily ever after would have been out of character for Erica. I think Erica focusing more on her career and Hollywood with Jack finally dumping her was pitch perfect! Even JR's downward spiral was realistic... if he had suddenly become happy after months of a downward spiral, it would have rung false for me. In my mind, I'd like to think JR didnt shoot at anyone and that he just shot at the air to get everyone's attention then had a mental breakdown.. before being committed to Oakhaven where he reconnected with Annie.

OLTL: Other then Vicki/Clint, the rest of the stories didnt interest me as much.. though if Todd/Blair hadnt crossed over to GH, I would have been more pissed at how their story ended.

GL: Everything was tied up... All couples got back together again at a long last!!! (i.e. josh/reva, billy/vanessa, Holly/Ed, etc).. what I thought was interesting was during the finale week where Lillian went to visit Maureen's graveside before she married Buzz. That alone made me rank the finale week above ATWT by a long shot.

ATWT: They killed Reid, Snyders were focused on too much especially that annoying Janet. I felt like it was a dead horse that they just put out of it's misery. At the same time, I do give the finale a pass because the only original cast member Helen Wagner died before the finale could be shot and I bet Nancy was featured heavily in that episode originally.. imho.

[Max]

These are great comments, P.J.

So many seem to be giving ATWT a hard time because it didn't have enough returns, while seemingly letting OLTL off the hook for doing the same thing. (And the PP thing is not a valid reason to let OLTL off the hook for this, as even AMC--despite its terrible final scenes--was able to do a good job in this regard.)

[tune_in_tomorrow]

I saw very little of GL over the years -- although I watched its last week or so -- so I will leave it out of the ranking.

1. AMC - Most characters had resolution, with a sense that this wasn't the end. For those that didn't -- Erica/Jack and JR -- seem to me to be the perfect untied threads. I think viewers can easily write the endings in the way they perceive the characters, and you don't have to draw the resolution out in weeks or months.

2. OLTL - Again, most characters had resolution. I really did like the ending, but unlike AMC's cliffhangers, it can't be quickly resolved in the viewers' own minds. There's a lot of territory to cover before that storyline can be over.

3. ATWT - They had the most time and used it the least effectively, in my opinion. I don't mind that the returns were kept to a minimum, but it seemed like a race to pair up characters who, quite frankly, I didn't think should be paired up. I might be a minority among the ATWT viewers but I didn't need/want to see Carly & Jack reunited, or plant the seeds that Holden & Lily were close to reconciliation. Both those couples were highly dysfunctional and as the show came to a close, there wasn't anything that I saw indicating that any of the characters had grown to the point that another try would work. Katie & Chris seemed to be thrown together, John & Lucinda might have made sense had John been back sooner. Sounds like I hated it, but I didn't. I could have just done without all the coupling that seemed to be forced to me.

[Dale]

I agree with your rankings. Regarding Guiding Light, I think people find it difficult to seperate the last two years of the show from its finale, which I thought was very touching and appropriate with everybody getting closure and a happy ending - except for Alan Spaulding, of course! "Always" was the PERFECT final line for that show.

It seems that one either likes cliffhangers in a finale or one doesn't. Personally, I like a little bit of closure mixed with a "what happens next?" element. OLTL gave that in spades! I suppose one could say the same for AMC, but that show was such a mess with so many continuity issues over the last few years of its life that the impact of its finale was diluted for me. OLTL at least had a consistent vision for the last 4.5 years of its life and its finale felft organic and true to its identity. With AMC, in the last two months, I really felt like they were saying, "We KNOW we have been a hot mess of a show, and we are doing our best to fix it! Can you tell?"

ATWT had waaaay too much Janet Ciccone on for the last two weeks for my liking, but then some people say the same about Gigi Morasco on OLTL (whom I love!). It's a crime how they treated Eileen Fulton - once the Queen Of Daytime Television. A few throw away lines with John and Lucinda making her look like a fool? Criminal! But the final image of the globe was very nice, indeed.

[AMCHistory]

I think that the ABC and the PGP soap finales belong in different leagues. AMC and OLTL finales were heads above the PGP soaps.

For ATWT and GL, I have a hard time deciding the "best" of what was really the worst example of Soap Opera. On one side, you had a soap who disregarded its long history and viewers in ATWT. On the other side, you had a soap that tried to honor its vets and its history, but the execution was a shambles.

Watching GL in the last year... it was always better to read the recaps than watching the actual show. Inherently, the show hit so many right notes in its final days: a proper Bauer BBQ complete with a Bauer reunion, the wedding of a long tortured and beloved couple (Billy and Vanessa) in the vein of the traditions viewers have come to expect from a Lewis festivity (morning fishing), and even having the guts to revist the most heartfelt and long-hated plot turn, Maureen's death, in Lillian's graveside confession. When you read these events and how they were strong together, GL hit the right notes for a finale. But, Ellen Wheeler (love her as an actress, hate her as an EP), was just unable to execute. In the fnal days of GL, it seemed like the writers did not even bother to write scripts anymore. For example the 2 second scene between Vanessa and a returning Nola was so fumbled through, it was as if Lisa Brown had to make-up the entire thing on the spot (where was Quint? Oh, year, I brought a gift!). Even the final scene with Josh and Reva at the lighthouse, knowing tha this scene would be played over for generations and TV historians to come, could Ellen Wheeler not have invested in professional lighting, make-up, and sound for one 2 minute scene?

For ATWT, the plot was so disconnected. Again, it did not have that "finale" feel for me (similar to my criticisms of the last week of OLTL). I understand that Bob is retiring, so why didn't the whole show revolve around a retirement party for Bob. That way Bob, and all his children, grandchildren, nephews, neices, and ex-es once removed that still very much populated the canvas could converge into a single family scene. So that these characters had a moment to remind the viewers how intwined the canvas of Oakdale once was. Eveyrone in this episode kept on entering and exiting a scene. It was like Chris Goutman had a rule that every scene required a cast members entrance or exit. It was like watching a cast with ADD who forgot to take ritalin that day. Also, the piss poor treatment of Eileen Fulton, who could barely qualify as an under-five for her last appearence, was cherry on this sundae of disaster.

Wholistically, I think AMC and OLTL did a superb job. I think one thing that set AMC slightly ahead of OLTL was that they planned out a week long finale. From the Monday Hubbard family episode, to the Friday finale, viewers got what they were looking for a soap: family reunions, moments of love, and flashbacks. The veterans they picked to return were paired with the right actors. Eva LaRue's return may have been the only one that fell flat, with the exception of the all to brief reunion with her mentor Dr. Joe. Joe and Maria, there professional and private lives so intertwined. The genuine emotion from both LaRue and MacDonnell almost made me cry.

That is another thing AMC did right, I cried my way through the week. From Angie getting her vision back, to Tad seeing his entire family under one roof (seriously, I was never a huge Bruening fan, but seeing his and Tad's reunuon kicked-off the water works), to some of David Canary's finest acting as Adam realising Stuart was alive. Bringing back Stuart at the 9th hour pulled at my every heart string.

I think someone before me said it best when distringuishing between the OLTL and AMC cliffhangers. With the exception of the gunshot, all the characters in PV got the right amount of closure. The "next steps" in the story were not overt, but rather driven by the viewers deep knowledge of the characters. In my head, I could imagine Angie and Jessie dealing with raising Lucy, and in a way Mya under their new blended family roof. I could see Erica chasing after Jackson and trying to balance her life in Hollywood and PV (unsucessfully of course). I could also imagine the strugles Krystal would have, living under the same roof as her married ex-husband and the love of his life while trying to raise two children with him. Oh the feuds Dixie and Krystal will have over deciding on what is best for their beloved Kathy/Kate...stories could go in a million directions (all the mind of the long-time viewer) as characters were just being their charactrs.

On the other hand with OLTL, the next steps were very finite. You either got full closure and shipped-off (e.g., Brody, Rex, Gigi) or you were in a dangling plot line... not a cliffhanger. Above the waste of not having a "finale" week (wasting two days of episodes on Tuesday and Wednesday after an amazing Monday), we did not get the flashbacks, the family reunuions, the drawn out emotional moments. It was all so fleeting because the pacing of the last episode was so off balance. Even the lack of veteran returns in the last episode was glaring.

OLTL's last week was all about "telling" (e.g., the mentions of Kevin, Joey, and Kelly in Mayfair; or Schuyler and Greg in prison) instead of "showing." Imagine how much more powerful the Drew naming scene would have been with a flashback to the best of Bo's moments with his son. What a waster it was to not have a montage for Starr's departure from Llanview. The show has a decade worth of footage of this little girl growing up in front of our eyes. That one montage to end the Thursday epsiode as Starr left LaBouile would have made sure that there was not a dry eye in America.

One thing that put AMC and OLTL at the top of the head is that each had a quitisential "finale" speech. For OLTL it was the perfectly written and directed monologue by Erika Slezak's Vicki reflecting on the end of Fraterinity Row. For AMC is the opening montage and speech of the final episode narrated by Debbi Morgan; highlighting the birth of multiple generatons of Pine Valley's finest families. Both of these vignettes reminded viewers why America tuned in for so many days for 40+ years; we all wanted that one more chance to check in on our friends, their loves, their families, and the next generation of stories of trials and tribulations yet to come.

[dragonflies]

You know I tried to rewatch AMC's finale yesterday and couldn't get past more than like 10 minutes of it. overall rewatching it, it's not really that great. The first 5 minutes of it are the best.

Nope I do too, although I hated Paul & Emily with a burning passion, and hate that he ended up with someone who acted like she was his mother, overall I thought ATWT's finale was great.

OLTL's so far is the best though, I can rewatch it and think it's good overall not just the first 5 minutes

[DRW50]

I agree with you, but I honestly didn't care about technical imperfections. I had a chance to say goodbye to many characters I loved and never thought I'd see again, and to see them with closure. I thought GL's last week, and last episode, captured a sense of family and warmth, cheese and all. It looked cheap and some of it was ridiculous but I was still satisfied.

I didn't feel that with most of the other finales. ATWT just seemed to be full of production decisions which smacked of, "This is my show, look at how awesome I am," leading to bullsh!t like Reid's death, a whole lot of bad acting from pets like Terri Conn and Julie Pinson, and a general feeling of emptiness which was mostly balanced through some longtime performers.

I thought AMC did have a sense of closure and unity and of life moving on, but also ending. I thought JR's breakdown was chilling and there were some moments, like Adam's return, Stuart's return, which were good, and would have been better if they'd been able to be stretched out longer. Some endings were abrupt (like Angie getting over what had happened to her), but the only one I was underwhelmed by was Erica's.

OLTL is better produced than many soaps in their last years, and I'm sure some of their ideas were sound, but that's what they came across as to me - ideas. Half-finished ideas which didn't quite take away from the daily mediocrity of most of the people they showcased. I've spent years with Rex's twitching, Tea's smirking, Jessica's passive-aggressive princess routine, John's dozing, Starr's mouth hanging open, the Ford mouths hanging open, David's failed catchphrases. It just seemed like this was again taking up the usual place in the last episode, and, aside from Rex, few of these characters had any real closure.

The other problem was that OLTL had desecrated some characters to the point where I had to struggle to want to see them have a happy ending. For instance, Clint. I love JvD and I do think the show did a fantastic job in some of his scenes with Stacy, and his last, awkward, scenes with Rex. I believed Clint was trying to change and was on the way to changing. But why did they need to destroy him in the first place? For a plot point. That's what so many characters were slaves to in the last years.

To be honest, even if Clint hadn't done that, I'm not quite sure I would have wanted a Clint/Viki ending, because I don't think they work the way they did a long time ago, but the difference for me at the end of OLTL and GL was that I felt like I knew most of the characters, and that meant the stories, or non-stories, didn't matter so much to me. Aside from Viki, and a few others like Natalie or Roxy, I haven't "known" a lot of OLTL characters in a long time, as their personalities became so diluted (Blair and Bo, for instance). So it was difficult to connect with them emotionally. RC doesn't write for emotions, he writes for what suits a story idea. As a result, very emotional moments, like the Heaven sequences, were so undercut by dashing to the next plot point.

Then there's stories I honestly hated, like Destiny's pregnancy. Why? Just so they could have a baby born in the finale? Is it worth that moment if you have to drag along this non-storyline which vanished for long periods of time and has been done to death? I wanted to see Matthew learning to live again and having a happy future. I wanted the same for Destiny. Instead, their story ended up being about two very hurt people who were forced to accept something neither of them had wanted. It bothers me a lot that Matthew's last weeks after waking up from the coma were spent yet again being written as a bad person, yet again being sullen and being shamed by the likes of David, a con artist, a user, and an infantile pig.

Aside from some nice moments like Viki's speech on soap operas, and some of the goodbyes with Rex/Gigi and others, and some nice, small moments with characters like Vimal/Rama and Shaun/Vivian, the show just seemed to end as more of the usual mix of bad fanfic and stories which were both rushed and dragged out. There was little heart or a sense of saying goodbye to fans. And I think it would have been that way even if PP had never stepped in, because RC just doesn't seem to do those things.

[Quent]

No one was more disappointed with the ATWT finale than me...and this is coming from someone who thought that ATWT was the best soap on the air for most of its run (certainly the best acted!). The problems? Let me count the ways.

1) No Martha Byrne. MB was the first woman from the show to win a Lead Actress Emmy. She grew up before our eyes, and was onehalf of the shows signature couple. She was willing to come back, even as Rose. But instead we had Holden emoting with someone else who he had ZERO chemistry with.

2) Katie and Chris. Need I say more? Instead of bringing back the one actor TC had the most chemistry with (Paul Leyden's Simon), we got a couple thrown together in record time, for no other reason than to marry Katie off.

3) The horrible treatment of Lisa. I have NEVER been a fan of Eileen Fulton, but she practically put ATWT on the map with soap's first bitch, Lisa. To have her treated the way she was in the finale was disgraceful.

4) No flashbacks. How on earth can you end a show thats been on for over half a century with no clips from the past.

5) Most importantly: Producer Chris Goutman treated the finale like he was wrapping up the stories of those currently on the canvas, not like he was wrapping aup a 54-year classic. Instead of bringing back people who were important over the years (all the original Snyders, Duncan and Shannon, Penny Hughes, Steve Andropolous, Ellen Stewart, Lyla Peretti, Connor Walsh, Kirk Anderson, Samantha Markham, etc), we got Iris Dumbrowski and Ralph Manzio. Bringing back John Dixon was the ONLY right move CG made.

6) Lastly, how on earth could CG allow the show's premier villain, James Stenbeck, to be killed by some twit like Audrey Coleman? Unforgiveable. The next-to-last scene in the finale should have been James sitting on a tropical island beach reading a news clipping about Barbara's wedding, murmuring "enjoy it while you can, Barbara...I'll be back soon"