Current Events > The finale of the sitcom, Dinosaurs. Darkest ending ever broadcasted? *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Since we're discussing finales this morning... v

https://youtu.be/k9b9aoINXzk

It was a dark ending that needed to happen to hammer home the message of Earl fucking up so badly. The show was all about teaching important lessons and their consequences but in a way children could understand.

The show is loved for not talking down to children and how it handled mature themes.

The finale of Horsin Around was pretty dark.

Wow Id always heard about this one but never saw it until now.

Define "dark"

2 others spring to mind

Spoilers ahead:

Dead Space

The evil alien goo crap corrupts or kill everyone and has destroyed everything including the Earth. Everything you did across every game was pointless.

And Mortal Kombat: Conquest.

Shao Kahn wins. Kills every main character in the entire show (including other villains) except Raiden. Then conquers Earthrealm, kills everyone and has powerless Raiden broken on his knees. Shao Kahn then brags about how he has merged the realms and laughs

Show ends.

Miss the 90s. Companies werent afraid to try such campy and off the wall shows and movies. Now everything today is homogenized for maximum profits. Poor kids today.

UnfairRepresent posted...

Define "dark"

2 others spring to mind

Spoilers ahead:

Dead Space

The evil alien goo crap corrupts or kill everyone and has destroyed everything including the Earth. Everything you did across every game was pointless.

And Mortal Kombat: Conquest.

Shao Kahn wins. Kills every main character in the entire show (including other villains) except Raiden. Then conquers Earthrealm, kills everyone and has powerless Raiden broken on his knees. Shao Kahn then brags about how he has merged the realms and laughs

Show ends.

These are games, how dumb

Isn't Mortal Kombat: Conquest the show that has Joy from My Name is Earl?

Anyways I stumbled across the Dinosaur finale on a 6am rerun right before I left for school. Was a hell of thing to be thinking about on the bus ride that morning lol

JimRob posted...

These are games, how dumb

MKC was a TV show

Kim_Seong-a posted...

Isn't Mortal Kombat: Conquest the show that has Joy from My Name is Earl?

yes

Can I get a synopsis?

Mortal Kombat Conquest was supposed to be a season finale, not a series finale. So I dont know if that counts.

Seinfelds ending is light hearted dark.

pretty tame actually compared to many works

BeyondWalls posted...

Mortal Kombat Conquest was supposed to be a season finale, not a series finale. So I dont know if that counts.

Intended or not, it WAS the finale

Sariana21 posted...

Can I get a synopsis?

Main character solves a problem that accidentally causes the ice age and killing off the dinosaurs. The shows ends them with them kind of huddling inside their house that's inevitably going to be buried in snow.

ktownslayer16 posted...

Main character solves a problem that accidentally causes the ice age and killing off the dinosaurs. The shows ends them with them kind of huddling inside their house that's inevitably going to be buried in snow.

Thx. I was thinking they saw the asteroid/comet approaching, but essentially the same idea.

WingsOfGood posted...

pretty tame actually compared to many works

What other sitcom ends with the family you watched for years waiting to die ?

and he says something like "Dinosaurs have been around for millions of years. We arent going anywhere" lol

I remember watching this live when I was like 9 or 10.

The other Dark one is Blackadder

Everyone gets killed In the Somme
In fact 3 out if 4 seasons of blackadder ended with everyone being murdered

But its controversial because then they did a millennium special which had a happy ending.

And while we're on the subject of controversial "everyone dies" ones

Red Dwarf and Still Game are both comedies that ended with everyone dying

Although again they brought back Red Dwarf so...

ktownslayer16 posted...

and he says something like "Dinosaurs have been around for millions of years. We arent going anywhere" lol

I remember watching this live when I was like 9 or 10.

He says that to comfort Baby. Everyone else is well aware they aren't going to make it.

Space: Above and Beyond had a kinda dark ending

Sariana21 posted...

Can I get a synopsis?

Here you go...

The series finale, Changing Nature, opens with the Sinclair family gathering to watch the annual migration of the Bunch Beetles, a species of bug that eats local vines. The beetles never show up, though, because their swamp breeding ground was paved over by WESAYSO, an all-powerful corporation that constantly does things that are good for business, but terrible for the planet.

My writing partner Bob Young and I decided that the end of the dinosaurs should come from the lowest possible form of creature, Jacobs (show's creator) said. We felt that the metaphor in the episode had to be that we, as humans, may be utterly unaware of what will come to get us if we are not vigilant.

With the beetles gone, the vines grow out of control and obstruct WESAYSO factories. Earls boss, B.P. Richfield, puts him in charge of a project to spray the planet with a defoliant meant to kill the vines, but the defoliant quickly kills all plant life entirely. The problems balloon from there: Richfield decides that the plants will grow back if it rains, and drops bombs into volcanoes so that the eruptions will create clouds. This fails spectacularly, and it starts snowing heavily across Pangea. Still, Richfield scoffs at the news reports that they blocked out the sun for tens of thousands of years because the cold weather led dinosaurs to flood WESAYSO stores for heaters, blankets, and hot cocoa mix, giving the company its best third-quarter ever. When Earl points out that the world may still come to an end, Richfield keeping counting his money and calls it a fourth-quarter problem.

We certainly wanted to make the episode to be educational to the audience, Jacobs said. If the show has any value at all, it is young people have to understand that extinction is a possibility, so that they can remind their parents that if they are not taking care of the world for themselves, they should do it for the children.

The shows last scene sees Earl finally realizing what he has done: By sucking up to his boss and agreeing to spray the world with poison, hes doomed everyone to an Ice Age. He apologizes to the family and admits he shouldnt have taken nature for granted as he tries to comfort the Baby. Im sure itll all work out okay, Earl says, as the family huddles in warm clothes. After all, dinosaurs have been on this earth for 150 million years. Its not like were going to just disappear! The series ends with local anchorman Howard Handupme signing off, and a shot of the Sinclair home being covered in snow.

yeah, i remember this ending as a kid. pretty dark for a kids show!

i always appreciated how this show tackled serious subject matter in a way that kids could understand but without sounding too patronizing for them.

Umbreon posted...

He says that to comfort Baby. Everyone else is well aware they aren't going to make it.

I always saw it as a case of dramatic irony like we as a viewer know the dinosaurs did eventually die out but they didn't.

JimRob posted...

Since we're discussing finales this morning... v

https://youtu.be/k9b9aoINXzk

Classy that it starts off with some sexual harassment.

weird, i would have sworn that i remembered the show ending with an asteroid on its way to earth..but i guess this ice age thing had more meaning and was the better choice

VitalGetPrank posted...

I always saw it as a case of dramatic irony like we as a viewer know the dinosaurs did eventually die out but they didn't.

No it was for Baby, look at the faces of his older children and his wife, they all know they are screwed. Notice how he explains it to Baby and the way you see him trying to give comfort while struggling to do so.