The Long Goodbye

Never a big enough hit to control its destiny, but never a ratings bomb either, the NBC sitcom “NewsRadio” made an annual ritual of strange, devil-may-care endings. Their motto: Live this episode as if it were your last, for some day, maybe tomorrow, you’re sure to be right.

Last year, there was the Titanic episode, with the show’s set transformed into a sinking ship; the year before the gang at the New York City all-news radio station was orbited into a science-fiction future.

It was a way, says the show’s executive producer, Josh Lieb, for the writers to comment on their perpetual state of near-cancellation and have a little existential fun in the process.

“I liked the Bob Newhart series a lot better when I found out it was all just a dream,” said Lieb, referring to the end of the CBS sitcom “Newhart,” in which Dick Loudon, the Vermont innkeeper, awoke from a dream to discover he was still Dr. Bob Hartley, Chicago psychologist, the persona of his previous series, “The Bob Newhart Show.”

Though some long-running sitcoms can conclude organically (“MASH,” for instance, which saw the Korean War end), most shows aren’t similarly hard-wired, which is why so many final episodes can feel forced and/or anticlimactic. This week the parade of swan songs continues. Monday night, NBC’s “Mad About You” took its final bow after seven years on the air. “NewsRadio,” canceled after five seasons, and ABC’s “Home Improvement,” concluding its eighth season, have final episodes tonight.

For producers, ending a sitcom means finding a way to go out on a memorable note without leaving the audience out in the cold.

“The toughest thing is to be true to the show,” said Warren Littlefield, former president of entertainment at NBC, during a time when the network said goodbye to two of its most popular series, “Cheers” and “Seinfeld.”

Part of the problem is that, unlike novels or movies, sitcoms don’t build narrative momentum. They exist largely in a “Pleasantville”-like world devoid of change or character growth, ending finally for reasons that have nothing to do with the characters.

A great sitcom ending, in fact, would have the actors stepping out of their roles to tell the audience why they’re really leaving (“I’ve grown bored doing this, and frankly I can make just as much money in movies” or “The network isn’t happy with our numbers”).

Such was the case with “The Nanny,” as fans of the CBS sitcom discovered this year. Unhappy with the show’s numbers, CBS pulled six original episodes--in effect telling the series producers, “Cut to the chase and be done with you.”

The producers and stars of “Home Improvement,” meanwhile, enjoyed the luxury of building more deliberately to their finish, going back and forth all season on how to end their series. Behind the scenes, the questions were of a different sort: Was Disney willing to pay stars Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson the millions they wanted for a ninth season? Had a dispute over production fees between Wind Dancer Productions, which produces “Home Improvement,” and Disney polluted relations as the season played out?

In front of the cameras, finally, the question was simpler and involved fewer lawyers: Would the Taylor family pull up roots and move to Indiana, where a new job awaited wife Jill? Or should they stay and fade into syndication where America found them?

It was an argument that continued into the final week of production at the sitcom and hinged at least in part, says executive producer Bruce Ferber, on whether the show could secure footage of a house being moved.

“On Monday [the Taylors] were staying, Wednesday and Thursday they were going,” said Ferber, not wanting to reveal what was decided on Friday, when the show was taped.

“Home Improvement” co-star Richardson was among those in favor of keeping the Taylors in Detroit, believing audiences want to leave their characters right where they found them.

“I don’t think people want closure,” she said. “I think they sort of like, when they watch [the show] in syndication, to think [the Taylors] still live in this world.”

The creative team at “Mad About You” also contemplated moving Paul and Jamie Buchman (they toyed with everything from killing them off to doing absolutely nothing) before compromising: The couple, it would be discovered, had never really been married, in an episode that included guest star Janeane Garofalo as the Buchman’s baby, Mabel, looking back on her parents’ lives.

“You can do all these things that seem dramatic and shocking but don’t necessarily seem right,” said Paul Reiser, the show’s co-star. “For a long time one of the presumptions was [that] they’ll move. But technically, they could move and the audience could say, ‘All right, where are you going? We’ll go with you. Why shouldn’t we watch you if you’re in fake Europe as opposed to fake New York?’ ”

A year ago, “Seinfeld” left its characters in fake jail, tried and convicted as self-absorbed cynics who had a pernicious, even harmful, effect on society.

Rather than celebrate the show’s relationship with its audience, “Seinfeld,” in a fittingly unsentimental ending, put its own audience on trial for sympathizing so strongly with Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer. How can you like these people? the finale asked its viewers, which is a far cry from the more cautious plea--Do you still like us?--inherent in most sitcom endings.

“There’s a reason most sitcoms end,” said “NewsRadio’s” Lieb, in what seems a simple and yet profound statement. “They’re not as good as they once were.”