- Photo:
12 Sitcom Finales That Came Full Circle
Vote up the callbacks that provide a satisfying conclusion to these sitcoms.
Finales are a tricky thing to get right, specifically sitcom finales that are tasked with wrapping up seven or more seasons of whacky adventures, as in the case of Seinfeld or The Office. Through the use of foreshadowing, many of these finales were able to come full circle and close off their stories in a satisfying way. Sitcom foreshadowing can range from a random one-off joke in the first season to deliberately interconnected storylines that were set up in the very beginning, giving us a satisfying close to a long and worthwhile journey.
These 11 sitcoms managed to cap off their stories with full circle finales by reminding us why we fell in love with the show in the first place.
- Photo:
When it comes to the ending of Futurama, "full circle" is actually quite an understatement. Not only did the show manage to come full circle, but the series became an infinite loop that can be watched front to back endlessly. In the finale, Fry accidentally freezes time after breaking a time reset button, trapping him and Leela together in this time-frozen world. Without Professor Farnsworth, they are unable to fix the button and eventually grow old together.
Even though the circumstances weren't optimal, to say the least, Fry and Leela finally got to be together in the end. But since it is Futurama, after all, Professor Farnsworth eventually appears out of a wormhole, offering the couple a chance to return to the point in time before the creation of the time button - before the pilot episode of Futurama. Knowing they won't have any memory of the last 30 years, Fry and Leela share one last kiss before pressing the button and starting their lives (and the series) all over again.
Cool callback?- 1Bender Rodríguez1,449 Votes
- 2Fry1,217 Votes
- 3Doctor Zoidberg1,312 Votes
- Photo:
Modern Family ended almost exactly how it began, with one big, blended family trying to take a family photo. The difference between the pilot episode and the series finale is that of 11 years, but nothing had really changed at all if you really look at it. Modern Family was a show about the ordinary day to day of being a part of a huge family, and if you've ever really been a part of one, you would know that interacting with your family every day is enough action, drama, and conflict to fill an entire series.
Modern Family ran from 2009 to 2020 and gave viewers the distinct pleasure of watching their characters really grow up onscreen. By the time they reached the finale, the characters (and actors) had been through a lot but still remained the same family we know and love. The real growth can be felt by noticing the difference between the first and last episodes of the series. The pilot episode ends with the Dunphy/Prichett family struggling to take a reluctant family photo, while the series finale showed that same family struggling to leave each other after their final family portrait, bringing the series to a satisfying close.
Cool callback?- 1Phil Dunphy2,905 Votes
- 2Gloria Delgado-Pritchett2,164 Votes
- 3Jay Pritchett2,030 Votes
- Photo:
Friends was able to build a good portion of its 10 seasons on will-they-won't-they tension between Ross and Rachel until, finally, the pair got together for good in the series finale, "The Last One." The writers teased the couple's fate throughout the series, having them get together and then break up continuously until the very last episode of the show, where we can safely assume the couple finally settled down and got married soon after.
After some tension in the finale as Rachel is on a plane to Paris, where she's been offered a new job, and Ross is unable to reach her to confess that he still loves her, fans collectively let out a sigh of relief when Rachel showed up at Ross's apartment, saying, “I got off the plane.” It was a touching moment that makes perfect sense, especially given a little joke from the pilot episode. The first time we ever see Ross, he's complaining about his divorce and how he just wants to be married again, just as Rachel, his high school crush, walks in exactly on cue wearing a wedding dress. That's what they call a "sign."
Cool callback?- 1The One Where Everybody Finds Out1,622 Votes
- 2The One with the Embryos1,378 Votes
- 3The One Where Ross Got High970 Votes
- Photo:
Seinfeld begins with an ordinary conversation between Jerry and George about how George's shirt is buttoned up too high. To some, this may come off as an anticlimactic way to begin a series, but it perfectly set the tone for the next nine seasons. For a show about "nothing," Seinfeld certainly knew how to harness the comedic potential from regular, mundane occurrences and turn it into something worth tuning in for every week for almost a decade.
Like all good things, Seinfeld eventually reached its endpoint with one of the most ridiculous (and divisive) finales of all time. In the series finale, Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer are apprehended under a small town's "Good Samaritan" law for failing to help a target of a carjacking. During their trial, familiar faces come and go to testify against the quartet, resulting in them getting sentenced to a year in prison. While in holding, Jerry notices George's button is placed too high and recommends he use the second button instead, to which George responds, "Haven't we had this conversation before?"
Cool callback?- 1It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia191 Votes
- 2Brooklyn Nine-Nine167 Votes
- 3After Life58 Votes
- Photo:
In the first season of 30 Rock, if someone said that Kenneth would later become the president of NBC. you would think they were bonkers. Kenneth started out as part of the NBC Page Program, where he was supposed to complete a one-year paid internship at NBC. Seven seasons later, Kenneth worked as a janitor before being named the new president of NBC by Jack Donaghy. Kenneth's new role at NBC was surprising, to say the least, but it was actually hinted at in the show's first season.
In "Fireworks," Jack jokingly says to Devin Banks that Kenneth may take his job one day, to which Devin responds it might be Jack's job. Kenneth joins the fun and jokes that he may even take the janitor's job. Later, Kenneth becomes a custodian for NBC before eventually landing the position of President, Jack's old job. Even earlier in the season, Jack says to Liz, "In five years, we'll all either be working for him... or be dead by his hand," foreshadowing the events of the finale.
Cool callback?- Photo:
Parks and Recreation was the next project from creators Michael Schur and Greg Daniels after their last series, The Office, became a mega-hit. While the series is eerily similar to The Office in tone, Parks and Recreation succeeded in making Leslie Knope more than just a copy of Michael Scott. We are introduced to Leslie in the opening scene of Parks and Rec as she's forced to remove a local drunk from a small community park, one of many hapless tasks she finds herself doing as Deputy Director of the Parks Department.
Leslie believes change comes in the form of small victories, even if it's just helping a drunk man who has gotten himself stuck in a slide at the park. Leslie has based her entire career in the Government on helping the little people, which is what makes her such an effective politician. Years later, when Leslie has become the Governor of Indiana, the same man she chased out of the slide in the pilot episode has returned to the Parks Department in the final scene of the show to see about fixing the swing set at the local park. The man is almost unrecognizable now, having turned his life around, proving that Leslie's philosophy is right - little victories do matter.
Cool callback?- 1Ron Swanson3,277 Votes
- 2Andy Dwyer2,959 Votes
- 3April Ludgate2,920 Votes
- Photo:
How I Met Your Mother left fans stunned when they revealed that Tracy, the titular mother, has been dead for many years by the time the story catches up to the future timeline in the season finale. While fans may argue the shock reveal came out of leftfield, there were a decent amount of hints that were dropped along the way. Not only did the writers tease the reveal that Ted winds up with Robin early on in the series, but the name of Ted's future wife was actually revealed all the way back in the show's first season.
In the Season 1 episode "Belly Full of Turkey," future Ted is telling the story of how he met a stripper named Tracy, who he jokingly claims is the mother of his children. While his kids react to the story with bewilderment, they don't question that the woman's name is, in fact, Tracy, implying their mother was probably also named Tracy. Fans actually picked up on the hint years prior to the reveal, speculating that the Mother's name was going to be Tracy. And they were right!
Cool callback?- Photo:
The Office finale saw a happy ending for most of its core characters. Michael was happily married with a family of his own, Dwight finally became the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin and married Angela, Pam was fulfilled with art projects, and Jim finally left Dunder Mifflin for good to pursue his dream of working in sports management. For Michael, Dwight, and Pam, their respective endings made perfect sense based on their character goals at the start of the series, but Jim moving to Philly to work in sports is something that was a little unexpected.
Unless you managed to recall the Season 4 episode titled "Local Ad," where Dwight plays the popular online game called Second Life. In the episode, Dwight makes a new life for himself after Angela breaks his heart, except his character is also named Dwight and is still a paper salesman. Although Jim makes fun of Dwight at first, Jim ends up trying out the game where he winds up being a sportswriter in Philadelphia. As you'll remember, Jim later moves to Philadelphia to start a sports company, confirming that Jim's been thinking about this decision for a long time.
Cool callback?- Photo:
The Veep finale managed to not only deliver a satisfying end to the series but made good on a gag that was set up all the way back in the pilot episode. In the pilot, Selina Meyer and her staff are trying to figure out a plan to fix Meyer's latest fudge: saying the "R" word. Fresh out of ideas, Meyer's press secretary Mike McLintock suggests they wait for a bigger news story to take away the attention of Meyer's mistake, like perhaps if Tom Hanks were to suddenly perish.
Fast forward to the series finale - quite literally, years into the future - Selina has passed, and her old group of staffers is attending her funeral. Even Gary Walsh attends after eating a lengthy prison sentence for Selina. Mike McLintock is on the news, speaking about former boss Selina Meyer when he's suddenly forced to announce that Tom Hanks has passed at the age of 88. In a genius callback to the pilot episode, the passing of Tom Hanks has pushed Selina out of the news cycle.
Cool callback?- Photo:
In the pilot episode of Arrested Development, George Bluth Sr., the head of the Bluth Company, is apprehended on the family yacht during a celebration, leaving his son Michael in charge of the company, and worse, the family. Though we have some kind of idea why George was hauled in (embezzlement and fraud mostly), the man seems to maintain his innocence throughout the season, even hinting to Michael they could possibly charge him with what he calls "light treason."
Although the possibility of treason charges seems like a one-off throwaway gag, eventually, we learn that George Sr. was actually a patsy who was used by a British organization to build model homes in Iraq in order to spy on Saddam Hussein, which becomes a major plot point of the third and supposedly final season (until the Netflix revival). Not only that, but the original finale ends with Michael discovering that his mother Lucille Bluth was actually the mastermind behind the Bluth Company and ends with police boats surrounding Lucille on the family yacht during what was supposed to be another family celebration - the same way the show began.
Cool callback?- 1Gob Bluth1,957 Votes
- 2Tobias Fünke1,894 Votes
- 3Lucille Bluth1,608 Votes
- Photo:
BoJack Horseman, the show about a former television star who happens to be a horse, came to an end after six surprisingly depressing seasons. The story wrapped up with BoJack winding up face down in a pool after a self-destructive bender, with his fate uncertain. The series finale sees BoJack survive his overdose, and he's sentenced to 14 months in prison for breaking into his old house. It isn't a particularly "fun" ending, but it remains true to the series' dark and emotional nature.
The show's surprising ending was actually hinted at multiple times throughout the series. In the Season 1 episode, "Downer Ending," BoJack imagines a life for himself where he ends up in Maine, going swimming in the lake during the summers. He jokingly adds he's going to go for "one last swim," claiming he's going to "let the water take me under" when he can no longer care for himself. That's exactly what he did at the end of the series after his life went downhill. Another hint can be seen throughout the show's opening credit sequence, which includes a scene of BoJack submerged in water as his two best friends watch him from up above.
Cool callback?- Photo:
It only makes sense that Curb Your Enthusiasm would end its 12-season run with some callbacks to its own history, but this finale is special for how it manages to to call back to earlier parts of Curb, but also to another sitcom. The show has Larry David playing a fictionalized version of himself; David is most famous, in both real-life and Curb, for co-creating and co-writing Seinfeld, and that connection is acknowledged at multiple points in Curb, including the ending.
The Seinfeld finale, where Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer are sentenced to one year in jail for not being Good Samaritans, was famously panned by critics and audiences alike. The trial being used as a vehicle to bring back old characters and references from throughout the show and hammer home the idea that the main characters were bad people was seen as a glorified clip show.
For Curb's ending, David not only mimicked the Seinfeld finale's structure, with David also at the center of a trial plagued by witnesses of his past bad behavior, but also with a similar aftermath. There's a shot of him sitting in a cell and noticing a flap in the fabric of his pants which gives a rather unfortunate appearance - in other words, a “pants tent,” which is a problem he experienced and named in the very first episode. Additionally, this callback to the pants tent is, itself, a callback to the jail scene in the Seinfeld finale, which features George and Jerry recreating a conversation they had about shirt buttons from that show's first episode.
Instead of David ending up stuck in jail, though, Jerry Seinfeld comes in to save the day. In a guest appearance as himself, he arrives and informs David that one of the jurors didn't sequester properly, so his verdict was thrown out. Seinfeld comments, “You don’t want to end up like this. Nobody wants to see it. Trust me,” furthering the joke at the expense of his and David's other sitcom's ending.
Cool callback?
