The Fugitive, Mary Tyler Moore, and Other Famous Finales

TVC 691.1: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Harry Castleman and Walter J. Podrazik, co-authors of Watching TV: American Television Season by Season, a sweeping look at the history of television, from its early inception in 1944 through the present day, that not only takes you behind the scenes of every prime time season and prime time schedule over the past nine decades, but tells you what was actually on TV each year; what was happening behind the scenes in television at the times those shows were made; and how the shows we saw from year to year often reflected various events that were happening in the world at large. Watching TV: Revised Fourth Edition is available wherever books are sold through Syracuse University Press. Topics this segment include how the final episode of The Fugitive (originally broadcast on ABC on Aug. 29, 1967) ushered in the era of series finales that attempt to wrap up all the loose ends of a show’s characters and storylines; how even an unsatisfactory finale shows how much we care about the characters of our favorite shows (and why that’s an integral part of the story of American television); and whether physical media such as Blu-rays and DVDs still have a place in television today.