Grief when a TV Show ends - The feelings are real

Stewart,
I'm glad to hear you will still be writing Fan Fiction stories. It's another way to keep our Supergirl going after she flies off the screen!

If I remember correctly, the original Superman TV series of the 50s lasted for 6 seasons.

It was supposed to have a 7th season.The only reason it didn't was because the star George Reeves commited suicide or was mudered depending on what you believe(it's one of the great Hollywood mysteres that was made into a great film called,"Hollywoodland." ).But season 7 would of happened if he hadn't died.

Superbill,
I know you always enjoy my Supergirl fan-fiction stories, so I'll keep posting links to them here. And I'm looking forward to seeing Sasha Calle's portrayal of Supergirl in the upcoming cable-TV series. Like Mellisa, Sasha has the right look and personality to be Supergirl. As for the current TV show, I'd say that 6 years is a pretty good run. If I remember correctly, the original Superman TV series of the 50s lasted for 6 seasons.And I loved that show as a kid! Of course, the 70s Wonder Woman series only lasted three seasons. I still enjoyed the first season the most, because of Callista Flockhart's portrayal of Cat Grant. I loved the way she interacted with Melissa's Supergirl!
Like you, "Northern Exposure" was also "must-see TV" for me for most of its run. (For me, the show lost its dramatic tension near the end.) So was "NYPD Blue" for its entire run (because of Dennis Franz' portrayal of the lead character, Sipowicz. I was also a faithful viewer of "Smallville" at first, but lost interest in it way before "Supergirl". I've always found "Supergirl" to be a much better small-screen version of DC Comics' characters than "Smallville" - certainly more faithful to the original comic-book stories..

This has been an interesting topic, and I thank all who shared their thoughts. I find myself coming at this from a different place than many. Yes, I'm sad to see the show end. I haven't missed an episode since I stumbled upon it midway through Season 1, and of course I subsequently went back and viewed the episodes I had missed. This is very, very unusual for me, as I don't watch many shows religiously. The only other one I can think of as a "can't miss" show was "Northern Exposure," and that was years ago! So what made this different? I think it was the cast, definitely. Especially Melissa. Who else would cause me to travel halfway across the country to see her Broadway debut?

Another difference with many of you is that I have very little background in the comics. Sure, some as a kid, and I saw the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, but that was about it, honestly. So again, it was the cast more than the story or comic history that reeled me in every week. This may have caused me to enjoy the show just on its own merits, because I had no preconceptions of what it could be or should be. I just took it at face value, and with few exceptions always found it an enjoyable hour.

Lastly, although Supergirl will soon no longer be a weekly event, I have all 5 seasons on DVD, and will get season 6 as well. So I will always have it to pull off the shelf whenever I find myself missing Kara, Alex, J'onn, and the rest of the Superfriends. And I look forward to following the cast in whatever new ventures await them.

Thanks for sharing all, I’d been thinking about starting a thread like this for a couple of weeks.

I agree it’s always better when a show has a planned ending and fans are given notice. Good Girls, which ended this past July, had IMO the worst possible scenario. Season four had wrapped and a final but shortened season five was announced. Production on season 5 was canceled for reasons I won’t get into because too many rumors are involved. The result was unfinished storylines that fans were led to believe would be finished.

I seem to remember the cast of Married With Children saying the network didn’t tell them the show was canceled and they found out in other ways. I could be wrong but I don’t think any of them have worked with Fox again and if so I wouldn’t blame them.

No, the Supergirl PJs don’t have a cape but the \S/ is only outlined in yellow like Kara’s on the show.

I needed to sort of gather my thoughts before posting.I guess I would say,I'm in a second mourning period right now as the show nears it's end in a few weeks.The first mourning period was when the announcement was made last year.But this second mourning period started when the show wrapped filming on August 6 and all those location photos and the good bye pictures and posts hit.It continued with Melissa returning to L.A. and sporting her shorter and dark hair.She looks great with her natural hair color but losing the blond just hit it home more.I suspect I will feel it again at the DC Fandome panel on Sat.I already felt it from the preview clip.

As other have said,I'm so greatful we got a final season.So many shows don't get that.It's always better when a show ends under it's own power and to have way advanced notice before the season started filming.Currently with The Flash and Legends,we don't know if the new seasons for both will be the last or not and it's sort of nerve-wracking.Both Supergirl & Arrow did it right.They gave the fans way advanced noticed that their next seasons would be the last.And regarding Supergirl, to get a full 20 episode season is a true gift..Black Lightning only got 13 episodes.Arrow got 10.

With that said,I am very down.Supergirl may not of been the best Arrowverse show but it became my favorite due to the characters and especially Melissa's portrayal of Supergirl.Supergirl has become my favorite lead hero of the Arrowverse(probably my second favorite is The Flash).Superman has always been my favorite superhero in general but in the Arrowverse,it's Supergirl and that is because of how great Melissa is in the role.Her version of the character is just so likeable.She is everything a hero should be but Melissa plays her as so down to earth as well.I love that her version of Kara is a bit of a pop geek and a foodie.She plays her as someone you could see yourself hanging and being friends with.Barry has that quality too IMO.Oliver in my opinion didn't.I like his character but he never had that down to earth vibe.

So it's sad thinking Supergirl,my favorite Arrowverse hero won't be around.I'm sort of feeling that for example with the upcoming "Armagedon" Flash event.I'm thrilled Alex is a part of it.I'm happy that Black Lightning and The Atom(Ray) are in it.I'm looking forward to seeing Batwoman(Ryan) getting to meet other major heroes in this.But my excitement level just isn't as high with no Supergirl.It feels like something is missing.Even not having Superman or White Canary in it doesn't create this void feeling I'm having right this second by not having Kara involved(although I really am also missing Superman from this just because the level of villain Despero is).

I think I'm feeling this probably because of the sucky situation with the COVID-19 protocols that prevented inter-mingling of cast and crews from the different shows last season.As I've said before,I understand why these restrictions were in place and I agree that they were necessary.But it doesn't change the fact that I think they marred a element of the final season.We never got a final Barry/Kara interaction.In the season 2 finale of Batwoman,Kate said she was going to see her friend in National City.But I doubt we're going to see that or even get a mention of it happening off-screen in one of these final five episodes.We never got a final Kara/Clark interaction or Kara intereacting with Jordan & Jon.Bitsie Tulloch mentioned while promoting the launch of Superman & Lois that Meilissa wanted to appear on Superman & Lois before the season wrapped but the COVID protocols were still in place so that couldn't happen.In Arrow's final episode,we got Kara,Barry and Sara in the series finale briefly.Melissa literally hopped over to the Arrow set for a hour and than immedialty returned to the Supergirl set according to Marc Guggenheim.That was impossible this year due to the COVID protocols.Not unless Grant shot something on The Flash set to include in the Supergirl finale or Melissa shot something on the Supergirl set before wrapping for Armagedon"(something even Canadagraph said was unlikely but not impossible as a outside chance)

Now the protocols have lifted/reduced allowing this Flash event but unfortuantly after Supergirl wrapped.Yes,it's sour grapes on my part and unfortuantly things just didn't work out but that's just how I feel.It's why I hope maybe down the line,now that travel to Canada is much easier(Cress Williams popped over from L.A. to Vancouver,shot his role in "Armagedon" for five days,than quickly returned to L.A) , Melissa may be open to a guest appearance somewhere( in a future crossover or a one-off on a Arrowverse show like The Flash or Superman & Lois) once she had some distance and rest from the grind of playing this very physical role.She did just finish playing this role for six years only two months ago.Even Cress has had a bit of a break after wrapping Black Lightning at the start of the year before retuning for "Armagedon" and I think Supergirl is a more physically demanding role IMO that she did longer.

I also will add that it does sting a little that Arrow got 8 seasons,Flash is going into it's 8th season and Legends is going into its 7th while Supergirl is ending at 6.I always hoped Supergirl would go atleast 7 but I understand that it was Melissa's decision and I respect that.She put in six years and if she felt now was the time ,than now was the time.

Like I said, above,I put in a lot of thought into this post before making it and I'm glad this thread was started.I am feeling grief over the show ending.The last time I felt this was when Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel ended(and in Angel's case,the grief was also the circumstances of why it was ending which was the opposite of Supergirl's ending).But with that grief,I do feel joy that we got a final season.It was a true gift IMO that we got 20 more episode and I appreciate all the work Melissa and the rest of the cast and crew put into this series.The show may not of been home runs all the time but everybody tried their best and Melissa always brought her A game IMO.

I share people's sense of relief on here. the show has struggled for a very long time if we are being honest, and has been underwhelming, disappointing and boring. In hindsight it may have been compassionate to just end it after S5 with a very special episode that focussed on Kara and Alex rather than all this unnecessary padding the finale season keeps giving us. I will miss parts of the show for real, but parts of the show they seem incapable or reluctant to give to us.

A few words:

All fans of the show, since its inception, will grieve in one way or another. It is natural. After investing in and caring for something for so long to see it off at this stage is a blessing rather than a curse.

Most TV shows, especially superhero-themed ones, normally have a short lifespan (naturally, there are exceptions), and this show, for better or worse, fared well for its run.

The concept and application of Supergirl (in whatever iteration) will live on, but this current version has run its course and when the final set of episodes air, I'm sure there will be a sigh of relief.

Once the original spark / originality / momentum that led to the creation of the show back in 2015 started to waver and flicker (back in Season 3), the show started to falter heavily under its own weight. It has / had nothing to do with the actors, casts, crews or desire to continue the show, but is / was more a case of creative burnout, poor overall executive decisions, and a loss of focus and vision of what the show is / was supposed to be about.

It's time for another iteration to appear and continue the Supergirl story in one way or another. Some will succeed, others might not. But the concept and application of this character for future generations is is safe and assured.

I'm more at peace with it than with most shows. I think it helps a lot that it was Melissa's choice AND they had an entire season to prepare for it. Most of the time when shows end it feels like they have been ripped out of existence in the middle of whatever they were doing. I know that at least this isn't the case here.

I'm not going to lie, I have been finding season 6 very disappointing, especially the lack of meaningful Alex and Kara scenes ever since Kara came back. I wanted Alex and Kara to have truly meaningful conversations about the future, about what is going on in Alex's life. If that had happened, I think it would have tugged on my heart strings a lot more.

Instead, the show feels ... tired. It feels like the writers ran out of good ideas for their main character a while ago. So it feels like it didn't really have much of a meaningful future anyway.

Maybe it just didn't hit me, but I still love this show and I thank it for making be discover so many of these wonderful actors and I look forward to see what projects they will do next. And I do hope that maybe some of the characters will continue existing in the extended Arrowverse.

I'm with you on this. I enjoy that we are getting more "Supergirl" in the show. That being said, the action has been very minimal. Lots of Kara flying around and grabbing totems, but no real physical conflict. Adding the lack of emotional depth for anything Kara is doing, short of the mid-season premiere, which I thought was quite good.
.
It's head and shoulders above season 5. But that's not saying much.

I'm sad that it's ending. But I'm more sad that it's ending with a whimper. Which I blame equally on writers and COVID restrictions.

I'm more at peace with it than with most shows. I think it helps a lot that it was Melissa's choice AND they had an entire season to prepare for it. Most of the time when shows end it feels like they have been ripped out of existence in the middle of whatever they were doing. I know that at least this isn't the case here.

I'm not going to lie, I have been finding season 6 very disappointing, especially the lack of meaningful Alex and Kara scenes ever since Kara came back. I wanted Alex and Kara to have truly meaningful conversations about the future, about what is going on in Alex's life. If that had happened, I think it would have tugged on my heart strings a lot more.

Instead, the show feels ... tired. It feels like the writers ran out of good ideas for their main character a while ago. So it feels like it didn't really have much of a meaningful future anyway.

Maybe it just didn't hit me, but I still love this show and I thank it for making be discover so many of these wonderful actors and I look forward to see what projects they will do next. And I do hope that maybe some of the characters will continue existing in the extended Arrowverse.

I've been a fan from the beginning and I have mixed emotions about the ending of my favorite show. If the show ended after season 3 then I would have been very sad. But now it's time this show ended. It's like going to a funeral after the deceased has been suffering with terminal cancer. You're happy that the suffering is over and death is a welcome site.
Now, I'm more of a Melissa fan then a show fan. And her career is not over. She's off on another journey in show biz.
I was wondering if your jammies came with a cape.

July 20,1969 "Oh My God" "The Americans Are On The Moon"
American Land: London Calling Hyde Park: 2009