"Cheers"

After 11 breezy, brilliantly written seasons and 111 (!) Emmy nominations, everybody's favorite neighborhood bar finally rang the bell for last call. Prodigal daughter Shelley Long returned one last time to play prissy Diane Chambers, who just might be the love of Sam Malone's (Ted Danson) life after all. Still one of the highest-rated series finales of all time, "One for the Road" had Kirstie Alley's Rebecca agreeing to pose as Sam's wife, Woody (Woody Harrelson) ascending to the Boston City Council, Norm (George Wendt) getting a new job and Cliff (John Ratzenberger) earning a promotion; Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) ... well ... you already know what happened to him. Balancing the comedy and heartfelt emotion of the series one final time, Sam said goodbye to the regulars and then spied a shadowed man at the front door while trying to lock up. "Sorry, we're closed," Sam shouted out, then straightened a picture on the wall and headed into the back room forever. To paraphrase Hank Williams, it was enough to drop a tear in your beer.

"Six Feet Under"

If this one didn't make you cry, then you were as dead as the multitude of characters offed at the end of the show. Keeping in line with the dark themes of the HBO series about a family of undertakers, "Everyone's Waiting" concluded with a glimpse at the future deaths of all the main characters, set to a powerful musical sequence as Claire (Lauren Ambrose) drove away from them all. Much like life, it was meant to be as beautiful as it was tragic: The final episode also broke with the series tradition of starting each episode with a death, instead using a birth to invoke circle-of-life-like thoughts about the unavoidable beauty of it all.

"M*A*S*H"

An astounding 77 percent of all TV viewers  on Feb. 28, 1983, had the set tuned to "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen," the final episode of one of TV's most beloved shows. The two-and-a-half hour finale did more tying up than a cowboy at a calf-roping competition, beginning with Hawkeye's (Alan Alda) trip to the mental hospital and going up through the bombing of the camp and Klinger's decision to stay in Korea. The final moment, with B.J. (Mike Farrell) and Hawkeye's final words and the "Goodbye" spelled out in stones, is still regarded as one of the most powerful moments in television drama. It was the greatest final impression one could make -- until that flavor of friendship was quickly replaced by the bitter aftertaste of "After M*A*S*H."

"The Fugitive"

The series finale that invented the modern-day series finale, this 1967 wrap-up to the classic series set a ratings record that lasted decades, despite the objections of a studio head who thought a conclusion might kill syndication opportunities. After four years of running, Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) finally caught up to the one-armed man, allowing audiences the rare opportunity to despise a handicapped person. Several generations later, Harrison Ford would renew America's hatred of the crippled, while everything from "NYPD Blue" to "Sex and the City" would similarly continue their love affair with the concept of the "big goodbye" series finale.