"How I Met Your Mother" ended after nine seasons on March 31, and fans are split on the finale, with some saying they absolutely hated it. Shows have let down fans before. Here's a look at some of the best, and worst, finales (of course, there are spoilers): 
The AMC drama "Breaking Bad," about a former high-school chemistry teacher turned corrupt meth kingpin, aired its final episode in September 2013, and fans still haven't stopped talking about it -- or gotten over the show ending. Overall, many seemed more upset that the series was over than about how it ended. 
For "Seinfeld's" final episode, co-creator Larry David returned to write the script. He apparently decided that the four main characters were beyond help, because they ended up in jail after a trial in which many of those they'd wronged testified. 
Having the characters just hang out at the "Cheers" bar for one last scene (after Sam nearly left them all for Diane) seemed a very appropriate way for "Cheers" to say goodbye. And when a customer knocked on the door, Sam Malone -- in the darkened bar -- said, "Sorry, we're closed." 
The critically acclaimed but low-rated "Freaks and Geeks" shot its series finale early just in case it got canceled, and it was a doozy. From Nick's dance contest to Daniel playing "Dungeons & Dragons" to Lindsay and Kim secretly following the Grateful Dead for the summer, it was poignant, touching and everything we loved about this show. 
After a truly bizarre final season of "Roseanne," it turned out the family did not win the lottery after all. It was just a story Roseanne made up after husband, Dan, died. Kind of a downer ending. 
For "Friends," everything was wrapped up with a bow. Ross ended up with Rachel; Monica and Chandler, with kids in tow, moved out of the building; and Phoebe was married off. Joey was off to L.A. for his own sure-to-be-successful spinoff ... Oops. Still, it was a nice, tidy sendoff after 10 years. 
"The Cosby Show" finale came full circle as Theo -- struggling with school in the series premiere -- graduated college. It was great to see Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad hold hands and get one last round of applause from the studio audience. 
Capt. Jean-Luc Picard's travels through time with Q, and that last shot of the crew playing cards, made for a fitting farewell for "Star Trek: The Next Generation." And of course the crew of the 24th-century Enterprise kept things going for four movies. 
A record audience watched the tearjerker of a finale for "M*A*S*H" in 1983, as the Korean War ended and everyone prepared to go their separate ways. 
"Lost" had one of the most controversial endings of all time, but how could it not? The expectations were so high going into it. For every detractor, there was a defender for this finale -- in which Jack saves the day and dies moments later. The episode was more concerned with an ending to the story than it was in explaining the many mysteries. That was saved for a DVD-only epilogue. 
In the finale of "Frasier," Niles and Daphne had a kid, Martin married Ronee, and the character of Dr. Frasier Crane left Seattle with a new potential love interest, bidding goodbye to television after 20 years. 
Long after many viewers cared -- in large part due to the departure of David Duchovny in season 7 -- "X-Files" got Scully and Mulder back together. We learned that aliens would colonize Earth and the world was set to end on December 22, 2012 (phew, that was close). 
As Buffy and her expanded Scooby gang fought to save the world one last time (though Sunnydale didn't quite survive), the premise behind "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" came to something of a logical conclusion, with every potential Slayer being activated around the world. 
Quite possibly the biggest anticlimax in TV history, when Tony Soprano met his family in a restaurant, looked up and then, with Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " playing in the background, fade to black. "Sopranos" fans are still debating that ending. 
Sure, we all knew that "The Hills" wasn't exactly "reality," but the "revelation" that it was shot at a movie studio was still a bit shocking, if not downright insulting. Apparently Kristin Cavallari and Brody Jenner wanted to leave us with a symbolic final shot that would have us questioning what was real. Earlier this year, MTV revealed an alternate ending where Jenner returned to his new girlfriend, Lauren Conrad, but honestly, who knows what to believe? 
"ALF" producers seemed to be overly confident that the alien sitcom would return for a fifth season, after they had ALF captured by the military in the finale, just before NBC canceled it. We wouldn't know what became of him for several years, when ABC picked up a TV movie. 
Everything that happened at St. Eligius over all those years? It was all in the mind of a boy with autism. So were those six seasons of "St. Elsewhere" a giant waste of time? 
"Dinosaurs," the wacky sitcom with the Jim Henson life-size puppets, ended with all of the characters about to be wiped out by the Ice Age. Ha ha? 
in "The Fugitive," Dr. Richard Kimble finally caught up with that one-armed man who killed his wife and got his ultimate revenge. It doesn't get more satisfying than that in TV drama. 
"Life on Mars" only lasted a season on ABC, but there was some anticipation to see how the producers would end their version of the series after the UK's incredible finale. It turned out that Sam Tyler's trip to the 1970s was all created in his mind, as he slept in suspended animation, before landing on Mars. A bit literal, don't you think? 
Lois and Clark got married (they saved it for the end, unlike the other show with their namesake), and finally, 10 years into "Smallville," we got to see Clark don the iconic red and blue suit. 
It was Dwight's wedding day (to Angela, thankfully) and Pam and Jim were ready to move on. Michael Scott showing up to fill the role of Dwight's best man was just one of many things the finale of "The Office" got just right. 
In the final minutes of "Big Love," Bill is suddenly gunned down by a neighbor,and the sister-wives are forced to move on without him. As we learn through an emotional flash-forward scene, even without Bill to bond them, they remain together. Definitely a shocker. 
Psychic Allison DuBois could do many things on "Medium," but she couldn't save her husband, Joe. Her belief that her husband was still alive on an island somewhere turned out to be an illusion, and the whole thing was so depressing that it was only saved by a final scene where Allison died many years later and reunited with him.
- Bryan Cranston dropped teaser to CNN's Banfield: Walter White really dead?
- Frank Lovece says there are other finales where doomed character were not what they seemed
- He speculates on what real outcome was for "The Sopranos," "Breaking Bad," "Xena" ...
Editor's note: Frank Lovece is an entertainment writer and film critic whose work has appeared in publications including Newsday, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and the Los Angeles Times.
(CNN) -- Walter White might not have faded to black. Despite collapsing at the end of the "Breaking Bad" finale, everyone's favorite meth kingpin could still be alive -- or so star Bryan Cranston teasingly implied to CNN's Ashleigh Banfield on Thursday.
"Hey, you never saw [body] bags zip up or anything," he quipped.
But it gets us thinking: If comic books (and comic-book movies) teach us anything, it's that when some characters appear to die -- we're looking at you, Superman, Captain America, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson -- appearances can be deceiving. We never saw body bags at the end of "The Sopranos," either; did Tony get a non-fatal heart attack from too much cannoli? Or stress? Tony had stress.
What about the others? Jack Shephard on the finale of "Lost" ... Maddie on the finale of "Burn Notice" ... Xena on the finale of "Xena: Warrior Princess" ... we never saw literal or metaphoric body bags there, either. What if -- grievously but not mortally wounded, captured but not killed, sent to the land of the spirits with a round-trip ticket -- they survived? Could there be spinoffs? Movie sequels?
Cranston on 'Breaking Bad' return: Maybe Hey -- death be not proud, and neither am I. Let's examine some possibilities....
"Lost"
How you think it ended: On a mysterious, supernatural island, a wounded Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) lies down on a forest floor and closes his eyes.
What really happened next: The island had been purgatory all along, and his soul now ascends to Heaven. But all is not right in God's kingdom. A mysterious plague has been killing the archangels, while leaving the seraphim and others untouched -- and only Dr. Jack Shephard has the knowledge and skills to isolate the virus, find the culprit and answer the burning question: Where do angels go when they die?
"The Sopranos"
How you think it ended: The mob war over, the Soprano family is together at Holsten's diner when suddenly everything goes black.
'Breaking Bad' finale leaves fans happy 
Edie Falco talks 'Sopranos' movie rumors 
2007: 'The Sopranos' TV legacy What really happened next: After awakening from his angina-attack blackout, Tony (James Gandolfini) vows to leave the business and get healthy. He slims down, grows a scruffy beard and opens a quiet little bar in Astoria, Queens, while wife Carmela (Edie Falco) becomes an ER nurse and develops a drug problem.
"Burn Notice"
How you think it ended: Maddie (Sharon Gless) tells her secret-agent son Michael that she needs to blow up her house to take out some gunmen and give her grandson Charlie and his protector Jesse a chance to escape. Unfortunately, she has no remote detonator.
What really happened next: Maddie realizes she'd actually been listening to Michael's voiceover narration about spy-craft and absorbing it. Using two cell phones, she whips up a remote detonator, blows up the house from a safe distance and escapes with Charlie and Jesse -- who discovers he has a thing for older women. They form a very modern family and buy a house near Michael, who finally marries Fiona, and surrogate grandpa Sam (Bruce Campbell). Wacky complications ensue.
"Xena: Warrior Princess"
How you think it ended: Xena (Lucy Lawless) sacrifices herself in battle in order to free the souls of 40,000 people. Xena's spirit appears and reassures sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) she's at peace.
What really happened next: "Xena's spirit appears" ... and she'll appear again! The partnership continues! New series: "Xena: Ghost Warrior "!
"Breaking Bad"
How you think it ended: Wounded, cancer-riddled, former drug kingpin Walter White collapses in a meth lab as police storm in.
What really happened next: He was just passed out, and after struggling with cancer in prison volunteers for experimental drug therapy in exchange for clemency. The treatment works, but he can't return to his family and he's broke. Solution? Write a best-selling memoir! Called "Bad Breaks," it makes a fortune and gets optioned for a TV series. Given casting approval, he confounds the industry by choosing the goofy dad from "Malcolm in the Middle" to play him.
We could go on. We bet you could, too. Few series wrap things up perfectly ("Newhart" the rare and brilliant exception).
Are there other series finales where we could resurrect the dead? Let us know in the comments field.
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