I think this was a classic fabulous ending. My daughter started watching this as a little girl. She's now an ER resident doctor like Fiscus! .the CIRCLE, real vs. Reel!
I watched this entire series when it was originally on. It had a lot of heart and humor and depth. I loved it and still love it so very much. It began the careers of so many actors who went on to have great careers, even to this day. We need more quality shows like this today.
I've always had a different take on the final scene. Rather than everything seen on the show being in the mind of Tommy Westphall, I believe that Tommy actually created the final scene in his mind. Watch the final scene. Dr. Westphall and Tommy are in Dr. Auschlander's office. As Dr. Westphall is sitting in the chair and mourning the loss of his close friend, Tommy is looking out the window at the snow. He then glances back at his dad and sees his sadness and grief. So, he decides to create his own reality in which his dad can be happy again. So, St. Eligius and all it's problems (all the problems that have caused his dad sadness over the years) are now locked away in a snow globe where they can no longer cause his dad sadness. He then brings back Dr. Auschlander as his grandpa, because he was such a father figure to his dad; also neither one is a doctor so no more life and death situations / decisions So in his mind, Tommy has created a happy ending for his dad and Dr. Auschlander.
I remember watching this when it first aired. And I remember getting to 51:28, staring at the screen, and asking myself how on earth I hadn't seen that coming.
This must be the most bizarre final episode of any TV series in the history of television... but it was certainly memorable... three decades plus later and I remember pretty much everything about it... this is the first time I've watched it since then..
This series was my first favorite tv show in the 80s watched with my mom . She was in nursing school! Wow this show was brilliant and ahead of it’s time.
Let me explain the ending. According to wikipedia: Westphall agrees to take over the running of St. Eligius when Weigert sells the hospital back to the Boston diocese. Ellen is offered a job in Cleveland, and Craig agrees to go along with her. The hospital and the people who work there are revealed to be figments in the mind of an autistic boy who stared at a snowglobe with the hospital building inside of it. Note: A show known for black comedy and inside jokes, the series finale is filled with such, from the opening moment of Fiscus telling ER patient "General Sarnoff... cut down on the time you spend watching television" (the president of RCA, who launched NBC in 1926), to Orderly Coolidge dealing with (The Fugitive's) Dr. Richard Kimble and the One-Armed Man, to (The Andy Griffith Show's) Floyd the Barber working in the hospital, and numerous others.
At the beginning of this eppie there is a patient named "General Sarnoff" (the one getting told to cut down on watching television). Apropos because this was a reference to Gen. David Sarnoff who was the founder, through his company, RCA, of the NBC (National Broadcasting Company) network in 1926. 😉
This series reminds me of a simpler, more compassionate time in our nation's history during the 1980's when my wife and I began our marriage and our family of 2 kids. I mourn for the loss of dignity and humane civil discourse and empathy in our country since then.
Very true Matteo, our nation goes through turbulent times every few decades and in between you have better times where things are more enjoyable and conservative. Same thing with the 1960's which was much like the madness going on today and then things started to calm down in the mid 1970's. Then the 1980's come along where it was kind of like a modern 1950's. Maybe the 2020's will be our calming period where we start to get back to where we were in a sense.
It was the being of my marriage also raising my little son at the time. I agree with you about the country. Things have really changed in this country and unfortunately not for the better.
We're lucky to be right where we are, in THIS time. How would you like to have been in the middle of the Civil War, which ever side you were on, compelled to shoot at your own countrymen? No compassion for your enemy was expected. Newspapers referring to your side as cowards. Talk about a polarized nation. How about being black in the 50s and told you couldn't have a certain job, or even go certain places, but you were expected to go fight in Vietnam in the 60s. And when the guys of all colors were coming back, being told they are baby killers, with no flag waving and parades for those poor souls. Not a lot of compassion for those folks. Compassionate time in the 80s? More abortions then! NYC was MUCH worse than it is today, full of inhumane discourse and murder--just one example. You are looking at the past through rose colored glasses.
+ToyKingWonder Sad but true. People always think back to "the good old days". Back in the '80's people spoke the same way about the 50's, and talked of how now (the 80's) everything was going to hell!
Alternate interpretation of the final scene: St Eligius is real. The staff is real. Tommy was actually a patient there (for his ASD), and that was the only place he truly felt understood and comforted. The snowglobe was given to him by his doctor and he had daydreams from things he observed while he was there, which is what we saw. Drs Westphall and Auschlander were real people, but Tommy never saw their faces, so he imagined them looking like his father and grandfather. A stretch? Sure, but why not!
It immediately reminded me of the line from Macbeth: "Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Not to say autism produces idiots, but that line came to mind. I wonder if the creators were thinking this when they wrote this episode.
Loved this show got me into nursing in operating room used to have complete series but someone else liked it & stole it from my place & I hope that they cant do nothing with it like it wont play on their dvd!!
In that final scene to the assembled gathering in the cafeteria, Ed Flanders went a little off script, to the producers' frustration. Think it still came together OK, but this proved over the years to be a show where the writers could be trusted
Oh the best BEST by far series final episode. I absolutely loved this show and some 30-40 years later all the terrific actors and actresses that got their start here.
When Ellen tells Mark to give her a hug what did she actually say to him? You big something is all I got. If someone who knows could respond I'd appreciate it since there's no captions on
This must be the syndicated version when they used the regular end credits and the MTM logo at the end. Because if I'm not mistaken, the network run has the MTM mascot Mimsie the Cat dying and flatlined at the end.
Yeah you're right. In the NBC run, they had Mimsie flatline at the end of the credits. Because of so much hate letters, and so on, going to the network and to MTM Enterprises, they did the alternate ending and the flatlined Mimsie was never seen again on TV.
When this series finale originally aired on NBC, the end titles actually featured the credit roll against a still of the MTM Enterprises logo, which for this occasion had Mimsie surrounded by surgical equipment on either side of the logo (on other episodes of this series, she was seen depicted as a doctor dressed in surgeon's garb)! We hear the EKG machine beeping throughout the scroll for the duration of the closing theme, and when the credits actually end and dissolve to the actual logo, the machine then flatlines! It is notable for two reasons: a) it was the series finale and, b) Mimsie herself died not long after the original broadcast of this episode (she was 20 years old).
@John O that's why i'm glad i don't live in the United States of Animosity...Americans can be so rude to eachother...well, i guess that's what happens when there are no more bisons and indians left to kill...
Bill Sandiego the entire series was made up by the boy. some characters from St Elsewhere appear in other shows as cameos, meaning almost every TV show was made up by that child. From Lost to the drew Carey Show
Being a doctor, is similar to being a car mechanic ...different level, but similar ..."What's the matter under that hood Mr.?" There are human whisperers ...there are car whisperers ...horse whisperers too ...met any? I have ...quack doctors ...quack mechanics 😅😉
The final scene was written as a way to prevent any reunion shows. Not that it matters with Ed Flanders and Norman Lloyd gone any reunion show would really lose something.
if St. Elsewhere is all in Tommy's mind, everything, like every tv show ever, from Jessie to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Raven's Home to Star Trek to I Love Lucy to Moesha is all fake
Unless they got it from the original broadcast, that would be impossible anyway. As it was removed (banned?) from reruns. Must have been the VHS version, which plasters over it but with the usual MTM variant. (It has no sign it was a cable rerun that I can tell, plus no 20th Television to be seen) Also I finally confirmed to myself that they redid the proper credits for this episode over the typical background.
he did that so it won't be pulled for being a violation of terms of service. you're not allowed to post entire shows on youtube without permission of the production company.
But he did anyway! This distortion will not satisfy the copyright holder, nor the viewers who are looking for the video falsely depicted in the thumbnail. If he's going to post a distorted video in a vain attempt to get around copyright claims then the he should at least have the decency to post a distorted thumbnail!
Google has software that scans TH-cam videos to see if they're copyrighted. If they are they automatically remove them, so people have to use distortion to fool the software.
Amazingly Ed Flanders was only 53 years old here - he looks at LEAST 15 years older. I know he had a lot of personal problems and demons but I remember that his disheveled appearance in this episode was alarming to a lot of people at the time.
![[Full Episode] The Restaurant War Thailand ศึกพ่อค้าซ่าแม่ค้าแซ่บ Episode 2 | 29 ก.ย. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/r3lfLNH6Ke4/mqdefault.jpg)
Dr Westphall didn't know if his son could hear him, but in Tommy's imagination, he was a compassionate life-saving hero.
Norman Lloyd who played Dr. Auschlander is still alive in 2020, he is 106 years old.
One of Orson Welles’s original Mercury Players! Brilliant actor and kind man.
He passed away today. RIP, Dr. Auschlander.
I didn’t realize he was the bad guy from Hitchcock’s “Saboteur” (1942)! Now that I know, I can see it. That’s a pretty amazing career!
I think this was a classic fabulous ending. My daughter started watching this as a little girl. She's now an ER resident doctor like Fiscus! .the CIRCLE, real vs. Reel!
Let us hope she is not a snowflake living in a snow globe.
I watched this entire series when it was originally on. It had a lot of heart and humor and depth. I loved it and still love it so very much. It began the careers of so many actors who went on to have great careers, even to this day. We need more quality shows like this today.
I can't believe some show about hospital would have a twist.
I've always had a different take on the final scene. Rather than everything seen on the show being in the mind of Tommy Westphall, I believe that Tommy actually created the final scene in his mind. Watch the final scene. Dr. Westphall and Tommy are in Dr. Auschlander's office. As Dr. Westphall is sitting in the chair and mourning the loss of his close friend, Tommy is looking out the window at the snow. He then glances back at his dad and sees his sadness and grief. So, he decides to create his own reality in which his dad can be happy again. So, St. Eligius and all it's problems (all the problems that have caused his dad sadness over the years) are now locked away in a snow globe where they can no longer cause his dad sadness. He then brings back Dr. Auschlander as his grandpa, because he was such a father figure to his dad; also neither one is a doctor so no more life and death situations / decisions So in his mind, Tommy has created a happy ending for his dad and Dr. Auschlander.
Very interesting take.
I like it!
I remember watching this when it first aired. And I remember getting to 51:28, staring at the screen, and asking myself how on earth I hadn't seen that coming.
El origen de todo fue un sueño xd
Sabes lo que dicen? Se que es un final oscuro pero quiero saber en español...
@@eduardorobles3021 x2
This must be the most bizarre final episode of any TV series in the history of television... but it was certainly memorable... three decades plus later and I remember pretty much everything about it... this is the first time I've watched it since then..
No, there is more bizarres final episodes.
Me too! Was thrilled to find this gem in here.
@@chepe2318 oh really? Which one(s)?
Entonces el niño es el "producer by
supongo que si
Maybe it's the ending that's all in his head where he imagines a more normal life than that of st. eligius
I thought the same thing. Like he’s staring into the snow wondering what life would be like it everything was different.
Reminds me of creepypastas and theories of shows
Que final , más impactante la verdad si te sorprende al saber que todo lo que pasó en la serie fue la imaginación de un niño / a
Si y si el niño ya conocía a ese hospital
21:01 "Patient 4077: Blake, Henry. Cause of death thought to be injuries sustained in a helicopter crash."
Wearing a University of Illinois sweatshirt when admitted, no doubt😀
Without doctor 🏥💊 s in general 😜🤪😛 we're not where we're supposed to be?❤😂😢😅😊! 46:49
56:31 The original end credits are messed up!
When this finale aired, the mascot of MTM, Mimsie, died straight after this finale aired.
R.I.P Mimsie 1968-1988.
And then after that, the owner also passed :( rip mimsie and mary tyler moore
I just read an article that the MTM cat flatlined at the end of this. Must have been a metaphor.
Sifo Dyas th-cam.com/video/xIT8tgW-SyQ/w-d-xo.html
@@gerardo8av 😔
@@Sifo_Dyas apologies, mate. But it was better for you to know you were not mislead in regards of such ending.
Yeah but everyone got pissed off about it. Heh! Can ya blame'em?
This series was my first favorite tv show in the 80s watched with my mom . She was in nursing school! Wow this show was brilliant and ahead of it’s time.
Let me explain the ending. According to wikipedia: Westphall agrees to take over the running of St. Eligius when Weigert sells the hospital back to the Boston diocese. Ellen is offered a job in Cleveland, and Craig agrees to go along with her. The hospital and the people who work there are revealed to be figments in the mind of an autistic boy who stared at a snowglobe with the hospital building inside of it.
Note: A show known for black comedy and inside jokes, the series finale is filled with such, from the opening moment of Fiscus telling ER patient "General Sarnoff... cut down on the time you spend watching television" (the president of RCA, who launched NBC in 1926), to Orderly Coolidge dealing with (The Fugitive's) Dr. Richard Kimble and the One-Armed Man, to (The Andy Griffith Show's) Floyd the Barber working in the hospital, and numerous others.
At the beginning of this eppie there is a patient named "General Sarnoff" (the one getting told to cut down on watching television). Apropos because this was a reference to Gen. David Sarnoff who was the founder, through his company, RCA, of the NBC (National Broadcasting Company) network in 1926. 😉
This series reminds me of a simpler, more compassionate time in our nation's history during the 1980's when my wife and I began our marriage and our family of 2 kids. I mourn for the loss of dignity and humane civil discourse and empathy in our country since then.
Tim Wolfe ~>
Dignity, humane civil discourse & empathy are not lost...sometimes we just need to remember how to "find" them.
Very true Matteo, our nation goes through turbulent times every few decades and in between you have better times where things are more enjoyable and conservative. Same thing with the 1960's which was much like the madness going on today and then things started to calm down in the mid 1970's. Then the 1980's come along where it was kind of like a modern 1950's. Maybe the 2020's will be our calming period where we start to get back to where we were in a sense.
It was the being of my marriage also raising my little son at the time. I agree with you about the country. Things have really changed in this country and unfortunately not for the better.
We're lucky to be right where we are, in THIS time. How would you like to have been in the middle of the Civil War, which ever side you were on, compelled to shoot at your own countrymen? No compassion for your enemy was expected. Newspapers referring to your side as cowards. Talk about a polarized nation. How about being black in the 50s and told you couldn't have a certain job, or even go certain places, but you were expected to go fight in Vietnam in the 60s. And when the guys of all colors were coming back, being told they are baby killers, with no flag waving and parades for those poor souls. Not a lot of compassion for those folks. Compassionate time in the 80s? More abortions then! NYC was MUCH worse than it is today, full of inhumane discourse and murder--just one example. You are looking at the past through rose colored glasses.
+ToyKingWonder Sad but true. People always think back to "the good old days". Back in the '80's people spoke the same way about the 50's, and talked of how now (the 80's) everything was going to hell!
Alternate interpretation of the final scene:
St Eligius is real. The staff is real. Tommy was actually a patient there (for his ASD), and that was the only place he truly felt understood and comforted. The snowglobe was given to him by his doctor and he had daydreams from things he observed while he was there, which is what we saw. Drs Westphall and Auschlander were real people, but Tommy never saw their faces, so he imagined them looking like his father and grandfather.
A stretch? Sure, but why not!
Watch this in 1.25x speed for normal speed
I wish more ended like this.
Sci-fi like endings
The ending was such a cop out. So the whole series was the imagination of an austistc litt!le boy? Yeah, that sucks.
I thought it was really cool
Yes, it's a terrible ending, although not near as bad as the ending to Lost :-D
It immediately reminded me of the line from Macbeth: "Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Not to say autism produces idiots, but that line came to mind. I wonder if the creators were thinking this when they wrote this episode.
It was absolutely a fabulous ending. One of the best in Television.
That snowglobe belonging to Tommys’ locked-in mind.
I would do that when I was a kid. The Playskool village was my St Eligis.
The last 2 minutes were the dream.
Never mind how that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Referring to the barber as Floyd... he does look like Mayberry's finest.
Loved this show got me into nursing in operating room used to have complete series but someone else liked it & stole it from my place & I hope that they cant do nothing with it like it wont play on their dvd!!
be a good christian now and hope they enjoy it as much as you do...because you have received the gift of living it...
Starting right in on a hit on David Sarnoff, founder of NBC, a reference to the "network ,"
and that it needs s rest.
In that final scene to the assembled gathering in the cafeteria, Ed Flanders went a little off script, to the producers' frustration. Think it still came together OK, but this proved over the years to be a show where the writers could be trusted
The theme music 🎶 says, "This show has substance" 😊
Tommy just wanted to be near his dad thats all....
Oh the best BEST by far series final episode. I absolutely loved this show and some 30-40 years later all the terrific actors and actresses that got their start here.
Fantastic Episode 100/100
When Ellen tells Mark to give her a hug what did she actually say to him? You big something is all I got. If someone who knows could respond I'd appreciate it since there's no captions on
"Give me a hug you big lug."
...
... WHY UPLOAD THIS FORMAT ???
...
This must be the syndicated version when they used the regular end credits and the MTM logo at the end. Because if I'm not mistaken, the network run has the MTM mascot Mimsie the Cat dying and flatlined at the end.
Yeah you're right. In the NBC run, they had Mimsie flatline at the end of the credits. Because of so much hate letters, and so on, going to the network and to MTM Enterprises, they did the alternate ending and the flatlined Mimsie was never seen again on TV.
Arguably one of the worst series endings in TV history
When this series finale originally aired on NBC, the end titles actually featured the credit roll against a still of the MTM Enterprises logo, which for this occasion had Mimsie surrounded by surgical equipment on either side of the logo (on other episodes of this series, she was seen depicted as a doctor dressed in surgeon's garb)! We hear the EKG machine beeping throughout the scroll for the duration of the closing theme, and when the credits actually end and dissolve to the actual logo, the machine then flatlines! It is notable for two reasons: a) it was the series finale and, b) Mimsie herself died not long after the original broadcast of this episode (she was 20 years old).
@John O You don't have to wimp
@John O that's why i'm glad i don't live in the United States of Animosity...Americans can be so rude to eachother...well, i guess that's what happens when there are no more bisons and indians left to kill...
I watched St. Elsewhere as a child faithfully with my Grandma.
Can somebody explain the ending to me?
Bill Sandiego the entire series was made up by the boy. some characters from St Elsewhere appear in other shows as cameos, meaning almost every TV show was made up by that child. From Lost to the drew Carey Show
@@TheRealMystProductions What no way!
Bill Sandiego it's just a theory, but it's pretty cool
@@TheRealMystProductions damn, but what about the snow globe? It was all just his imagination?
Bill Sandiego Yep St Elsewhere is made up by that Autistic child.
Being a doctor, is similar to being a car mechanic ...different level, but similar ..."What's the matter under that hood Mr.?" There are human whisperers ...there are car whisperers ...horse whisperers too ...met any? I have ...quack doctors ...quack mechanics 😅😉
You know who would fit in here on this terrific drama? Denis Leary 💚😊
The final scene was written as a way to prevent any reunion shows. Not that it matters with Ed Flanders and Norman Lloyd gone any reunion show would really lose something.
Oh good! This one doesn't have the EKG version of MTM Enterprises 😸
So what now after the final scene final episode? Construction Site Elsewhere??
Anyone in The UK can watch the whole series on All 4
What a great cast.
Norman Lloyd passed away recently @ 106.
R.I.P Leo The Lion 1939-2021
worst finale of all time
I wish theses were on dvd , bluray
if St. Elsewhere is all in Tommy's mind, everything, like every tv show ever, from Jessie to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Raven's Home to Star Trek to I Love Lucy to Moesha is all fake
This kid was able to dream up doctors, gnomes, housewives, psychics, nannys, superhero turtles, and space
Because they ARE fake.
Thank you for not using the "Dying Mimsie" variant of the MTM logo.
Unless they got it from the original broadcast, that would be impossible anyway. As it was removed (banned?) from reruns. Must have been the VHS version, which plasters over it but with the usual MTM variant. (It has no sign it was a cable rerun that I can tell, plus no 20th Television to be seen) Also I finally confirmed to myself that they redid the proper credits for this episode over the typical background.
Best series ever
Welcome to the hubris of the writers trying to be clever in the last moments of a popular, if formulaic, tv show. Oh... so fucking edgy.
😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲
tress =v
There is no excuse the distorted videos like this with deliberately deceptive thumbnails! The account responsible should be deleted.
he did that so it won't be pulled for being a violation of terms of service. you're not allowed to post entire shows on youtube without permission of the production company.
But he did anyway! This distortion will not satisfy the copyright holder, nor the viewers who are looking for the video falsely depicted in the thumbnail. If he's going to post a distorted video in a vain attempt to get around copyright claims then the he should at least have the decency to post a distorted thumbnail!
Google has software that scans TH-cam videos to see if they're copyrighted. If they are they automatically remove them, so people have to use distortion to fool the software.
Grow up and stop being all spoiled and be thankful instead.
John O Therefore making Disney the copyright holder
Amazingly Ed Flanders was only 53 years old here - he looks at LEAST 15 years older. I know he had a lot of personal problems and demons but I remember that his disheveled appearance in this episode was alarming to a lot of people at the time.
but his appearance can be altered up or down by makeup artists.
Cant believe my parents watched this lame show as i sat at the table with food poisioning as an 8 yr old
Haha
Dr. Donald Westphal chief of staff at St. Eliguis Hospital 1984-1987😀👍🏿⛑