Several shows are "on the bubble" this season, still unsure of their fates as the broadcast networks finalize their fall schedules for next week's upfront presentations to advertisers. All they can do is sit and wait -- and present the best season finales possible, in hopes of earning a reprieve by inspiring confidence that the best may be yet to come.
In that regard, last Friday's season finale of CW's Everybody Hates Chris, which ended with a fabulous nod to the finale of The Sopranos, did everything you could ask of a clever comedy. On CW, or on sister network CBS, Chris should be granted a pardon based on the last few minutes alone...
Young Chris Rock, played by Tyler James Williams, had been threatened with having to repeat the tenth grade. He took the GEDs as a Plan B, and waited at a neighborhood diner for the rest of his family, and his test results, to arrive.
The first one there, he claimed a booth, flipped through the pages of the tabletop jukebox, and settled on Bon Jovi's "Livin' On a Prayer." He dropped a quarter into the slot, and the music began playing, offering a prominent soundtrack to the rest of the scene.
It was the same way, of course, that Tony Soprano had begun the infamous final scene of HBO's Sopranos, except that the song, in that case, was Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." But Chris' choice was equally apropos, because his GED results, like the sitcom's chances for renewal, are unknown, scary quantities. Livin' on a prayer, indeed.
Series creators Chris Rock (the real, grown-up one) and Ali LeRoi didn't stop there. Other Sopranos touches abounded. A menacing guy sat at the counter, looking over at their table. Chris' dad Julius (Terry Crews) had trouble parking his newspaper truck outside, just as Meadow had a problem with her parallel parking on The Sopranos.
And the whole family snacked prominently, almost reverently, on fried food, just as on HBO. Finally, Julius joined the rest of the family, slipping into the booth and delivering an envelope with Chris' GED results. He may as well have been delivering The News from the CW executives.
"What's it say?" Chris demands, as his mother opens the envelope and looks at the sheet of paper. Chris looks plaintively across the table, his expression a poignant mixture of hope and fear. And then, and then... the screen cuts to black.
If that ends up being the series finale, it's brilliant. But it's so smart, and so funny, either CW or CBS should reward Everybody Hates Chris by throwing it a lifeline. Next season, young Chris will be at the right age in this loose autobiography to begin his standup career.
And while the Sopranos salute was a fitting, funny comic "ending," having the series end with Rock's Saturday Night Live audition and introduction, where his life really changed, would be the best ending of all.
This series has been so good for so long, it deserves to go out that way, on its own terms.