The end.

The face of mainstream TV underwent some dramatic changes over the last 48 hours.

Lost ended its six-year run last night with a two-hour finale that delighted some, enraged others and raised enough questions to keep people talking for years to come.

24 finished up eight years (or days) tonight and, when it was all over, Jack Bauer had brought down the U.S. Government, pissed off the Russian Government, brutally murdered a whole passel of folks and wounded who knows how many more and, when last seen, bloody and close to but not quite bowed, was on the run again, most likely toward a feature film down the road a bit.

And just now, Law & Order ended its 20 years on NBC with the usual one-hour show, but a good one to sign off on if sign off it has; rumors persist the creator is still looking for a way to get another season and beat out Gunsmoke for longest running TV drama ever. With L&O or one of its spin-offs being broadcast somewhere ever hour of the day, or so it seems, how weird it is to recall that the show was originally designed to be broken into two half hour segments ("law: and "order") in orderto make its possibilities for syndication better.