The 20 most-watched TV show finales of all time, ranked

While we might be in a golden age for TV creatively, we're nowhere close to the appointment viewing of an older era.

Modern technology like DVRs has made it so people can watch several shows that air at the same time whenever they want. Before that, fans had to make hard choices about what to watch and make sure they got home in time for it.

And TV ratings don't come in the huge numbers of yesteryear. When they do, they tabulate viewing over several days. The 1990 series finale of alien comedy "Alf" brought 21.7 million viewers to their TV sets all at the same time. For comparison, last year's season finale for the most-watched show on TV, CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," had 14.73 million viewers.

Since we're in that time of year when dozens of shows are ending their runs, we compiled the finales that had the most Americans gathered around to watch ever.

Here are the 20 most-watched scripted TV series finales of all time: