From "First to Worst"-When good TV shows go bad.*

First two seasons were great, but I'd already lost interest by the third. Still haven't finished that season and am not that eager to continue watching it.

 

I will generally agree with this. I think the Key to Time season was good overall, but ended on a weak story and had an unsatisfying conclusion. If the Doctor gave up his life in a final duel with the Black Guardian, that would have been a fitting conclusion. He could have regenerated and a new actor would take over for the next season. While there were a few good stories for the last two Tom Baker seasons, the show needed a renewal.

I actually like the Peter Davison years quite a bit. While there are some weak stories in each season, on the whole the show felt refreshed. For me, the biggest dip in quality happened after Peter left. He ended on such a high note ("Caves of Androzani") and Colin started off on such a low note ("Twin Dilemma"). The series turned pretty silly after that point. Seasons 23 and 24 are nearly unwatchable. They rebounded slightly for Seasons 25 and 26, but it was too far gone at that point.

 

I started to enjoy the season a lot more once I realized it wasn't so much inspired by 'Fargo' than it waas by 'Burn After Reading.'

Spoiler

and the 'Lady Or The Tiger?' final scene of the season seemed to be inspired by the ending of 'A Serious Man.'

 

Lois and Clark the first year was awesome. Then they fired the creator and the rest was horrible. I actually don't remember anything after year 3 because I stopped watching.

And the Banana Splits really went downhill after the Green Banana Spilt split because of a contractual dispute.

 

I had to look that up but yea. The new Kochanski and no Rimmer? Forget it.

 

You just dont change Dicks midstream.

RIP Taylor Negron

 

Ugh, Another "Will they or won't they?" kind of show. Of course they will. It's frickin' Lois and Superman. No need to tease it and drag it out for several years. The only show that I can think of that topped it on a more torturous level is Smallville.

 

Married With Children being the exception imo

Jefferson Darcy>Steve Roades

 

The last season of Deadwood blew.

 

I'm looking over my DVD and BluRay shelves and I'm not finding much that isn't complete. 'The Simpsons', of course: I only own seasons 1-13 (and the movie). It's an arbitrary stopping point, but there just weren't enough close-to-okay episodes to justify buying season 14. Never bought the last two seasons of 'The Office.' I actually thought it would remain good even after Carell left but, once Paul Lieberstein took over as showrunner, it all went down the drain. Plus, I couldn't stand Catherine Tate's character. Of course, 'Ren & Stimpy' was just sad after John K was forced out. I actually do have all of 'True Blood' on BluRay, but I can't justify it. The last two seasons were poor and that final episode was just awful.

Really, though, there are FAR more TV shows that were killed before their time than there are ones that were kept on life-support too long.

 

That's a little different in that he was there from the very beginning. He wasn't added to the roster near the end of the run like he was on others.

 

Yeah, M*A*S*H is kind of an interesting example because in a lot of ways it really was like a completely different series by the time it ended from when it began. The humour and subversiveness that made it so special from the get go was pretty much gone by about Season 7. The show definitely wasn't the same after Radar left in Season 8. As Smilin Ed points out, a lot of the decline in quality of the show came down to the writers. Let's face it, the Wilcox/Mumford and Davis/Pollock combos for Seasons eight and onward paled in comparison to the formidable Gelbart/Marks and Fritzell/Greenbaum writing teams of the first six seasons. And yeah, Alan Alda, to give him his due, did write some of the better -or at least more 'interesting'- episodes in the final seasons (such as my personal favourite, "Lifetime" from Season 8, co-written with the show's medical advisor)

 

Huh? He came in around the third or fourth season, to replace David Garrison.

 

Who would have thought that `Penny` having her hair cut short would ruin an entire series.

 

You're likely right. I wouldn't know because I hate the show. I just assumed, I guess because the few times I did see it he was on it.

 

I'm not sure if adding Ted McGinley to a cast causes a show to Jump The Shark. It's likely that he tends to join shows that have already left the ramp.

 

Now, Barney Miller was, I feel, a show that improved as it went along.

 

I think Barney Miller plateaued around season 4 and never dropped in quality.

 

When Barnabas Collins -vampire- became a mere mortal named "Bramwell" (in a parallel universe!) on DARK SHADOWS in 1971. Needless to say, it went off the air four months later.

 

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip started great, but by the end of its only season it lost its way. Every character sounded exactly the same by the end.

 

I'm pretty sure that Dan Curtis had already gotten the memo of its cancellation by that point. The regular storyline had already been wrapped up.

 

Yes, one commentator(I think on "Dead Homer Society")said that doing the "Jockey" number when Homer is inside their lair was one thing, but it was another thing to have the jockeys reappear above ground during the race, ruining what credibility the episode had.

 

8 Simple Rules. I love the first season with John Ritter. The others not so much.

 

There is nothing more frustrating than plotting the whole life of a creative work out, including short-term mysteries, enigmatic plotlines, and specific drama "beats" plotted around times of the year the show is scheduled, so the initial audience gets the benefit of the best pacing...it's all in the can, and it's getting eyeballs AND positive reviews...

,,,and then the studio calls; the network has just contracted for two more seasons (or, insisted you get to the bottom of Laura Palmers' killer early...or get Maddie & David to "boink"...).