TV shows that hung around a year too long

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by DaleClark, Jun 9, 2018.

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  1. ShayL

    ShayL Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia
    Do current long running shows count? I wanted to ask since the name of the topic is in past tense so I'm assuming we're discussing shows of the past that went too long? For me a show that is currently running a year or so too long that I used to love is Grey's Anatomy. I will always love seasons 1-10. Most of the original cast has left by now and the only reason I keep watching is because of the few that remain such as Justin Chambers, Chandra Wilson, and Ellen Pompeo, and James Pickens Jr.
     
  2. Jeff Kent

    Jeff Kent Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mt. Kisco, NY
    Those 5 seasons were brilliant though.
     
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  3. modrevolve

    modrevolve Forum Resident

    Nothing happened in The Sopranos Season Six that I really needed to see. The end of Season Five would have been just fine by me.

    While I wasn't crazy about the main plot of The Wire for Season Five, there were many storylines that tied up a lot of loose ends which I enjoyed.
     
  4. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    When “fake” John-Boy came on board, The Waltons were finished
     
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  5. Etienne Hanratty

    Etienne Hanratty Forum Resident

    Location:
    uk
    Ashes to Ashes.

    I assumed the writers would stop at 2 seasons, like they did with Life on Mars and when season 2 closed with an ambiguous ending, it seemed like a perfect conclusion, and a nice counter balance to the generally fluffy tone of the programme. Season 3 was probably the strongest, but the overly tidy resolution was disappointing and, even for a story about time travelling policemen, implausible. It contained some furious retconning which directly contradicted some of the more satisfying plot points from earlier seasons.

    Compare with Life On Mars(1): 2 consistently goos seasons, almost everything wrapped up at the end with just enough unanswered questions to set up a sequel, the audience left wanting more but at the same time recognising that the writers had wisely quit while they were ahead.

    (1) UK version-I never caught the US remake.
     
  6. AJH

    AJH Senior Member

    Location:
    PA Northern Tier
    I agree, however, I think the last two seasons were not very good- between them, if memory serves, I think there were no more than five or six quality episodes.
     
  7. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Gilmore Girls.

    The first six seasons featured extremely heavy involvement from creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino (they wrote most episodes and the show's distinctive sound definitely came straight from Amy). The Palladinos left the show at the end of season six and the show had one more season created without their involvement. It wasn't completely dreadful, but it wasn't great either and there was definitely a difference in tone, dialogue, pacing and even the kinds of pop culture references used. It just felt different. The 2016 four-episode Netflix revival Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life was written by the Palladinos and felt more like the original show.

    The problem is that the end of season six (the last of the original series run by Amy Sherman-Palladino) ends on an extremely downer, depressing note that doesn't suit the show at all. I'm not sure if she did that out of spite, to screw the new writers, or what. The last season of the show has a pretty nice ending, but then the revival gave Sherman-Palladino to opportunity to write the ending she always claimed she wanted to write...and it was a cliffhanger. It's all very frustrating. Three different "endings" and not one of them is perfect.
     
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  8. Coppertop Tester

    Coppertop Tester Forum Resident

    "The White Shadow" only lasted three seasons, but due to its high school setting, half the characters graduated at the end of season two and their replacements were nowhere near as interesting.

    Three actors from the original cast went on to even bigger careers as television directors: Timothy Van Patten, Kevin Hooks and Thomas Carter.
     
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  9. This answer works for almost any show going on past 5 seasons. The exceptions are rare (Barney Miller being one of the few).


    I also liked Seinfeld right to the bitter ending (a minority opinion).

    I agree about Rescue Me going on too long, 3 seasons and I'm out.

    Orange Is The New Black had 2 fantastic seasons and then went off the rails.

    News Radio's last season was actually pretty good (RIP Phil) as the actors all seemed engaged and trying to make things work -Lovitz was no Phil Hartman, but he made his character work in the context of the show (at least for me).

    I agree that MASH went on much too long -I think ending it at season 6 would have been about right -the first 2 seasons with Winchester are still pretty funny.

    The Office went on at least 1-3 seasons too long for me, but there are still a few episodes each season that are fun. Seasons 2-5 are the strongest.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2018
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  10. Despite being a massive fan of the overall series, I'll nominate the final season of How I Met Your Mother, which managed to drag out a wedding to the point where I feel a lot of viewers stopped caring, only to then brush over the show's actual reason for existing in a few episodes. You can really tell that certain cast members didn't want to be there a second longer than was necessary, with their absence from many scenes hidden in ways that seemed neither inspired or entertaining. We deserved better, and that's without bringing up how much of an underwhelming disappointment the ending turned out to be!
     
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  11. j_rocker

    j_rocker Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI
    But his son did for writing the theme song.
     
  12. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    And made much more money out of MASH (including the movie) than Altman himself did
     
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  13. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    Season 4 definitely went down in quality as the scripts kowtowed to anti-violence crusaders. However one of of my favorite episodes, "Globe of Death", is from S4. IIRC it's one of only 2 episodes Bruce Gordon did in the final season.
     
  14. wingsoveramerica

    wingsoveramerica The Dude

    Location:
    Chambersburg, PA
    That 70s Show
    All in the Family
     
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  15. zebop

    zebop Well Known Stranger

    Homicide: Life On The Street
     
  16. Scooterpiety

    Scooterpiety Ars Gratia Artis

    Location:
    Oregon
    I really missed Bruce Gordon as Nitti during the final season, as well as some of the other Italian gangsters. I realize the sensitivity some had over the whole Italian American/gangster image, but I think they went overboard when they all but did away with it, and it ruined the show.
     
  17. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    Gargoyles: Great series, one of the best Disney ever produced...until it became The Goliath Chronicles with the gargoyles becoming publicly known which changed the entire dynamic of the show.
     
  18. Mirrorblade.1

    Mirrorblade.1 Forum Resident

    Law Order SVU a decade on too long..
    Batman The New Adventures awful. awful.. animation I listened to Bruce Timms
    commentary saying I really don't know why we did another season..
    And what he did the Joker is unforgivable.. so lazy..
     
  19. mBen989

    mBen989 Senior Member

    Location:
    Scranton, PA
    Well, The Joker redesign was to help the Korean animators.
     
  20. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    modern family....going on 3 years too long.
     
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  21. Lightworker

    Lightworker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Deep Texas
    Anything that goes on past the six-year mark. Psych got it right.
     
  22. rburly

    rburly Sitting comfortably with Item 9

    Location:
    Orlando
    When I saw a recent episode with Burt, Raj and Howard playing as a band for the other regulars, it took a jump over that shark for me. And there's yet another season to enjoy. :sigh:
     
  23. Jim Pattison

    Jim Pattison Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kitchener ON
    It’s been a long time since I’ve seen any episodes of LA Law, but I was a big fan of the series back in the 80s and 90s. I remember being quite disappointed by the final season, thinking it would have better if they'd stopped a year sooner.
     
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  24. Spaghettiows

    Spaghettiows Forum Resident

    Location:
    Silver Creek, NY
    If it's a show that I really like, I would rather it went on one more year (just one) with some diminished quality episodes than stop cold while there is still gas in the tank. For instance, Barney Miller is a rare instance of a great show that stayed consistently good until the end. If they had gone on for one more year, I suspect that 75% of the episodes would still have been very good, with some less impressive entries starting to creep in. I would rather have the additional season just to get the good episodes and live with the mediocre portion of the season.

    I have more of a problem when a show goes on several seasons too long, and becomes something completely unrecognizable.
     
  25. bobbyhol

    bobbyhol Forum Resident

    Cheers.

    The final season had a new set of showrunners but they were experienced with the show. The quality of the last season dropped precipitously, with several awful storylines. Since Bebe Neuwirth wanted to go back to Broadway, Lilith was said to have run off and left Frasier and Frederick to go underwater in a biosphere with some scientist she had fallen in love with. Surely they could have simply left her character out and let Frasier refer to her several times in the season. It's hard to believe the character would have run off and left her child and husband the way she did - Lilith was always about cold reasoning versus emotion. Another episode had Frasier hook up with Rebecca, a plot device that seemed more like an admission they had run out of ideas than a good idea to explore. And the episode with a suicidal Frasier out on a ledge once again took a character who was perfectly balanced in reality and pushed him to cartoonish levels. Worst of all, none of these storylines were truly funny. I don't think it was a coincidence that this was the season when Ted Danson decided it was time to end the series.
     
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