Quality TV shows that stayed on way, way too long

[Osiris-Rex]

NCIS. All three.

Shows like Mary Tyler Moore and the Andy Griffith show wisely stopped at the top of their game. I do find it amusing that "Jumping the Shark" refers to an episode of Happy Days that the guy who coined the phrase didn't like but the episode and the season took the show to higher ratings than ever.

Not only that but the show lasted more seasons after that episode than had aired prior to that episode. This episode aired in the 5th season and the show lasted 11 seasons. (Six more seasons for people bad at math)

In addition to Gunsmoke which James Arness used his influence to keep on the air for way too long, Bonanza tried to go on after the loss of Dan Blocker as Hoss and sort of faded away.

Plus when word got out that Gunsmoke was being cancelled there was a huge public outcry, so massive that CBS changed their mind.

[Midvillian1322]

Supernatural.

I feel like it was never great to begin with but imo it stayed consistently entertaining. Havent watched all of last season yet on Netflix though

[Zero Hunter]

ER went on for at least 2 or 3 seasons longer than it should. While it never got really bad those later seasons just don't measure up to the begining seasons.

[Kal-El Summers]

Scott Grimes is one of the few highlights of the last few seasons of ER. Really loved how his character went from bumbling screw-up that Romano used to bow around to what he became at the end. Honestly, once Carter left and Luka took over as the main guy, the show felt so lifeless, IMO.

[shades of eternity]

Night Court

What's hillarious about this one is it had a season ending plan, but had to scrap it when they got renewed for one season longer.

(then again I'm a fan of dan fielding of the opera, so take it with a grain of salt).


Simpsons managed to stay solid for about a decade and then kept going.

Here's an oldie : Who's the boss.

Family guy should have ended when it got cancelled the second time and if it were not for the fact it brought back cosmos and orville, I'd probably have seething hate for the show.

Being Human: no you can't replace the entire cast and pretend it's the same show...yesh.

Heroes - if it would have been cancelled after season 1, it would have been the next Firefly. Instead it was driven into the ground and missed a chance to beat both DC and Marvel to the small screen.

edit: including tv tropes to see if it jogs anybody's memories.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeasonalRot
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...t/LiveActionTV

[DragonKent17]

Game Of Thrones following Season 4 and beyond

[shades of eternity]

yup

stopped watching after the epic fight between Brienne vs the Hound (this shows jumping the shark moment).

Never regretted it.

[Immortal Weapon]

The Mentalist. The show was spinning it's wheels after the Red John Arc concluded.

[Jim Kelly]

Here's an oldie : Who's the boss.

In most cases, when you have young stars and they get older, it's not as much fun. I gave up on watching BEVERLY HIILLS 90210, when they got out of high school. I make an exception for WHO'S THE BOSS, because Alyssa Milano was only eleven years old when the series began and she was nineteen when it ended. That means that I could watch the final season of the show without feeling pervy, because she looked so good and she was legal.

Likewise Valerie Bertinelli who was fifteen when ONE DAY AT A TIME began, but twenty-four when it ended.

The Mentalist. The show was spinning it's wheels after the Red John Arc concluded.

I enjoyed THE MENTALIST right up until the end. And seeing how it changed completely from what it had been, I would have rather they had wrapped up the Red John case sooner (and hopefully with a different Red John), so they could have turned that page and gotten on to those other things. I think that they became too dependent on keeping their audience guessing, for the sake of ratings, when they should have told a more concise story. The best Patrick Jane stuff was when he was solving a case with his unusual methods--and not having him solve the Red John case took away from that. It's one of those shows I like to rewatch, for the whodunnit mysteries in each episode.

[AndrewCrossett]

I would say Malcolm in the Middle, too. The first couple of seasons were classic, but then the kids started visibly aging and it lost the magic.

[j9ac9k]

"Homeland" was awesome, then ... totally irrelevant. They should have stopped years ago. (did you know it was still going on?)

Also, "24."

[Joker Venom]

Happy Days- Should have ended when Ron Howard left. As much as I like the character of Fonzie, he couldn't carry the show on his own. The dynamic between him and
Richie is what made the show click, imo.

Dallas- One of my all-time favorite shows, but stayed on three or four years longer than it should have. Especially in the last couple of seasons, where JR was essentially nerfed.

ER- Once Noah Wyle left, the show became almost unrecognizable, and most of the new characters weren't very interesting.

Married With Children- Another all-time favorite that stayed on well past its expiration date.

Grey's Anatomy- I'm a huge fan of medical dramas, and I loved this show its first few seasons, but it became way too soap opera-ish and it's lost a lot of what made it good. Like "Dallas", its also stayed on four or five years longer than it should have.

Knots Landing- Same reason as Dallas.

[Powerboy]

NCIS. All three.



Not only that but the show lasted more seasons after that episode than had aired prior to that episode. This episode aired in the 5th season and the show lasted 11 seasons. (Six more seasons for people bad at math)




Plus when word got out that Gunsmoke was being cancelled there was a huge public outcry, so massive that CBS changed their mind.

That must have been the first attempt at cancelling it. Arness stated that the show was supposed to have ended with the 21st season. This had been mutually agreed to by the producers and the network. Then, after they all went home after season 20. the network pulled a fast one and canceled it rather than let their longest running show bough out gracefully.

[Nate Grey]

Melrose Place instantly comes to mind. At one point the only original cast members (as in with the show since episode 1 season 1) was Michael and Jane.

Oooh, I'm really curious about how folks feel about Law & Order: SVU in the context of this thread. I can't say I'm a regular watcher, but I've friends from all walks of life who love it, or at least make it a habit to watch.

SVU is a weird one. I would have said it needed to end when they Stabler left, and the character they brought in to fill the void was essentially Stabler lite (Danny Pino's character). But when he left and the show decided to put Olivia in charge of the squad, it found new life. I quite like it now. Its different from when Stabler was on the show, but that's sort of a good thing. Benson isn't just "babysitter" to someone with rage issues (Stabler and then Amaro) anymore, she's her own character and I like the new dynamic of her running the squad.

[Jim Kelly]

Melrose Place instantly comes to mind. At one point the only original cast members (as in with the show since episode 1 season 1) was Michael and Jane.

I never watched much of MELROSE PLACE during its original run, but some years back I had a job with odd hours, so I was home during the day and the only TV station I could get was one that re-ran a lot of old shows every weekday. So I started to watch MELROSE PLACE and enjoyed it right to the end. I recently started watching it from the beginning and most of the actors in that first season are terrible--they should have been fired, because they were no good. Once the producers figured out the real identity for the show, it got a lot better. The one actor that never got any better was Doug Savant--his acting was consistently awful.