Quality TV shows that stayed on way, way too long

[Nate Grey]

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.

The first season was literally "What if 90210 analogues had their own show?" Without the parents/school setting its dull. Someone had the idea to turn it into practically a parody of how characters on soaps play sexual musical chairs for the second season and they struck gold. But IMO the show plateaued when Sidney died (or "died" if you count the 2009 revival). It wasn't fun anymore, it was fast becoming silly and dull. I stayed till the end but by that point it was a chore to watch.

[Immortal Weapon]

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.

I would have liked to have seen the Red John case end sooner as well. 6 and half seasons is way too long to keep a single case going. I felt it went off the rails once Red John become more than a serial killer. No serial killer has his own criminal network. He was an Enterprise unto himself.

[Nate Grey]

Highlander. Most of the eps for the final season were backdoor pilots that never took off.

Andromeda. I thought Tyr added a good counterbalance to Dylan Hunt. When he left, it was never the same.

Earth: Final Conflict. I liked the changed in lead (Boone "died" at the start of season 2, and we got Liam Kincaid) and tone (Zo'or made a good villain). But that final season...something about the Atuvus, essentially energy vampires, I couldn't take serious. Plus Howlyn was no Zo'or.

I want to say Forever Knight, but seems we're mostly talking about shows that lasted 5 years and beyond. It might have lasted longer if they didn't change everything so radically in the third season.

[Cyke]

Also, "24."

How many bad days can one guy really have?

And then the revival had a new character take Jack Bauer's place, this time with an assist by Tony Almeida, but then again that means Almeida knows two people that this sort of thing happens to. The world of 24 is actually pretty hectic and unforgiving and always on the brink of apocalypse, it seems.

[caj]

The first season was literally "What if 90210 analogues had their own show?" Without the parents/school setting its dull. Someone had the idea to turn it into practically a parody of how characters on soaps play sexual musical chairs for the second season and they struck gold. But IMO the show plateaued when Sidney died (or "died" if you count the 2009 revival). It wasn't fun anymore, it was fast becoming silly and dull. I stayed till the end but by that point it was a chore to watch.

Same for me. I think I only watched one or two episodes after that happened and I was done. The second, third, and fourth seasons were the best. Everyone my age watched that show and we couldn't wait to get to work on Tuesdays to talk about what happened on MP the night before.

[caj]

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.

Gunsmoke was actually cancelled after it's twelfth season in favor of renewing Gilligan's Island for a fourth season (along with another 30 minute sitcom). But Gunsmoke was a favorite show of CBS head William Paley and his wife. They insisted that Gunsmoke stay on the air. Gunsmoke had fallen out of the Top 30, but had a revival after almost being cancelled and returned to the Top 10 the following season.


https://mercurie.blogspot.com/2010/0...gilligans.html

[Kusanagi]

Sliders, don't know if it counts as great, but by the end of the show only Rembrandt was left of the original cast. Should have ended well before that.

Scrubs, the Office, there's a lot of comedies that went a season or two too long.

[Jim Kelly]

I recently binged THE OFFICE but stopped when Michael left and then only watched the finale after that. I found that as soon as Ed Helms showed up on the show, I started to get annoyed. Any scene he was in was ruined for me by knowing how much his character sucked and how he would destroy everything good.

[Joker]

Oh god, 100% The Office.

[Nate Grey]

What's funny is I was looking forward to Michael's departure to see how Andy would run things...and then he had oversight by this ever-present Robert California character. I love James Spader but hated this character. So we never got to see how Andy would run things alone and by the time California left the damage was done.

[GOLGO 13]

Sex & the City
Which is ironic since it’s about a group of super privileged 30+ Yr old, single women acting like they’re in their 20’s.

[Frobisher]

There is now way, way more bad Simpsons than there ever was good. Hard to believe now how incredible and iconic it was at its peak.

[Cyke]

There is now way, way more bad Simpsons than there ever was good. Hard to believe now how incredible and iconic it was at its peak.

This kinda reminds me, South Park is barely mentioned in the same breath as the thread topic. I'm not really a regular watcher and so I can't comment on its quality over the years, but it's so interesting to me that it's two decades old and it's now at the age where Parker and Stone can now make an occasional episode saying, "Hey, we changed our minds about X topic since the 90s" or "What we said back then is shitty by today's standards, so let's change things up a bit to reflect what we think now."

Unfortunately for the Simpsons, I feel like they're so trapped into that nostalgic mindset of its glory days that they've stagnated while simultaneously worried about that very thing, whereas South Park at least allows itself some time to evolve and adapt. There was a time when I stopped watch the Simpsons once every other episode had a musical montage.

[Powerboy]

Gunsmoke was actually cancelled after it's twelfth season in favor of renewing Gilligan's Island for a fourth season (along with another 30 minute sitcom). But Gunsmoke was a favorite show of CBS head William Paley and his wife. They insisted that Gunsmoke stay on the air. Gunsmoke had fallen out of the Top 30, but had a revival after almost being cancelled and returned to the Top 10 the following season.


https://mercurie.blogspot.com/2010/0...gilligans.html

That's interesting.

My best friend's mother was a huge Gunsmoke fan and read every sort of behind the scenes information she could get.

Apparently, in addition to the Paleys. James Arness had a lot of power at the network by the time Gunsmoke was in its second decade and really pushed for Gunsmoke to get that Monday night at 8 slot (considered the best slot on television because it tends to be the most watched prime time hour). Supposedly, that influence also kept the show on the air during several times that it was close to cancelation.

Too bad about the Gilligan's Island thing. Sounds like, by "quality", Paley really only cared about the critics' opinions and not its popularity with the audience.

But Gilligan's Island is one of those shows that proved so popular in reruns that people assume it ran for many years. Kind of like the Honeymooners which is remembered as a classic but only ran one season in it's original form though it continued as part of the Jackie Gleason Show and later specials.

Regarding Gunsmoke, it went on way too long and got way too repetitive. But, back when it started, it really did usher in a new era of the realistic western. Oh, it would seem hopelessly unrealistic today but, compared to what was going on at the time (the Singing Cowboys and so on), it seemed very realistic. As a small child in the early 1960s, I can remember being sometimes scared by the sheer violence although the violence would be laughable by today's standards.

[Osiris-Rex]

That's interesting.

Regarding Gunsmoke, it went on way too long and got way too repetitive. But, back when it started, it really did usher in a new era of the realistic western. Oh, it would seem hopelessly unrealistic today but, compared to what was going on at the time (the Singing Cowboys and so on), it seemed very realistic. As a small child in the early 1960s, I can remember being sometimes scared by the sheer violence although the violence would be laughable by today's standards.

The later seasons become more of an anthology, episodes centering around guest stars and their stories. With Matt Dillon as more of a side character that had little screen time or involvement in the overall story.
Sometimes just showing up in the final scene. There were the occasional Marshall Dillon stories, but less than when the series started.

In a similar vein what has kept Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on so long is the change in focus on the lead character. After a while the show had evolved into the Elliot Stabler show, with most stories
centered around Stabler to the point it was him and his family members. After a while it seemed they were running out of ideas and some of the later Stabler episodes had become just silly. After Meloni
left it became more focused on the supporting characters. But lately it seems to be more the Olivia Benson show with Olivia becoming the Stabler character.