Shows That "Collapsed" Right At The End

[Markxxx]

Thinking about the other thread where shows didn't get a decent send off, I was thinking about Laverne and Shirely. Once a good show it seemed to collapse right in on itself at the end. First Shirley left, then Lenny left and the whole plot became unworkable and even unwatchable. I thought they should've had Rosie Greenbaum's rich husband leave her and then have her show up with arch rival Laverne's doorstep, after Shirley departed.

It also seemed to me, that Bewtiched also just gave up at the end and started recycling plots. As if to say "let's just pump another year out of this." Although it did have over 300 episodes in total.

Kate And Allie too, seemed to just lose all direction. The whole plot reversed and had Allie the strong one, now that she was married and Kate being lost. To me the new format didn't seem to work and it seemed as if they were just hoping to get some more episodes for syndication

I'm not sure if I'd count Roseanne, as the last year did see the series fall apart but Roseanne was going for an theme, rather than just have the plots and production fall apart willy nilly.

So what other shows do you think just fell apart at the end. I mean fell apart rather than tried a new idea and it didn't work. Like to me What's Happenin' wasn't good but the producers tried to rewrite the show and it didn't work. So to me at least, that was an attempt to improve it and it failed.

I realize this is all subjective, just looking to see.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

"Sanford & Son" is the king of this thread.

 

[TexasTom]

How about "Sliders"? The first couple of seasons that aired on Fox were pretty good, but after it switched over to Sci Fi, it just drifted away from the original concept. The final season was pretty bad.

 

[mleach]

I'm not sure if I'd count Roseanne, as the last year did see the series fall apart but Roseanne was going for an theme, rather than just have the plots and production fall apart willy nilly.

Over the years I have heard that Roseanne did those "Lottery" shows only because she was mad at ABC for forcing her and John Goodman to continue doing Roseanne for another season when neither of them wanted to do it any longer.

 

[LKellerIII]

I thought Cybil (starring Cybil Shepherd) was a very well written show during the first two seasons. But it truly fell apart during the last year. Rumor had it that it had a lot to do with Shepherd's jealousy and ill-will toward Christine Baranski, who had stolen a lot of the attention away from her with the portrayl of Cybil's hard-drinking and partying sidekick.

That didn't explain the suddenly awful scripts, though.

 

[chris12]

Happy Days in its last few years with Richie and Ralph gone and Potsie only seen ocasionally limped along its last few years, and when they spun off Joanie and Chachi they brought in cousins like Flip and KC and had Fonzie with a steady girlfriend Ashley and her daughter Heather. In fact with the way those charchters were all dropped for the last season without mention it seemed like that second to last season was a Dallas-like dream season.

 

[quadraphonic]

This thread makes me think of "The Drew Carey Show."

 

[radiorob2.0]

Happy Days in its last few years with Richie and Ralph gone and Potsie only seen ocasionally limped along its last few years, and when they spun off Joanie and Chachi they brought in cousins like Flip and KC and had Fonzie with a steady girlfriend Ashley and her daughter Heather. In fact with the way those charchters were all dropped for the last season without mention it seemed like that second to last season was a Dallas-like dream season.

Happy Days threw out nostalgia in the last few years as well. I seem to remember Mr. C wearing a digital watch along with other out of place analogies.

Another show that collapsed was The A Team. Its last season plot changed killed the show.

 

[bpatrick]

"The Real McCoys." In its final season on CBS,
there was only Grandpa, Luke, Pepino, and neighbor
George McMichael; Kathy Nolan had left the show and
the writers made Luke a widower, and they also eliminated
Hassie and Little Luke.

An attempt was made to get Luke a girlfriend, played
by Janet DeGore, but it didn't work (nor did being on
against "Bonanza" and the ABC Sunday Night Movie).

 

[firepoint525]

Happy Days in its last few years with Richie and Ralph gone and Potsie only seen ocasionally limped along its last few years, and when they spun off Joanie and Chachi they brought in cousins like Flip and KC and had Fonzie with a steady girlfriend Ashley and her daughter Heather. In fact with the way those charchters were all dropped for the last season without mention it seemed like that second to last season was a Dallas-like dream season.

They were probably all hanging out with Chuck Cunningham! ;D

 

[BrigThomson]

Happy Days in its last few years with Richie and Ralph gone and Potsie only seen ocasionally limped along its last few years, and when they spun off Joanie and Chachi they brought in cousins like Flip and KC and had Fonzie with a steady girlfriend Ashley and her daughter Heather. In fact with the way those charchters were all dropped for the last season without mention it seemed like that second to last season was a Dallas-like dream season.

Makes me think of something I heard one time...Whenever a production hires Ted McGinley, you KNOW the show is nearly over!

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Makes me think of something I heard one time...Whenever a production hires Ted McGinley, you KNOW the show is nearly over!
That's why he's the patron saint of Jump The Shark. So, will he kill "Dancing With The Stars"?

I probably should elaborate on my previous "Sanford & Son" post...The last couple years it was on, Redd Foxx was gone, and Demond Wilson looked like he'd rather be having a root canal (he supposedly was quite an aficionado of the white powder at that time, too.)

 

[BobSacamano]

The last season of the Beverly Hillbillies was pretty awful,...Shorty Kellems,...Mark Templeton,..the return of Phil Silvers...ugh

 

[KyDXIn]

Most color versions of Andy Griffith...

Initially when I read "collapsed" I was reminded of Michael Landon blowing up the town of Walnut Grove in the final episode of "Little House on the Prairie". You can't get more collapsed than that.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Most color versions of Andy Griffith...

Initially when I read "collapsed" I was reminded of Michael Landon blowing up the town of Walnut Grove in the final episode of "Little House on the Prairie". You can't get more collapsed than that.

Yes, the last season of Andy was dreadful. The episode where Howard turns his house into a Mayberry version of a bachelor pad is horrible but entertaining.

 

[Andy Coleman]

I agree with all colored shows of Andy Griffith Show. In the Heat of the night was same way after Virgil became a lawyer and was getting his law degree. They hired Carl Weathers to mostly replace Virgil. How could you replace Virgil Tibbs. To me Virgil was the star of theseries. He came to town with a wife on the pilot for the show. ok his wife left him when he was in law school. ok Althea would never leave Virgil . She seemed to love him in the NBC shows. Now on the CBS shows Althea wasn't showed much. Then when Virgil got his law degree Althea was written out so he stayed in Sparta and practiced law while Bill was sheriff of the county . It still can't figure that out.

 

[Stuart]

Sadly enough, I am going to have to throw "Law & Order" and "Law & Order, SVU" into the mix.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Most color versions of Andy Griffith...

For me personally the Andy Griffith Show lost its appeal when Don Knotts left. Jack Burns, who replaced Knott's as Andy's Deputy, wasn't funny at all, neither were other replacements: George Lindsey (Goober Pyle), Jack Dodson ( Howard Sprague), Paul Hartman (Emmett Clark).
One of the biggest mistakes the show made was getting rid of Elinor Donohue and replacing her with Aneta Corsaut, who played Helen Crump. Donohue and Griffith made for a better love interest than the milk toast Corsaut.
I do feel bad for Ken Berry however. I read that when he signed on to be Sam Jones on the spin-off, Mayberry RFD, he went out and bought a house thinking the series would be on the air for a few years. Unfortunately that's around the same time some brass-hat at CBS decided to deep-six most of their top 10 shows because many of them had a rural setting. Heaven forbid there are actually people living between New York City and Los Angeles.

 

[Braves2005]

Most color versions of Andy Griffith...

For me personally the Andy Griffith Show lost its appeal when Don Knotts left. Jack Burns, who replaced Knott's as Andy's Deputy, wasn't funny at all, neither were other replacements: George Lindsey (Goober Pyle), Jack Dodson ( Howard Sprague), Paul Hartman (Emmett Clark).
One of the biggest mistakes the show made was getting rid of Elinor Donohue and replacing her with Aneta Corsaut, who played Helen Crump. Donohue and Griffith made for a better love interest than the milk toast Corsaut.

I thought that Helen was a perfect love interest for Andy, but at first when they first met (episode when Andy tells Opie not to study history in school), things were a bit rocky but they smoothed over in the episodes that followed. I like the episodes when both Andy and Helen were both jealous of each other's men and women friends and associates (Andy was jealous of the school superintendant, Helen was jealous of the lady attorney, Lee Drake (played by Whitney Blake), both Thelma Lou and Helen were jealous of The Fun Girls, etc.), but then again that's what made the show in the color years

I also enjoyed Goober and Howard and especially Goober as he was introduced in the black and white episodes. He had to fill in for Gomer who had joined the Marines and his own show at this time so I thought Goober was funny in the episodes that he was in (one that stands out was when Andy went out of town on business and he asks Goober to take over at the courthouse and things turned chaotic when he fixed a car there and when Andy sees the car in the courthouse, he gets really mad)

Also, Opie was getting older and he wasn't a little kid anymore and by the last season, he was a teenager and was in high school and Opie was featured in several episodes for himself like the episode where he formed his rock band and it got to his head and Opie developed a crush on a girl in the episodes which featured Sam and his son Mike to segueway to the new show Mayberry RFD.

 

[firepoint525]

Happy Days in its last few years with Richie and Ralph gone and Potsie only seen ocasionally limped along its last few years, and when they spun off Joanie and Chachi they brought in cousins like Flip and KC and had Fonzie with a steady girlfriend Ashley and her daughter Heather. In fact with the way those charchters were all dropped for the last season without mention it seemed like that second to last season was a Dallas-like dream season.

Makes me think of something I heard one time...Whenever a production hires Ted McGinley, you KNOW the show is nearly over!

If Ted McGinley were to ever get his own show (let's call it something generic, like "The Ted McGinley Show"), would it jump the shark on it's very first day? ;D