Shows That "Collapsed" Right At The End

[Stanislav]

Let us not forget "Leave It To Beaver" in the 1962-63 season, its
last. Jerry Mathers had gotten fat and lost his naturalness as he
reached his teens.

Many separate LITB into pre- and post-puberty eras. Once Jerry Mathers' voice broke, it was all downhill.....

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I liked the "Leave it To Beaver" episodes much more from the later seasons (1960-61, 1961-62, 1962-63) than I did the earlier ones. While Jerry Mathers may not have been that cute little boy named "Beaver", the overall cast members were more defined with had more of "Eddie" and "Lumpy" in the stories. While some may feel the references to personalities of that period ("Jackie Kennedy", "Cassius Clay" or "Tuesday Weld") in the stories might cause them to be dated, I have always liked hearing them when viewed today. Maybe it is a kind of an inside joke for us old-timers against the younger generation.

 

[snailboy]

One of my all time favorite shows is Mama's Family. WKRP is another show I can't remember how it ended.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

The last season of "The Carol Burnett Show" (1977-78).
Harvey Korman (God rest him) had left, and Dick Van you-know
had come in as Carol's number two.
Let us not forget "Leave It To Beaver" in the 1962-63 season, its
last. Jerry Mathers had gotten fat and lost his naturalness as he
reached his teens. Most of that last season revolved around Wally.
Another show, "My Three Sons," was overcrowded by its last season
(1971-72).
One of the all-time funniest moments on "TCBS" was in the last season...The "Family" sketch where Tim Conway tells the Siamese elephant story and reduces everyone else to giggling jello.

One of the worst things about "Beaver"'s last season was the jazzy big band rerecording of the theme song.

As far as "My Three Sons", part of the overcrowding was Fred MacMurray playing both Steve and Uncle Fergus. (Betcha forgot about him, huh?)

 

[azumanga]

Laverne and Shirley collapsed pretty much when Cindy Williams left the show when she was pregnant with her baby. Some very weird episodes appeared in the last season after Shirley left when Laverne went to death row for robbing a bank. Death row for robbing a bank? That was a shocker when I saw this episode in first run.

Such a shocker that it merited a two-part episode.

A good final episode where Shirley comes back with her baby and Laverne gets a marriage proposal would have been a better ending.

Unfortunately, the final episode was a mere back-door pilot, with Carmine moving to New York City to star in the Broadway musical, "Hair"; Laverne only appeared at the start and end of the show. A show like L&S deserved a better ending, but in the end, it not only "jumped the shark" by moving to Burbank, it became chum for the shark to snack on.

 

[tlyle]

My Three sons: not sure if this is true, but I read somewhere that everyone had to film around Fred McMurray's schedule. Some said he was hard to work with towards the end.

 

[anotherguyTN]

One of the all-time funniest moments on "TCBS" was in the last season...The "Family" sketch where Tim Conway tells the Siamese elephant story and reduces everyone else to giggling jello.

I love that routine, but I was thinking that this was only shown as a blooper until the reunion show, at least not in its entirety, if for nothing else but Vicki Lawrence as Mama saying "Are you sure that little a*****e's through?" ;D

 

[Newname]

My Three sons: not sure if this is true, but I read somewhere that everyone had to film around Fred McMurray's schedule. Some said he was hard to work with towards the end.

I read somewhere that MacMurray had a clause in his contract stipulating he only needed to show up for a few weeks out of each season, and they'd film all of his scenes with the other cast members in several all-day filming sessions. (I guess it was similar to how Pat Sajak now does 'Wheel of Fortune' while working only a few weeks per year).
They'd get through 5 or 6 different episodes that way, and while MacMurray was away from the set, they'd go back to filming the episodes on schedule, and do all the scenes that didn't feature him/Steve. This often threw the other regulars off, as they'd have to act out scenes with him, then go back to memorizing lines for totally different episodes without him.

 

[firepoint525]

Beverly Hills, 90210 got sort of weird there at the very end. The show was originally about the Walsh family's transition from Minneapolis to Beverly Hills. But once Jason Priestley (Brandon) left the show, there were no longer any Walshes in the zip code. But the show continued for about two more years. Even on the final episode (the David-Donna wedding), Brandon only appeared via video. And Brenda was pixilated out of any scenes from previous episodes that she had appeared in! :

 

[gr8oldies]

Saw one of the My Three Sons cast members on a talk show and he mentioned they had to talk to mops a lot as Fred MacMurrray wasn't around much

 

[BrigThomson]

It was also alleged that he did not like working with the young folk. Apparently he "worked" with them but he wasn't the fatherly figure he portrayed.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

That's an interesting observation in that "My Three Sons" had many young actors and actresses in the cast over the many seasons with the three sons, their friends, etc. It's also notable since late in his film career, McMurray was in a number of Disney movies: "Shaggy Dog", "Flubber" "Follow Me Boys", etc. that also had young actors and actresses in the films.

 

[bpatrick]

It was also alleged that he did not like working with the young folk. Apparently he "worked" with them but he wasn't the fatherly figure he portrayed.

Basically the same thing was said about Robert Young on "Father Knows Best."
Billy Gray (Bud) has said that all Young cared was that all the actors showed
up on time, knew their lines, and hit their marks. Unlike many family sitcoms,
where the sitcom kids often visit with the grownups' real kids when not working, Young had no off-camera interaction with Gray, Elinor Donahue, and Lauren Chapin.

Young himself once said that he got letters from viewers asking his advice
on child-rearing. His standard answer was that "Father Knows Best" was a television
show written by writers and performed by actors.

 

[azumanga]

[Robert] Young himself once said that he got letters from viewers asking his advice
on child-rearing. His standard answer was that "Father Knows Best" was a television
show written by writers and performed by actors.

I wonder if he said the same thing later on about "Marcus Welby, MD"?

 

[firepoint525]

[Robert] Young himself once said that he got letters from viewers asking his advice
on child-rearing. His standard answer was that "Father Knows Best" was a television
show written by writers and performed by actors.

I wonder if he said the same thing later on about "Marcus Welby, MD"?

"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV!" ;D

 

[BRNout]

"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV!" ;D

Right line, but wrong doctor - the line was uttered by Chad Everett, who played Dr. Gannon in the CBS series "Medical Center." (which hasn't seen the light of day in YEARS)

It seems so funny now, but no one seemed to notice at the time....until the ads played for a few years.

 

[mleach]

It was also alleged that he did not like working with the young folk. Apparently he "worked" with them but he wasn't the fatherly figure he portrayed.

Basically the same thing was said about Robert Young on "Father Knows Best."
Billy Gray (Bud) has said that all Young cared was that all the actors showed
up on time, knew their lines, and hit their marks. Unlike many family sitcoms,
where the sitcom kids often visit with the grownups' real kids when not working, Young had no off-camera interaction with Gray, Elinor Donahue, and Lauren Chapin.

That is half-true. Young pretty much had no off-camera interaction with Donahue and Gray but for Lauren Chapin, when Young found out just how awful her private life really was, he and his wife would often invite Lauren Chapin into their home to spend weekends with them. I am pretty sure Chapin brought this up on E! a few years back. For a while the Youngs really were like her second family.

Howeve once Father Knows Best ended, so did those weekend trips to the Youngs for Lauren Chapin.

 

[firepoint525]

"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV!" ;D

Right line, but wrong doctor - the line was uttered by Chad Everett, who played Dr. Gannon in the CBS series "Medical Center." (which hasn't seen the light of day in YEARS)

It seems so funny now, but no one seemed to notice at the time....until the ads played for a few years.

Oh, I know, it just seemed appropriate for the occasion! ;D

 

[Andy Coleman]

That line was used by soap vet Peter Bergman who at that time played Dr.Cliff Warner on ABC soap All My Children. Now he plays Jack Abbot on The Young And The Restless

 

[FreddyE1977]

"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV!" ;D

Right line, but wrong doctor - the line was uttered by Chad Everett, who played Dr. Gannon in the CBS series "Medical Center." (which hasn't seen the light of day in YEARS)

It seems so funny now, but no one seemed to notice at the time....until the ads played for a few years.

I can't find that thread on things that scare the pants off of you.....but the theme music for Medical
Center would certainly qualify. If you fall asleep on the couch with the TV on.....this will cure you!