Shows That "Collapsed" Right At The End

[gr8oldies]

I'm thinking one of my favorites, "The Office", may have jumped the shark this season. Between Jan's "donor pregnancy", Pam's "phoning" her appearances in at Art School in New York, and Michael's new romance where his love interest is promptly transferred..I dunno.

 

[ixnay]

What show doesn't "go commerical" after it becomes popular. I remember shows from the 1960s like the "Beverly Hillbillies" and the "Munsters" going to Marineland.
It's been years, but I remember those being specials and not actual episodes of the shows.

IIRC the Hillbillies cast's Marineland appearance was mentioned elsewhere on R-I a few months ago.

ixnay

 

[bpatrick]

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.

"Bewitched" should have hung it up in 1969, when Dick York left. Dick Sargent
always seemed crabbier to me. And I think those last three seasons were too
childish; too much of Tabitha interacting with fairy-tale characters and that sort
of thing.

Don't forget "What's Happening Now!!", the syndicated revival of "What's
Happening!!" Like so many revivals, it was pretty bad; I remember "WKRP
In Cincinnati" having a very short run with new syndicated episodes.

 

[ixnay]

Brady Bunch with Oliver..

IIRC Oliver was added during the final season. Too bad a tic tac toe board (at least the 3x3 variety) doesn't have ten squares, IYKWIM.

ixnay

 

[firepoint525]

Brady Bunch with Oliver..

IIRC Oliver was added during the final season. Too bad a tic tac toe board (at least the 3x3 variety) doesn't have ten squares, IYKWIM.

ixnay

Mike Brady was supposedly going to leave the Brady Bunch if they had continued for another season, because Sherwood Schwartz had supposedly had it with Robert Reed and was going to kick him off the show. So maybe Oliver could have inherited his square on that Hollywood Squares diagram! ;D

 

[nightfly61]

Brady Bunch with Oliver..

IIRC Oliver was added during the final season. Too bad a tic tac toe board (at least the 3x3 variety) doesn't have ten squares, IYKWIM.

ixnay

Mike Brady was supposedly going to leave the Brady Bunch if they had continued for another season, because Sherwood Schwartz had supposedly had it with Robert Reed and was going to kick him off the show. So maybe Oliver could have inherited his square on that Hollywood Squares diagram! ;D

I still say Tiger the dog should've had his own square. I'm such a square.

Not a t.v show, but a commercial character that bottomed out when they brought him back...Mr. Whipple. I liked him much better scolding customers & yelling at ladies & policemen for squeezing the Charmin...Then years later he came back as a nice Mr. Whipple. Kinda like the new semi-smug Maytag Repairman. I liked much better the old "nice" Maytag Repairman with the dog who would howl when he sang the song about being lonely.

 

[bpatrick]

I don't know who's playing the Maytag repairman now,
but Jesse White and Gordon Jump played him in earlier
times. White seemed just a bit more abrasive but I
think I liked him better.

I don't remember the "nice" Mr. Whipple. Did Dick
Wilson play him the second time around?

 

[firepoint525]

Brady Bunch with Oliver..

IIRC Oliver was added during the final season. Too bad a tic tac toe board (at least the 3x3 variety) doesn't have ten squares, IYKWIM.

ixnay

Mike Brady was supposedly going to leave the Brady Bunch if they had continued for another season, because Sherwood Schwartz had supposedly had it with Robert Reed and was going to kick him off the show. So maybe Oliver could have inherited his square on that Hollywood Squares diagram! ;D

I still say Tiger the dog should've had his own square. I'm such a square.

Didn't they continue to have a doghouse in that (astroturf) backyard of theirs even after they no longer had a dog? ;D

 

[cowboybud]

Brady Bunch with Oliver..

IIRC Oliver was added during the final season. Too bad a tic tac toe board (at least the 3x3 variety) doesn't have ten squares, IYKWIM.

ixnay

Mike Brady was supposedly going to leave the Brady Bunch if they had continued for another season, because Sherwood Schwartz had supposedly had it with Robert Reed and was going to kick him off the show. So maybe Oliver could have inherited his square on that Hollywood Squares diagram! ;D

Reed actually walked off the set prior to the final episode (with the orange hair tonic) being filmed.

 

[Newname]

"Bewitched" should have hung it up in 1969, when Dick York left. Dick Sargent
always seemed crabbier to me. And I think those last three seasons were too
childish; too much of Tabitha interacting with fairy-tale characters and that sort
of thing.

I agree. Actually, they might as well have pulled the plug in 1968, after season 4. Dick York had chronic back pain that forced him to leave the show in '69, but it was really flaring up the year before. A lot of those episodes York didn't appear in (unless Darrin appeared only briefly 'calling from the airport on a business trip') were due to York's health issues. Also, Marion Lorne died before the end of the fourth season, and the show really lost some of its charm when Aunt Clara simply disappeared.

 

[Newname]

I don't know who's playing the Maytag repairman now,
but Jesse White and Gordon Jump played him in earlier
times. White seemed just a bit more abrasive but I
think I liked him better.

I don't remember the "nice" Mr. Whipple. Did Dick
Wilson play him the second time around?

Yes, but his 'return' was forgettable. He often didn't say anything other than 'I'm back!' and a quick sales pitch for Charmin. Although he still spoke to customers, he didn't have that 'classic' interaction with them, and didn't 'scold' the way he used to.

As for the Maytag Man...wikipedia says that Jump's replacement was a 'character actor named Hardy Rawls(2003),and in some ads in 2005, the 'apprentice repairman' was played by Mark Devine.
The current one (since 2007) is Clay Jackson.
I'm old enough to remember White (and 'Newton', the bassett hound from the later ads), as well as Jump, but White just nailed the 'sad and lonely' aspect better than Jump.

 

[nightfly61]

Family Ties collapsed once Andy & Jennifer sterted growing up & Alex played second fiddle to sometimes Max & Mallory :. Just wasn't the same.

 

[KyDXIn]

My personal favorite use of an amusement park is the video over the closing credits of Step by Step - shot at Magic Mountain in Northern Los Angeles County. Shot from the air over the roller coaster, the ocean appears as the helicopter pulls away. Interesting since Magic Mountain at least 30 miles inland.

I often wondered why it was decided to CGI the ocean in to that shot. Just for dramtic effect I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tlABajJGCc

Didn't "Step by step" take place in Port Washington, WI, so wouldn't that be Lake Michigan instead of the ocean?

 

[LKellerIII]

My personal favorite use of an amusement park is the video over the closing credits of Step by Step - shot at Magic Mountain in Northern Los Angeles County. Shot from the air over the roller coaster, the ocean appears as the helicopter pulls away. Interesting since Magic Mountain at least 30 miles inland.

I often wondered why it was decided to CGI the ocean in to that shot. Just for dramtic effect I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tlABajJGCc

Didn't "Step by step" take place in Port Washington, WI, so wouldn't that be Lake Michigan instead of the ocean?
[/quote
]Yes - somebody explained the locale of the show in a post following the one you quoted. Not being a big Step by Step fan, I had forgotten that - just remembered the closing credits with the big body of water growing out of Magic Mountain...then found it on Youtube.

 

[Markieo]

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.

There was a story that came out in the 1980's that Robert Young had a bad habit of getting oiled up and whacking his wife around.

I guess he didn't start drinking Sanka brand Decaffienated Coffee until after they divorced!!

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Family Ties collapsed once Andy & Jennifer sterted growing up & Alex played second fiddle to sometimes Max & Mallory :. Just wasn't the same.

Do you mean "Nick" instead of Max (Nick, played by Scott Valentine, was Mallory's boyfriend starting in season 4).

 

[KyDXIn]

What show doesn't "go commerical" after it becomes popular. I remember shows from the 1960s like the "Beverly Hillbillies" and the "Munsters" going to Marineland.It's been years, but I remember those being specials and not actual episodes of the shows.

IIRC the Hillbillies cast's Marineland appearance was mentioned elsewhere on R-I a few months ago.
ixnay

Wow! Thanks for the info.