Long after they jumped the shark
Family Matters
Beverly Hills 90210
Happy Days
Family Matters
Beverly Hills 90210
Happy Days
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Shows that were cancalled too late
- Thread starter nomadcowatbk
- Start date
I just finished watching reruns of the Newhart show and the last season, season 8 (actually you'd have to include the last few episodes of season 7 too) was a complete waste, except the final show of course.
I had forgotten the writers totally altered the show and went wild. From Larry and the Darryls suddenly become intellectuals, knowing celebrities, going to Oxford, and socializing with all of Stephanie's jet set society friends to the whole town being out and out mean spirited. Not to mention they killed Harley off, who was one of my favourites.
Newhart went totally off the map, much the way Roseanne did the last year
I had forgotten the writers totally altered the show and went wild. From Larry and the Darryls suddenly become intellectuals, knowing celebrities, going to Oxford, and socializing with all of Stephanie's jet set society friends to the whole town being out and out mean spirited. Not to mention they killed Harley off, who was one of my favourites.
Newhart went totally off the map, much the way Roseanne did the last year
Mark said:
Agreed! The final show of Newhart was fantastic, of course, and now considered legendary. But I had stopped watching
about 2 seasons before that. The show just bored me senseless - and I've always been a fan of Bob Newhart.
Another one (for me), was Cheers. I stopped watching a few seasons in because Dianne (Shelley Long) irritated me so much. It was nothing against Shelley Long - I've liked her in her films, but her character on that show just drove me up the wall. I tried the show again when Long quit, and Kirstie Alley came on board, but was not impressed. Again - nothing against Kirstie - I just wasn't liking the show.
B
Bob1370
Guest
Now you know why Jerry Seinfeld turned down $125 million plus a seat on the GE corporate board to do one last season in 1998-99...he told the network, and then-GE chairman Jack Welch, that he, Larry David and most of the cast (Michael Richards excepted) had agreed that they had maybe nine or ten good episode ideas left, way less than enough for a full season of shows, and after that the creative tank was going to run dry. So they weren't going to try to pad a 26 episode season with filler, better to quit a half-season too soon than a full season too late. It was one show that didn't overstay its welcome, but went away still missed and still popular enough and consistently funny enough for a seemingly endless rerun afterlife in virtually every large US TV market.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz reached the same conclusion at the start of 1957 and scaled back their commitment to CBS to a limited number of specials, with no more full season runs beyond the spring of '57; worked out for them too, and 60 years after their premiere they're still a daily presence on the Hallmark Channel.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz reached the same conclusion at the start of 1957 and scaled back their commitment to CBS to a limited number of specials, with no more full season runs beyond the spring of '57; worked out for them too, and 60 years after their premiere they're still a daily presence on the Hallmark Channel.
"Murphy Brown" lasted a few seasons too long if you ask me. The last few seasons seem liked that they weren't trying for some reason and Brown's character became dry and unfunny. Seemed as if Candice Bergen was there for the paycheck than anything else and adding Lily Tomlin to the show didn't save it either. No wonder that it has never been a huge syndicated hit in reruns despite being on a bunch of cable channels and none of them ran the show the whole way through.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned Married...With Children yet! It was obvious that they were reaching when they added the Seven kid for that one season. After the cancellation by FOX in 1997, Christina Applegate would go on to Jesse which lasted all of about 2 seasons on NBC. David Faustino appeared in an episode of it once. Then there was the guest appearance of Ed O'Neill on a late episode of 8 Simple Rules on ABC, since that was where Katey Segal ended up.
The first one that comes to mind for me was "The Beverly Hillbillies". The first six seasons were classics, but starting in the 7th season, it seem that the writers had run out of fresh ideas and were trying to make the show more topical with some of their episodes. And when they started doing cross-overs with "Petticoat Junction" and some of their characters, you could they were out of fresh, new ideas. And then, during the 8th and 9th seasons, the storylines for the show basically covered the entire seasons. The Beverly Hillbillies should have called it quits after the 6th season instead of giving half a season of some good episodes (season 7) and then TWO seasons of very bad episodes (Seasons 8 & 9).
Braves2005 said:
The real reason why "Murphy Brown" failed in syndication was it became dated. Since it was set in a newsroom they relayed on current events as part of the storyline. "Seinfeld", "I Love Lucy" and "Andy Griffith" survive because they didn't rely on being topical.
Speaking of topical content, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In" was another that had syndication problem because of topical humor but also another show was canceled too late. When George Schaltter purchased the rights he took the effort to make sure the last season, which he didn't produce, were never shown because he felt the quality was poor.
KML-224 said:
Even though I do agree that when they added "Seven" to the show it jumped the shark, but I think that Season 8 & 9 were pretty strong and funny though.
"Bewitched" should have hung up the broom when Dick York
left; to me, Dick Sargent was always a grump, and the addition
of a second child (Adam) added nothing to the show.
Carol Burnett went about one season too long; her show should
have ended when Harvey Korman left (who could top him and Tim
Conway together?). Much as I respect Dick Van Dyke's talents, I'm
sure the viewing audience felt uncomfortable seeing one of television's
icons reduced to second-banana status, and after he left, Ms. Burnett
was forced to fall back on Ken Berry and Steve Lawrence (practically
regulars anyway but not as good as Harvey).
Someone mentioned "Laugh-In"; I think the reason "Hee Haw" was able
to last 20-something years is because its subject matter does not date,
whereas "Laugh-In"'s does. If there's anything dated about "Hee Haw"
it's that some of the regulars (Junior Samples, Stringbean, Minnie Pearl,
Grandpa Jones, and--of course--Buck Owens, to name a few) and guest
stars have passed on. But the tapes are there for fans of the show to
enjoy their performances sometimes years after these people left us.
left; to me, Dick Sargent was always a grump, and the addition
of a second child (Adam) added nothing to the show.
Carol Burnett went about one season too long; her show should
have ended when Harvey Korman left (who could top him and Tim
Conway together?). Much as I respect Dick Van Dyke's talents, I'm
sure the viewing audience felt uncomfortable seeing one of television's
icons reduced to second-banana status, and after he left, Ms. Burnett
was forced to fall back on Ken Berry and Steve Lawrence (practically
regulars anyway but not as good as Harvey).
Someone mentioned "Laugh-In"; I think the reason "Hee Haw" was able
to last 20-something years is because its subject matter does not date,
whereas "Laugh-In"'s does. If there's anything dated about "Hee Haw"
it's that some of the regulars (Junior Samples, Stringbean, Minnie Pearl,
Grandpa Jones, and--of course--Buck Owens, to name a few) and guest
stars have passed on. But the tapes are there for fans of the show to
enjoy their performances sometimes years after these people left us.
...the entire three seasons of Mayberry RFD; they should have simply ended the run of The Andy Griffith Show and left it at that. Ken Berry was funny on F Troop but never as Griffith's stand-in...
Speaking of Andy Griffith that show should have ended when Don Knots left. Too bad he didn't stay another season. That would have made a nice syndication package. All the episodes after Barney were a waste of film (& color).
therealjm12 said:
I don't disagree about the last (color) season of The Andy Griffith Show, but it is notable for Jack Nicholson's guest-star role as as a person who was wrongly accused. Aunt Bee was on the jury. Here's an excerpt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttGg5xGamHI
therealjm12 said:
WHAS-TV Louisville ran "The Andy Griffith Show" for years and almost the entire time only ran the black and white (Barney) episodes. Before the show moved to WDRB, Channel 11 did finally run the color episodes.
"Scrubs" when it moved to ABC. Season 8 was tough. Season 9 was a different show with the same title.
radiorob2.0 said:
WFMY goes them one better; it runs the color episodes at 10 AM and the black and white ones at 5:30 PM, when there's a larger available audience.
BTW, Andy once said he'd planned to hang it up when Don Knotts quit, but that CBS offered him too much money to do some more. IIRC, he was part-owner of "Mayberry R.F.D." as well.
radiorob2.0 said:
That's what KTTV did here in L.A. when they had the rights in the 80s and 90s; the black & white episodes ran weekdays after I Love Lucy, and when they finally got around to airing the color episodes, those only aired overnights. Locally, little ol' KDOC has the rights, and is airing every episode in order.
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