TV Shows that ran too long.

[TVCOOL]

Any show in it that has children as the main character(s) should be cancelled once the kid(s) grow(s) up. Bringing in new "cutesy" kids just because the original child stars are growing up is a sure-fire shark jump!

I believe that the original 90210 should have been cancelled much earlier, like say, right after high school graduation. Once they hit college, the show began to lose direction and focus.

When the WB and UPN were merged to form the CW, Everwood was axed to make room for one final season of Seventh Heaven. BOTH shows were well over the shark by then, but it seems that if one show had to give way for the other, Everwood should have been allowed to continue, while Seventh Heaven got the axe!

I agree with the original 90210 should've cancelled it either in 1994 or 1995. That show ran far too long (to the late 1990s when almost all the original cast left).

 

[Mark Giardina]

Gleason was a talented man who unfortunately did coast along too often, taking too many movie roles beneath his abilities and only realizing his talent occasionally in movies like "The Hustler." And as someone else pointed out, he was a major pain to CBS. He even made them buy his keyhole-shaped house in Peekskill New York when he moved to Florida full-time. They were stuck with it for years.

Another interesting side note: Jackie Gleason refused to take a percentage of the profits made by the movies he appeared in. Instead he insisted on being paid in cash up front.

As for his move to Florida, I remember reading a newspaper article about Gleason shortly after his death.

Someone who served in local government in the community where Gleason lived wanted to name a park after him. Either it was the mayor or someone else in elective office who was quoted as being opposed to the idea; adding the comment: "What the hell did Gleason ever do for our town"?

 

[bpatrick]

Maybe more than Miami Beach did for him. When he did those last
"Honeymooners" specials for ABC he taped them, not at the Miami
Beach Auditorium where his CBS show originated, but at Gunston Hall
in Miami. He also managed to work the word "Miami" (but not "beach")
into the script at every opportunity, even singing "Moon Over Miami"
at one point.

 

[rnigma1]

I would have thought that the Miami area in the '60s did not have the same entertainment infrastructure that New York or LA had. This was certainly true thirty years earlier when the Fleischer brothers moved their cartoon studio there (and it moved back to NY after Paramount fired the Fleischers).

 

[firepoint525]

The problem is Gracie Allen was careful to play Gracie basically as illogical rather than stupid. When Rose (Golden Girls) or Chrissie (Three's Company) or a host of others (Radio's "My Friend Irma") tried it they just come off as plain old stupid.

When it comes to airheads, no one can top Teri Copley of We Got It Made fame notoriety. I would have believed that her stupidity was just an act, except that she also appeared as a panelist on the Match Game/Hollywood Squares hour, and her answers were every bit as stupid as anything that her character might have said. :

 

[mjlarochelle]

Okay, this will stir up something....

I am a huge "Family Guy" fan, but the last two seasons have been almost painfully bad.

The turning point for me was back in early 2010, when they had the Terri Schaivo episode.

 

[bpatrick]

Has anybody mentioned "The Carol Burnett Show"? She should
have called it quits when Harvey Korman left. She may have meant
well hiring Dick Van Dyke to be her "co-star" but everybody knew he
was second banana, and I don't think anyone was comfortable with the
idea of one of television's legends taking a back seat to anyone (even
though, to Dick's credit, he did it to help out a friend). Also, the chemistry
between Harvey and Tim Conway was sorely missing.

Although he'll never admit the ratings for "The Bob Newhart Show" had dropped
considerably in the 1977-78 season, Newhart was smart to let CBS go ahead and
find a replacement. As he put it, the way television was going (in the ABC-dominated
era) he and Emily would have found themselves with new neighbors: an alien and his
female friend, two girls and a guy living together, and three female detectives. But
what goes around comes around, and by 1982 Newhart's style of sitcom was back in
style, as we know from the eight-year run of "Newhart."

 

[jwk1979]

When it comes to airheads, no one can top Teri Copley of We Got It Made fame notoriety. I would have believed that her stupidity was just an act, except that she also appeared as a panelist on the Match Game/Hollywood Squares hour, and her answers were every bit as stupid as anything that her character might have said. :

You do realize that most responses on game shows were scripted, don't you? Even as funny as Paul Lynde seemed to be on the original "Hollywood Squares", everything he basically said was scripted.

 

[firepoint525]

When it comes to airheads, no one can top Teri Copley of We Got It Made fame notoriety. I would have believed that her stupidity was just an act, except that she also appeared as a panelist on the Match Game/Hollywood Squares hour, and her answers were every bit as stupid as anything that her character might have said. :

You do realize that most responses on game shows were scripted, don't you? Even as funny as Paul Lynde seemed to be on the original "Hollywood Squares", everything he basically said was scripted.

Well, I was actually referring to one of her answers on the Match Game half of the show. Heaven help us all if her stupidity was "scripted."

 

[bpatrick]

Since you've brought up Teri Copley I'd have to say "We Got It Made"
lasted about five minutes too long. I think Fred Silverman was trying
to duplicate the success of "Three's Company," which started when he
was at ABC, but "We Got It Made" almost made "Three's Company" look
like Shakespeare. (BTW, Silverman's company developed this show; he
had already been given his walking papers as head of NBC two years before
this show debuted in 1983.)

 

[onairb]

Since the Bay Area did not have an NBC O & O in that era, all of those shows aired on weekend afternoons, on at least two different then-independent stations.

 

[firepoint525]

Don't forget that We Got It Made was revived a few years later, for first-run syndication that depended greatly on the NBC O&Os...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Time_Begins_at_7:30

I remember talk of reviving We Got It Made around 1986 or so (usually followed by a groan), but I didn't realize that it took an extra year to get it on the air. I never saw the syndicated version, but that was probably because I have been a lifelong resident of the central time zone.

By they way, I thought prime time also started at 7:00 p.m. (local time) in the mountain time zone. ???

 

[jwk1979]

I remember talk of reviving We Got It Made around 1986 or so (usually followed by a groan), but I didn't realize that it took an extra year to get it on the air. I never saw the syndicated version, but that was probably because I have been a lifelong resident of the central time zone.

By they way, I thought prime time also started at 7:00 p.m. (local time) in the mountain time zone. ???

"we Got It Made" was on of several shows that were being talk about being revived in 1986. "Too Close For Comfort" was another show that was being mentioned as being revived, even after the death of Ted Knight in the summer 1986. How could you talk about reviving a sitcom when the main star and focus of said show has passed away? That would be like trying to revive "Seinfeld" without Jerry Seinfeld.

 

[onairb]

I remember talk of reviving We Got It Made around 1986 or so (usually followed by a groan), but I didn't realize that it took an extra year to get it on the air. I never saw the syndicated version, but that was probably because I have been a lifelong resident of the central time zone.

By they way, I thought prime time also started at 7:00 p.m. (local time) in the mountain time zone. ???

"we Got It Made" was on of several shows that were being talk about being revived in 1986. "Too Close For Comfort" was another show that was being mentioned as being revived, even after the death of Ted Knight in the summer 1986. How could you talk about reviving a sitcom when the main star and focus of said show has passed away? That would be like trying to revive "Seinfeld" without Jerry Seinfeld.

"Too Close For Comfort" had already changed its title to "The Ted Knight" show-not to be confused with the 1978 CBS sitcom by that name.
The new format had Henry (Ted) and Muriel (Nancy Dussault) leaving San Francisco for Mari County, where Henrey became a cartoonist for a small neighhborhood newspaper. Jim J. Bullick was still around as Monroe, but the two daughters were gone.
This format change was supposed to take place in the fall of '85, but Knight had surgery after being diagnosed with cancer in the summer of that year, and filming for the season was delayed until he felt well enough to work. The show returned in the spring of '86 for a half-season, and it was supposed to come back, but Knight got sick again that summer, and passed away in August.

 

[ixnay]

WLYH-15 COL Lancaster, PA (I associate that station with Lebanon, PA because the facilities are [were?] just south of that city) carried Love Connection and The People's Court (Wapner may have still been presiding) in 1993 when I watched WLYH for Phillies telecasts here in Maryland. It came in better than the Phils' TV flagship at time, WPHL. Watching the promos for LC and TPC, I remember thinking "Why do I think these shows have overstayed their welcome ten years later?". BTW I found the date debriefings on LC boring. Thank God Blind Date came along a few years later - you actually saw the dates in progress rather than the couples on LC just chatting with Woolery.

As for The People's Court, I can probably count on one hand the number of eps I saw end to end (all in the Wapner era). The rest I just channel surfed through.

ixnay

 

[bpatrick]

Judge Marilyn doesn't suffer fools gladly; I'd almost rather go
up against Judge Judy.

 

[Wright County Guy]

Another one that comes to mind is "Barney Miller". They never really replaced Jack Soo or Abe Vigoda.

 

[Mario500]

WLYH-15 COL Lancaster, PA (I associate that station with Lebanon, PA because the facilities are [were?] just south of that city) carried Love Connection and The People's Court (Wapner may have still been presiding) in 1993 when I watched WLYH for Phillies telecasts here in Maryland.   It came in better than the Phils' TV flagship at time, WPHL.  Watching the promos for LC and TPC, I remember thinking "Why do I think these shows have overstayed their welcome ten years later?".  BTW I found the date debriefings on LC boring.  Thank God Blind Date came along a few years later - you actually saw the dates in progress rather than the couples on LC just chatting with Woolery.

As for The People's Court, I can probably count on one hand the number of eps I saw end to end (all in the Wapner era).  The rest I just channel surfed through.

ixnay

In case any readers are wondering about the folks whose last names were embolden, their full names are Joseph Albert Wapner and Charles (Chuck) Herbert Woolery.

 

[ShawnHill1]

WLYH-15 COL Lancaster, PA (I associate that station with Lebanon, PA because the facilities are [were?] just south of that city) carried Love Connection and The People's Court (Wapner may have still been presiding) in 1993 when I watched WLYH for Phillies telecasts here in Maryland. It came in better than the Phils' TV flagship at time, WPHL. Watching the promos for LC and TPC, I remember thinking "Why do I think these shows have overstayed their welcome ten years later?". BTW I found the date debriefings on LC boring. Thank God Blind Date came along a few years later - you actually saw the dates in progress rather than the couples on LC just chatting with Woolery.

As for The People's Court, I can probably count on one hand the number of eps I saw end to end (all in the Wapner era). The rest I just channel surfed through.

ixnay

In case any readers are wondering about the folks whose last names were embolden, their full names are Joseph Albert Wapner and Charles (Chuck) Herbert Woolery.

Thank you, genius...I didn't realize who those guys were