What Shows Overstayed Their Welcome?

[onairb]

Correction: Gloria and Mike had already left "All in the Family" prior to the end of that show. Edith remained as a recurring character, although not seen in every episode, through the first season of "Archie Bunker's Place." She died between the first and second seasons and the first episode of the second season dealt with her death. Gloria and Mike came back for one last episode altogether during the first season in which viewers learned that they were on the brink of divorce. Gloria would be divorced by the time the spin-off, "Gloria," premiered.
Mike and Gloria appeared in an episode of "All in the Family" during its last season in which they were on the brink of divorce. Archie, Edith and Stephanie had gone to California for Thanksgiving with the Stivics when they learned of Mike and Gloria's marriage problems. I don't think Mike (Meathead) every appeared in an episode of "Archie Bunker's Place".

I haven't seen it, but the Stivics visited Archie and Edith for Thanksgiving in 1979 on 'Archie's Place'. That was the last time the entire original cast appeared together on the show.

 

[firepoint525]

Diff'rent Strokes
Facts of Life
Happy Days
Laverne & Shirley
Three's Company
M*A*S*H
Night Court
Alice
The Jeffersons
One Day at a Time
Little House on the Prairie
L.A. Law
Roseanne
Who's the Boss?
I think it would be easier to list the shows that didn't overstay.

Almost any show that moves on to a new network, after a long run on their original network, probably should have been cancelled all together rather than being moved to a new network.

Same goes for shows that undergo name changes late in their lives.

I believe the dirty little secret here is that the network brass are running out of new ideas, thus must wring all the life they can out of the shows that they already have. Don't know this to be true, just a theory that I have.

 

[therealjm12]

The Beverly Hillbillies. Started out great. Brilliant writing. A lot of satire and social commentary of the day. It started running out of steam, like many shows, when they switched to color. Then as spin offs came along, (Petticoat Junction, Green Acres) the writing & producing staff were split up. Seems like all the good writers went with Green Acres. The Beverly Hillbillies just went downhill from there and by its final season, I was glad to see it go.

As far as, splitting up the team for spin offs: Same thing happened to All in the Family. After The Jeffersons got their own show, and Maude, Good Times, Norman Lear had too much on his plate. The writing went way down hill for A.I.T.F. and Archie Bunker's Place. The shows lost their edginess.

 

[firepoint525]

One show that comes to mind is Beverly Hills 90210.  It was fine when they were in school, but once everyone that was in the cast left college, I lost interest in the show.  It got even more boring once Jason Priestly, Gabrielle Carteris, & Luke Perry left (he returned in season 9, but I stopped watching the show before he returned).  I would have liked to seen Shannon Doherty's character Brenda Walsh to return on occasion. 

Don't forget that most of the main cast were juniors for two seasons, while David Silver jumped from being a freshman to a sophomore during the same time frame.  (Given how smart Andrea was, it is unlikely that she would have repeated a grade!)  Add to that, David, by that time a junior while the rest were seniors, mentioned that he could graduate with the rest of the gang if he "doubled-up" on a few courses in that next semester.  This was during the Christmas episode of that particular season, so we are led to believe that David could do three semesters' worth of classwork in just one semester, while Andrea was repeating a grade? 

Not to mention, Kelly berating her older friend in the first season for abusing diet pills, while nearly passing out from them herself just a couple of years later!

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

M*A*S*H

I agree with you about M*A*S*H. The Korean War lasted all of 3 years, yet M*A*S*H stayed on for 12 seasons, which means that every season the equivilant of 3 months, so both Trapper John and Col. Blake only served a total of 9 months in Korea. And war must have been hell because both Hawkeye and HotLips looked liked they aged 12 years during Korean Conflict.

Not to mention that everyone looked like they were in the modern day era that the series aired in in the later years rather than in the early 1950's. The earlier shows from about 1972-1977 depicted more of what the characters wore and dressed like in the 1950's. Mike Farrell with a mustache and everyone with longer hair as an example would have been a no-no in the military back in the 1940's and 1950's.

And then I have always seen critics say that particularly the last few years of M*A*S*H was almost like Alan Alda's personal "soapbox."

 

[Braves2005]

Welcome Back, Kotter became a huge dud especially after John Travolta became a huge movie star first with Saturday Night Fever and then with Grease. The Kotters having twins didn't help much and neither did Vinnie's replacement Beau as a Sweathog. Julie was seen far less than before and neither were the twins for that matter and when Travolta did appear in the last season as a hospital orderly, Travolta was billed as a "Very Special Guest Star". Add the fact that ABC changed time slots on Kotter several times in the last season and the ratings plummeting in the last two seasons of the show and everyone could see why Kotter wasn't the hit it was before.

 

[onairb]

Welcome Back, Kotter became a huge dud especially after John Travolta became a huge movie star first with Saturday Night Fever and then with Grease. The Kotters having twins didn't help much and neither did Vinnie's replacement Beau as a Sweathog. Julie was seen far less than before and neither were the twins for that matter and when Travolta did appear in the last season as a hospital orderly, Travolta was billed as a "Very Special Guest Star". Add the fact that ABC changed time slots on Kotter several times in the last season and the ratings plummeting in the last two seasons of the show and everyone could see why Kotter wasn't the hit it was before.

Julie actually appeared more often than Gabe did in that final season. There were some major 'creative differences' and disputes among Gabe Kaplan, James Komack, and ABC, and presumably as a result, Gabe(Kotter, that is) got 'promoted' on the show, which in effect was a 'demotion' for Gabe Kaplan. The title character became vice-principal, while Mr. Woodman moved up to principal. In a reverse of the old format, Principal Woodman was still on every week(at one point he stoped by just to say hi to Julie...and tell her a joke..because 'Gabe was out of town', and you probably miss hearing his jokes'! ???), while the vice-principal was virtually ignored. Kaplan was only in about half a dozen episodes, and a couple of those were only token cameos(with Gabe either 'just leaving' or 'just getting home'.) They tried a few episodes with Julie teaching what had been the 'Sweathogs class', but eventually, she became Woodman's secretary, and the guys might stop by and ask her for advice(eventually, they just stopped by the Kotters' apartment, when Gabe was seldom at home).

 

[Markxxx]

I don't think you can fault producers for trying to get "one more season" out of it. But when that "one more" lasts more than one season you have issues

I think when the show changes direction it's troublesome. Like "Kate & Allie" which I loved. The show was basically about a confident Kate and Allie who was learning to stand on her own to feet. The last season the roles reversed and it was Allie who was confident and Kate who was all unsure. And while we had years to watch Allie get confident, seemingly overnight Kate just fell apart.

"Laverne & Shirely" missed out on a lot of potential. I would've loved to see Laverne and Shirley raise Shirely's baby. That would've been good for one more season. Or when Shirley left they should've had Big Ol' Rosie Greenbaum's husband kick her out and then she was forced to live with Laverne.

 

[Ultimajock]

...the second (all-colour) season of Branded was awful compared to the first (part b&w, part colour) season. Same for the last, no-cliffhanger season of Batman (Yvonne Craig notwithstanding). And I also don't feel the final, Linda Thorson season of The Avengers was as good as the Diana Rigg years, but I'd still prefer the Thorson episodes to most other shows on at the time. As for current network offerings, The Simpsons isn't even running on fumes anymore, they're merely coasting along a plateau...

 

[tantric38]

You're dead on about the Simpsons. Any show that lasts so long gets stale and tired, and they passed both at least ten years ago. It's standing from pure habit, and sadly it appears that Family Guy is suffering the same fate. It's just not as laugh-out-loud as it was just a couple of years ago. I have to submit Seinfeld even though it may have overstayed by a few episodes. Remember the Puerto Rican Day Parade? That was offensive mainly because it wasn't funny. And the finale was just an abomination. It was a phone-in w/ an idiotic storyline. Plus the timing was way off, or at least it would have been were there anything funny to time. Not saying every one of these shows was hitting on all cylinders every week. It's just a shame when you know a once-great show is swirling the drain and is unlikely escape the vortex.

 

[Ultimajock]

You're dead on about the Simpsons. Any show that lasts so long gets stale and tired, and they passed both at least ten years ago. It's standing from pure habit

...and, mind you, I stated my originating opinion as (a) a Harry Shearer fan of decades standing, and (b) someone who's had a hopeless crush on Yeardley Smith for almost as long ;-) ...

 

[therealjm12]

I have had time lately to watch Malcom in the Middle of FX. I watched it originally on FOX. I think the show was pretty good. Very well written & acted. They just ran the final episode which was a good finale -tied up the loose ends. Another season, though, they would have jumped the shark.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Even though Smallville will end its 10 year run after this upcoming season, that show, IMHO, ran out of gas about five years ago.

With the exception of Tom Welling, the original regular cast was smart enough to bail out while the program still maintained some entertaining value.

It will be interesting to see if WB will try to syndicate the show on CW or try another network.

What is truly a shame is that Smallville had such great potential when it first aired only to end up be mired in mediocre scripts and just plain bad acting.

 

[dmargalotti]

How about NYPD Blue? A great show that hit it's stride in the 2nd season. The show definitely lost something after Jimmy Smits left in season 6 but it still managed to hang in there through a couple of seasons with Rick Schroeder. I thought that once Mark-Paul Gosselaar came on board, the show went steadily down hill. As much as I loved the character of Andy Sipowicz as played by Dennis Franz, the show ran a couple of seasons longer than it should have.

 

[KML0224]

Agreed on the NYPD Blue comments! I also used to watch that show and thought it was at it's best from seasons 2 to 6 when Smits was on board. The finale when they killed him off was that week's #2 rated show, which is the highest it scored in any single week. I still remember in (I think) the next-to-last season, when they had Charlotte Ross' character nude in one scene. It was probably the closest I saw ABC get to full nudity. I never really cared for Rick Schroder and could never take Zack, er...Paul Gosselaar seriously.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Sanford and Son comes to mind. Especially when Redd Foxx walked off the set in a dispute over his dressing room (at least that was his excuse) and Demond Wilson was high on drugs. Whitman Mayo (Grady) and Aunt Esther just were not funny. By the time Foxx returned, the show had run its course.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Sanford and Son comes to mind. Especially when Redd Foxx walked off the set in a dispute over his dressing room (at least that was his excuse) and Demond Wilson was high on drugs. Whitman Mayo (Grady) and Aunt Esther just were not funny. By the time Foxx returned, the show had run its course.

The same could be said for "Good Times." John Amos and eventually Esther Rolle left the series because the focus was on Jimmy Walker.
Amos went on to have a major role in the TV series "Roots" plus other projects. Ms. Rolle was also featured on numerous TV shows before her death a few years ago. As for "JJ" Jimmy Walker, he's still waiting at the unemployment office for his check.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

What about "One Tree Hill"? Two major characters are just written out of the show (Lucas and Peyton) with no explanation in the story line as to where they went. Viewers have to accept that Nathan Scott is cool without Lucas and Brooke without Peyton. Did I just post this?

Law and Order C.I. without Goren and Eames

 

[Limp73]

The last two seasons of The Avengers when Tara King (Linda Thorson)replaced Emma Peel (Diana Rigg). It just wasn't the same anymore.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

The Sopranos. The question is whether it went on too long or ended too soon