TV programs that went on too long. name 'em.

Red Dwarf. Should have ended at series VI. The first episode of Series VII where they interfered with JFK's assassination had so much promise, but then they wrote Rimmer off the show, and brought in Kochanski, and then it all went downhill. Series VIII, as far as I'm concerned never happened and does not exist. The only reason I own the DVDs of Series VII and VIII is because I play in the world's largest Trivia Contest, and I need to have all of the episodes in case they ask a question about Red Dwarf. Hell, I've never even watched any of the Series VIII discs.


So tell me, in your opinion, what otherwise good shows went on way too long?

That last season... :scared:

That went on about 4 seasons too long...

Should have ended the whole series 2 or 3 seasons earlier. I actually liked the ending and the way the whole alien conspiracy mytharc played out, but it was dragged on too long for sure.

Frasier lost me about 4 seasons before the end.

By the time the girls were running that store thing and that little blond kid came on...are you kidding me?

"By the time the girls were running that store thing and that little blond kid came on"

and Niles don't look that young. :eyes:

And yeah, I liked Facts Of Life until Blair and Jo graduated. That's where it should have ended. We don't need to watch the FoL girls become grandmothers and turn into Mrs. Garrett, for the love of all that's holy.

I don't remember those episodes, either. Which girls? Which blond kid?

That show was almost painfully unfunny the last 2 seasons.

Where is that nasty little "Poor signal quality" box when you need it? :shrug:

Red Dwarf (after series 6)
Doctor Who (did it really need to be revived as a mere soulless, crowd-pleasing 'product'?)
All in the Family (season 5)
Three's Company (season 5)
Married with Children (Season 5)
The Simpsons (Season 8)

Roseanne was good up until the final season.

I think the first two seasons of it were brilliant, and the 3rd was pretty good too. This last one has me really ticked off though. It was mostly frustrating - there were some good elements, but I don't know if there was a single episode that I completely enjoyed. I'm glad that the current producer is quitting - it has hope of becoming much better again. It went from being a Sci Fi show that actually had emotional content, to being a melodrama with sci fi dressing.

Most of the shows that people have mentioned shouldn't have gone past episode 1. I don't think that the Simpsons has gone of for too long. It's now an institution, and if it stopped, I don't know what would happen - some sort of cosmic disaster. Sure, I don't make a point of watching new ones, but I still watch the show a few times a week. I took a pass on the movie, but maybe I'll watch it during lazy christmas times.

Happy Days
Laverne and Shirley
Dallas

The O'Reilly Factor
Hannity & Colmes
Lou Dobbs
Glen Beck
The list goes on & on...

:wow:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063960/trivia

Two and a half months = stretching the writers. :D

I would have felt much better if they hadn't tortured me waiting for a "final season" and then for the "final episode", it was sadistic!

...I remember when growing up, that I could sit there for an hour, and latter swear it had been three hours...:boring:

It was done by the third season.

They've announced that the 2008-9 season is the final one. It's gone on way too long, the last few years have been pretty forgettable, at least from the few episodes I have seen. The rise of Grey's Anatomy pretty much put the final nails in the coffin of ER. But it was pretty good in its first few years and when George Clooney was on it.

But I don't think they have even one original cast member left. So is it even fair to call it the same show?

...is that the same show?
Duckie

The program jumped the shark when William Frawley was declared too ill to work by Desilu Studios and was replaced midway through the '65 season.

'nuff said

I hear ya :thumbsup:

Totally off topic; I was bitten by Tramps mother when I was a kid. True story.

it was only occasionally good in the middle.

It should have been canceled after the pilot.

That 70's Show went WAY too long too. Shit, by the end it could have been called That Late 80's Show.

he was running out of ways to incorporate cute little kids into his house once Rudy was too old to do it. (jmho)

But I could never get into the '70s' show -I never understood its appeal and quite frankly I found it annoying

once Eric left and/or Brooke Shields stopped doing cameo's the show lost it.

But Red Forman is my hero. :rofl:

It got stale and the last 2 seasons of it weren't funny. They were just weird without being funny. They only kept the show going to make more money.

when the original "cute kid" got too old to be cute.

As soon as a main character gets pregnant (no matter how absurdly old they are erm herm Malcom in the Middle and Roseanne) you know the show will be cancelled in two to three seasons. They'll milk it for a "very special" season finale and a couple jokes about puking and screaming and then the kid will disappear until it's old enough to be cast as a little moppet and then the show will be cancelled within six months.

At least the Cosby show had the dignity to do this with grandkids instead of 50+ women having another kid they don't really want in shows where half the gags are about how much they can't wait to send off the kids they already have. Seriously, are they living in some red state hell where abortions are really that impossible to get?

The whole Avatar/Billy nonsense, well, someone should've been looking out for that shark.

60 Minutes
The O'Reilly Factor

But like you, I was less than impressed with Series VII. So far, I only have the first 4 Series on DVD. Gotta find the others.

The episode where Sam became his own great grandfather during the Civil War threw the entire premise right out the window. And then the last season, when he became Elvis Presley, and then Marilyn Monroe's chauffeur..... ridiculous.

But the JFK episode was where they really jumped the shark. Seems the producer of the show met Lee Harvey Oswald for 5 minutes in the military, so based on that, he wanted to make an episode supporting the "official" horseshit story of Oswald being the lone gunman.

Some episodes were good, others were just rehashed from a season or two before, with the writers hoping that the audience wouldn't catch on.

The film Gettysburg was shorter than the actual conflict, but nobody howls about that.


One can certainly criticize the decreasing quality of the later episodes, but the relative length of the series vs. the war is basically irrelevant.

The complaints desk is over there --->

:sarcasm:

:spray:

:rofl:

and who said comments in the lounge had to be relevant? :eyes:

what a formula. You can come in fifteen minutes late because the first fifteen are the false leads before the real story unfolds.

It's gone on about 10 seasons too long and it's not even the same show I know and love anymore.

:spray:

I think the best shows are those that ended too soon (Firefly; My So-Called Life), before they had a chance to become entirely lame as the stars reached for more money (*ahem* Zach Braff and Jerry Seinfeld)

Brilliant the first couple of seasons, and then...ugh. x(

that's when they should have pulled the plug. Booger (or whatever they called him on that show) and Agnes were not lead characters.

Same with the second stringers who took over the X Files towards the end of its run.

wiki entry on Anchorwoman

The plug should have been pulled after the 5th season.

MASH became cloying; NX turned mundane.

Not to mention self-righteous, pretentious, and preachy.

Oh, did I mention also not funny?

About the only thing they shared in common was the title and Gary Burghoff.

Once the Maggie/Joel relationship was resolved it should have had some kind of ending, but especially after Joel left since his being there in Alaska was the entire premise of the show. The Office is heading the same way and for many of the same reasons.

Good gracious they all SUCKED!!!

i think they were in their 30's when that thing ended. :eyes:

and it wasn't that good to begin with. :boring:

They've run out of weird diseases so it's turning into another ho hum doctor drama.

It jumped the shark when someone actually had lupus, spoiling the long running in joke that "it's never lupus".

They never should have replaced Bitsy.

I'll watch Tony Shalhoub in anything but the stories are getting pretty boring now.

"They Saved Lisa's Brain" was the last funny episode as far as I'm concerned.

Time to put it to rest.

Married With Children, Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers and Home Improvement.

Drew Carey sucks as host.

He was a sexist pig.

Since he was always advocating for things like that, it would have been appropriate.

period. I am so over it.

Although the last season wouldn't have been so bad if Disney hadn't taken it over and pretty much kicked the original creator and all of his ideas out the door. Hell, the main long-term villain showed up in the first episode of season 3... and then never came back. They just left out the main villain. And they pretty much did the same with the creator. The last episode he had any involvement with was the first episode of the third season. Then they just kicked him out the door and did their own thing. Tried to Disney-ify a cartoon that had more in common with the Batman cartoon of the time than any Disney cartoons.

n/t