Which is a.) better having your favorite show go out while on top or b.) linger for years past their prime? I know the popular answer will be a. but I would feel that the best shows lingering past their prime are hundreds of times better than an episode of a crappy show during its 'prime' (i.e: Yes Dear, no offense Yes Dear fans).

Its better to go out on top. I'm a big Dallas fan and watching those last 2 years is just painful.

I do agree that the last couple years of Dallas WAS a bit ridiculous. J.R. in a mental institution? Parody of "It's A Wonderful Life"? What were they thinking?

It depends on the show. For some shows, the quality is so high that even after the peak of the run the last few seasons can still be very entertaining. I think that means I'm agreeing with BLT. If a show is always ho-hum quality then it would be best to go out in its prime, before ho-hum becomes dumb. Ha! Rhyme.

Originally posted by BLT
I do agree that the last couple years of Dallas WAS a bit ridiculous. J.R. in a mental institution? Parody of "It's A Wonderful Life"? What were they thinking? It was awful and all those new characters. Most of them couldn't act.:lol:
Back to sitcoms, The one sitcom that is airing right now that nobody is paying any attention to is The Drew Carey Show. That sitcom used to be so good and was a top 20 hit for about 5 years. Its painful to watch that now. I think if it had ended about 3 or 4 years ago it would be rememebered as one of the best sitcoms of the 90's.

It's best when a show goes out on top.
As Mr. Roper pointed out with "Drew Carey," it's a shame watching a once great show plummet to the bottom of the ratings.

I actually think The Drew Carey Show is very funny right now. I watch it every week and I'm laughing out loud at least a few times per episode. Should it have ended earlier? Perhaps. But ABC dropped the ball; the quality didn't drop at all, in my opinion.

Originally posted by tvobscurities
I actually think The Drew Carey Show is very funny right now. I watch it every week and I'm laughing out loud at least a few times per episode. Should it have ended earlier? Perhaps. But ABC dropped the ball; the quality didn't drop at all, in my opinion.

I agree, the show is still pretty funny, but it's a shame that the show is been reduced to burning off thier remaining episodes in the Summer.

The show should have had a proper sendoff from ABC a few years ago.

B- id rather a show last long than be short-lived, because if it lasts long, its likely to be popular, and its likely to be shown in syndication. Short-lived sitcoms usually arent shown in syndication, some are, but most arent.

I think it is better for a show to go out on top. I was really disappointed when I learned that Seinfeld ended but years later I think that it was good that they put the kybosh on it before it got too stale.

BLT, my answer is "B". I prefer that shows, like the Energizer bunny, keep going and going and going. I mean, I'm very sure there's someone out there who wanted to see the Bradys, the Waltons, and the Arnolds when they were grown up. (Granted, we got to see the Bradys and the Waltons in their grown-up years in the form of specials after their series ended.)

As to the Arnolds, I think the ending of The Wonder Years would have made sense only to someone who thinks life ends in eleventh grade. Sure, I thought the best years were seventh through ninth grade, but considering that Kevin and the gang had finished eleventh grade, it would have been appropriate for ABC to keep the show on at least one more year so we fans could see them graduate from McKinley High, regardless of whether ABC thought the show was a shell of its former self! Talk about INCOMPLETE!!! Considering no high-profile shows were ending in 1994 TWY could have been the buzz of the entertainment world, spawning block parties like they had just before the finale of Survivor I in 2000, perhaps with a sequel series about Kevin, Paul, and Winnie in college after that, a la Frasier.

Originally posted by tvobscurities
It depends on the show.


I agree. For example, I think the last season of All in the Family and the series Archie Bunker's Place was funny, though not up to the level set in the early 70's. On the other, hand, the final season of Roseanne was horrible, IMO.

Originally posted by James
Considering no high-profile shows were ending in 1994 TWY could have been the buzz of the entertainment world, spawning block parties like they had just before the finale of Survivor I in 2000, perhaps with a sequel series about Kevin, Paul, and Winnie in college after that, a la Frasier.

The Wonder Years had fallen out of the top 50 and was no longer a smash when it ended in 1993... so I highly doubt there would've been any chance even if it ran on one more season, that the final episode would've been treated as an event like Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers, Mash... it'd been more like the Third Rock finale (got decent ratings, then plummetted)

depends on the show, some series you can keep fresh and keep new and interesting storylines for years and years, and then you have other shows like Ally McBeal (I loved it, but it's true, by season 5 they were out of ideas) that really burned brightly for a few seasons and quickly crashed and burned. because they used up all the good storylines in the first 3 seasons.

There are shows like Frasier and The Simpsons that can run for over 10 years and you can still find new and interesting things to do with it, but those are the exceptions not the norm.

Originally posted by BLT
I would feel that the best shows lingering past their prime are hundreds of times better than an episode of a crappy show during its 'prime' (i.e: Yes Dear, no offense Yes Dear fans).

well, technically, Yes Dear shouldn't exist. If life was fair, Life With Roger should've become a big hit and had still been running (since it premiered in 1996, it could've still been on in 2000 if it got good ratings) by the time Yes Dear had started, which meant Mike O'Malley already would've had a show to be on, LOL.

I want a show to go out before I lose interest. Only go on if you can hold true to the series (more or less like "Friends," which was consistant throughout its entire run), or you can make it really interesting, like the last season of "Roseanne," which is so bizarre and out of place that its fascinating. I think that that's actually the most valuable season of the series, because it's what people still talk about. And the fact that people still watch it to try and figure out what the hell it all means.

But please, when you're a show like "Murphy Brown," which stopped being funny in its fifth season, go out on top, don't push it for five more years just because viewers are used to you. (Note- I did, however, love MB's last season and through it was the best of the entire series. The cancer plotline was extremely well done and even funny, despite a weak series finale)

Two shows that comes to mind that went out on top is The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. You can see the quality of those shows beginning to slip in its final season.

The shows that was painful to watch in its final season. Other words, these shows overstayed its welcome and had the potential to go down as classics but overkilled it:
Bewitched
Alice
One Day At A Time
Three's Company
The Jeffersons
Sanford and Son
The Bob Newhart Show
Night Court
The Cosby Show

I agree it all depends on the show: both "Roseanne" & "Ellen" could have become classics and gone on for a few more years, but instead, they chose to make the final seasons of both shows awful!
"Roseanne" with that ridiculous plotline about them winning all that money, and "Ellen" by having every episode center around the fact that she's gay.

Originally posted by treky
I agree it all depends on the show: both "Roseanne" & "Ellen" could have become classics and gone on for a few more years, but instead, they chose to make the final seasons of both shows awful!
"Roseanne" with that ridiculous plotline about them winning all that money, and "Ellen" by having every episode center around the fact that she's gay.

well, the last season of Ellen was bad, but I think Ellen knew what she was doing. She really "gay'd" the show up, not for her sake, but because she knew after her show got that far, tv series like Queer As Folk, Will And Grace and The L Word could exist.

the last season of Roseanne really gets an unfair treatment, once you see the final episode and realize the entire last season has been a figment of Roseanne's imagination, the episodes make more sense. I am a fan of camp, so I enjoyed the last season, it was very campy.

now i am the biggest fan of bufffy ever and i always watched it but watching the last year of it was like getting a root canal every tuesday at 8 i wish buffy had ended when it was still a woonderful show like in the 5th season!

ITA Buffy. The last seasonof Roseanne was actually alot better than alot fo other shows on the air that season, but because ti was so out of place for the series, it continues to get the bad rap.

Originally posted by darlene_conner
now i am the biggest fan of bufffy ever and i always watched it but watching the last year of it was like getting a root canal every tuesday at 8 i wish buffy had ended when it was still a woonderful show like in the 5th season!

I agree 100%!!!

I love Buffy until the very end, but the last season was really inferior to the 6 that preceded it. Season 7 was especially disapointing when you consider how great season 6 was.