DS Downfall started in 1984 The episodes weren't that good in season 7 and the fact that Willis life was so busy that he was only in like 10 episodes the whole season made it worse

The writers should have included more cast members on the ABC shows the only time you ever saw the whole cast was on Sam's Missing 1985 season premire I mean they even had a Dana Plato storyline which I thought was good on ABC's part

Also durring the final 2 seasons those momments with Willis and Arnorld were missing ABC tried on the episode with the Bully then Todd Bridges was on episodes as just a prop on the bed a few timesand most season 8 episode edits have Todd Bridges lines erased

season 8 was better than season 7 IMO, but I think the show was just so past it's prime that nobody bothered. Kinda like how good seasons 8 and (IMO) 9 were for Roseanne but a lot of people tuned off after season 7

I think season 6 is were cracks started to appear as many of the episodes before MAggie and Sam appeaered were of very low quality.

i agree that season 6 is where the show started to slide it did rebound a little in season 8 but by then it was too late to win back any lost viewers who abandoned the show 2 seasons before