What are the biggest crimes in sitcom history? I'm not talking about an actual crime but something that was seriously wrong with a sitcom.

For example:

Sam & Diane never getting married
The Mork & Mindy finale
Jack Tripper and Janet Wood not ending up together
Diff'rent Strokes not having a finale
Chico and the Man continuing after the death of Freddie Prinze
Etc, etc...

Given my affection for The Love Boat, I'd have to say one of the biggest crimes ever committed by that show was hiring the stupid Love Boat "mermaids". THAT was dumb--and a "crime" as far as I'm concerned. Having a character like ACE was up there as well. I think The Love Boat should have gotten cancelled before they decided to revamp the theme song. JMO.
I did enjoy Michael Winslow--who portrayed a character whose name I can't remember, and Pat Klous did the best she could in taking over for Lauren Tewes...:wave:

Tony and Jeannie not every having a kid (they could have had a whole 6th season using this story line, before the baby, while she was pregnant, after the baby). This would have sparked a ton of hillarious stuff!!!!

Rudy and Kenny not hooking up on The Cosby Show... They were mean't for each other!

Sam and Diane not getting married (Cheers)
Rudy and Kenny not hooking up(The Cosby Show)

I think big crime in history of sitcoms is making the Connors win the lottery on Rosanne that's when they lost their audience.

Mrs. Garrett Leaving FOL
Three's Company firing Suzanne Sommers

McLean Stevenson leaving M*A*S*H long before he should have

what a crime...

Originally posted by Lucille Ball Forever

Three's Company firing Suzanne Sommers

Your right about that!! The producers were real stupid doing that. That's one of the reasons Threes Company never had the ratings like they had when Suzanne was on the show. Plus her replacement Terry was just annoying.

The producers had to fire Suzanne Somers. She demanded too much money. Cindy was her replacement and I don't think her or Terri were annoying.

I would say the biggest crime of all was committed by whoever decided to put "Full House" on the air in the first place. I wonder what he's doing now?

Originally posted by Will and Grace Fanatic


Your right about that!! The producers were real stupid doing that. That's one of the reasons Threes Company never had the ratings like they had when Suzanne was on the show. Plus her replacement Terry was just annoying.

For the 1982-83 season, the show was in the top 10......

Originally posted by JT


For the 1982-83 season, the show was in the top 10......

Oh I know that. What I mean is they weren't as high ratings as When Suzanne was on them.

Here are my candidates for the "worst crimes" in sitcoms:

1. "The Wonder Years" being unceremoniously cancelled in 1993 (I never wanted it to end!!!) after only 5-1/2 seasons

2. NEVER being able to see Kevin, Winnie, Paul, etc. graduate had "The Wonder Years" gone on one more season

3. Winnie's disappearance during the first part of the fifth season of "The Wonder Years"

4. the hype around the finale of "Cheers" (it coincided, practically, with the last episode of "The Wonder Years", grabbing all the attention)

5. NBC's decision to stretch ... "Cheers" ... out ... over ... eleven ... long ... seasons

6. Fox's refusal to cancel "The Simpsons" (How old is Bart now? 30?)

7. ABC's decision to cancel "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" (save for the occasional specials)

8. the "Laverne & Shirley" episode which guest-starred Hugh Hefner (I hated the last season of L&S a whole lot more for the Playboy episode than for the lack of Shirley)

9. the disappearance of John and Olivia Walton towards the end of "The Waltons"

10. NBC's decision to pay each cast member of "Friends" $1 million per episode next year instead of just cancel the show (makes economic sense to use that money to make shows molded after "Leave It To Beaver", "The Andy Griffith Show", etc.)

11. the fact that no specials of "The Brady Bunch" produced after "The Bradys" (1990) employ the acting talents of Florence Henderson, Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight, Eve Plumb, Mike Lookinland, Susan Olsen, or Ann B. Davis (I'll make an exception for Robert Reed on account of him being deceased)

12. the overexposure of Wilson Wilson on "Home Improvement"

13. the overexposure of Christine Armstrong on "Coach"

14. Jonathan Taylor Thomas' disappearance on "Home Improvement"

15. CBS' lack of interest in another reunion of "The Waltons"

:lol:

Mork & Mindy - Tampering with a hit. The first season was great but the producers almost destroyed the series in the second season.

Laverne & Shirley - Trying to continue after Cindy Williams left.

One Day At A Time - Giving Mackenzie Phillips a second chance.

Family Matters - Not explaining the disappearance of daughter, Judy.

Happy Days - Not explaining the disappearance of son, Chuck.

Cosby Show - Saying that they have "four children" in the pilot only for the viewers to soon find out that they have five children.

Growing Pains - The addition of Chrissy.

Charlie's Angels (not a sitcom) - Unfairly blaming Shelley Hack for the decline in ratings.

How about this one?

Family Ties: Mallory falling for that moron Nick instead of Skippy. I would have loved to see the two of them together.

1. FOL- Edna's Edibles turning into Over Our Heads

2. Cheers- The show not doing enough to explain the death of Nicholas Colasanto(Coach)

3. Honeymooners- Should have lasted a lot longer

4. Roseanne- Turning all the men on the show to wussies

5. Diff'rent Strokes- No finale

1.Laverne & Shirley:Shirley and Carmine never getting married.

2.Three's Company:Jack and Janet never getting together.

3.Cheers:Sam and Diane never marrying,and later the producers
trying to tag Sam with Rebecca.

Here are some:

1. The producers of "Three's Company" firing Suzanne Somers.

2. The way the writers handled the departure of Lucy's best friend, Vivian Bagley, on "The Lucy Show".

3. "The Brady Bunch" not continuing for another season.

4. "Maude" thanks to AITF.

5. The cancellations of "The Munsters" and "The Addams Family".

6. CBS's decision to cancel "Gilligan's Island" instead of the long-running "Gunsmoke".

7. The way the writers handled the departure of Lucy's son, Craig Carter, on "Here's Lucy".

8. No explanation of the disappearance of Fluffy the Cat, the Grandparents, and Tiger the dog on "The Brady Bunch".

9. Nick at Nite's decision of eliminating "Whole Lotta Lucy" (2 episodes of ILL, followed by TLDCH) and "Lucy: The Queen of Comedy" (ILL, TLS, & TLDCH-- all right in a row!) from there Saturday Night schedules.

10. Nick at Nite eliminating "The Lucy Show" from the network back in 1996.

11. PAX-TV eliminating "Here's Lucy" (after only 1 cycle) from the channel back in January 1999.

Wonder Years- Killing off Kevins dad in the last episode.
Roseanne-Killing off Dan
Veronica's Closet- Veronica and Perry getting together
Veronica's Closet- Olive leaving to pursue her own business
Facts of Life-The first season
Who wants to be a Millionaire- not a sitcoms but anyways airing it what 5 days a week. That's why that show went downhill.
Wonder Years- Kevin and Winnie not ending up with eachother.
Ellen- ABC deciding to cancel it and the first season

The ones I disagreed with is:
James posting on the overexposure of Christine Armstrong of Coach. Given that she did not have much to work with in terms of her character. She was an anchor for Hayden and he needed her for that. She was the voice of reason for everyone on the show.

DJM77 on giving Mackenzie Phillips a second chance on One Day at A Time. Unfortunately she blew it and choose the route she went back on after a second chance was given to her. Everyone should be given a second chance if they are trying. She did tried. If you hear her interviews on Entertainment Tonight and the E True Hollywood Story she spoke on how hard her second stint was. A matter of fact she did the leaving the second time after she realized that she got caught up and knowing that she was not going to pass the drug test. If it wasn't for Mackenzie's comeback the show would have gone downhill quicker than it did. She made the show and her character with the issues she had on the show caused the show to move and kept the viewers interest.

Here are the crimes I think sitcoms does to its audience:
1.Replacing a key character of a show with another actor. Bewitched wrote its death certificate when replacing Dick York with Dick Sargent. Hello there was an obvious difference.

2.Sitcoms putting too much emphasis on one character when they are supporting player and all of sudden they are the star of the show. Whereas the star becomes the supporting player. Family Ties was an excellent example of that. The show was Meredith Baxter Birney and Michael Gross' vehicle dealing with parents from the 60s era raising children in the 80s with values different from theirs. Given that Meredith Baxter Birney, the star of the show, was not a sitcom actress and it was more of an effort for her to play comedy than drama just to push her to a more reactive role because Michael J. Fox was a better comic actor. I understand her unhappiness with the show at times. Midway through the third season it was evolving into the Michael J. Fox sitcoms to that in the fifth season until the end of the series.

3.Sitcoms overstaying their welcome. All of Norman Lear shows that last at least five years go beyond that and it becomes tired and worn out when the show ends. Sitcoms have a good life of five years and after that the freshness goes and material runs out. They should pull the plug leaving audiences wanting more. Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner were smart in pulling the plug after five years of the Dick Van Dyke Show left us wanting more and the show was still funny.

4.Laverne and Shirley going on with Shirley and still calling Laverne and Shirley.

5.Petticoat Junction not explaining anything about what happened to Kate after Bea Benaderet passed away. They never made any reference to her after that.

6.Gimme A Break should have been cancelled after Dolph Sweet died. It was too far fetched with Nell running the house without the girls parents.

Originally posted by mstewart


Here are the crimes I think sitcoms does to its audience:
1.Replacing a key character of a show with another actor. Bewitched wrote its death certificate when replacing Dick York with Dick Sargent. Hello there was an obvious difference.



I turn the channel everytime I see DS as Darrin. Dick York was Darrin Stevens. He played it perfectily, and just couldn't be replaced. I liked DS in 'The Ghost and Mr. Chicken', but he just wasn't Darrin Stevens to me.

Here is some of mine:

1. Main Character Leaves: Don Knotts on The Andy Griffith Show: The thing that made 'The Andy Griffith Show' was Andy and Don. They needed each other in order to make the show what it is today. I think if you poll a TAGS fan, they will more than likely say the Barney seasons were the best.

I know a lot of people would say the downfall came when Jack Burns was cast as a Barney Fife wannabe. I didn't really see it as that. Granted, Jack Burns was no Don Knotts or a Barney Fife- but he did bring a few comedic moments to TAGS. Jack was an enjoyable character to watch, and I feel if they had given him a better way to flesh the character out- it would've made those color seasons better. I still wouldn't see the Warren character topping the Barney character.

2. 2 Main Characters Leave: Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner on All in the Family: I love All in the Family. I love the seasons where it has Archie, Edith, Mike, and Gloria. You can't top it. Archie and Mike always had several comedic moments between those Mike and Gloria years. When Sally and Rob left, they tried to fill a void by adding Stephanie. Stephanie couldn't fill that empty space. JMO

Three's Company -- Suzanne Somers getting the boot

Saved by the Bell -- Kelly and Jessie being replaced by Tori ; Jessie and Lisa not coming back for the College Years ; Mr. Belding not following them to college and becoming their professor like they did on "Boy Meets World" (just kiddin'!)

All in the Family / Archie Bunker's Place - Mike and Gloria's departure -- and how dare they kill off Edith!

The Brady Bunch - the disappearence of the family dog somewhere during the second season -- never to be seen again!

The Wonder Years - Winnie and Kevin not ending up together in the end (although I agree that it was more realistic that they didn't) :(

Home Improvement - JTT's absence in the last season

Bewitched - Two Darrins? C'mon, this wasn't a soap opera!:crazy:

Here's one of the all-time bad decisions in TV history:


After the 1970 and 1971 seasons, CBS completely revamped their lineup, getting rid of such popular shows as "The Beverly Hillbillies"; "Green Acres"; "Petticoat Junction"; "Gomer Pyle"; "Mayberry RFD"; "Hogan's Heroes"; and "Family Affair", with "My Three Sons" to follow a year later.

CBS was worried that their network was gaining an unflattering (to them) reputation as a country station, with many of their shows taking place in rustic settings and enjoying high ratings in rural areas. The network sought to correct this by putting in newer shows that featured characters living in the big cities and shifting the storylines from the old-fashioned sweet and simple plots to a grittier, hard-edged, nastier viewpoint which continues to infiltrate the airwaves today. So now you were seeing shows like "All In The Family"; "Mary Tyler Moore"; and "The Bob Newhart Show", which were very good and did allow CBS to control the ratings wars for a few years, which is what they really wanted all along, but it happened at the expense of some of the funniest, warmest, and most beloved shows in CBS history. Granted, a few of them had to go, since they were nearing the end of the line anyway, ("Beverly Hillbillies", "My Three Sons", and "Petticoat Junction" come immediately to mind), but I wonder if CBS wouldn't have been better off allowing some of them to co-exist with the newer shows, perhaps putting all the old shows together on the same night when there isn't much competition from the other networks. I'll show you what I mean later when I try to work out a possible schedule for them. In the meantime, I'd like to hear your opinions on this.

I got a couple.....

No sexual or girlfriend/boyfriend relationships on Gilligan's Island....for the 60s/70s GINGER WAS HOT!

They never showed a Kmart in the Facts of Life.

Sam and Rebecca never made that baby in Cheers.

How did Rose from the Golden Girls find her way down to Miami on the **** she's on lol?

Cordially,
Nathan Bush
"The Rain Man"
Http://nathanbu*****ripod.com

Originally posted by Ricardos4ever

The Wonder Years - Winnie and Kevin not ending up together in the end (although I agree that it was more realistic that they didn't) :([/B]

Um they did. They mentioned in the last episode that Winnie went away to Paris I think for 8 years of college and when she got back they married and had a son.

Cordially,
Nathan Bush
"The Rain Man"
Http://nathanbu*****ripod.com

The networks not giving shows a chance to make a finale episode. especially the long running shows. It's very annoying to invest sometimes 5, 6 years or even longer into a show and there's no closure. These networks should respect us and realize that we do invest time watching these shows.

any show that gets renewed for a second season deserves a final episode, it's a shame that long running shows like the jeffersons didn't get one.

Originally posted by RainMan


Um they did. They mentioned in the last episode that Winnie went away to Paris I think for 8 years of college and when she got back they married and had a son.

Cordially,
Nathan Bush
"The Rain Man"
Http://nathanbu*****ripod.com

Kevin and Winnie did not end up together. In the finale, Kevin mentions that the two remained friends, but when he met her at the airport, he was there with his wife and two kids.

Happy Days:after the first 2 wonderful seasons;

1. Filming before a live audience. It got stupid, loud, and annoying.:rolleyes:
2. Potsie singing on every episode. Talk about annoying!:rolleyes:
3. Too much Fonzie. Fonzie a teacher?! I'm sure!:crazy:

Originally posted by IheartMoonlighting
The networks not giving shows a chance to make a finale episode. especially the long running shows. It's very annoying to invest sometimes 5, 6 years or even longer into a show and there's no closure. These networks should respect us and realize that we do invest time watching these shows.

any show that gets renewed for a second season deserves a final episode, it's a shame that long running shows like the jeffersons didn't get one.

I totally agree with you! There is no excuse why shows like The Jeffersons, Diff'rent Strokes and Married With Children(Their finale was actually a regular episode passed off as a finale) were not given proper sendoffs!

Originally posted by briandamage


4. Roseanne- Turning all the men on the show to wussies

[/B]

Amen to that!;)

Originally posted by briandamage


I totally agree with you! There is no excuse why shows like The Jeffersons, Diff'rent Strokes and Married With Children(Their finale was actually a regular episode passed off as a finale) were not given proper sendoffs!

Espeically for Married With Children, that show put Fox on the map and then Fox didn't have the courtesy to let them have a real finale.