the 5 worst mistakes ever made in sitcoms in my opinion.
1)too close for comfort-the birth of baby andrew at the start of the third season ruined the show for me.

2)mork and mindy-the firing of conrad janis and elizabeth kerr at the start of the second season almost destroyed one of the highest rated sitcoms in the history of television.the show fell from #3 in the ratings to #27 in the ratings!
at the middle of that season conrad janis came back (with a big pay raise) which brought back some of the viewers but it was never the enormous hit it was in the first season.

3)welcome back kotter-at the start of the 4th and last season the original writers were fired and replaced with the writers from the carol burnett show.
the show was never the same after that fact that john travolta left the cast and gabe kaplan was'nt
seen as much ruined one of my alltime favorite sitcoms.

4)the facts of life-edna edibles burning down and being replaced with over our heads.
in my opinion the over our heads years on the facts of life look the most dated.

5)rhoda-rhoda and joe getting divorced was a big mistake.
the last two seasons of rhoda were less than entertaining.

1) NewsRadio- Never having Dave and Lisa get married.

2) Wings- Marrying off Joe and Helen and not having Casey and Antonio get together.

3) The Simpsons- Giving Mike Scully a lot more creative control.

4) Cheers- Bringing back Diane for the finale.

5) Nurses- Adding Loni Anderson.

I still love those shows though.

Roseanne - Forcing that 2nd Becky on us wasn't a great thing.

Good Times- Killing off John Amos' character.

Happy Days- Burning Arnold's down and rebuilding it with an ugly new look.

The Cosby Show- When they added Pam to the cast.

Drew Carey Show- Adding all those musical numbers and going live.

Diff'rent Strokes- adding Sam and Maggie to the cast. Moving the show from NBC to ABC.

1)Newsradio-Having John Lovitz replace Phil Hartman.

2)The Simpsons-Killing Maude Flanders.

3)The Cosby Show-Adding Pam and getting rid of Denise.

4)Cheers-Making Lilith Leave Frasier.

5)Even Stevens-Adding Beans.

Five Worst Mistakes That Were Ever Made In Sitcoms or TV Shows

1. Mork and Mindy-- When They Made The Awful Mistake in Having Mork Getting Pregnant and Giving Birth To Jonathan Winters(Yuck!!!)
2. The Jeffersons--Replacing Mike Evans with a different Lionel,who wasn't funny as the original(had some moments,but wasn't the same Lionel)
3. Good Times-- Getting Rid Of John Amos
4. Any Show That Moves From One Network To Another
5. And Any Show That Moves From A Good Time Slot To A Bad Time Slot(examples: Becker moving from Monday to Sunday, Drew Carey Show from Wednesday to Monday and then to Fridays)

1.) Cheers. No wedding bells for Sam and Diane. :(

2.) Cheers. Not giving Nicholas Colasanto a farewell when he died...terribly disrepectful.

3.) Coach. I'm told the move from Minnesota to Orlando was a shark jumper.

4.) On Will & Grace, having Grace get married. I miss her living with Will.

5.) Any baby or child brought onto any show for any reason.

Happy days- burning down arnolds and adding that new creepy place.
The cosby show-adding Pam and Olivia.
Leverne and Shirley- Shirley marrieing Walter meanie other then Carmine.
The beverly hillbillies-colorizing there show instead of keeping it black and white. I can only think of 4 right now

1) Keeping sitcoms way past their time. Norman Lear have it bad on keeping his shows way past their prime except Bea Arthur did not allow him to do that to her. She bow out on top. That was an actress who know when to leave on top. Too bad many did not take their lessons from Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner when they pulled the plug on their show after five years. It left the audiences wanting more.

2) The Cosby Show - Adding all those people on there and it took away the warmth and the wholesomeness the show gave in its first four seasons. Especially the first two. That is definitely one show that overstayed their welcome.

3) Alice - Not bringing back Flo after her series failed. She brought an edge to Alice that was well needed but it bruised Linda Lavin's ego because she was the star.

4) Too Close for Comfort - Adding a baby to the show to give Nancy Dussault more to do with her character. From what I understood she was unhappy with the limitations of her role given that she was second banana to Ted Knight. That was how Muriel got pregnant.

5) Family Ties - Taking the emphasis off of Meredith Baxter Birney and Michael Gross and turning the show into the Michael J. Fox sitcom. Steven and Elyse was an enjoyable couple to watch and too bad there was not enough shows dealing with them as a couple

okay *laughs* I know some of you will get annoyed by this
but
Becker: Getting rid of Terry Farrell and adding Nancy Travis
Drew Carey: Getting rid of Christa Miller
Friends: Rachel having Emma
Will and Grace: Grace Marrying Leo

Originally posted by Brian Damage


Happy Days- Burning Arnold's down and rebuilding it with an ugly new look.



Ditto!:D

The biggest mistakes I can think of are these:


1. CBS killing off all their "rural" shows like "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres", and "Petticoat Junction" and replacing them with more mature shows like "Mary Tyler Moore" and "All In The Family". The strategy worked, but at a heavy price. If CBS could have found a way for both types of sitcoms to co-exist, they would have dominated TV ratings for many more years.

2. ABC having the nerve to break up the greatest TGIF lineup ever by moving "The Partridge Family" to Saturday nights, where it would get creamed in the ratings by "All In The Family". What were they thinking?

3. "Family Ties"---Having Mallory fall in love with that idiot Nick (my least favorite character on the show) instead of Skippy. They would have made a great couple!

4. "A Different World"---Letting both Lisa Bonet and Marisa Tomei go after the first season and focusing the plots mainly on Jasmine Guy from then on. I didn't like watching the show afterwards as a result.

5. "MASH"---The many changes in casting that occurred throughout the long run of the series, which had been very funny in its first couple of seasons, but from then on became stale and boring, allowing those who stayed on to basically go through the motions.

Originally posted by Janice
5.) Any baby or child brought onto any show for any reason.

I agree. The kid always seems to just disappear. Bad parents! And a way over used way to get ratings.

Listed in the order they occurred to me (Could be an indicator?):

All in the Family
Action: Continuing the series after season 8 (when Mike and Gloria moved to California).
Result: For me, at least, permanently tainted memories of one of my all-time favorite shows.

Bewitched
Action: Darrin # 2.
Result: Something resembling number 2.

I Love Lucy
Action: Moved to Connecticut.
Result: The final season, followed by a suicidal plunge into The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.

Taxi
Action: Moved from ABC to NBC.
Result: (See BravesFan712002 post, item # 4)...and particularly if the show has completed at least one season.

Happy Days
Action: Abandoning the original concept of the show and coasting into "Fonzie-mania".
Result: Two or three good seasons, Fonzie lunchboxes and "Sit On It!" T-shirts.

1.Seinfeld- Continuing after Larry David left. (Notice how silly and unrealistic the show got after he left)

2.Friends- Rachel getting pregnant and having Ross' baby.

3.The Cosby Show- Making Pam and Olivia regular cast members. It would've been okay if they were just recurring characters, they really ruined the dynamic of the show.

4. Roseanne- Quite possibly one of my favorite shows of all time, BUT....There are some many things they did wrong. (1) Keeping the Becky character with a different actress. She was missing for most of Season 5 and it didn't hurt the quality of the show one bit. They didn't need to bring that character back. (2) Multiple timeslots. Roseanne did it's best at 9:00pm Tuesdays. When ABC moved the show 3 times within a year and a half, the ratings plunged quickly. (3) The Lottery, which isn't that bad when it's all explained during the ending, but it really wasn't neccesary for us to see a dream for a whole season.

5. Family Matters- Urkel!!!!!!

i agree that burning down arnolds on happy days was a big mistake.
it took alot of the charm out of that show.
the new arnolds looks depressing to me.

another mistake i forgot about is moving the ENITRE cast of laverne and shirley to hollywood.

1-3. Three for The Wonder Years alone:

1. Ending the show after only five measly seasons. We did not get to see Kevin, Paul, and Winnie graduate, so I considered the series to be "unfinished".

2. The absence of Winnie Cooper during the 1991-92 season. (She was only in like five or six of the episodes.)

3. Taking on more serious situations during the last couple of seasons (Paul and Beth in Ep. 88, "Carnal Knowledge"; Kevin getting drunk at a wedding; the barn scene in the finale (I have seen questions about :blush: what went on between Kevin and Winnie); and Kevin staying overnight at Winnie's (or was it the other way around? I :mad: hated that episode so much!) to "study for SATs" in Ep. 99, "White Lies")

Also:

4. Shows taking on more serious and touchy subject matters instead of being molded after wholesome shows like Leave It To Beaver and The Andy Griffith Show

5. The Fox network's milking :cow: of The Simpsons, signing it through 2005 (and making it the longest-running comedy, at that!). Is that show in the Nielsen Top 20 anymore?

Two words...


Cousin Oliver

:eek: :rolleyes: :eek:

Originally posted by APPLEI

another mistake i forgot about is moving the ENITRE cast of laverne and shirley to hollywood.

...where they promptly lost "and Shirley" from the show, yet kept it in the title. How desperate is that?

1. "Saved by the Bell" -- replacing Kelly and Jessie with Tori
2. "I Love Lucy" -- the move to the country
3. "All in the Family" -- Mike and Gloria's move
4. "All in the Family" -- Edith dies
5. "Three's Company" -- getting rid of Chrissy

Originally posted by jayman75
Two words...


Cousin Oliver

:eek: :rolleyes: :eek:

I agree 120%!

1. 99 gives birth to twins on "Get Smart". The marriage was bad enough (although the show still managed to produce some funny eps during the 4the season). However, the "birth" was inexcusable. With this plot line, G S transformed from one of the most original sitcoms ever into just another domestic sitcom.

2. Happy Days becomes "The Fonzie Show". Not only that, but the show switches to filming before a live audience. This causes the cast to turn in some of the hammiest performances ever! To top it off, most of the characters start to dress as if the show is set in the 1970's/1980's! If you were to watch an episode from the 1st season and a half and then view any one from the "live" era, it's as if you are watching two totally different shows.

3. Norman Lear kills off James Evans on "Good Times". With the removal of this strong black male character from the mix, that left the floodgates open for the buffoonish antics of J.J. I don't blame Esther Rolle for bowing out of the series for a year.

4. M*A*S*H* moves farther and farther away from the premise of the movie. This coincides with the introduction of B.J. and Col. Potter and the bigger role that Alan Alda played behind the scenes.

5. Andy Griffith and Don Knotts have a breakdown in communication. On the Inside TV Land episode which profiled "The Andy Griffith Show", Don Knotts stated that he left the show because he was under the impression that Andy was only going to do the show for 5 years. As a result, Don Knotts signs a movie contract and one of the great sitcom teams comes to an end. About the only good thing that can be said about Don's exit is that it occurs at the same time that the series switches to color. This makes it fairly easy to tell whether or not an episode is worth sitting through.

Originally posted by ultfan


2. Happy Days becomes "The Fonzie Show". Not only that, but the show switches to filming before a live audience. This causes the cast to turn in some of the hammiest performances ever! To top it off, most of the characters start to dress as if the show is set in the 1970's/1980's! If you were to watch an episode from the 1st season and a half and then view any one from the "live" era, it's as if you are watching two totally different shows.

[/B]

Absolutely right! I hated Happy Days after the second season!:rolleyes:

I know I posted on this topic the other day but I've added some more.

1: Mork and Mindy--They should have ended the show at season 3. The marriage of Mork and Mindy was wrong,ruined the premise of the series. Mork getting pregnant with Jonathan Winters???---throwing up picture--
2: The Jeffersons--No Proper Sendoff
3: Seinfeld--Ditto, No Proper Sendoff
4: Good Times: Should Have Ended in 1977
5: Laverne and Shirley: Should Have Ended in 1982 when Cindy Williams got pregnant and had a sendoff similar to Happy Days.