10 Television Shows That Overstayed Their Welcome

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http://whatculture.com/tv/10-televis...welcome.php/11

No other series on this list coincides with the decline of a network like ER; its fifteen year run encompassed the height and fall of NBC as it slipped behind in the ratings race. Frasier, Friends and The West Wing all came and went in the time that the medical drama was on the air and as the fellow hits of the era came and went ER hung like a sad beaten boxer who refused to stay down for the count, not knowing that its time was over.

In the earlier seasons of the show the writing was excellent and the medical cases were set up well, helped by the fact the ER had some of the best use of guest stars in the history of television. What really made things work though was the original cast of characters as well a couple of additions like DR. Weaver and DR. Romano. Green, Carter, Ross and co were the defining characters. Shelly Stringfield was the first of the main cast to depart but it was really George Clooney who would exit his role as DR. Doug Ross in the fifth season who began the trend of departing cast members, one by one every original character left the series until only Noah Wyle who played John Carter was left.

Although Stringfield had returned by the time of Wyle’s departure, Carter leaving the show was the point at which time had finally caught up with ER. It put up a hell of a fight, retaining its quality for over a decade but it had simply run out of steam. There would be more cast changes and an increasing number of disasters in the following seasons and viewers began to tune out in their millions, yet still the series continued.

Even the replacement characters like Kovac and Corday began to depart, only to be replaced themselves by further new people that rendered the show virtually unrecognisable. Even the iconic opening sequence was replaced by a short title card. ER is a prime example of a network mistaking a setting as the appeal of the show, the hospital certainly played its part but it was the characters that we all grew attached to that made us want to watch.

A hospital setting may make it logical that people would come and go in quick succession but that doesn’t mean that we want to see those people go. At least the shows renewal for its fifteenth and final gave us the chance to say goodbye to the characters we loved, let’s just pretend that everything post season eleven did not happen.