Can you think of a show that successfully "outlived" its premise?

[TMC]

We've seen and heard about shows that have a very distinct hook that the entire show is based on but then that particular plot gets resolved and the show continues on to be nowhere near as good as it once was

[jimpickens]

Happy Days and The Beverly Hillbillies.

[RetroGuy2000]

Cheers, I think. The Sam and Diane off-and-on romance was the premise that had held the show together for the first half of the series. The Rebecca years were still very funny, but the premise had changed.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by jimpickens

Happy Days and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Happy Days, maybe, it was a period piece anchored in the world of the 50's and moved as far away from that as was possible as the seasons passed, so I get that, but the Beverly Hillbillies!! You're going to have to explain that pick.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

Cheers, I think. The Sam and Diane off-and-on romance was the premise that had held the show together for the first half of the series. The Rebecca years were still very funny, but the premise had changed.

I don't agree with the Cheers pick. The premise of the series is introduced in opening theme song. The show was about the bar focusing on the patrons, owner and staff, that never changed.

[Duster76]

I'll take a shot at this, "The Lucy Show". Season 4 saw the exit of 4 of the six regulars from the first 3 seasons. The location of series moved from the east coast to the west coast, Lucy was working fulltime and the domestic premise of the series disappeared. The show also became more of a skitcom than a sitcom.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by Duster76

I don't agree with the Cheers pick. The premise of the series is introduced in opening theme song. The show was about the bar focusing on the patrons, owner and staff, that never changed.

Fair enough.

[PhoenixAcres]

Green Acres and Newhart. Originally both shows were about a city couple simply adapting to life in the country but they soon transcended into absurdist explorations of the human condition wherein the male leads essentially played the straight man to ensemble casts of perpetually stoned locals. And it worked

[treky]

DEFINETALY Happy Days. It started out as a nice, gentle sitcom about a "nuclear family" in the 59s, but as it went on it changed and the setting changed to the 70s with a small amount of the 50s sprinkled on top.

[Heenan Fan]

Originally Posted by PhoenixAcres

Green Acres and Newhart. Originally both shows were about a city couple simply adapting to life in the country but they soon transcended into absurdist explorations of the human condition wherein the male leads essentially played the straight man to ensemble casts of perpetually stoned locals. And it worked

I never looked at it this way myself, but now that I think about it, you make some valid points I never realized before.

[Sal]

Originally Posted by Heenan Fan

I never looked at it this way myself, but now that I think about it, you make some valid points I never realized before.

I didn't agree with it myself. Except for Larry, Darryl, and Darryl, who tend to remind me of the Three Stooges, the rest of the Newhart cast seems fairly normal (and dull) compared to "the poople of Heeterville" (as Oliver once called them). Give me Green Acres every time!


The series that I have picked --- which ran even longer than Happy Days --- is The Big Bang Theory. Originally, it was about a couple of brainy nerds named Sheldon and Leonard who end up living next to a new sexy neighbor, Penny. Both guys fall for her and the three friends try to co-exist despite the fact that the boys and their other weird genius friends Raj and Howard are very shy and awkward around girls and Penny knows very little about science --- or anything else! Eventually everything works out and Leonard ends up marrying Penny. That's where the series should have ended. Instead, it continued as the other guys got girls of their own and the show turned into a weekly battle of the sexes over science vs reality. It did get better in the end but I still felt that it went on for far too long.

[PhoenixAcres]

Originally Posted by Sal

I didn't agree with it myself. Except for Larry, Darryl, and Darryl, who tend to remind me of the Three Stooges, the rest of the Newhart cast seems fairly normal (and dull) compared to "the poople of Heeterville" (as Oliver once called them). Give me Green Acres every time!

I like Green Acres better too but I enjoy both shows.

On Newhart I think once Michael joined the cast it started to go in a more surreal direction. They gave him a lot of intentionally ridiculous lines that you wouldn't expect on a traditional realistic sitcom like it was in season 1. The eccentricities of existing characters like George and Stephanie became more pronounced and increasing prominence of side characters like Jim and Chester gave it a very Green Acres vibe. One of the best examples of this is the Halloween episode when the entire town is convinced Dick is actually an alien from outer space.

[Chocolate Moose]

good topic!!!

[jimpickens]

Originally Posted by Duster76

Happy Days, maybe, it was a period piece anchored in the world of the 50's and moved as far away from that as was possible as the seasons passed, so I get that, but the Beverly Hillbillies!! You're going to have to explain that pick.

It started out as a simple backwoods family slowly adjusting to city life but as the show progressed the premise of naive hill folks befuddled by modern society to a bunch of gullible buffoons who fall for any scheme they encounter.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by jimpickens

It started out as a simple backwoods family slowly adjusting to city life but as the show progressed the premise of naive hill folks befuddled by modern society to a bunch of gullible buffoons who fall for any scheme they encounter.

I don't see it, I just took at the summaries of the 274 episodes of the series, you can't keep repeating the same bits (slowly adjusting to city life), the family was going to have to evolve just a little, after all the series last 9 years.