Which TV shows overstayed their welcome? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 02-17-2022, 12:42 AM

Which shows had way too many seasons and by the end they were scraping the bottom of the barrel?

RetroGuy2000 · 02-17-2022, 02:41 AM

Roseanne probably should have ended after Season 7, or maybe at the end of Season 8. The final season was a trainwreck of epic proportions, and it was so bad it was written out of existence when the series was rebooted.

The Facts of Life probably should have ended one season earlier; that final season (Season 9), the series felt like it had lost focus: Blair starts off the season in law school, but by the end of the season, she's not even taking classes anymore. Jo gets married, but we see her husband just once after they are wed. Natalie even phones in her final episode. Don't even get me started on the mess that was Pippa.

The Simpsons should have ended after Season 8.

Gimme a Break's final season was soul-crushingly bad. I don't know why they even bothered with that final season: it had only one original cast member left.

Game of Thrones' final season got completely messed up when the producers decided to make up their own storylines, ignoring the careful foreshadowing that had been etched in for the previous seven seasons.

Little House on the Prairie probably should have ended after the first four seasons. That show got so far from its roots that it felt like the producers were on drugs. By the time they had mimes raping girls, the show was a shadow of its former self.

PracTz · 02-17-2022, 03:51 AM

Let's not overlook 'Happy Days' ! Even fans of the Screaming at the Studio Audience Super Fonz and Cha-Wah-Wah-Wachi Years had to conclude it was running on fumes for the last few years .

RetroGuy2000 · 02-17-2022, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PracTz

Let's not overlook 'Happy Days' ! Even fans of the Screaming at the Studio Audience Super Fonz and Cha-Wah-Wah-Wachi Years had to conclude it was running on fumes for the last few years .

Oh yes. The last few years of Happy Days were not good years.

Let's not forget the final season of Laverne and Shirley, which I call "Laverne and".

MASH's later seasons were also unbearable.

king of comedy · 02-17-2022, 09:31 AM

Family Guy should have ended after Season 7

AMackII · 02-17-2022, 02:43 PM

Family Matters would’ve gone off the air 25 years ago if it weren’t for CBS. Realistically the 9th Season of Family Matters is the only season that turn the show into a complete shell of its former self.

Home Improvement would’ve left the airwaves once Season 7 ended

Married With Children would’ve been axed after Season 6

SarahBellum · 02-17-2022, 03:05 PM

My Three Sons should have ended a bit sooner. They were running out of sons.

As for more recent shows, The Office and Two and a Half Men.

Chocolate Moose · 02-20-2022, 09:02 PM

Seinfeld should have given it up a few years earlier. I don't care for zany unthinking comedy.

PracTz · 02-20-2022, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocolate Moose

Seinfeld should have given it up a few years earlier. I don't care for zany unthinking comedy.

Agree- but, heresy of heresies, I ALSO wish 'Friends' had gotten cancelled at least four years before it had its overhyped, overpraised end!

RetroGuy2000 · 02-20-2022, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PracTz

Agree- but, heresy of heresies, I ALSO wish 'Friends' had gotten cancelled at least four years before it had its overhyped, overpraised end!

It probably should have ended sooner, but four years earlier would have meant it would have ended after the sixth season. We would have missed Phoebe's grandmother's cookie recipe, Joey and Ross on the fire escape, and Monica and Ross' cousin, all of which are classic memories for me.

treky · 02-21-2022, 02:25 AM

DEFINITELY MASH should have been cancelled after season 7; 99.9% of those season 8-11 "post Radar" episodes are just painful to watch

AntennaTV2020 · 02-23-2022, 03:58 AM

One Day at a Time

Antenna TV just finished showing the final season and wow it was a hot mess. It felt like a spin-off. The show lost it's focus and didn't know what it wanted to be. Barbara and Julie move into a house with their husbands and shifting the focus to the new location. But Ann was back in the old apartment with her new husband. Then Mackenzie Phillips get fired again for the second time due to drugs issues and were left with her husband and baby. Then the writers give give a awful explaination way by saying ran out on her husband and newborn child? Then to fill the void they have Grandma Romano move in the house. Valerie Bertinelli is sleepwalking her lines at this point and clearly over the show. They're giving a finale to wrap up everybody's storyline, but then proceed to have the last episode be that crappy backdoor pilot. The only positive is that the producers dropped the Alex character who I hated. His addition to the show was unncessary and they should have dropped his character along with his father.

KurtfromPitts · 03-02-2022, 11:57 AM

ODAAT, Alice and The Jeffersons.

SarahBellum · 03-02-2022, 01:49 PM

Drew Carey Show

Yong Fang · 03-05-2022, 04:02 AM

Two kinds of shows, shows that take place in a high school or a military environment. I think The Facts of Life was mentioned, the four girls went from high school to college to adult life and never moved away from each other. That's not realistic, even with people with lifelong friends, people move on and have other friends and experiences.

Welcome Back Kotter was sort of doomed because the students were obviously too old to be high school students, except ironically Ron Pallilo who played Horseshack who was the oldest one. Having twenty five year old ninth graders just doesnt work after a time. Sort of good Gabe Kaplan and John Travolta by leaving killed it off early, what was the show going to do if it was a massive hit for years and years?

I never saw it, but Head of the Class probably had a similar issue, kids who were already too old to logically be in high school, in high school. Again，I never saw this show either but at least the kids at Saved by the Bell were kids.

Military shows. MASH had to suspend a lot of belief. The main issue is that in the real military, personell are moved in and out all the time, while most of the players here just stayed in one place, the MASH unit. in real life, a doctor would do a few months and go somewhere else, not stay for years and years. MASH had I believe four Christmas episodes, which isnt right since the war was only three years and again, the staff wouldnt have stayed there that long.

Gomer Pyle is another example. Again, people in the military move from post to post, place to place and even country to country. Even in the Gomer Pyle universe where it is peacetime. Gomer would not have stayed at one post for several years, with the same Gunnery Sargeant (and this is another annoying thing, Carter was not a Sargeant, he was a Gunnery Sargeant or a "Gunny" for short). Gomer Pyle should have moved from post to post and should have at least have been an E-3 (Sargeant), and Carter a distant memory.

Since Gomer was such a talented singer, he should have been in the USO, where he met the Carol Burnett character and was even a Sargeant to other entertainers in the unit. Gunnery Sargeant Carter could have had his own show, again, travelling from post to post, yelling at knuckleheads and going to exotic places like 1960's Japan.

02-17-2022, 12:42 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,742	Which TV shows overstayed their welcome? Which shows had way too many seasons and by the end they were scraping the bottom of the barrel?

02-17-2022, 02:41 AM	#2
RetroGuy2000 Julie,Julie Anne,&Felice 4Ever Forum Star Join Date: Dec 27, 2013 Posts: 16,914	Roseanne probably should have ended after Season 7, or maybe at the end of Season 8. The final season was a trainwreck of epic proportions, and it was so bad it was written out of existence when the series was rebooted. The Facts of Life probably should have ended one season earlier; that final season (Season 9), the series felt like it had lost focus: Blair starts off the season in law school, but by the end of the season, she's not even taking classes anymore. Jo gets married, but we see her husband just once after they are wed. Natalie even phones in her final episode. Don't even get me started on the mess that was Pippa. The Simpsons should have ended after Season 8. Gimme a Break's final season was soul-crushingly bad. I don't know why they even bothered with that final season: it had only one original cast member left. Game of Thrones' final season got completely messed up when the producers decided to make up their own storylines, ignoring the careful foreshadowing that had been etched in for the previous seven seasons. Little House on the Prairie probably should have ended after the first four seasons. That show got so far from its roots that it felt like the producers were on drugs. By the time they had mimes raping girls, the show was a shadow of its former self.
	__________________ The Facts of Life's "Lost Girls" Tribute to Julie Piekarski, Eastland Girl Join "The Group", Sitcoms Online's Facts of Life group!

02-20-2022, 09:02 PM	#8
Chocolate Moose Member Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Jan 21, 2007 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 4,889	Seinfeld should have given it up a few years earlier. I don't care for zany unthinking comedy.
	__________________ How long a minute is, depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on.

02-21-2022, 02:25 AM	#11
treky star trek fan Eternal Member Forum Fanatic Join Date: Feb 25, 2002 Location: Conshohocken, pennsylvania Posts: 14,490	DEFINITELY MASH should have been cancelled after season 7; 99.9% of those season 8-11 "post Radar" episodes are just painful to watch
	__________________ the Clampetts are in a fancy Beverly Hills jewelry store. Granny points to a tray of rubies. Granny: "How much fer one o' them red diamonds?" clerk: "Madam, those are rubies." Granny: "OK ask her kin we buy one offa her." clerk: " The ruby I am talking about is not a lady." Granny: "Lissen, how she got them diamonds is her business. I'm just sayin' ask her kin we buy one from her."

02-23-2022, 03:58 AM	#12
AntennaTV2020 Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Oct 18, 2017 Posts: 61	One Day at a Time Antenna TV just finished showing the final season and wow it was a hot mess. It felt like a spin-off. The show lost it's focus and didn't know what it wanted to be. Barbara and Julie move into a house with their husbands and shifting the focus to the new location. But Ann was back in the old apartment with her new husband. Then Mackenzie Phillips get fired again for the second time due to drugs issues and were left with her husband and baby. Then the writers give give a awful explaination way by saying ran out on her husband and newborn child? Then to fill the void they have Grandma Romano move in the house. Valerie Bertinelli is sleepwalking her lines at this point and clearly over the show. They're giving a finale to wrap up everybody's storyline, but then proceed to have the last episode be that crappy backdoor pilot. The only positive is that the producers dropped the Alex character who I hated. His addition to the show was unncessary and they should have dropped his character along with his father.
	Last edited by AntennaTV2020; 07-29-2023 at 07:03 AM.

02-17-2022, 03:51 AM	#3
PracTz Member Senior Member Join Date: Jul 14, 2002 Location: United States of America [Happily Living in the 20th Century] Posts: 2,711	Let's not overlook 'Happy Days' ! Even fans of the Screaming at the Studio Audience Super Fonz and Cha-Wah-Wah-Wachi Years had to conclude it was running on fumes for the last few years .

02-17-2022, 09:31 AM	#5
king of comedy Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Aug 31, 2012 Location: New Jersey Posts: 5,140	Family Guy should have ended after Season 7

02-17-2022, 02:43 PM	#6
AMackII Member Forum Star Join Date: Oct 23, 2015 Location: St. Louis Posts: 17,216	Family Matters would’ve gone off the air 25 years ago if it weren’t for CBS. Realistically the 9th Season of Family Matters is the only season that turn the show into a complete shell of its former self. Home Improvement would’ve left the airwaves once Season 7 ended Married With Children would’ve been axed after Season 6

02-17-2022, 03:05 PM	#7
SarahBellum Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Sep 15, 2007 Location: Cleveland, OH Posts: 3,873	My Three Sons should have ended a bit sooner. They were running out of sons. As for more recent shows, The Office and Two and a Half Men.

03-02-2022, 11:57 AM	#13
KurtfromPitts Member Senior Member Join Date: Feb 10, 2006 Location: Carnegie PA Posts: 1,533	ODAAT, Alice and The Jeffersons.

03-02-2022, 01:49 PM	#14
SarahBellum Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Sep 15, 2007 Location: Cleveland, OH Posts: 3,873	Drew Carey Show

03-05-2022, 04:02 AM	#15
Yong Fang Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 04, 2009 Location: Memphis Tennessee Posts: 3,073	Two kinds of shows, shows that take place in a high school or a military environment. I think The Facts of Life was mentioned, the four girls went from high school to college to adult life and never moved away from each other. That's not realistic, even with people with lifelong friends, people move on and have other friends and experiences. Welcome Back Kotter was sort of doomed because the students were obviously too old to be high school students, except ironically Ron Pallilo who played Horseshack who was the oldest one. Having twenty five year old ninth graders just doesnt work after a time. Sort of good Gabe Kaplan and John Travolta by leaving killed it off early, what was the show going to do if it was a massive hit for years and years? I never saw it, but Head of the Class probably had a similar issue, kids who were already too old to logically be in high school, in high school. Again，I never saw this show either but at least the kids at Saved by the Bell were kids. Military shows. MASH had to suspend a lot of belief. The main issue is that in the real military, personell are moved in and out all the time, while most of the players here just stayed in one place, the MASH unit. in real life, a doctor would do a few months and go somewhere else, not stay for years and years. MASH had I believe four Christmas episodes, which isnt right since the war was only three years and again, the staff wouldnt have stayed there that long. Gomer Pyle is another example. Again, people in the military move from post to post, place to place and even country to country. Even in the Gomer Pyle universe where it is peacetime. Gomer would not have stayed at one post for several years, with the same Gunnery Sargeant (and this is another annoying thing, Carter was not a Sargeant, he was a Gunnery Sargeant or a "Gunny" for short). Gomer Pyle should have moved from post to post and should have at least have been an E-3 (Sargeant), and Carter a distant memory. Since Gomer was such a talented singer, he should have been in the USO, where he met the Carol Burnett character and was even a Sargeant to other entertainers in the unit. Gunnery Sargeant Carter could have had his own show, again, travelling from post to post, yelling at knuckleheads and going to exotic places like 1960's Japan.