Great TV Series Which Went One Season Too Far

g5000

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Nov 26, 2011
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Sometimes the last season of a TV show can leave a bad taste in your mouth for the whole series. If you ever watch the shows I discuss below, enjoy them, but DO NOT watch the last season.

Examples:

1) Scrubs. I am not the kind of person who watches sitcoms, but I kept hearing about Scrubs and gave it a look. But god almighty the last season was such an obvious money grab and was a disaster. Instead of leaving on a high note, they dove off a cliff and crashed and burned.

2) Chuck. This was a cotton candy of a show. You have to shut off about 90 percent of your brain to watch it, but it was good clean fun. However, the last season got beyond stupid.

There are others, but they don't come immediately to mind. I'll post more as I recall them.

In the meantime, feel free to add your own.
 
It is inevitable that a series will run out of ideas after a few seasons ... some will carry on under their own inertia ... "Friends", "The Simpsons" ... to become a shadow of their former selves.

Others will employ rating boosting tricks of the trade like "Cousin Oliver" and "Jumping the Shark".

One of the reasons that Josh Wheadon's "Firefly" is so beloved among fans of the show is that it only got a single season. Like James Dean, it died young and left a beautiful corpse.
 
The X-Files actually went a couple of seasons beyond where they should have called it quits. Mostly because Chris Carter just couldn't decide what do with the whole "alien mythology" story line. Was it real or was it a joke? Even the two reboot seasons felt like chores (although there were a few gems in there). I always like the standalone episodes better than the mythology episodes.
 
The Office, but really 2 seasons too many.
After Carell left, the next season with Kathleen Bates was still funny.. the next season is when it went downhill fast.
I have yet to watch the rest of the last season. I did watch the last episode.
Trailer Park Boys Some of the best comedy ever done. The original series started in 2001 directed/written by the shows founder - Mike Clattenberg is TV gold. He quit the series after 7 seasons citing he was tired of it. It was off the air for 7 years. But then Clattenberg sold the show to the three main characters... who signed up with Netflix to produce more seasons. It is now in season 12. And they are absolutely terrible. I have no idea how the show still exists.
 
They all go one season too far. That's why they are cancelled. The best example is the Happy Days Fonzie character water skiing and "jumping the shark".
 
7th Heaven may have gone one season too far, but it was most likely due to the way that the ending was written for what was supposed to be the show's final episode.

God bless you always!!!

Holly (one of the show's many fans)

P.S. I was glad to see it continue, but because of how many characters were no longer a part of the show, a real ending had to happen at some point though I would love to see the show come back with Lucy and Kevin being the lead characters since Lucy decided to become a preacher just like her dad. :) :) :)
 
Walking Dead is a great example. That series should have ended a long time ago.
 
"Two and a Half Men" should have ended when Charlie left the show and the kid grew up.
 
The Simpsons was like a sickly relative that you once loved but wouldn't die,
until you grew really sick of it.
ALL late night tv is like that now (Kimmel, Colbert. Cordon, Fallon, Meyers).
It's a mercy killing waiting to happen. Are you listening, Samantha Bee?
Ratings are in the toilet. The hosts are begging for viewers the way a park bear begs for scraps.
 
I can't believe no one mentioned the obvious... LOST
What a great series the first 3 seasons or so... then it went the route of Twilight Zone and Bizarro World and got completely stupid
I was wondering when someone would mention that one!!!

It just got lamer and lamer and sadder and sadder ---- and poohed out.
 
Frasier went on too far.When the characters start hugging and "lurving" each other rather than make you laugh is the sign that they should quit.
Hmmm really? Happy to see that Frasier is doing a new 9 episode season hopefully out by 2022. Can't seem to agree with you on anything wonder why that is.
 
Sometimes the last season of a TV show can leave a bad taste in your mouth for the whole series. If you ever watch the shows I discuss below, enjoy them, but DO NOT watch the last season.

Examples:

1) Scrubs. I am not the kind of person who watches sitcoms, but I kept hearing about Scrubs and gave it a look. But god almighty the last season was such an obvious money grab and was a disaster. Instead of leaving on a high note, they dove off a cliff and crashed and burned.

2) Chuck. This was a cotton candy of a show. You have to shut off about 90 percent of your brain to watch it, but it was good clean fun. However, the last season got beyond stupid.

There are others, but they don't come immediately to mind. I'll post more as I recall them.

In the meantime, feel free to add your own.
After a number seasons the cast and writers start getting antsy and putting feelers out for a new job. Some end up leaving the series early which often hastens the end. This is particular true of Netflix and other streaming services that do their own productions. There can be one or more years delay in bringing the next session to life and sometimes there is no next season. During this time cast and writers and other production people often find other jobs which necessitates changes the script and sometimes changing the direction of story. However, sometimes the service guarantees a number seasons but that is not that common.
 
Happy Days is where the phrase - "Jumped the Shark" came from.

And yet, amazingly, it lasted a few seasons past the literal jumping of the shark. But by the shark jump, it had far outlived its original premise, and they were struggling for the last several seasons to keep it going.

It was originally all about the experiences of a teenaged boy, growing up in Milwaukee in the 1950s. The boy grew up, and left the show. The 1050s gave way to the 1960s, and what were the supporting cast were left to work around the hole left by the absence of the original main character.
 

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