Shows that ended a season or two too late?

[Web Conn]

Inspired by the Shows that ended without a proper ending. Which show do you believe should've ended long before it actually.

I will start it off with Scrubs now the intended season finale was pitch perfect JD had finally gotten Cox's approval and all the memorable minor characters throughout the series came back to say goodbye.

Then Scrubs: Med School happened now I understand that this season was technically set up as transition into a proper Scrubs spinoff and the season wasn't out right horrible and had its moments but something was off it wasn't quite the same and after that "Book of Love montage" that ended the last season it never could be the story was over anything after that was half hearted from both the writers and the viewers.

[ebbie]

I feel like I always get into good shows long after they are cancelled.. But holy fuck, why is The Simpsons still on the air? It's weird that the props and storylines have progressed to show more modern shit but there's no character progression at all. It just doesn't feel the same. /old person.

 

And I watch Scrubs on WGN. I had no idea the show went on past 2004 until it got cancelled.

[Elsalvajeloco]

But holy fuck, why is The Simpsons still on the air?

 

I can't wait for the inevitable "Why the fuck is this show still on?" thread. If it doesn't include SNL in one of the first three replies, I would be severely disappointed.

[ebbie]

I don't even know how people thought/think SNL was/is funny. I mean, Eddie and Chevy Chase weren't on the show for that long.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

Lost.

[mco543]

Just about every show I've gotten really in to. The 2 most annoying are Burn Notice and Nip/Tuck. Burn Notice should've ended a long time before it did, the nonsense went for too long and Nip/Tuck should've ended with Christian showing up in Los Angeles and surprised Sean during surgery at the end of S4.

[Elsalvajeloco]

I don't even know how people thought/think SNL was/is funny. I mean, Eddie and Chevy Chase weren't on the show for that long.

 

I'd rather watch a group of small Pomeranian puppies get kicked in the face than a middling episode of SNL from the last seven or eight years.

[piranesi]

It might be tougher to make a distinction between just "shows that started to suck" of which there are way too many, and something a little more rare, "shows that had a good ending sitting right FUCKING THERE but decided to just blow right past it and keep going."

[Brian Fowler]

That 70's Show absolutely should have ended with Kelso moving away and Eric going to Africa.

[MikeRose]

The Office should have ended after "Dinner Party".

[supremebve]

I don't even know how people thought/think SNL was/is funny. I mean, Eddie and Chevy Chase weren't on the show for that long.

SNL is still the best place for up and coming comedic talents to get in maximum funny reps before moving on to bigger and better things.  The weekly reps writing and performing with the kind of talent that is consistently on the cast is almost impossible to replicate anywhere else.  Whether or not it is an hour and a half of funny every single week is irrelevant, because they are basically breeding comedy stars.  They won't cancel the show because nothing else will ever get higher ratings in that time slot, and a large portion of all the comedic television shows and movies came through their cast.  You don't have to like it, but it serves its purpose.

[Craig H]

More and more I'm starting to think that Sons of Anarchy should have ended a season or two ago and now they're just dragging shit out.

[odessasteps]

SApeaking of SNL, Simmons did a really good pod lastweek with Robert Smigel, talking his time on SNL, as well as Conan, Triumph and so on.

[MonteCarl]

Dexter. I came in to the show late and blew through all the seasons in the last year leading up to this final season. God Damn was Season 8 just shit with one of the worst finales ever.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Prison Break probably should have ended with the first run, when they broke out of prison, but those last few episodes just seemed like some fudge to extend it anyway. It definitely should've ended after the second season, which was only worthwhile because they realised T-Bag was the best character. Season 3 was terrible, I'll probably never watch season 4.

[Elsalvajeloco]

I don't even know how people thought/think SNL was/is funny. I mean, Eddie and Chevy Chase weren't on the show for that long.

SNL is still the best place for up and coming comedic talents to get in maximum funny reps before moving on to bigger and better things.  The weekly reps writing and performing with the kind of talent that is consistently on the cast is almost impossible to replicate anywhere else.  Whether or not it is an hour and a half of funny every single week is irrelevant, because they are basically breeding comedy stars.  They won't cancel the show because nothing else will ever get higher ratings in that time slot, and a large portion of all the comedic television shows and movies came through their cast.  You don't have to like it, but it serves its purpose.

Personally, I don't give a shit because it's fucking awful.

[Territorial]

Scrubs - Was over the hill anyway, but the intended season finale was very good and a perfect way to end it. 

 

Fringe - Perfectly decent sci-fi with a rather fitting ending to all major storylines/loose threads.  Got renewed after the finale was shot.  Last season was awful.

 

Millennium - Was supposed to canceled at the end of season 2, so the showrunners (former X-File writers Glen Morgan & James Wong) ended the season with a plague that destroyed civilization.  The finale also destroyed the show's concept by killing off the main character's wife and basically turning the Millennium Group heel. Show was unexpectedly renewed and new showrunner had to figure out how to retcon the apocalypse (the explanation wasn't particularly convincing).

 

There's more, but I'll have to think it over.  Most network shows run too long/replace their leads/bring in new writers and creative people, so very few shows end as intended. 

[Burgundy LaRue]

Prison Break probably should have ended with the first run, when they broke out of prison, but those last few episodes just seemed like some fudge to extend it anyway. It definitely should've ended after the second season, which was only worthwhile because they realised T-Bag was the best character. Season 3 was terrible, I'll probably never watch season 4.

 

Prison Break definitely went off track once most of the group went back to prison in Panama at the end of Season 2.  It's a show where the writers should have already had the conclusion figured out and then make good on it in two years.

 

They would have been better served having T-Bag separate himself from the group and starting a new life as some deranaged anti-hero. That would have been a good show.  The character just owned everyone else on the show, I don't care how evil he was.  It helped that Robert Knepper was the best actor among them.

[odessasteps]

MASH (running on fumes by the end)

Friends

X-files (post Anderson / Duchovny)

My beloved Mission Impossible

[cool arrow]

Wasn't Roseanne supposed to end with Dan's heart attack?  It would've been a downer, sure, but the actual finale was a downer anyway and that last season was the drizzling shits.

[sydneybrown]

The Phil Hartman tribute episode should have been the last episode of NewsRadio.  That last season was painful.

[Bustronaut]

I love Doctor Who, but The Eleventh Hour was probably the best series finale they could have hoped for.

[Petey]

24.

 

Season 5 was the ultimate swerve-rific season and was silly while still being entertaining. It should have ended (obviously with a different finale) because season 6 was just a disaster. Season 7 was decent but season 8 was pretty bad. Too many decent/core characters were dead and it had reached the point where you just kept waiting for the swerve and when it happened, it felt meaningless. It was like Russo-booked 2000 WCW.

[offspring515]

Roseanne and That 70's Show were the first to come to my mind.  Roseanne became a completely different show in the final season, and the ending was just bizarre, off putting and diminished the series as a whole.  That 70's Show made great use of the cast as an ensemble, but without Eric the show fell apart.  It was running on empty by the point he left anyhow.  Without him it went completely into the toilet.

[JMFabiano]

Wasn't Roseanne supposed to end with Dan's heart attack?  It would've been a downer, sure, but the actual finale was a downer anyway and that last season was the drizzling shits...except for the ep when Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley appeared.

 

FTFY.

 

As far as the Simpsons/SNL question goes...simple.  Name value.  It's like Hulk Hogan, even in the 2000s/2010s someone will trot him out because of the name alone. 

 

My picks...

 

TMNT (OS): aka the "red sky" CBS episodes. 

 

Coupling (UK): S4 was unnecessary, now that I think of it.  Just do a 9 months later reunion special for the birth and wait for Richard Coyle to be available.  That said, S4 wasn't AWFUL or anything, just...different. But it did have Steven Moffat's FU to NBC.   

 

Are You Being Served? : Shoulda ended when Trevor Bannister left.  Spare us the horrors of Mr. Spooner, I beg you!  AYBS kind of had the M*A*S*H syndrome...too many regulars leave, they start consolidating characters (Humphries is now, well, Humphries, as well as standing in for the senior employee once occupied by Mr. Grainger, et al) 

 

Doug should have ended on Nickelodeon.

 

The newer format of Beavis and Butt-head (original run) got strange at the end: show shorts in entirety, then videos, rinse, repeat. 

 

Smurfs probably did.

 

American Idol seems to be leaning towards this, getting any A-lister they think will give them ratings.  Stopped being the same w/o Simon, at the very least. 

 

Survivor.  That is STILL on?!!? 

 

I am one who considers Mighty Morphin' the ONLY Power Rangers.  (In fact, let's think of some FRANCHISES that went on for too long...)

 

Rhoda slowed down after the divorce episode. 

 

Captain Planet after the move from DiC/Turner, and ESPECIALLY when they got the rap theme song! 

 

Family Feud (Richard Dawson): new gimmicks like 400 points to win left Richard less time to be Richard, though I wonder how much of his backstage attitude hurt things too.  Still, where would we be without the Lollipop Tree? 

 

Match Game (Gene Rayburn): I disagree, but must mention some people's dislike of the Star Wheel/Richardless period from 1978-1982.  That was "my" MG as a kid, so I didn't mind as much. 

 

Some people will say this about Sesame Street, though the show had to change I guess for new children.  Things look up with Cookie Monster getting his own segment and some appearances by classic characters. 

 

Ren & Stimpy: Noooooooooo Games Animation episodes, please!  And when John K. DID get them back, ick....

 

Keep my Real Ghostbusters "Slimer and..." free! 

 

 

And now...THE DEFINITIVE ANSWER: Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley.  Garry Marshall just couldn't resist plunging his shows deeper and deeper into silliness could he?  Minus most of the important characters to boot!