[Lord Aquaman]

Let's list them, shall we?

Hmm... let's see... well, Friends wore out its welcome with a ten year run that left much to be desired. Similarly, M*A*S*H (1972-1983) also ran long after its experation date. The once very enjoyable That 70s Show is currently outliving its usefulness as an unpleasant and hopefully final 7th season drags on, while The Simpsons just keeps going and going and going... and continues not to be the comedy that it once was.

Did I miss any?

[Despondent]

The cosby show

which the Simps' mocked. Simultaneous to the Cosby show finale, on the Simps Homer was watching the cosby credits and explained to bart it was going off the air because they thought it was time. Bart replies "man if I ever get a show I'm just going to run it into the ground" or something like that.

there's a long list of shows that I've never watched that just keep going on and on. since I can't give a review of such, I'll let them slide.

[Chyld]

Enough said.

[Heccubus]

The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live immediately come to mind. SNL should've ended about a decade ago.

[Reader]

The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live immediately come to mind.  SNL should've ended about a decade ago.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

if only we could jam-pack all the good little parts in all the episodes after 1980 into a nice 5-season package.
The late 80's/early 90's shows were pretty damn good too... i'm not an SNL aficionado so i could be wrong, but the line-up at that time was the only one that could hold a candle to the original cast (just barely).


Let's see... I agree with MASH. I like it, but I don't know WHEN it should have ended... i guess it depends on how many times you can hear the same self-righteous shpeels over and over again.
Simpsons is a given. They would have left on a ludicrously funny note if they axed if after the "Show Shot Mr.Burns" two-parter, but alas that's not how popular TV works.
Dragonball Z. They should have just hammered it all into a can about the size of 50eps. Then again, it wouldn't be as funny.

What about a thread about shows gone before their time?

[SimeSublime]

I reckon Stargate should be finishing up, not making new eps. It's just not the same anymore.

[Helena]

The Simpsons, definitely. Also Friends, Frasier... most US comedy shows, in fact. And these days, increasingly, most British ones as well.

[Just your average movie goer]

Buffy and Angel come immediately to mind for me. The last season of Buffy and Season 4 Angel should have been axed. They were unbelievably bad.

I disagree about M*A*S*H though. Okay, running for eleven years was rather long but there were still some great episodes in the later seasons and the two-part finale was just incredible ~ really moving and touching stuff.

I think the problems lie in the early days of the series - too much Frank Burns. Once they got him out, the series was so much better. Major Winchester was a far more interesting character and with Frank Burns gone, Margaret Hoolahan was finally able to develop as a character.

In the movie that started the whole thing, they got rid of Frank Burns quite quickly (even though he was a much more bearable character then). The show should have followed that example.

However, I digress (as always). I don't feel M*A*S*H ran too long because it was such a wonderful show. I, like many others, really loved these characters. We were so attached to them and we didn't want to say good-bye. So the longer we could stay with them, the better.

[SimeSublime]

I partially disagree about Angel. Sure, it could have ended quite well at the end of the third season, but I didn't like aspects of the ending(not that I can remember at the moment). The problem with the fourth season was they were expecting to do a fifth, and were told not long before then end to wrap it up. Hence the crappy finale.

[Just your average movie goer]

Oh, I know what you mean. The third season was bad and the ending was unsatisfactory.

However, Season Four should have been axed just because it was truly horrible and awful in a very violent and unpleasant sense. Some truly awful things happened during that series that should never appear on television ~ in particular that episode where Connor helps Cordelia sacrifice an innocent girl with a meat cleaver. And we're supposed to empathise with him later on? Unbelievable.

Season One of Angel was fantastic. Season Two started well but was a bit silly at the end. However, Lorne was a great addition to the show and Season Three looked promising.

Season Three however... sucked. They gave Angel a kid. You can't do that with an action hero. You burden them down with a kid and the responsibilities of raising one, the show's over. At the end of the series, it just became too weird and convuluted.

It went from being a show that started as a series of quite good stand-alone stories into a long story arc that quite frankly was just ridiculous. The writers could have learned well from the KISS formula - Keep It Simple, Stupid.

I stopped watching Angel during Season Three and was simply appalled by what I saw when I occasionally tuned into Season Four.


As for Buffy, it peaked in Season Two and everything afterwards was an anticlimax. Season Three was entertaining though (but had Spike in only ONE episode!). Season Four, despite being rather silly, was actually quite fun ~ so it was entertaining in terms of good laughs and just being all-round fun.

Season Five was one that was hard-going for me but when it came to its end, I thought it was an incredible season. It demanded a lot of emotional investment from the audience but it delivered in no small way. That was amazing.

Season Six was when it all fell apart. However, it did have "Once More With Feeling", quite possibly my favourite Buffy episode ever (it's the musical one of course) and "Tabula Rasa" (the one where everyone loses their memory), which was great. The rest of the season was just stupid and I gave up on it. However, there was still hope that the seventh season could be good.

But Season Seven was just the most truly horrible thing to grace our screens for an age. Some girl (or girls) would be tortured and killed in basically every episode. Willow had some demon pulling strips of her skin off and eating them. And then, if all of this wasn't bad enough, Xander had his eyes gouged out.

I'm of the mind that we should NEVER see someone getting their eyes gouged out on television. NEVER, NEVER EVER. There should be a law about this kind of thing. It goes well beyond conventional forms of horrible televised violence.

Okay, I think I've rambled on long enough. You get my point.

"Once More With a Feeling" and "Tabula Rasa" should have been incorporated into Season Five somehow and Buffy should have ended there.

Angel should have still continued after Season Two but not with the utter crap that was thrown at us. If that was the best the gang could think of then they should have just said "Sorry, we've got no more ideas so we won't be making any more episodes" and called it quits.

[Lord Aquaman]

Oh, I know what you mean.  The third season was bad and the ending was unsatisfactory. 

However, Season Four should have been axed just because it was truly horrible and awful in a very violent and unpleasant sense.  Some truly awful things happened during that series that should never appear on television ~ in particular that episode where Connor helps Cordelia sacrifice an innocent girl with a meat cleaver.  And we're supposed to empathise with him later on?  Unbelievable. 

Season One of Angel was fantastic.  Season Two started well but was a bit silly at the end.  However, Lorne was a great addition to the show and Season Three looked promising.

Season Three however... sucked.  They gave Angel a kid.  You can't do that with an action hero.  You burden them down with a kid and the responsibilities of raising one, the show's over.  At the end of the series, it just became too weird and convuluted.

It went from being a show that started as a series of quite good stand-alone stories into a long story arc that quite frankly was just ridiculous.  The writers could have learned well from the KISS formula - Keep It Simple, Stupid.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

JYAMG, we should really sit down and discuss just how far is too far in terms of TV violence some day.

M*A*S*H saw some good times with Winchester, but I still think the show was flogged to death with its 11 year run and too much preaching from the overblown windbag that is Alan Alda.

Stand alone stories are always preferable to a story arc. Story arcs just make everything confusing.

[Laughlyn]

I'm going to get flamed for eternity for saying this, but Red Dwarf. Should have ended on a high at series 5-6, instead the show just lost it in the later series.

[Just your average movie goer]

Stand alone stories are always preferable to a story arc. Story arcs just make everything confusing.

They also screw over viewers who miss a couple of episodes. For example, if you missed a few episodes in Season One Angel and then came back, you could still follow the story and you'd have a good idea of what was going on.

But if you missed a few episodes of Season Three Angel and came back, you'd just be asking yourself "What... the... hell?"

Regarding the violence on television issue, I don't have a problem with the general violence that comes in conventional fighting. If it's a show with guns, then I think it's fair to expect that people will get shot. If it's got swords, then some hacking and slicing is probably inevitable. But I for one can really live without seeing gruesome acts of torture performed onscreen.

What happened in Season Seven Buffy was particularly atrocious because it used to be a fun television program. There were some rather dark episodes, but there was always a balance. Not so in Season Seven. It was just horrible and unpleasant, offering nothing that anyone in their right mind would like to see.


Regarding Alan Alda, I'll have to disagree with you on that. I like the man.

I'm going to get flamed for eternity for saying this, but Red Dwarf. Should have ended on a high at series 5-6, instead the show just lost it in the later series.

I won't flame you. I don't know anything about Red Dwarf. But 5-6 seasons sounds like plenty for most television programs out there.

[Jane Sherwood]

I have to disagree with you on some things there, JYAMG. As far as Angel goes...yes seasons three and four were rather hard to watch (there were a few good episodes, though, and we got to have more Darla and the Wesley/Fred/Gunn triangle, after all. Joss just can't let his characters be happy, can he?), but I thought season five was brilliant...and I'm not just saying that because Spike was in it. I loved it, all the moral issues raised about them joining Wolfram and Hart, not really knowing which side they were fighting for anymore, the uncertainly over the Sanshu Prophecy, the loose ends with Connor finally being tied, Lindsey's return, the ending...god the ending was brilliant. I remember saying, "...THAT'S IT?! That's how it ends?! Bastards!" Then after thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized just how great a move it was to leave everything up in the air like that...proper closure just...wouldn't have felt right in this case.

I even loved the horrible things that happened, like Cordelia's last episode, Lorne's final exit, and what they did to poor Fred...and Wesley...god, that actually had me tearing up, as ridiculous as it sounds...I loved it.

As far as Buffy goes, I didn't get to see much of season seven because of issues with satellite TV and not being able to pick up the channel showing it, but as hazy as I am on most of the season, I loved the last episode as much as Angel's, and since I am a rabid Spike fangirl, the promise of Soul-y Spike kept me watching as much as I could. Honestly, I would have been crying my eyes out when he sacrificed himself if I hadn't known he was going to be resurrected.

Besides, both seasons had a flashback episode. I'm an absolute sucker for flashback episodes...



On a side note, I think season four has to be my favorite season of Buffy from "The Initiative" onward. In fact, I think "The Initiative" is one of my favorite episodes overall...that, and "Fool for Love", of course...

This post has been edited by Jane Sherwood: 09 January 2005 - 06:07 AM

[SimeSublime]

I have to agree with everything Jane said about Angel.

Season Seven of Buffy was well done, but honestly a bit long. Buffy made so many bloody speeches it got annoying. But the ending was great, espcially since I didn't know who was going to die, nor that Spike would later be resurected. Sadly, I have only ever seen the first 10 eps of season 4. They're they only episodes I haven't seen, but seeing as I hate Buffy's BF from that series, I considered it no big loss.

And I agree with Red Dwarf. Just wasn't the same in seasons 7&8. Oh, and Red Dwarf only has 6 eps per season, so 7 or 8 seasons isnt that big.