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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
 Posted - 01/22/2006 : 6:46:39 PM
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Where popular shows didn't so much "jump the shark" as they did get eaten whole.
Example: Moonlighting, where the creators made the mistake of having Dave and Maddie finally jump into bed together. Once their characters "did it", the sexual tension on the show was gone.
Or on Dallas where they first killed Bobby Ewing, then miraculously brought his character back a season later. ("It was all a dream.")
Any cast change/story change you can think of that was not only stupid, but it ruined the show from thereon in.
(The all-time record holder must be Mork & Mindy, which began as one of the great sitcoms of the late '70s, only to run itself into the ground soon thereafter thanks to needlessly tinkering with its own formula too many times.) |
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tam1MI
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
558 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 12:01:07 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by zombiewhacker
Where popular shows didn't so much "jump the shark" as they did get eaten whole.
Or on Dallas where they first killed Bobby Ewing, then miraculously brought his character back a season later. ("It was all a dream.")
In the same vein DYNASTY was enjoying a pretty good run ratings-wise, then they had the episode known as "The Moldavian Massacre", and it was bombs away from then on. |
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Freschel
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
USA
150 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 01:17:09 AM
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They did one big major mistake when they killed off Catherine in "Beauty and the Beast". After her death the show was never the same.
It's Coacoa Puffs, Bob. I have no idea why, but it fits the equation. |
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Terrahawk
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
644 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 10:03:22 AM
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"Twin Peaks" which went from weird interesting to just weird.
The ROPe gives you three options, convert, submit, or die. There is a fourth, resist. |
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PaulaJohnson
Minister of the Sacraments of Jabootu
USA
32 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 10:47:06 AM
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When Forever Knight was bought by USA. They killed Skanky and brought in "eye candy" Vedder instead, got a new chief, sexed up Natalie, began to humanize LaCroix, and minized Jeanette into practically nothing.
Sucked from thenceforth. I was so mad.
I came, I saw, I was really too tired to deal with it so I just went to bed. |
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AnnGora
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
252 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 11:26:41 AM
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Two words:
Cousin Oliver
She was bred in old Kentucky, but she's just a crumb up here. |
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hbrennan
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Philippines
1455 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 2:26:04 PM
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When they tried to pass off "The Sixth Sense" as "Night Gallery"
"...yet it hadn't destroyed his brain."
re: Charles "The Butcher" Benton (1956)
http://henrybrennan.blogspot.com/ |
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AnnGora
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
252 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 3:35:47 PM
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When they killed off James Evans on "Good Times."
Dayum, Dayum, Dayum
She was bred in old Kentucky, but she's just a crumb up here. |
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kdraut
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
343 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 6:34:20 PM
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The "emergency ratings boost" baby on The Cosby Show was just another nail in the coffin for what had been a good show.
http://www.kdraut.com/photo |
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hentai_wolf
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
139 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 6:46:00 PM
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The idea of keeping Newsradio on the air after the death of Phil Hartman.
When they took away Parker's hawaiian shirts and Jerry's jacket in Parker Lewis Can't Lose.
And didn't Nightcourt die after they made Dan Fielding a nice guy?
On the other hand, the last season of Angel, which was pretty much guaranteed not to get renewed (hell, it was a shock they got that last season), was actually pretty fun after they took over Wolfram and Hart. And there was an episode where Angel got turned into a puppet. |
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Representing Labor
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
62 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 7:20:10 PM
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Shelley Long leaving Cheers and McLean Stevenson leaving M*A*S*H*
What the heck were they thinking!?
quote:
Originally posted by hentai_wolf
The idea of keeping Newsradio on the air after the death of Phil Hartman.
It would not have been as bad an idea had the writing been as consistant as it was during the first three seasons. Phil Hartman, after all, was only one small part of a large and extremely talented ensemble cast. |
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jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 7:32:18 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Representing Labor
It would not have been as bad an idea had the writing been as consistant as it was during the first three seasons. Phil Hartman, after all, was only one small part of a large and extremely talented ensemble cast.
A similar arguement could be made for Shelly Long in Cheers and McLean Stevenson in M*A*S*H. Actually, Alley lasted longer on CHEERS that Long did. Stevenson left M*A*S*H of his own accord, because he didn't like not being the top banana. He got what he deserved with failed series afterwards, like Condo, costarring Luis Avalos from the Electric Company |
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GalahadPC
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
380 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 7:45:50 PM
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Concerning Night Court, I think the series was already on its last legs when Dan temporarily became a philanthropist. The series had always been fairly wacky, but by that point, it had become downright bizarre. The Star Trek conventioneers that actually beamed out of the courtroom are my favorite example, and in the last episode, aliens from Jupiter take Bull to be their leader, since he's tall enough to reach all their highest shelves. Still, at least the series managed to end with something of a bang, instead of a whimper.
I was going to nominate M*A*S*H myself, and quote a local radio host concerning the show: "If you see an episode where BJ Honeycutt has a moustache, just change the channel," since it was by that point that the show had clearly become little more than Alan Alda's personal soapbox.
Then again, the shift in tone couldn't have been that much of a mistake, since ratings ran pretty high right up until the end, didn't they?
As a casual Trekkie myself, I have to contend that Seven of Nine was a huge mistake for Voyager, not because of the character itself, but by sexing her up so blatantly. Same for T'Pol on Enterprise. The whole "decontamination body gel backrub" scene in the first episode was guaranteed to knock down the average IQ of the show's audience.
And speaking of Enterprise, trying to retroactively tie the show into the future Trek universe to the extent they did was some serious ass-backwards thinking. |
Edited by - GalahadPC on 01/23/2006 7:46:50 PM |
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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 8:21:45 PM
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Every show where the female star gets married. THAT GIRL and I DREAM OF JEANNIE, for instance.
M*A*S*H did some pretty good episodes where they experimented with the story-telling, (think of the episodes where they did a "TV documinatry" or the one where the viewer saw things through the eyes of a wounded solder) but the damn thing just went on and on, people were mocking it in the last few seasons. It had high rateings because of the people who tuned in because it was a famous show, or because they felt they were commited to see it through, or because they were hoping it would be good again. (I knew each type of fan mentioned above)
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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GalahadPC
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
380 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 9:02:20 PM
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Rather tangential, but I can't keep this to myself:
In an episode of Futurama! there's a robot military doctor named iHawk, with a switch in his side that goes from "irreverent" to "maudlin."
iHawk Maudlin mode: "This isn't a war, it's a murder."
iHawk Irreverent mode: (Groucho Marx voice) "This isn't a war, it's a moider."
Back on topic... Roseanne, in the last season when they won the lottery. It already became way too dramatic and killed much of the humor, but having them become stinking rich by pure luck was like taking a crap on the show's entire premise.
Oh, and Ellen. Not so much because she came out of the closet, but because afterward - like Rosanne - the show became more of a drama with occasional chuckles, accentuated with a laserlike focus on Ellen's homosexual self-discovery. Basically, it transformed overnight into a sitcom lacking in both the varieties of situation and the comedy. |
Edited by - GalahadPC on 01/23/2006 9:21:51 PM |
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TheFoywonder
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
833 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2006 : 11:11:52 PM
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8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter after John Ritter died. Wasn't a good show to begin with but it became intolerable after he passed away and they insisted on keeping the show going by bringing in crotchety grandpa James Garner and the always annoying David Spade. This was one of those cases where working master control at an ABC affiliate TV station really did make me say, "You can't pay me to watch this crap."
Speaking of which, would somebody take Hope & Faith out back and put it down like Old Yeller already?
Now Playing in Foyeurism at Schlocktoberfest.Com:
ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT OAK RIDGE BOY - Foy unleashes Yeti, Giant of the 20th Century & his 2005 movie recap
Plus: B-WARE THE BLOG is alive at http://www.livejournal.com/users/foywonder |
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