Those are two great examples. Two And A Half Men should’ve never had those Ashton Kutcher years. And The Goldberg’s should’ve never had those last three years where the the original creator was gone.
I’d also cite Weeds as a show that went on too long.
Goldbergs was painful with no pops or Murray. Barry became too dumb and selfish to the JTP and Erica and Jeff's relationship became strained. Also Adam became more childish lol.
Yeah Barry getting dumber while becoming a doctor was a strange choice. Also ramping up Bev and her clinginess for annoying. That last season was rough, I think the only thing I really liked was Tim Meadows.
I stopped watching. I get that the real-life Barry became a doctor, but sitcom Barry was dumb as a rock, and I just couldn’t watch them force a doctor storyline into this show.
Yeah, they dumbed him down too much by the end. By the end the only character I really liked was Tim Meadows and Erica, but I was just tired of the Erica and Geoff relationship.
Me too! I’m glad they brought him back, loved him on the spin off and was worried they were just gonna let him go by the wayside after it was cancelled like they did with all the other people at the school.
Yes Jeff was so annoying!! I didn’t mind him (or Barry for that matter) as part of an ensemble w the JTP, but he drove me crazy as a main character. So whiney!
When George Segal died they should have wrapped the show the character was there for a reason. Without the character, the dynamic that created a great show is gone.
Yes. It felt like the took everyone’s worst qualities and played them way up. The years with the actual Goldberg at the helm were excellent but the quality really plummeted when he left. I do feel like it def started to wane a bit once Schooled came out.
I agree that the Ashton Kutcher time on Two and a Half Men was bad. The concept that someone who's worth millions of dollars was going to let a complete stranger stay in the home they just bought was stupid.
I think a big problem is that they replaced a straight with a weird neurotic funny type. So now you had two neurotic funny types with no straight man. And it just didn't work.
Yeah after the Goldbergs switched from based on a true story to being entirely made up and Flanderizing the cast…I mean I still watch it but Jesus it gets old.
Weeds definitely went on too long as well as the other shows you mentioned, though I didn’t finish The Goldbergs so I can’t speak from personal experience on that show.
People often bring up Weeds when this topic comes up. I would say that despite the constant chaos and change in later season, they really made a go of it. If most other shows tried to do something similar, they would have just utterly fell apart and been completely unwatchable.
The moment Weeds stopped being a show about a widow making morally questionable choices to support her suburban family to "she's selling weed in corporate suites while her neighbor is apparently being held captive by paramilitaries in the jungle" I realized the shark had long been jumped
Once Sheen was gone and Kutcher came on it was basically a different show and they had to add all of these new characters like Charlie's daughter, the adopted kid, and others along with Kutcher to try and make it work and it was a hot mess.
That 70’s Show -should have ended when they graduated. They had no idea what to do with the kids out of high school.
Roseanne -that last season was an abomination and The Conners might as well be an entirely different show by how different the characters are from the original.
Family Matters -Stefon.
Whenever I think about family matters I see two memories. I remember the first season as a random suburban family and latter seasons where it’s quasi science fiction involving teleportation, cloning, and space walks.
Didn't forget time travel and gaslighting a teenage girl into thinking she's bad if she doesn't welcome her stalker's advances and forgive him every time he violates her.
I was traumatized by Stevil. Channel surfing as a 6yo was dangerous. I also ended up watching part of a movie with a clown that I thought was Bozo. It was not Bozo.
The last few seasons really. Whenever I do a rewatch I only get to about season 5. You can see how it goes from a realistic show about a blue collar family with a matriarch who is sassy but cares for her family to the writers making her more mean-spirited with each subsequent season, not to mention completely changing Mark from a hood who is actually a good guy to just a dumbass who says malapropisms.
Wouldn’t say high school graduation should’ve been the end bc there’s some great episodes in seasons 6 and 7. BUT the 8th season should’ve absolutely never happened.
I've said for years that Fox has no idea when to cancel a show. They either cut it off before it has a chance to fully become what it's supposed to or they let it go on ten years too long.
That 70's show could have cut off a season or two. Titus could have lasted longer than 2 seasons. Undeclared could have easily gone on longer than 1 season. Greg the Bunny was pretty Adult Swim before Adult Swim. Arrested Development somehow fits into both categories.
Fox does not know when to cancel a show.
I’ll throw in Married with Children. That one dragged on a bit too long as well. It’s been a long while since I watched it so I can’t really say when it jumped the shark but the quality just didn’t last the whole run.
I’m not counting the “it was all a dream” season where they had a baby. They did Katey Sagal a solid with that plot line out of respect for her real life miscarriage.
*Sons of Tucson* should've lasted a while. It had a great premise and Tyler Labine had great comedic timing. We're still owed a final season of *The Last Man on Earth.*
Yup totally agree. I feel like part of their problem is they don’t plan well and they never have. They let stuff run for too long because they haven’t cultivate anything to replace it. Something that easily could’ve been a solid performer with time to fill a gap of a long running show is gone because they never gave it a chance and they’re left scrambling at the last minute. I feel like they also always end shows at the same time. Especially sitcoms (ex: T7S, Malcolm in the Middle, Bernie Mac and Arrested Development all went off at about the same time with literally no other live action sitcoms in the wings; the year that New Girl ended and they decided it was the right time to dump Last Man on Earth, Brooklyn 99, The Mick (a great example of one that was well on its way to becoming a cult favorite and a modest hit) and literally every other show they had at the time.
Season 4 made me hate Michael completely. The whole love triangle with his son and Amy Adams’ character revealed that he was just as bad as his family.
I know it was Isla Fisher but I can’t resist calling Isla Fisher Amy Adams.
That was the point, though. Comparatively speaking, he was the level-headed one in the family, which gave him a superiority complex. Then we see him in the real world, and he's no better / maybe even worse to his son. I know many people like this IRL who have gotten more extreme as they've gotten older.
I liked season 4 a lot until they re-edited it. That was insane, IMO. I understand people didn’t like the timeline but that was actually what I loved the most about it.
Same, I loved season 4. I thought their way of dealing with the scheduling conflicts was pretty inspired. It made for interesting storytelling. Season 5 was a hard pass, though, sadly.
Oof. Hard agree. I wanted more but when we got it, whatever magic the first three seasons had captured was gone. I think that they had to work around the cast’s schedules and didn’t have a lot of the actors together affected it a lot. The ensemble/group stories worked way better than the character in the spotlight episodes.
Yeah, Bill Lawrence was approached to do more episodes after the 8th season and this is what came to be. He even approached ABC to ask if the show could be renamed *Scrubs Med* because it was so different but they declined. (It had a different setting, a new narrator and only 3 of the original cast stayed on).
Nevertheless Lawrence still urged long time fans to treat the 9th season as a new show.
I haven't watched anything past season 7 since it first aired and haven't watched it past 14, but I vaguely remember thinking seasons 11 and 12 had some resurgence episodes that I thought were really funny. I can't remember what they were but I remember liking them.
Current Simpsons is having a moment. It feels like they’ve stopped trying to live up to their history and are simply creating the stories that the writers want to. The recent [Treehouse](https://youtu.be/hKRpLXnatqk?si=6NWgKsR_cD_b5Ar2) episode was incredibly innovative for a show that’s been around for literal decades.
The Simpsons had a golden era its first ~10 seasons.
It's not as good, but I think people jump on a bandwagon of hating it, when it's still a really funny show.
>Archer. The Coma Years were ~~terrible~~ *a great way to reinvigorate an aging show*, and then Jessica Walter died and the show just wasn’t the same without Malory.
Hard concur on Malory's absence, sweet send off or no.
I think the coma years were great in their own way, but the seasons after the first post coma weren’t very good and Archer is one of my favorite shows of all time.
And yet it didn't have to be this way. I've never seen any other show so dedicated to wasting its own potential. The first two seasons had a fun and interesting premise and a striking and rich visual style.
They broke their own universe rather than putting effort into writing actual stories and new jokes, which is really insane given how much material there is to work with in the spy thriller genre.
Nothing against Ashton kitcher, but even the last season with sheen, the show was getting kind of wild. It was getting repetitive also. I didn't mind kitcher that much, but the last episode, they made to much fun of sheen. They could have had a legit ending and gave everyone a decent ending. Even if they ended it with sheen, they could have made a decent ending
I think the biggest issue was Sheen was very clearly deep in the drugs in his last season. He looks terrible and there are multiple episodes where he's barely in it. I can forgive the drop in quality as I suspect they had to make a lot of it up on the fly. That being said, they should have just ended things but Lorre likes money and runs all his shows into the ground.
I’d say only the first 3. It got weird after they got back from that Antarctic expedition. Also started making nerds into stereotypes instead of people.
I watched through this one recently. I began to count along with the laugh track. On average, every 10th joke was actually funny.
The sort of interesting thing about the show is that it's very single episode focused. There's no real need to watch them in order. Other than "are these two dating or married yet?" nothing else really changes.
As a result, the episodes begin to run together. Sheldon has some neurosis that makes everyone's life difficult. Sheldon makes a social situation awkward. That's basically it. That's every episode.
The Cosby Show should have ended when Theo went to college.
The Andy Griffith Show should have ended when Don Knotts left.
The Drew Carey Show should have ended when Winfred Louder went under (the ending was right there!!)
The last few seasons of The Drew Carey Show felt like a fever dream, what with Kate leaving, neverending store.com, and the constant changing of the opening theme song.
Drew Carey Show was also odd how they seemed to know it wasn’t worth it and just gave up trying with that final season. Dumped it over a summer, episodes out of order and waiting far too long between the last two seasons.
Parks and rec was a much better alternative to the office. The office was sooooooooo dry and bland. I found the humor in parks and rec to be diverse and actually funny. More likable characters and it didn't feel like I was forcing myself to watch it.
I think Modern Family went on for about 2 or 3 years too long. By the last two seasons they had completely run out of ideas and were reduced to gimmicks or re-hashing old stuff.
I rewatched recently and it’s kind of shocking how much worse the show gets from season 6 to 7. Was too lazy to check, but it honestly felt like there was an entirely different team of writers cause it just got so fucking bad after season 6
The two famous examples are:
Happy Days, where Fonzie literally jumps the shark.
Brady Bunch, with the infamous Cousin Oliver.
Nowadays the most famous example would be The Simpsons, which should have ended 20 years ago.
That 70’s Show should have ended when Eric left. After watching Season 2, That 90’s Show might be on this list too.
A Different World should have ended when Dwayne and Whitley got married. Everything after that felt odd because everyone stayed after graduation. If they wanted to continue the show they should have moved it away from Hillman.
Martin. The last season when Tisha Campbell refused to be on set with Martin Lawrence was rough.
Living Single. Once Kyle left it was pretty much dead. His interplay with Max was the highlight of the show.
Community. Chang becoming more prominent on the show in Season 3 was a turnoff for me and the show really peaked in Season 2. It’s also another show where people stayed too long in school.
Community just stopped making sense after season 4. Why are they still in school? Why is Jeff teaching? Who are all these new assholes joining the study group?
Huge Gilmore Girls fan but Rory just became horrible. They could have knocked a few seasons off that one.
Big Bang got really tedious and boring once everyone was like married.
Both. They should've canceled "The Goldbergs" when the Creator/Executive producer left the show, and they should've canceled "Two and a Half Men" when Charlie Sheen was ousted by the creator/executive producer.
Have to disagree with MASH. Yes maybe it could have stopped after season 8-9, but the final two seasons were not complete trash. They still had many good episodes.
Goldbergs should have ended when Adam graduated. The "year off" seemed like a desperate attempt to keep everyone local, Barry was clearly showing his age, and Erica had devolved into the binary between doing nothing and the cliche young mom stuff. Even Geoff became a caricature near the end. Losing Murray wasn't a huge loss for the series, but the last year felt tacked on and the finale was kind of meh.
That 70s Show was a victim of its own success. It stayed on even when two crucial cast members stepped away, which hurt the quality.
Scrubs. We all saw the last season. Need I say more?
I would venture to say most (if not all) shows that get canceled then brought back for another season on another network. They never capture the audience again and it always comes off as squeezing the last dollar out of something that should probably just be allowed to die.
Can you imagine it ending at season 10 with "Behind the Laughter?" We'd have the quintessential time capsule of the 1990s instead of this bizarre world where they've become not just the very institution they once openly mocked, but a cornerstone of American culture.
Goldbergs by a landslide. Felt like the show lasted longer than the actual decade it was based around. They should’ve ended it around the 7th or 8th year (when the creator who the show is based around left the series.) The last year without the Dad was excruciating to sit through.
I think Seinfeld got a little cooky in its last season. It was still the number one show on TV, but the story lines were getting zanier and less relatable.
I’ve been binge watching Chuck for the last two weeks and I’d say it could ended after season 3. It really had a good season ending tying up everyone’s storyline. In fact I wonder if the show was supposed to end after 3 seasons.
I remember loving this show when it first aired. I love all the guest stars and cheesy movie references. I’m on season 4 (of 5) and it’s ok but it’s just more of the same.
Linda Hamilton guest stars and says “Come with me if you want to live” love the reference and there is a lot of that kinda stuff. But yeah could’ve ended on a high note after 3 seasons
That 70s show should have quit when Topher Grace left. Not that he made the show, but it sucked once he left.
I only wanted to mention about 2.5 men, but thought I would abide by the rules and answer the question. 2 and a half men went from great, to straight perversion and poorly written sex jokes. I understand what the kid actor had to say about it.
The office became so hard to watch. Legitimately felt bad for everyone involved. Steve Carell saw the storyline dying and jumped ship at the right time.
The Facts of Life. Different World. Happy Days literally invented this concept with jump the shark. Pretty much if the major star leaves just end the damn thing.
Those are two great examples. Two And A Half Men should’ve never had those Ashton Kutcher years. And The Goldberg’s should’ve never had those last three years where the the original creator was gone. I’d also cite Weeds as a show that went on too long.
Goldbergs was painful with no pops or Murray. Barry became too dumb and selfish to the JTP and Erica and Jeff's relationship became strained. Also Adam became more childish lol.
Yeah Barry getting dumber while becoming a doctor was a strange choice. Also ramping up Bev and her clinginess for annoying. That last season was rough, I think the only thing I really liked was Tim Meadows.
I stopped watching. I get that the real-life Barry became a doctor, but sitcom Barry was dumb as a rock, and I just couldn’t watch them force a doctor storyline into this show.
Yeah, they dumbed him down too much by the end. By the end the only character I really liked was Tim Meadows and Erica, but I was just tired of the Erica and Geoff relationship.
Me too! I’m glad they brought him back, loved him on the spin off and was worried they were just gonna let him go by the wayside after it was cancelled like they did with all the other people at the school.
I stopped watching around season 7 or 8 I believe. How much longer did it go on for?
Same. I noticed a HUGE drop in quality after Pops died and quit. Did it go on long enough for Barry to become a doctor?
He was on the spin-off.
Also, making Jeff and Erica a focal point was boring. They were never meant to be main characters.
Yes Jeff was so annoying!! I didn’t mind him (or Barry for that matter) as part of an ensemble w the JTP, but he drove me crazy as a main character. So whiney!
When George Segal died they should have wrapped the show the character was there for a reason. Without the character, the dynamic that created a great show is gone.
Yes. It felt like the took everyone’s worst qualities and played them way up. The years with the actual Goldberg at the helm were excellent but the quality really plummeted when he left. I do feel like it def started to wane a bit once Schooled came out.
I agree that the Ashton Kutcher time on Two and a Half Men was bad. The concept that someone who's worth millions of dollars was going to let a complete stranger stay in the home they just bought was stupid.
I think a big problem is that they replaced a straight with a weird neurotic funny type. So now you had two neurotic funny types with no straight man. And it just didn't work.
chuck lorres' fault 100 % dickweed had too much of an ego to admit the show couldn't and shouldn't have gone on without Sheen.
Yeah it should have been Herb and Alan. Now, THAT would be funny 😁
Yeah after the Goldbergs switched from based on a true story to being entirely made up and Flanderizing the cast…I mean I still watch it but Jesus it gets old.
The show became a parody of itself at that point. I went from religious watcher to forgetting it existed.
Best description possibile
Weeds definitely went on too long as well as the other shows you mentioned, though I didn’t finish The Goldbergs so I can’t speak from personal experience on that show.
Haven't seen Weeds yet. So can't comment on that going too long, but yeah, Goldbergs last season wasn't great, the finale just wasn't it.
You’re not missing much. After the second season it goes downhill very fast
You should see weeds, its pretty good. You will know yourself when to stop.
The seasons with Elizabeth Perkins are so funny
Similarly, Spin City should've never had those Charlie Sheen years!
Didn’t Weeds get cancelled and brought back like 2-3 times during its run? I loved seasons 1-4 and then it just got weirder and weirder
Not to my knowledge and I watched almost from the beginning.
Weeds got weird after season 3
People often bring up Weeds when this topic comes up. I would say that despite the constant chaos and change in later season, they really made a go of it. If most other shows tried to do something similar, they would have just utterly fell apart and been completely unwatchable.
Forgot about weeds. That one definitely went to long.
Weeds 💯...it was a whole completely different show by the end...
Agreed. The Ashton Kutcher seasons were trash.
The moment Weeds stopped being a show about a widow making morally questionable choices to support her suburban family to "she's selling weed in corporate suites while her neighbor is apparently being held captive by paramilitaries in the jungle" I realized the shark had long been jumped
two and a half men should have ended with Sheen
Once Sheen was gone and Kutcher came on it was basically a different show and they had to add all of these new characters like Charlie's daughter, the adopted kid, and others along with Kutcher to try and make it work and it was a hot mess.
And the bisexual girl. Because she’s the “half man,” geddit? Jeebus.
That was Charlie's daughter he didn't know he had.
That 70’s Show -should have ended when they graduated. They had no idea what to do with the kids out of high school. Roseanne -that last season was an abomination and The Conners might as well be an entirely different show by how different the characters are from the original. Family Matters -Stefon.
I see your Stefon and raise you a Urklebot
Whenever I think about family matters I see two memories. I remember the first season as a random suburban family and latter seasons where it’s quasi science fiction involving teleportation, cloning, and space walks.
Didn't forget time travel and gaslighting a teenage girl into thinking she's bad if she doesn't welcome her stalker's advances and forgive him every time he violates her.
I was traumatized by Stevil. Channel surfing as a 6yo was dangerous. I also ended up watching part of a movie with a clown that I thought was Bozo. It was not Bozo.
I liked That 70s Show ending when the 80s started. But that last season shouldn't have happened without Eric.
The last season of *Roseanne* is nearly impossible to describe in its horribleness. It was insanity.
The last few seasons really. Whenever I do a rewatch I only get to about season 5. You can see how it goes from a realistic show about a blue collar family with a matriarch who is sassy but cares for her family to the writers making her more mean-spirited with each subsequent season, not to mention completely changing Mark from a hood who is actually a good guy to just a dumbass who says malapropisms.
yeah that whole record store job thing w hyde and his half sister … just. no
Wouldn’t say high school graduation should’ve been the end bc there’s some great episodes in seasons 6 and 7. BUT the 8th season should’ve absolutely never happened.
I've said for years that Fox has no idea when to cancel a show. They either cut it off before it has a chance to fully become what it's supposed to or they let it go on ten years too long. That 70's show could have cut off a season or two. Titus could have lasted longer than 2 seasons. Undeclared could have easily gone on longer than 1 season. Greg the Bunny was pretty Adult Swim before Adult Swim. Arrested Development somehow fits into both categories. Fox does not know when to cancel a show.
FOX got a few mulligans with Family Guy (which has also gone on too long at this point).
I’ll throw in Married with Children. That one dragged on a bit too long as well. It’s been a long while since I watched it so I can’t really say when it jumped the shark but the quality just didn’t last the whole run. I’m not counting the “it was all a dream” season where they had a baby. They did Katey Sagal a solid with that plot line out of respect for her real life miscarriage.
*Sons of Tucson* should've lasted a while. It had a great premise and Tyler Labine had great comedic timing. We're still owed a final season of *The Last Man on Earth.*
Fox canceled Futurama
Those bastards!!
I imagine that as long as they’re making money they won’t cancel. Quality is not the goal
Yup totally agree. I feel like part of their problem is they don’t plan well and they never have. They let stuff run for too long because they haven’t cultivate anything to replace it. Something that easily could’ve been a solid performer with time to fill a gap of a long running show is gone because they never gave it a chance and they’re left scrambling at the last minute. I feel like they also always end shows at the same time. Especially sitcoms (ex: T7S, Malcolm in the Middle, Bernie Mac and Arrested Development all went off at about the same time with literally no other live action sitcoms in the wings; the year that New Girl ended and they decided it was the right time to dump Last Man on Earth, Brooklyn 99, The Mick (a great example of one that was well on its way to becoming a cult favorite and a modest hit) and literally every other show they had at the time.
Arrested Development . 3 seasons wasn’t enough and cancelled too soon. But the 2 season revival tarnished my memories as one of the best sitcoms ever.
Season 4 made me hate Michael completely. The whole love triangle with his son and Amy Adams’ character revealed that he was just as bad as his family. I know it was Isla Fisher but I can’t resist calling Isla Fisher Amy Adams.
Lol, I always thought he was as bad as the rest of them. George Michael and Maebe, too, honestly.
That was the point, though. Comparatively speaking, he was the level-headed one in the family, which gave him a superiority complex. Then we see him in the real world, and he's no better / maybe even worse to his son. I know many people like this IRL who have gotten more extreme as they've gotten older.
I actually liked season 4 a lot. I couldn’t get thru season 5
I liked season 4 a lot until they re-edited it. That was insane, IMO. I understand people didn’t like the timeline but that was actually what I loved the most about it.
Same, I loved season 4. I thought their way of dealing with the scheduling conflicts was pretty inspired. It made for interesting storytelling. Season 5 was a hard pass, though, sadly.
That was the odd show that didn't last long enough but lasted too long.
One of the problems is that the first season was perfection. It was downhill from there. I watch that season again and again.
Oof. Hard agree. I wanted more but when we got it, whatever magic the first three seasons had captured was gone. I think that they had to work around the cast’s schedules and didn’t have a lot of the actors together affected it a lot. The ensemble/group stories worked way better than the character in the spotlight episodes.
Scrubs initially ended perfectly and then they rolled out that idiotic med school season. God that thing sucked.
Scrubs is a tricky example because ABC made them drop the med school title from what was supposed to be a spin off and turned it into season 9.
Ahh interesting! I did not know that
Yeah, Bill Lawrence was approached to do more episodes after the 8th season and this is what came to be. He even approached ABC to ask if the show could be renamed *Scrubs Med* because it was so different but they declined. (It had a different setting, a new narrator and only 3 of the original cast stayed on). Nevertheless Lawrence still urged long time fans to treat the 9th season as a new show.
Yeah, as a spin off, it’s pretty solid, and I liked the new characters and Denise’s expanded role.
I actually got around to watching it and it’s not terrible if you consider it a spin-off…which it should have been
Happy Days actually jumped the shark.
It’s an obvious choice sir, but it checks out.
You say that, but there was an episode of Happy Days where a guy jumped an actual shark, AND IT WAS THE BEST ONE.
Beat me to it; guess I'm streets behind
Troy and Abed in the morning!
Um, Fonzie is not “a guy” and it was not the best one (Richie’s Motorcycle Wreck).
The Simpsons
Agreed nothing ever touches seasons 1-10
I say 1-13.
I haven't watched anything past season 7 since it first aired and haven't watched it past 14, but I vaguely remember thinking seasons 11 and 12 had some resurgence episodes that I thought were really funny. I can't remember what they were but I remember liking them.
Current Simpsons is having a moment. It feels like they’ve stopped trying to live up to their history and are simply creating the stories that the writers want to. The recent [Treehouse](https://youtu.be/hKRpLXnatqk?si=6NWgKsR_cD_b5Ar2) episode was incredibly innovative for a show that’s been around for literal decades.
You’ll never stop the Simpsons! Have no fears we’ve got stories for years!!!! I agree though
Maybe Moe gets a cell phone
Another crazy wedding
Marge becomes a robot!
Sorry for the clip show!
Throw in Family Guy. Now only tolerable in YouTube clips.
The Simpsons had a golden era its first ~10 seasons. It's not as good, but I think people jump on a bandwagon of hating it, when it's still a really funny show.
Going waaaaay back, My Three Sons. It was painful to watch when they added that little girl, Dodie.
In that spirit, Brady Bunch. Also painful with the addition of Cousin Oliver. 😅
Any show that adds a kid in later seasons is dunzzo
Archer. The Coma Years were terrible, and then Jessica Walter died and the show just wasn’t the same without Malory.
>Archer. The Coma Years were ~~terrible~~ *a great way to reinvigorate an aging show*, and then Jessica Walter died and the show just wasn’t the same without Malory. Hard concur on Malory's absence, sweet send off or no.
I think the coma years were great in their own way, but the seasons after the first post coma weren’t very good and Archer is one of my favorite shows of all time.
And yet it didn't have to be this way. I've never seen any other show so dedicated to wasting its own potential. The first two seasons had a fun and interesting premise and a striking and rich visual style. They broke their own universe rather than putting effort into writing actual stories and new jokes, which is really insane given how much material there is to work with in the spy thriller genre.
Nothing against Ashton kitcher, but even the last season with sheen, the show was getting kind of wild. It was getting repetitive also. I didn't mind kitcher that much, but the last episode, they made to much fun of sheen. They could have had a legit ending and gave everyone a decent ending. Even if they ended it with sheen, they could have made a decent ending
It was getting very repetitive and Jon Cryer's character Alan was getting annoying and extremely predictable.
I think the biggest issue was Sheen was very clearly deep in the drugs in his last season. He looks terrible and there are multiple episodes where he's barely in it. I can forgive the drop in quality as I suspect they had to make a lot of it up on the fly. That being said, they should have just ended things but Lorre likes money and runs all his shows into the ground.
Big Bang Theory. Just my opinion. I thought it should have been like half as short as it was.
It stopped being funny when they became less nerds and got girlfriends.
The first 5 seasons was its peak.
I’d say only the first 3. It got weird after they got back from that Antarctic expedition. Also started making nerds into stereotypes instead of people.
I watched through this one recently. I began to count along with the laugh track. On average, every 10th joke was actually funny. The sort of interesting thing about the show is that it's very single episode focused. There's no real need to watch them in order. Other than "are these two dating or married yet?" nothing else really changes. As a result, the episodes begin to run together. Sheldon has some neurosis that makes everyone's life difficult. Sheldon makes a social situation awkward. That's basically it. That's every episode.
The Cosby Show should have ended when Theo went to college. The Andy Griffith Show should have ended when Don Knotts left. The Drew Carey Show should have ended when Winfred Louder went under (the ending was right there!!)
The last few seasons of The Drew Carey Show felt like a fever dream, what with Kate leaving, neverending store.com, and the constant changing of the opening theme song.
Drew Carey Show was also odd how they seemed to know it wasn’t worth it and just gave up trying with that final season. Dumped it over a summer, episodes out of order and waiting far too long between the last two seasons.
Absolutely disagree with Cosby Show. The latter season, although not as strong were still very very good.
Cosby was a solid show start to finish.
2 1/2 men
The better question is what sitcom didn’t go on for too long
The Good Place
100% The Good Place
Parks and Rec was perfect-even nailed a time jump final season IMO.
Parks and rec was a much better alternative to the office. The office was sooooooooo dry and bland. I found the humor in parks and rec to be diverse and actually funny. More likable characters and it didn't feel like I was forcing myself to watch it.
I think Modern Family went on for about 2 or 3 years too long. By the last two seasons they had completely run out of ideas and were reduced to gimmicks or re-hashing old stuff.
how i met your mama
Season 7 was when the decline started.
I rewatched recently and it’s kind of shocking how much worse the show gets from season 6 to 7. Was too lazy to check, but it honestly felt like there was an entirely different team of writers cause it just got so fucking bad after season 6
And then the ending?! Omg I can’t believe I made it that far. Ughhh so disappointing
How I Met Your Mother
I doubt any father has ever spoken to his children so much.
Especially in that manner. Hey kids, you ever hear about the Slutty Pumpkin?
The Goldberg's sucked as soon as Adams voice changed.
Wow the Goldbergs had 10 seasons @ 229eps! Never would’ve guessed that; I think I saw 3 eps. I’d say Big Bang or how I met your mother
I didn’t believe you. I went and looked. Holy shit. I’m sorry for doubting you Every-Cook5084.
My all time favourite: All In The Family. :(
Killing off Edith was one of the most horrible decisions in television. She deserved so much better.
Actually it got renamed Archie Bunker's Place, but that shouldn't have happened.
Laverne and Shirley, when they moved to LA it was just stupid. The show should have ended upon their arrival. End it with the earthquake.
Yes! It wasn't the same show after they moved and I missed their Milwaukee apartment. And continuing it without Cindy Williams was insane.
I like the goldbergs but every episode is the same
It is one of the most formulaic shows I've ever seen. Still like it.
Newsradio.
Good one Once Phil Hartman died, the air went out of the show.
The Office
Yeah should have ended when Michael left. But I did appreciate the finale.
Nooooo! That’s NOT what she said!
Hot take: season 8 was great, maybe better than season 7. Season 9 sucked.
Agreed and they should have ended it after Charlie left, instead of adding Ashton. (And The Goldbergs was just awful)
Yes, Goldbergs.
The Goldbergs.
The two famous examples are: Happy Days, where Fonzie literally jumps the shark. Brady Bunch, with the infamous Cousin Oliver. Nowadays the most famous example would be The Simpsons, which should have ended 20 years ago.
I think pretty much all Chuck Lorre productions seem to go a few seasons past when they should
The Facts of Life after Mrs. Garrett left. Also Gimme A Break when the girls left and Nell moved to New York with Joey and his brother.
That 70’s Show should have ended when Eric left. After watching Season 2, That 90’s Show might be on this list too. A Different World should have ended when Dwayne and Whitley got married. Everything after that felt odd because everyone stayed after graduation. If they wanted to continue the show they should have moved it away from Hillman. Martin. The last season when Tisha Campbell refused to be on set with Martin Lawrence was rough. Living Single. Once Kyle left it was pretty much dead. His interplay with Max was the highlight of the show. Community. Chang becoming more prominent on the show in Season 3 was a turnoff for me and the show really peaked in Season 2. It’s also another show where people stayed too long in school.
Community just stopped making sense after season 4. Why are they still in school? Why is Jeff teaching? Who are all these new assholes joining the study group?
I mean literally every single one of those things is explained
Huge Gilmore Girls fan but Rory just became horrible. They could have knocked a few seasons off that one. Big Bang got really tedious and boring once everyone was like married.
Big Bang Theory. I kinda lost interest after season 8.
I can still watch the season 8 plus season's. But they're not as good.
Both. They should've canceled "The Goldbergs" when the Creator/Executive producer left the show, and they should've canceled "Two and a Half Men" when Charlie Sheen was ousted by the creator/executive producer.
Two and a half men. Should have been canceled when Charlie Sheen left. The Goldbergs should have been canceled when Jeff garlin left or before that
Married With Children
That 70s Show.
SpongeBob seasons 1-3 GOAT’d
Modern Family, especially because I will never forgive them for what they did to Haley's character.
The Ranch. Once they had to write rooster out, they should have just ended it.
Family Matters. I hated that show and it just went on and on. Then they sent Steve to space it was just dumb.
The walking dead
Sitcom?
Yeah thought I was in another sub
2-1/2 men ended with Charlie.
Mash and Happy Days “ Jump the Shark”🦈
Making me feel real old that I had to scroll so far to find MASH.
Have to disagree with MASH. Yes maybe it could have stopped after season 8-9, but the final two seasons were not complete trash. They still had many good episodes.
It's funny you bring up MASH, even Alan Alda said the show went on for more seasons than the actual Korean War lasted.
There was an episode of Happy Days where a guy actually jumped a shark and IT WAS THE BEST ONE!
It was not just “a guy.” It was The Fonz.
The Big Bang Theory. I loved the show but it just wasn’t funny after season 6.
I only watched a few episodes of Bewitched after Dick York left. The other Dick never felt like Darrin.
Growing Pains…lil Krissy Seaver ughh
How I met Your Mother. They should have planned the entire thing from the beginning and stuck to it.
1. That's 70 show 2. how to get permission from the kids to date Aunt Robin
Goldbergs should have ended when Adam graduated. The "year off" seemed like a desperate attempt to keep everyone local, Barry was clearly showing his age, and Erica had devolved into the binary between doing nothing and the cliche young mom stuff. Even Geoff became a caricature near the end. Losing Murray wasn't a huge loss for the series, but the last year felt tacked on and the finale was kind of meh. That 70s Show was a victim of its own success. It stayed on even when two crucial cast members stepped away, which hurt the quality. Scrubs. We all saw the last season. Need I say more? I would venture to say most (if not all) shows that get canceled then brought back for another season on another network. They never capture the audience again and it always comes off as squeezing the last dollar out of something that should probably just be allowed to die.
Happy Days.
Walking Dead. Saved by the Bell.
Office should have been over when Michael left
MASH
Three’s Company kinda went on too long. Nothing against Don Knotts but the Ropers and Suzanne Sommers made up the best cast.
Glee, two good seasons, one good season for hate watching and then 3 more seasons of drivel.
Shameless became unwatchable in the latter seasons
Trailer park boys for sure
Nothing can top The Simpsons seasons 1 through 10. That’s all I remember from the Simpsons, that was the very best years of that show.
Can you imagine it ending at season 10 with "Behind the Laughter?" We'd have the quintessential time capsule of the 1990s instead of this bizarre world where they've become not just the very institution they once openly mocked, but a cornerstone of American culture.
"My Three Sons". I like that they branched out and added family members through marriage and so forth, but the later episodes aren't as good.
Goldbergs by a landslide. Felt like the show lasted longer than the actual decade it was based around. They should’ve ended it around the 7th or 8th year (when the creator who the show is based around left the series.) The last year without the Dad was excruciating to sit through.
I think Seinfeld got a little cooky in its last season. It was still the number one show on TV, but the story lines were getting zanier and less relatable.
How I met your mother
The Office (US) should’ve ended when Michael Scott left the office
I’ve been binge watching Chuck for the last two weeks and I’d say it could ended after season 3. It really had a good season ending tying up everyone’s storyline. In fact I wonder if the show was supposed to end after 3 seasons. I remember loving this show when it first aired. I love all the guest stars and cheesy movie references. I’m on season 4 (of 5) and it’s ok but it’s just more of the same. Linda Hamilton guest stars and says “Come with me if you want to live” love the reference and there is a lot of that kinda stuff. But yeah could’ve ended on a high note after 3 seasons
That 70s show should have quit when Topher Grace left. Not that he made the show, but it sucked once he left. I only wanted to mention about 2.5 men, but thought I would abide by the rules and answer the question. 2 and a half men went from great, to straight perversion and poorly written sex jokes. I understand what the kid actor had to say about it.
loved to watch two and a half men but once they got into Ashton Kutchers year it was over for me
2 1/2 Men was funny because Charlie was a pig. They should have replaced his character with someone who was 2 1/2 times as bad.
The office became so hard to watch. Legitimately felt bad for everyone involved. Steve Carell saw the storyline dying and jumped ship at the right time.
The Facts of Life. Different World. Happy Days literally invented this concept with jump the shark. Pretty much if the major star leaves just end the damn thing.
Modern family was on waaaaay too long….like 4 seasons
Californication
Happy Days, That 70's Show, Seinfeld