TV seasons that shouldn't have existed

Switching hosts on "The Man Show" didn't exactly work out.

 

This was my first thought. I like Jon Lovitz, a lot, but he isn't Phil Hartman, and the attempt to make him the eccentric Phil Hartman-esque character just never really flew.

And, of course, Coy & Vance.

The Cosby Show began to go downhill when it brought on Scrappy ... I mean Poochie ... I mean Raven-Symone to take Rudy's place. Except her character was a lot less likable, and then later brought on two new teenagers. That show was a powerhouse that went quickly.

The Drew Carey Show really jumped the shark in its last couple of seasons.

Seinfeld should've ended one episode earlier .

Oh, c'mon. Saved By The Bell: The College Years would've been fine if Jessie Spano had decided to go to college, too, instead of to NC17-rated movies about strip clubs.

Makes you appreciate all the more shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show that quit while still at the top of their game.

 

Antenna TV -- the rerun channel that shows a lot of the old Norman Lear shows primarily as a digital sub on Tribune-owned stations -- has been airing it on Sunday nights before 2 solid hours of WKRP in Cincinnati. Needless to say, it was must-see TV in our house .

 

Hawkeye's hair was impossibly long the entire run of the series. Nobody in America before 1964 had hair anything like that.

Hot Lips in the Farrah Fawcett feather-cut the last couple seasons was also glaringly ridiculous.

 

The final seasons of both "Homicide" and "Babylon 5" were written, produced and broadcast AFTER the creators had produced what they thought were the series' final episodes, only to be lured back by pleas and sacks of money. And they both show it, too.

 

Loved Hill Street Blues but thought it limped to the wire too.

 

Can't believe I forgot Homicide in my earlier post. I must have repressed that season.

 

Seconded with feeling. What a cockbag Scrappy Do is.

 

I am watching Friday Night Lights for the first time and finished the second season tonight. The murder plot, the Guatemalan nurse plot, the meth plot, the mixed-race couple plot and the Christianity plot all were OK individually. But putting them all into one season was way too much and very unlike Jason Katims. Obviously, NBC was pushing for better ratings via juicier plots.

That said, the worst part about the season is that the writers' strike cut it seven episodes short. Seriously, to have all those plots and never bother tying them up is awful. It was probably annoying at the time, but it really stands out how abrupt things end when you're watching the full season over five days. We talk a lot about bad user experience in Web posting at my work. This was a bad viewer experience, to end a season with the final scene being Jason Street trying to convince that blonde to keep the baby. What a strange note to end on.

I am excited to move on to Season 3, though I hear the show really picks up for Seasons 4 and 5, when the ratings pressure was removed thanks to the DirecTV thing that I've never fully understood.

 

The final season of Roseanne should be the runaway winner... Holy shit was that awful TV and the early seasons of that show stack up against almost anything as one of the best shows ever...

The last couple seasons of X-Files and Moonlighting were trainwrecks. I agree with Dick about the Joey-Rachel arc on Friends and most of that show holds up remarkably well.

 

Season 3 is also very good. I would say it's just a touch below the seasons that come after it. When recommending the show to friends, I usually tell them to just do the final 4-5 episodes of season 2 to get a taste of it, but not have to do the whole thing. It has some moments I love, but on the whole it's a big mess.