TV series that went on (or a going on) too long

[Vocal Minority]

wildone63 said:

Dads Army - it surely must only be octogenarians and older who still watch the endless repeats now.

Nah - still love a bit of Dad's Army and i'm some way shy of 80

[MartG]

MASH - early series were good, then Alan Alda gained control

One reason many US series get stretched out is the number needed for syndication https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_episodes

[Iva Barchetta]

The Apprentice

Ooh a selling task,how original.

[P-Jay]

Truckosaurus said:

Wasn't there a final series or two of Scrubs that tried to insert a new, younger, cast without success?

That was my first thought - it started so well, a nice mix of silly and serious like MASH when it was good and went though a normal sit-com demise where they have to expand the characters until well, they become middle aged and boring to watch. If they ended it there it would probably be better thought of now, but they didn't, they tagged on another messy backstreet abortion of a series which meant resurrecting a dead character (sort of) and tried to use the goodwill to sort of transplant the traits of the existing characters into new characters, but that didn't work - again they should have let it die there but they didn't even worse they went for an even worse final series where they gave up any attempt at respecting the story and transported what actors foolishly signed up for it into a completely new setting and made it as silly as some teen show on Nickelodeon. It was unwatchable.

Yeah the Simpson's should have died a long, long time ago - the film was supposed to kill it, but that was nearly 10 years ago.

Topgear was dying long before JC punched that producers - it seems to me like people who are slagging off the latest one forget that they hated it last time around - if this new one fails (and it probably will) it's because they didn't change it enough.

True Blood, started well (tits and gore as well used by GOT) but the story ended and they kept going adding more and more fairy tale baddies when needed.

[GRS40]

New Tricks was one for me - brilliant at the beginning but by the time James Bolam left it should have been canned then

[Mr Snrub]

Red Dwarf should have ended at the end of season 6. Brilliant until that point but took a massive nosedive into generic sitcom territory

[AXlawrence]

Simpsons should have ended at least 12 seasons ago. I did see the Lego episode which I thought was pretty good. After season 9 it's mostly terrible though.

Peep Show. Seasons 1-3 were brilliant, next few had their good moments (like the Christmas episode, and anything involving Hans), final season was horrible. 'Barbequing the dog' was their shark jumping moment for sure.

Edited by AXlawrence on Monday 6th June 21:57

[LuS1fer]

Upstart Crow - should have ended before it began.

[Morningside]

Eastenders. Died in the mid 1990s.

[Mr Snrub]

Morningside said:

Eastenders. Died in the mid 1990s.

I saw it once, was full of angry poor people shouting at each other. Most bizzare.

[Europa1]

Mrs Brown's Boys. Should have been strangled at birth.

[Morningside]

Mr Snrub said:

Morningside said:

Eastenders. Died in the mid 1990s.

I saw it once, was full of angry poor people shouting at each other. Most bizzare.

Yup, that just about sums it up.

[Iva Barchetta]

Just noticed that Big Brother kicks off a new series tonight.

I'm not going to watch one single second of it.

[MG CHRIS]

After watching this years series based in America wheeler dealers is time to be put to bed.

[bristolracer]

BGT / X factor time to kill these
Dr Who,the reboot was good but it's all gone geeky now it's not a family show anymore
Breaking bad / sons of anarchy both good series but 7 seasons ? I'm never going to watch that lot and therefore don't feel I will do it justice by watching only 2 or 3 series
3 seasons max,some comedies / panel shows will work longer but really anything over 4 years needs to be pensioned off.

There must be enough creative writers out there to produce much more but the networks won't take the gamble.

[Ali_T]

Shakermaker said:

I'm sure I read an article/interview with some of the writers who eventually admitted that they just made it up most of the time

Same with the later Battlestar Galactica. Some amazing TV and a sense that there actually was an overarcing plot, until halfway through Season 4 it started to become apparent that they had no idea how to finish it. Still one of my favourite series of all time but some of the ending just stuck in the throat.

[Inertiatic]

Lost - anything after series 1 was dross

Homeland - see "Lost". Great concept, but incredibly annoying after S1.

Heroes - see "Lost".

Californication - started to go off in series 5. Series 7 was crap. First few series are superb though

Simpsons got bad but then got better again. Not up to date though.

Top Gear needed to go away and be refreshed in concept a series or two before Clarkson got punchy (with original cast)

Orphan Black is running out of ideas. Lost its momentum a bit.

Didn't mind the last season of Scrubs too much. Fun enough. The finale of the last proper series was fantastic though. Great use of music.

[J4CKO]

toasty said:

Kept going way past its Use By date.

Yep, dead horse was flogged for like three series, however, think the new ones have been a return to form and what was good about it originally.

Benidorm, would agree but I love it, even when its st, a bit of sun and nonsense on a February evening, just needs a revamp.

[Evoluzione]

River Monsters.
I quite liked it at first even though I have no interest in fishing whatsoever, but they've largely run out of material now.

[Jonny_]

cologne2792 said:

Burn Notice - billed as the antidote to spy shows with a huge degree of actual realism thrown in, eg, cars don't explode if you hit the fuel tank and a person with a nine round 9mm only has a 20% chance of hitting you at 50 yards. It started brilliantly and was very entertaining in a laid back, funny, knowing and James Garner type fashion for the first three seasons. After that all the original questions were answered and the writers kept creating dafter twists to keep it relevant eventually becoming tedious in season 6 and very dark in season 7 and just not enjoyable anymore, thus completely missing the original point.

Yep, the first few series were great, believable stunts/chases/fights etc without "grittiness" and genuinely entertaining because of it. Whereas season 7 is just gloomy and no fun at all.