Shows that should have ended sooner than later

[cultcross]

Aw, don't tell me Stargate starts to suck in its second half. I just started watching it a few weeks ago and was looking forward to ten great/good seasons.

You get 6 great ones, 2 good ones, and two (the last two) that shuttle between mediocre and dire. But these last two also are essentially a completely new storyline, so you get to finish the original SG-1 arc within the good seasons.

SG-1 definitely should have ended earlier. Moebius should have been its series finale. I'd even have been quite keen on made-for-DVD movies afterwards.

Buffy should have ended with the 5th season, really. There is plenty I did enjoy about the last two years but looking at the series as a whole, it would be stronger without them.

The Simpsons - Season 9, maybe 10 with only limited drop in quality. After that, it's junk. And they did the movie about 8 years too late.

Friends ended a year too late.

ER should have ended with season 10, imho.

 

[Cky]

Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: DS9, Star Trek: Enterprise, SG1, Scrubs and Heroes.

I also want to mention The Simpsons, but really they're continuing to appeal to the growing younger audiences, to keep them entertained. We have the older episodes, and if still we still like it then we can still watch it. But they are definately trying to branch out to the younger (while bravely trying to keep us, and the generation before me, by making it a little more like Family Guy).

 

[Harvey]

I agree that The X-Files went on for too long, although I think it was only for one season too many. They could have made a film that put a period at the end of the sentence that was the mythology arc after the season eight finale. Instead, we finally got some closure for the characters last summer, if not to that storyline. Maybe in a sequel.

Stargate SG-1 definitely was riding on fumes in its final two seasons, and I say that as an ardent supporter of Ben Browder and Claudia Black. But they were wasted here. The show was wrapping up in season eight, and should have been over with our without Richard Dean Anderson. But without him, it really should have been over.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Prison Break should have ended after Season 2. Admittedly most of S.4 was an improvement on 3, but it petered out at the end and that The Final Break telemovie was a waste of time.

Heroes has, IMHO, been totally pointless after season 1 and has earned the dubious distinction of being the show at which I gave up on at its earliest (about 7or 8 eps into season 3).

I'd vote for the X-Files too. Smallville was good fun until about season 5. I struggled with it into early season 7 and have given up on it. Can't believe it's going into a 9th season without Lex.

 

[Mr Light]

Stargate was excellent for S3-6. S7 was alright, S8 was an improvement and was a perfect ending to the series. But then they did two more years of "SG1 The Next Generation", which while amusing wasn't nearly at the same quality. ... While Simpsons clearly shot its load a decade ago I still find the show funny. Actually the most recent season was a lot better than recent years.

 

[Gojirob]

MASH should have persuaded Gary Burghoff to the end of the 8th Season, then ended it with him joining them in going home.

7th Heaven actually once had a good thing going--even early on it still had Counselor Ruthie ( I know that one poster here knows her agent, but I still hated the character ), but there were some good eps. But unlike our Lord, it came back from the dead on multiple occasions, til I began to believe its aim was to last until Judgement Day. The last occasion was a corker. They brought it back to the new CW, killing chances for Everwood, because its supposedly last prior season got such good ratings. DUH! You told everybody a long-running series was being cancelled. This means that stragglers, series glancers, and people who stopped watching will tune in. Even I did, and this was after Lucy's insanity made Azula from Avatar look good, and I mean, after that one's finale! Happily, we were not fooled again, and the undead Camdens at last went away.

 

[Mistral]

Aw, don't tell me Stargate starts to suck in its second half. I just started watching it a few weeks ago and was looking forward to ten great/good seasons.

Sucks is a relative term. As a fond viewer, a person who just plain enjoyed the characters, I thought it held up fairly well. Adding Claudia Black brought a chemistry that it never had before. I still believe that episode about them living on the ship was one of the best.

 

[bigdaddy]

Stargate fans who enjoy the characters?! The destroyed the characters in the later seasons! O'Neil was a old man, Sam was the dumbass woman, Daniel was God, and Teal'c never evolved to behind with! It was a horrible mess that should have ended with season 6. Then The Lost City DVD movie would come out, do the Atalntis spinoff, and then the few decent parts of season 8 could be made into DVD movies concluding the series.

Also 7th Heaven. I never liked it, but I didn't hate it either, however once there is none of the family left on the show why continue it?!

 

[Me-Ike]

I am currently trying to decide when to end X-Files. I am watching it again after a looong while and I only remember that I really didn't like it in the later seasons. I don't want to watch until I really didn't like anymore so that the bad taste comes back, but I don't know yet when I should stop.

 

[FordSVT]

X-Files was kept alive by extraordinary means long after it should have probably died a natural death.

Yes, and I can guarantee it would have been easier to come up with concepts for and find public interest for one or two GREAT big screen movies.

 

[Warp Coil]

I have to agree with several posters that The Simpsons and The X-Files should have ended much earlier. I cannot believe The Simpsons is still on the air today.

Other shows that should have ended earlier:

Star Trek: Voyager - seven seasons of mediocrity come to an end with a very lackluster, rushed, and un-inspired finale. This should could have ended after four or five seasons.

Gilmore Girls - the show started to lose some of its charm in season 6, but season 7 was really underwhelming, mostly due to the absence of creator/producer Amy Sherman-Palladino. This was her show, and they shouldn't have continued without her presence.

Beverly Hills, 90210 - never exactly high quality TV, the show had no reason to last for ten seasons. So many of the original castmembers had left by this point.

Heroes - season one was great, but the rest.... not so much. The premise of the show allows for an open-ended series. It could have a long and healthy life, but the writers and producers have wasted every chance to redeem themselves.

7th Heaven - 11 seasons? Really? WHY?

Smallville - probably had a shelf life of about five seasons; should have come to a natural conclusion with Clark donning the Superman suit and going to Metropolis. Several years later and he's still not in full superhero mode. WTF?

I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that first come to mind.

 

[ToddPence]

Virtually any show whose main characters are a bunch of young people in high school should end right when those kids graduate from high school.

 

[bigdaddy]

Gilmore Girls - the show started to lose some of its charm in season 6, but season 7 was really underwhelming, mostly due to the absence of creator/producer Amy Sherman-Palladino. This was her show, and they shouldn't have continued without her presence.
.

I'm sorry but the show went to hell when Rory and Dean fucked and then dated and he had a fit for no reason. Then they made it that Luke had a 12 year old kid that was just like Rory? That was bullshit started by Amy Sherman-Palladino, she fucked up her own show and then she QUIT after 6 years?! Fuck her and her husband for fucking up a great show and then ditching it, and then bitching about the ending!

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I enjoy the last couple seasons of Stargate SG-1 a great deal. But it's at that awkward stage where the show kinda feels lopsided. It would have been fine if they had ended things with Season 8. It would feel more complete had the show gone on a few more years and fleshed out the Orii arc a little more. But as it is, Seasons 9 & 10 just feel like a weird, almost-spinoff tacked onto the end of the series.

Chris Carter made a terrible miscalculation with The X-Files. I think the show could have continued with Doggett & Reyes into Season 10 & beyond but he decided to end it while people still cared so that it would allow him to make more movies. But if that's what he wanted, he should have ended it when he kinda resolved the colonization arc in Season 6, or, at the latest, when David Duchovney quit at the end of Season 7. But then, to be honest, I liked John Doggett way more than I ever liked Fox Mulder. I really wish we had gotten more Doggett.

Other than the musical episode, there's nothing truly essential in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Seasons 6 & 7. There were some other half decent episodes there, like "Tabula Rasa," "Conversations with Dead People," & the dark-Willow arc. But for the most part, Seasons 6 & 7 were just painful.

I just can't fathom how ABC plans to continue Scrubs without J.D.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I kinda wish Frasier had ended with Daphne & Niles getting together at the end of Season 7. It was still a decent show but it did last a few years longer than it probably should have.

Similarly, the last few seasons of M*A*S*H were running on fumes, particularly after Radar left.

Battlestar Galactica should have been confined to only 3 seasons. So much of Season 3 was nothing but filler. It would have been much better off if they had condensed those last couple seasons to only the bare essentials. For gods' sake, save us from the endless Starbuck/Apollo angst!

NewsRadio should have ended with Season 4 after Phil Hartman was murdered. Season 5 was just depressing and mean-spirited and it's obvious that none of the writers or actors wanted to do it anymore. Andy Dick went on record as saying that he would never have continued in Season 5 had he not been contractually obligated to.

Earth: Final Conflict Season 5 was so bad that many posters here do an excellent job of denying that it ever existed.

 

[bigdaddy]

I enjoy the last couple seasons of Stargate SG-1 a great deal. But it's at that awkward stage where the show kinda feels lopsided. It would have been fine if they had ended things with Season 8. It would feel more complete had the show gone on a few more years and fleshed out the Orii arc a little more. But as it is, Seasons 9 & 10 just feel like a weird, almost-spinoff tacked onto the end of the series.

It feels that way because that's what it was. They wanted to rename the show Stargate Command, but Sci-fi Channel wanted to get to 10 seasons and 200 episodes.

I like how Frasier ended, but it had several ehh seasons.

 

[Bad Bishop]

I guess folks are giving CSI a pass for continuing without Grissom, Sidle and Warrick.

 

[Mr Light]

I stopped watching when Grissom left. Has it gotten better/worse/the same?

 

[Bad Bishop]

I stopped watching when Grissom left. Has it gotten better/worse/the same?

I have noticed no decline in the quality of the scripts. And I like Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Ray Langston, the new investigator.

 

[Broccoli]

Earth: Final Conflict Season 5 was so bad that many posters here do an excellent job of denying that it ever existed.

What season 5? There was a season 5?