# TV Series That Spun Off The Rails **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 15, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819 "2016-05-15T04:13:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/21 "2016-05-15T17:51:57Z")
> [@ddsun](#): > > Sleepy Hollow comes to mind. I thought the first season was well done. Fun and silly, but working in the scares. It’s been down hill since then. Now it’s just floundering around, completely disconnected from it’s original premise. I watched the first season and really enjoyed it. But about a third into the second I noticed it took me a few days to get to it on the DVR. About the halfway point I found myself debating watching, my finger hovering over “play”. At that point I cleared the DVR and deleted the timer. Now I hear your comment all over the media. _rare smug smile_. Too bad too. It was so cool in the start. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/22 "2016-05-15T17:54:33Z")
> [@ddsun](#): > > Sleepy Hollow comes to mind. First of recent/current shows that came to mind for me. Tremendous premise, if a little derivative of other “supernatural” shows, run into the ground to no obvious goal. SHIELD is much like that as well. Having to play only in the interstices of the MCU left them hogtied and muddled after the org was demolished. Hell on Wheels has had five interesting seasons that hardly connect to one another - a sort of Zelig/You Are There at the interesting spots of the Transcontinental Railroad. After more than one confused and pointless episode, the wife has commented, “Well, he’s pretty to look at, anyway.” ---
**Author:** ![btcg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@btcg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/btcg)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/23 "2016-05-15T18:01:39Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > No, that’s not true at all. > > You may be the first person I’ve ever heard say that. That show had the lowest rating when it aired of all their shows. It was silly; exactly the opposite of what they were trying to do. To be fair, the show’s popularity was on a decline, and they were desperate to try anything to turn things around: it didn’t work. I will concede… that Trekkies LOVE the episode. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/24 "2016-05-15T18:38:57Z")
Two shows that I really enjoyed that just completely lost their shit were Roseanne in the finale season (the finale notwithstanding) and Ally McBeal. AB was always a little weird but they let the lunacy run the asylum as the seasons went on until it was unwatchable. ETA: The Trouble with Tribbles was more overtly comedic than most Star trek episodes but it was far from So Bad It’s Good. There are plenty of episodes that do fit that description though “Spock’s Brain” being the classic example. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/25 "2016-05-15T18:41:51Z")
_Twin Peaks_ sure as hell went off the rails, a couple different times at least. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/26 "2016-05-15T19:12:57Z")
The show Roswell had a strong first season and then completely went off the rails in the second season with bringing in evil twins and having characters suddenly go evil for no good reason and several of the actors get into huge pissing contests with the writers. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/27 "2016-05-15T19:25:23Z")
The X-files… Although, I’m not sure it was ever really on the rails to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/28 "2016-05-15T19:44:10Z")
> [@btcg](#): > > That show had the lowest rating when it aired of all their shows. It was silly; exactly the opposite of what they were trying to do. To be fair, the show’s popularity was on a decline, and they were desperate to try anything to turn things around: it didn’t work. > > I will concede… that Trekkies LOVE the episode. Not at first. The public and critics liked it more. From [here:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Tribbles) > [@](#): > > While initial fan reaction to the episode was mixed, it was more popular with the general public. Critical response to the episode was positive, and it was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation which instead went to fellow Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever”. It has since been included in several “best of” episode lists and features, including as part of the Best of DVD collection alongside three other episodes. It has also been released as part of the season two DVD box set. > [@](#): > > The New York Times described the scene with Kirk and the tribbles in the grain container as one of the “best-remembered moments” of the series.[43] Time magazine ranked “The Trouble with Tribbles” as the sixth best moment in Star Trek.[66] IGN ranked it as the fifth best episode of The Original Series,[77] while TechRepublic ranked it as the fourth best.[78] The A.V. Club included “The Trouble with Tribbles” in a list of ten must-see episodes,[79] and USA Today’ listed as one of the three best.[80] In 1998, “The Trouble with Tribbles” was listed as the eighth best cult moment of all time by The Times newspaper.[81] In a list of the top 100 episodes of the Star Trek franchise, “The Trouble with Tribbles” was placed sixth by Charlie Jane Anders at io9.[82] Your opinion is in a tiny minority. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/29 "2016-05-15T19:48:47Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > If Eva Gabor had died in the middle of Green Acre’s run the same thing would have happened to that show. Naw, they could have just got Zsa Zsa and carried on without missing a beat. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/30 "2016-05-15T19:56:05Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > I watched the first season and really enjoyed it. But about a third into the second I noticed it took me a few days to get to it on the DVR. About the halfway point I found myself debating watching, my finger hovering over “play”. At that point I cleared the DVR and deleted the timer. Now I hear your comment all over the media. _rare smug smile_. > Too bad too. It was so cool in the start. Yep. The second season dipped badly in quality. It rebounded a slight bit in the 3rd, but then went back into the crapper. The first season was so fantastic. I feel that expanding the series to 22 episode seasons doomed it. The first season was so great due to how insanely quick they chewed through plot. I’ll also mention ‘glee’. It was never a great show, but the first season was quite good. It had a sarcastic eye about high school and different archetypes of high school dramas that never was revisted in future seasons. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/31 "2016-05-15T20:00:14Z")
Anything produced by JJ Abrams that last longer than a couple seasons… famously Lost- but the one perfect example of “off the rails” is without a doubt Alias. Alias started as a regular spy show with Jennifer Garner trying to uncover your standard TV conspiracy- it ended up as a glorious fever dream involving magic numbers, ancient technology and most characters changing sides from good to evil to good to evil again sometimes in the same episode. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/32 "2016-05-15T20:07:21Z")
“The Trouble with Tribbles” is routinely listed as one of the top ten ST:TOS episodes. It’s a comedy episode, but that’s what dramas did in the 60s: one or two comic episodes a season to allow for a change of pace. (“A Piece of the Action” is another example from _Star Trek_). I’ll go with **Farscape** – a perfect space opera that became just plain goofy in the final season, with a silly plot and the “instant Crichton – just add water” cliffhanger. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/33 "2016-05-15T21:09:19Z")
“The Trouble With Tribbles” was so popular that it spun off a sequel episode on _Deep Space Nine_ called “Trials and Tribble-ations” and mixed footage from the original into a new story featuring the DS9 crew traveling back in time to Kirk’s _Enterprise_ and the K-7 space station. So another vote for TTWT not fitting into this category. In fact, the Organian Treaty was the framework for this episode in which the Federation and Klingons were to compete equally with each other to gain new members, even if the Klingons were not above using sabotage to gain the advantage. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/34 "2016-05-15T21:25:26Z")
Also, “spun off the rails” implies that the episode marked a turning point and following episodes were just as bad. “The Trouble With Tribbles” was the 15th show of the second season, approximately halfway through the series. The third season had problems due to budget cuts, but “Tribbles” wasn’t part of that decline. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/35 "2016-05-15T21:38:51Z")
> [@](#): > > “The Trouble With Tribbles” was so popular that it spun off a sequel episode on Deep Space Nine called “Trials and Tribble-ations” and mixed footage from the original into a new story featuring the DS9 crew traveling back in time to Kirk’s Enterprise and the K-7 space station. My favorite part of the DS9 episode was when all of the DS9 characters looked at Worf when they saw the original flavor Klingons and all he said was, “We don’t talk about it.” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/36 "2016-05-15T21:44:06Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > My favorite part of the DS9 episode was when all of the DS9 characters looked at Worf when they saw the original flavor Klingons and all he said was, “We don’t talk about it.” “…with outsiders.” ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/37 "2016-05-15T21:48:57Z")
_Northern Exposure_ gets my vote, specifically the episode where Fleischman leaves Cicely for the Indian village. Paul Provenza was brought in in the next episode, and it was all downhill from there. It was a fun, quirky show until they brought in Provenza to replace Rob Morrow and changed the nature of Fleischman’s character. The neurotic, nature-phobic physician who hated guns, became ill at the smell of pine trees and spent the entire show’s run longing to live in a condo on the Upper West Side suddenly went to live in a tiny Inuit village with no modern conveniences and accessible only by boat? A place where he was suddenly happy to spear fish and shoot bears? Where he ceremonially burned his Columbia med school diploma? Additionally, Provenza’s character was too much like Fleischman’s, but somehow the chemistry between him and the rest of town just wasn’t there. It’s almost as if there were two different series… the first had the self-absorbed New York physician bravely if unwillingly toughing it out in a tiny, quirky Alaskan town. The characters had depth and were somewhat believable. After Morrow left it became a fairly standard comedy-drama, and a lot of the characters lost the depth that they had gained. Maggie lost her man-hating independent streak, Ed’s loveably innocence was lost when he started doing his shaman training… they even changed the professions of some. (Chris’ brother, a CPA through the entire show, was suddenly an attorney. Maggie the bush pilot became a real-estate agent. WTF?) If Morrow hadn’t left, and they hadn’t replaced the writers with people that apparently had no idea who the characters were, I think the show would have lasted several more years. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/38 "2016-05-15T21:56:23Z")
A real example of going off the rails is\*\* Moonlighting\*\*. Start with a unique, well written, perfectly cast idea, then watch as the two main stars feud, one of them becomes pregnant (not what the premise had in mind), the creator can’t turn out scripts fast enough to meet deadlines, and the budget goes out of control. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/39 "2016-05-15T22:07:00Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > My favorite part of the DS9 episode was when all of the DS9 characters looked at Worf when they saw the original flavor Klingons and all he said was, “We don’t talk about it.” I liked the shout out to the _X Files_ with the Temporal Investigations agents named Lucsly and Dulmer. ---
**Author:** ![btcg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@btcg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/btcg)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/40 "2016-05-15T22:14:27Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Not at first. The public and critics liked it more. > > From [here:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Tribbles) > > Your opinion is in a tiny minority. Opinion? What of fact? Just watched it… and you could see they cut the budget: Klingon’s no longer needed makeup; just let em look like everyone else. The writing too: Klingon’s can now impersonate humans: it takes reading their body temperature to tell them from humans. And it took the entire episode (and even eluded the mastermind Vulcan) that they could lock on every tribble and beam them off simultaneously. But hey, it was great work, eh? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819.md?page=3)