Next time you’re in Charlotte, you’ve got a beer comin’ to you.
To add to this explaination: Knauff had pitched the show to HBO as a single season, single-storyline sort-of thing. The guys at HBO, assuming it would be a hit, told him they wanted him to stretch it out to six seasons. So, stretch he did, and then after season 2 it got the axe. Having read some of the ‘upcoming’ mythology that was supposed to be revealed afterwords, I’d really wished Knauff could’ve finished the story.
As it is, I tell everyone that I get to watch it, “Cut out the last 7 minutes of season 2, and it works as a somewhat incomplete but still interresting series.”
I thought that Claudia Christian left because she wanted more money in her contract but didn’t get it.
And I also feel that the story lines were bad. I didn’t like the last season, not because Ivanova was gone, but because of the plots.
I agree. I used to love the show and now it’s showing signs of becoming downright asinine. To wit: that last episode where a hypnotized Adrian started living through a second childhood. What tripe. Afterwards, I had to watch the movie The Man Who Wasn’t There, specifically Shalhoub’s soliloquy about the German scientist, to remind myself what a fine actor he is.
Oh man, I almost forgot about that show.
I remember an episode wherein some loose ectoplasm (or something) congealed into ghostly dopplegangers of the ghostbusters themselves, and began chasing down the ghostbusters trying to “bust” the living.
Freaked me the hell out, for some reason.
Please tell me that was one of the earlier better episodes and not one of the later kiddie type episodes.
-FrL-
Miami Vice crashed and burned pretty badly. If I remember correctly, there was a lame storyline about Crockett having amnesia and believing he was a drug lord. He also married Sheena Easton before that.
The worst crash I can think of was the somewhat cheesy but cute American Dreams. Apparently it persistently suffered from low ratings and high production costs (especially licensing the music), so it was killed off. The series ended with the main character (Meg) running away to California with her stoner boyfriend that fans of the show hated. There was never any real resolution otherwise; the show just ended. I seem to recall the producers saying they begged NBC to let them wrap it up properly with another season, as they had an ending planned that would have satisfied everyone, but the show was already doomed. The stuggles continue still, as they only released the first season on DVD, and it looks like the final two may never materialize.
Another random one that came to mind was a one-season wonder called Hyperion Bay, with Mark Paul Gosselaar. I barely remember the show now, but I recall it starting off as a charmingly understated small town type drama. Apparently that wasn’t working because about midway through the season, it did a complete 180 and turned into a Melrose Place style crazyfest. Carmen Electra was added to the cast (always a bad sign), and wild-ass sex and murder storylines flew in all directions. I don’t even remember how it ended, or if it even did properly, but man what a nosedive.
Law & Order has been dipping its toe in the water of this thread for a while now. I still watch the show when I can, but it’s nowhere near the quality that it used to be. Especially the last season, where every episode had some horribly contrived revelation or moment that turned the case around. Example that springs to mind: The case where the guy kills his wife because he think she’s a Scientologist (or he thinks the Scientologists made him do it, I can’t recall). The trial ends up in a hung jury (due to the scary specter of Scientology being present throughout the proceedings), and he’s a free man at least for the time being. For some reason, he and his lawyer ends up in ADA Cutter’s office for a chat, at which point Cutter starts talking all creepily, insinuating that he’s a Scientologist too. The guy freaks out and takes a deal, while his lawyer sits there with his thumb up his ass. Makes sense to me! :smack:
Clearly Farscape.
The first three seasons were first-class SF space opera. It started flagging a bit toward the end of the third season (about the time went from being Pure Evil to Sort-of-bad-but-misunderstood), but was still tolerable.
The final season dropped off the cliff. They added some pretty lame characters (Noranti, especially – the only tolerable epsodes of that season were those where she didn’t appear), dumber than dirt plots (the fetus who had his father’s knowledge – I’m all for suspension of disbelief, but that’s not even good magic, let alone good science), and a penchant for believing that if you had the characters shout at each other a lot, it was a sign that there was some action to the story.
It was pretty much unwatchable. I steeled myself to watch the finale, which was as bad as all the rest, with the ending just plain stupid (Instant Chrichton – just add water).
When a show brings a new kid to replace ones that grew up and left, egads
Brady Bunch and Cosby are the two biggest examples.
Be that as it may, the way that it was ended was just so … crappy.
**Married…With Children. ** In season seven they brought in a kid named Seven (appropriate enough, I guess), but apparently viewers hated him and he was quickly dropped. It was clearly a desperation move, and the show was running out of steam. The Bundys limped along a few more years before calling it quits, but I consider Seven the “jump the shark” moment in the series.
At least the writers were able to poke fun at this later. I remember an episode where Kelly had to learn a bunch of stuff real quick, and because she was so dumb the new stuff was pushing old stuff out. They did a scene where they showed facts and figures going in one ear and random images going out the other. One of those images was of the kid who played Seven.
Yeah I got into the series right after Tessa died. It was a great series. When I finally saw the movie that inspired it I was disappointed. The last season did go downhill though.
Yeah, 'cause the Brady Bunch was actually good at one point. Oh, wait… 
CSI is drastically threatening to do it, or maybe already has. There’s room for debate. Character development is all well and good, but they’re starting to drift away from what made the show good in the first place.
Roswell on the WB. That’s right…I said it.
Season One and two were good for a teen drama. Good chemistry, mature themes, mature relationships, but nothing got too serious. In a startling development most kids actually have very functional relationships with their parents. Then the WB drops the show after Season Two and it gets picked up by UPN.
Season Three opens up with two of the main characters in biker gear committing armed robbery with an assault rifle. :smack:
After seeing every single episode for two seasons, we watched the first episode on UPN and never tuned in again.
Does any other season really have an arc? My problem with TNG is that there is so little connection between various episode. Apart from a few double episodes it seems to me like they start fresh every episode. The only longer storylines I can recall are the Borg.
AIUI, it was basically a requirement in writing the show that they had to have a reset button at the end of every episode.
-Joe
Another sign of a collapsing show is the desperate addition of a new cast member in the hopes that they will reinvigorate or save a dying show… typically an annoying, cutesy character.
I know there are more, but these come to mind:
-
Diff’rent Strokes: Mr. D. getting married, and the addition to the case of so-cute-you-want-to-pound-his-face Sam.
-
The Cosby Show: adding Raven-Symoné as sass talkin’ Olivia.
-
Growing Pains: Aging the cast a few years so little Chrissy could be a wise-talkin’ 3 year old, and ever so cute. Throw in some Leo DiCaprio for the girls…
Flintstones: The Great Gazoo. aaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhhh
Sadly, I think Arrested Development falls into this category. The last few episodes of season three seemed desperate and unfocused, understandably. And the Rita storyline wasn’t very good. Overall, still funny, but not as good as the first two seasons.