Have a main character actor quit or get fired and replace them with a poor replica. I’m thinking of **Northern Exposure **and Jonathon Creek specifically, though there are others I can’t think of at the momemt.
Also, never run a show for more than four seasons. Even that is usually pushing it, although 5 or more is always too long.
Roseanne did that with Becky and Bewitched had Dick Sergant and Dick York as [del]Darwood[/del]Darrin.
As for running a show past 5 seasons, I think there’s too many counter-examples for that to be considered a way to ruin a show.
:mad:
When I hear insane and slanderous statements like this, I wish dueling were legal.
I don’t think Bewitched should count. The first Darrin left for health reasons, not out of a contract dispute, and the character is Darrin was too important to the show’s concept to be simply written out.
Another method–during the last season, have at least one episode for each main character wherein said main character goes batshit insane or gets stuck in a time loop. This includes not only the “Big Three” leads, but also the major supporting types–doctor, security guy, counselor, etc. Make it so.
And “Dollhouse.”
I think one of the first respondents to this thread got it - no matter how much I love a show, if I can’t find it, I can’t watch it, and once I’ve missed a certain number of episodes, the continuity and interest is lost and I’ll probably not pick it up again.
The second way is to let the studio execs make all the decisions based on money/market share. At this point we’re watching nothing on Tuesdays*, and have a DVR and a VCR recording as well as watching live on Mondays. This will never stop pissing me off.
*We may pick up V on Tuesdays - the jury’s still out.
And to top it off, have said character jump a shark. Who knows, it might lead to a whole new phrase entering our lexicon.
Aside from some decent CGI Spaceship Porn (Band Name!), you really don’t miss much by skipping the last few eps, or, even better, ending your viewing on Season 4’s 12th episode, “Revelations”, it fits with the dark tone of the series and avoids the execrable “God Did It” ending…
[Golf clap]
So there was this pretty decent show. It was about a escaped super soldier living in a post-apocalyptic(ish) authoritarian America. The incredibly hot heroine battled fiendish gangsters, corrupt politicians, and the evil government operatives who created her with the help of a wheelchair bound underground journalist. It was called Wheels and the Legman.
Ok, it was Dark Angel, and it wasn’t the most brilliant art ever created but it was a good show. Memorable moments include Logan killing a dude with piano wire and a villain so evil that he gave sick veterans in his care sugar pills and sold their medication on the black market.
Which brings us to season 2. Which sucked. The government agency pursuing the hero is replaced with this evil genetic engineering cult. Which is also somehow ancient. The gritty plots were replaced with a monster of the week premise, which included dog boy, and fish girl, and bat kids. Season 1’s message of attempting to deny nihilism in a crap sack world is replaced with a hammy metaphor about racism and inclusiveness. This great because no science fiction or fantasy work had ever tried to do this even a little in the past 45 years.
Giving one character (Alda) creative control, turning a once-enjoyable show into a personal political platform. MAS*H with Alda.
Adding a baby, small child, cousin Oliver, means the show is close to death. Family Ties, Cosby Show, Brady Bunch, etc. etc… - Hilarity doesn’t ensue. I think this is one of the big reasons for The Simpson’s success. Cartoon characters never age, so you don’t have to deal with the inevitable.
You can’t bounce a show around and expect it to survive. Ugly Betty is a good example. I know its still around, but I lost interest in it after the long break and the moving from thursday night. I have no idea what’s going on now, and I don’t care.
Never allow the two star-crossed lovers connect. **Cheers **(Sam & Diane), **Frasier **(Niles and Daphne) are two examples of this. I wonder how **The Office **will do with Jim and Pam getting married.
King of the Hill - Just when the show is really starting to pick up steam, turn your female lead from a capable, confident achiever to a worthless, snivelling, whiny little shrew. Ooh, even better, do this in the season premiere, so the viewers don’t even have the faintest idea how this horrific transformation occurred.
The Powerpuff Girls - You know what this show needs? The episode where an obnoxious, disguisting, repulsive jerk hurls constant insults and never ever ever has to pay for it! Hey, if it’s good enough for South Park right? Even better, have the smart girl make a colossal blunder that allows two murderers to get away with it. Hee hee! Brilliant! Oh, wait, have we brought back those three one-dimensional knockoffs who nearly beat the heroines to death? Yeah, that should work out fine too.
Friends - Okay, they have jobs, they have outside friends, they don’t spend all their time in that damn cafe anymore, they’re going places…so what’s the one annoying thing about this show that can never change? I know! Let’s have Ross and Rachel continue their doomed, neurotic relationship to the very end! And if “We were on a breeeak!” becomes an irritating catchphrase, all the better! Work it out? Give them both happy marriages to someone else? Pfft, where’s the fun in that?
(I have more, but these are pretty much the only ones I’ve seen that I’d have considered “great” at any point.)
3)I think Better Off Ted had great potential. But it was all over the map. There would be two episodes on one day and then you wouldn’t see it again for three weeks. Really, I’m thinking they only people who saw all the episodes are the one’s with TiVo’s. I never had a clue when it would be on, but it was nice to get home from work and find a few episodes recorded (and I saved them, so I can watch them a few more times).
Have a show about a lower middle class family and their problems, then when it’s obviously out of steam and should just end (or maybe even should’ve ended a year or two previous), have them win the lottery. Then reveal the whole series is just a novel the main character was writing.
Maybe not everyone’s favorite move, but I think Whedon at least avoided ruining the series when he pulled this one off.
“Dawn’s in trouble. Must be Tuesday.”
You are not wrong. Back in the early days of radio in the 40s George Burns and Gracie Allen did a radio show about this topic.
Gracie) George I got a telegram from the sponsor. He wants us to put on a guest star
George) But Gracie, that shows that the show is weak. The bigger the guest star the weaker the show. Oh well, who does he want us to get?
Gracie) Clark Gable
Then the rest of the radio show revolved around George getting people to impersonate actors (remember this was radio) and every single actor he came across could impersonate everyone, except of course Clark Gable
Start out with a lawyer show with interesting plot lines and quirky, but nearly believable characters. Good so far and prime for ruination, thusly:
Turn every other scene into a musical number.
Make the characters so unbelievably weird and bizarre that the show loses all credibility.
Have every single plot revolve around the main character’s inability to find a man, mostly because she is a picky and whiny bitch. That we’re supposed to feel sorry for, but instead we just want her to eat a cheeseburger and bring her BMI up to double digits.
Up until #3 I assumed you were talking about Eli Stone. Now I assume you’re talking about Single Female Lawyer?