# What is the worst TV show decay you've seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002 "2016-02-02T23:58:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/41 "2016-02-03T03:29:58Z")
_Charlie’s Angels_ tanked after Kate Jackson left. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/42 "2016-02-03T03:36:49Z")
**Gilmore Girls**. After about season five, the writers were just thinking of dumb decisions for the characters to make in order to spin out the show as long as they could. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/43 "2016-02-03T03:41:49Z")
LOST, for so many reasons we’ve gone into many many times. It’s so sad. I loved that show in it’s first 3-4 seasons. I couldn’t wait for it to be complete so I could watch and enjoy the whole thing over again. Then it descended into… mush. I’ve never been able to bring myself to watch any of it ever again. So, so disappointing. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/44 "2016-02-03T03:42:21Z")
Married with Children really went down the crapper towards the end, particularly the last season. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/45 "2016-02-03T03:45:01Z")
When I read the title of the thread, I thought _Heroes_. It’s the epitome of the phenomenon. Oh, _Glee_ started off great in S1 and got progressively worse as well. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/46 "2016-02-03T04:24:29Z")
Scrubs decided that the wonderful capper to Season 8 wasn’t a good enough sendoff and proceeded to run electricity through the corpse to produce the zombie Scrubs Season 9. Also, The Office didn’t know how to end itself after Michael Scott left and proceeded to meander through some not very interesting new charecters until it finally ended in a whimper. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/47 "2016-02-03T04:35:48Z")
The final season of **That '70s Show**. Everybody tried, even Josh Meyers, but without Topher Grace, there was no one to play Charlie Brown, if you get my drift. ---
**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:** [February 3, 2016, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/48 "2016-02-03T04:42:32Z")
Season Two of Heroes was devastated by the writers’ strike. Once the strike ended, they were only allowed to produce 11 episodes, and they tried to shoehorn all kinds of stuff into those eleven shows. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/49 "2016-02-03T04:43:18Z")
Twin Peaks. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/50 "2016-02-03T05:34:12Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > While not necessarily “terrible,” all of the following went downhill after starting well: > > _ **Crime Story** _, after they killed off the bad guy and then tried to resurrect him. > > _ **Batman** _, almost as soon as they started the second season. > > _ **Twelve O’Clock High** _, after Robert Lansing got canned. > > _ **The Untouchables** _, after they were forced to tone down the violence. > > _ **The Avengers** _, after Emma Peel left the series. > > _ **Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea** _, after they abandoned Cold War stuff for monster-of-the-week. > > _ **Mission: Impossible** _, after they abandoned Cold War stuff for organized crime in the US. I don’t think any other show comes close to The Andy Griffith Show after Don Knotts left. He was the heart and soul of that show. I think there may have been only one half-decent episode after he left. That show was dead on its feet for like 3 seasons after he left. I could never understand how they would continue to make such terrible, terrible episodes season after season. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/51 "2016-02-03T05:35:40Z")
Another vote for _Dexter_. The first 3 or 4 seasons were really good. It went steadily downhill from there until the awful last season and series finale. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/52 "2016-02-03T06:19:05Z")
Land of the Lost - a 70’s childrens program. 3rd season the Dad left and they brought in Uncle Jack. The writing became poor, Chaka could now speak english, the plots too weird. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/53 "2016-02-03T07:31:02Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Another vote for _Dexter_. The first 3 or 4 seasons were really good. It went steadily downhill from there until the awful last season and series finale. It’s a Showtime thing. Show me a Showtime original and I’ll show you a good premise, very good first couple/few seasons, then fall off the cliff: Dexter, Homeland, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Californication, Borgias, Tudors, Masters of Sex, etc… The only exceptions, for my money at least, are Shameless and Episodes. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/54 "2016-02-03T07:37:50Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Season Two of Heroes was devastated by the writers’ strike. Once the strike ended, they were only allowed to produce 11 episodes, and they tried to shoehorn all kinds of stuff into those eleven shows. The good thing about Heroes Reborn being dreck is that we now know it wasn’t the strike that sent Heroes careening off the rails. We no longer have to lament what could have been, because season 2 and forward were always destined to suck, strike or no. Season 1 was a wonderful aberration, we just didn’t know it at the time. So another vote for Heroes as the poster child for TV shows that nosedive. The Battlestar Galactica reboot was pretty bad in this regard too, IMO. It still had its moments after season 1, but I think season 1 was just so good, that the drop off to “meh” levels is pretty noticeable. I admit that it’s possible that the ending was so terrible that it’s clouded my view of the rest of the series. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/55 "2016-02-03T08:06:28Z")
Can’t believe that no one has mentioned **Prison Break** so far. The quality of the show declined rapidly after the first season. And then, in its final season, just when everyone thought it couldn’t get any worse, it took [a spectacular nose-dive](http://graphtv.kevinformatics.com/tt0455275). It got so terrible that I stopped watching just a few episodes before the series finale. By that point I didn’t care any more how it ended. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/56 "2016-02-03T08:11:58Z")
The last two and half seasons of Malcolm in the Middle, was quite terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/57 "2016-02-03T09:34:46Z")
**American Crime**. Started well, then tanked around episode 4 or thereabouts. Now, is genuinely terrible. ---
**Author:** ![iljitsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/77aa72/32.png) [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/58 "2016-02-03T10:18:18Z")
As mentioned, Lost. House MD. I remember being glued to the TV binging the first 2.5 seasons when I discovered it, but at some point the medical stuff become background noise and the interpersonal stuff lost any relationship to reality. But the worst was the new Battlestar Galactica. The first two seasons were very cool, but then all the religious nonsense kicked in and it became painfully clear that they didn’t “have a plan”. Lost and BSG made me swear off mystery-based TV shows. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/59 "2016-02-03T12:19:30Z")
The original _Doctor Who_. It went from great to bad at the exact moment Peter Davison left. The new Doctor Who, big drop in quality about the time David Tennant left. I still watch it, but it’s not as good. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2016, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/60 "2016-02-03T12:28:02Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Twin Peaks. I’ll second this. Twin Peaks started decaying almost at once, but the pace accelerated as the show progressed, and by the end it was pretty awful. I’d also nominate _Northern Exposure_. The show was amiably wacky and always tried to defeat common expectations, but in its last season it became almost like any other show on TV, and the characters were acting like stick characters, not the well-drawn weirdos we’d grown to know and love. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002.md?page=4)