# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![The\_Tof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/141 "2016-02-04T09:17:13Z")
There are several here that I definitely concur with… (Heroes, Dexter, True Blood…) And one that I was a big fan of start to finish (Lost!) But I am here to throw two more shows on the fire that have not been mentioned yet… 1\> Alias- I really dug Alias’s first four seasons. (Even the 3rd, which I had been told was pretty bad). But the last season of Alias was unwatchable. It was a chore to finish, and I hated myself for doing it. 2\> How I Met Your Mother- Had a moment or two in the last couple of seasons, but was a shell of former self. ---
**Author:** ![phreak9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/45deac/32.png) [@phreak9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreak9)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/142 "2016-02-04T09:44:34Z")
HANDS DOWN its FALLING SKIES. its alien sci fi stuff. it has CGI and a decent first 2 seasons but after that it turns to friggin Full House with aliens and it keeps getting worse until the end and even at the end it was like nobody even cared. The last episode to end it was like a video game that just made the bad guy a big talking spider. so, in the last episode the big alien was actually a big talking spider that died easily and somehow its millions of alien hordes were nowhere to be found. budget pulled im guessing. worst thing ever. i recommend it! ---
**Author:** ![phreak9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/45deac/32.png) [@phreak9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreak9)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/143 "2016-02-04T09:48:29Z")
> [@The\_Tof](#): > > There are several here that I definitely concur with… (Heroes, Dexter, True Blood…) > > And one that I was a big fan of start to finish (Lost!) > > But I am here to throw two more shows on the fire that have not been mentioned yet… > > 1\> Alias- I really dug Alias’s first four seasons. (Even the 3rd, which I had been told was pretty bad). But the last season of Alias was unwatchable. It was a chore to finish, and I hated myself for doing it. > > 2\> How I Met Your Mother- Had a moment or two in the last couple of seasons, but was a shell of former self. How I met Your mother had like 7-8 good seasons and the last one was epically bad. I want to rewatch all of it but i will skip the last season. the last season is dead to me. total waste. might as well have had a giant talking alien spider. ---
**Author:** ![Lorne\_Armstrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@Lorne\_Armstrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorne_Armstrong)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/144 "2016-02-04T11:11:16Z")
Siskel and Ebert after the death of Gene Siskel. Monday Night Football after the departure of Howard Cosell. Doctor Who when John Nathan-Turner (uhg) took over as producer in 1980. Season four of The Twilight Zone (though there were still a few excellent episodes). Happy Days when they had actors approaching 30 still playing high school kids. (And any episode that centers around Joanie and Chachi.) What’s Happening!! after Mabel King left at the end of the second season. All In The Family when Meathead graduated college and moved into the Jefferson’s old house. Mork & Mindy after season one. Any episode of The Six Thousand Dollar Man where Steve Austin has a mustache. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/145 "2016-02-04T11:49:22Z")
> [@Lorne\_Armstrong](#): > > Any episode of The Six Thousand Dollar Man where Steve Austin has a mustache. I think you may have gotten ahold of a cheap bootleg here. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/146 "2016-02-04T13:02:47Z")
> [@Lorne\_Armstrong](#): > > Siskel and Ebert after the death of Gene Siskel. I liked Richard Roper a lot and I also liked Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, but I always missed Gene’s brilliant criticism. I do think it was worse without him, but the real decay was when Roger couldn’t do the show full-time. To me, it was less decay and more just a sad ending. It would have been worse if Gene and Roger were still there and the show declined. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/147 "2016-02-04T14:06:51Z")
_X-Files_ is my quintessential example. I loved it for the first few seasons, but eventually the alien conspiracy stuff started to get too pananoid and convoluted, and I lost interest. When they removed Scully from the show for a while, that was my “jump the shark” moment. I always liked the monster-of-the-week episodes better anyway, but by then those were getting tired as well. I liked _Lost_ all the way until the end. I even liked the finale. My only gripe is there were too many plotlines and details that got left hanging. _The Simpsons_ has just been on for way the hell too long. It’s like _Saturday Night Live_, in that it’s been on so long it’s considered an institution, but really almost nobody cares anymore. Homer, Marge, and the kids should have ridden off into the sunset at least a decade ago. Probably longer. ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/148 "2016-02-04T16:03:17Z")
I think I’m pretty forgiving for most TV shows and I’ll almost always stick with something I once loved until the bitter end. Shows that I fully gave up on (as in, deleted from “Series Record” on the trusty ol’ DVR): _You’re The Worst The League_ Shows that I still record for some reason but struggle to actively watch: _The Simpsons Conan_ ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/149 "2016-02-04T16:06:37Z")
> [@Lorne\_Armstrong](#): > > Any episode of The Six Thousand Dollar Man where Steve Austin has a mustache. > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I think you may have gotten ahold of a cheap bootleg here. > mmm Oh it happened. [Nothing But The Night!: The Six Million Dollar Diary Part Five: SERIES FOUR](http://nothingbutthenight.blogspot.com/2012/06/six-million-dollar-diary-part-five.html) ---
**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 4, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/150 "2016-02-04T16:07:09Z")
_Masterpiece Theatre_ should probably retire as an anthology series. I realize that WGBH Boston has a grant under its auspices that supports buying the mini-series from the UK (and once, Australia), but considering that A&E and BBCA now do this, \*Masterpiece Theatre \*isn’t special anymore, and really has no purpose as an anthology series. If it still had Alastair Cooke making introductions and comments, then it would well be worth it, but there’s a different person every time, never the commanding presence of Alastair Cooke, and never someone with the insight, or ever the recap for people who might have missed an episode (which, let’s face it, with DVR and On Demand doesn’t happen anymore) that Cooke had. They don’t even play the full theme anymore. WGBH can still bring mini-series to the US, but I think it’s time to drop the frame of the\* Masterpiece Theatre\* anthology. I loved _MT_ as a kid, especially a tween and teen, and the theme got me all stirred up. The truncated one they run now just deflates me. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/151 "2016-02-04T16:10:09Z")
I think the story of How Cooke was skinned and dissected for spare parts would be a great _Masterpiece Theatre_ mini-series. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/152 "2016-02-04T17:34:05Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Speaking as someone who just started Heroes yesterday, this thread is not filling me with great confidence. The first (and ONLY) season of Heroes is one of the all-time great mini-series. Roughly 22 episodes and a storyline with a start, a middle and an end. And what was great? It _ended_. Well worth your time to watch. It would have been terrible if they tried to continue a story that was completed into a second, third or even fourth season…luckily, _those seasons never happened_. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/153 "2016-02-04T17:43:58Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > His newer show “Restaurant Impossible” is also starting to get stale. I really think they are running out of restaurants to save and then we find out that most of the places saved close within a year anyways. And the newest season is unwatchable. When it started the time was broken out so it was about 33% cooking/restaurant stuff, 33% family drama crap and 33% decoration rebuilding. This season it’s 33% “We’ve surprised the owner who doesn’t know we’re coming, and they might not want to do it! Will they or won’t they?\*” about 55% tedious family drama crap, about 10% decoration/rebuilding and the remaining 2% involves food or restaurant management. \*And since they’ve already showed the owner dithering over whether they’re going to do it or not, the owner clearly signed the release, or they couldn’t show the dithering. So it has less suspense than an average episode of Scooby Doo. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/154 "2016-02-04T18:28:44Z")
Happy Days, Northern Exposure, Welcome Back Kotter, and The Office all demonstrated losing the lead character is a bad thing. BUT, NYPD Blue managed to survive John Kelly leaving after the first season. It turned out Sipowicz was the stealth star of the series, but that was only really noticeable after Simone died. Avoid the switcheroo. Ellen Degeneres’s sitcom started out about a single woman who owned a bookstore and her quirky friends. Then it became a sitcom about a woman accepting she was a lesbian and dealing with that. Important and timely, yes, but it wasn’t what the viewers signed up for. This happens a lot when what starts out in the series as a minor character becomes the star. Consider Steve Urkel and JJ DYNOMITE! Some shows go down when the star gets power-crazed. Roseanne, Kurt Cameron from Growing Pains, etc. Between Bob Reed’s mutiny and the kids teaming up with an agent, Sherwood Schwartz was relieved when the network cancelled The Brady Bunch. ---
**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 4, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/155 "2016-02-04T19:06:48Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Oh it happened. > > [Nothing But The Night!: The Six Million Dollar Diary Part Five: SERIES FOUR](http://nothingbutthenight.blogspot.com/2012/06/six-million-dollar-diary-part-five.html) It isn’t the whiskers that are in question. Did you miss “Thousand”? ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/156 "2016-02-04T19:33:13Z")
I LOVE **Parks & Recreation** but I think they pretty much phoned in their final season. I didn’t even bother watching Season 9 of **Scrubs**. Season 8 ended on such a beautiful note that I didn’t want my mind poisoned. ---
**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 4, 2016, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/157 "2016-02-04T19:49:58Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I loved _MT_ as a kid, especially a tween and teen, and the theme got me all stirred up. The truncated one they run now just deflates me. The “Theme” for Masterpiece Theater was the _Fanfare and Rondeau_ by Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682-1738). I have a Nonesuch recording of it. Even the original Masterpiece Theater never played the whole thing, but I agree that it’s a crime to abridge it the way they do now. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/158 "2016-02-04T20:18:06Z")
> [@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. I’ve heard this excuse a lot, but plenty of shows survived the writer’s strike. It was Tim Kring that screwed the series over. Notably, he took over the show from Bryan Fuller (see upthread about Dead Like Me) who wrote the first season. ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/159 "2016-02-04T21:05:20Z")
First season of Ancient Aliens (yes, the show with the crazy-haired “Aliens” guy Giorgios Tsoukalos) was very neat and compelling. Second season got pretty off-base. All other seasons fell off a cliff. “Albert Einstein might have been an alien?” C’mon, now you’re just making yourselves look bad\*, History Channel! \*if the actual show itself didn’t make them look bad. But hey, i think a lot of those S1 theories were pretty clever! ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002/160 "2016-02-04T22:24:19Z")
How about season 5 on Babylon 5? There was a reason – JMS wasn’t sure of a 5th season so he jammed the ending into the 4th. Season 5 was pretty much filler (minus Sleeping in Light) Brian [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-tv-show-decay-youve-seen/745002.md?page=9)