That was the show that became The Hogan Family, didn’t it? Worked for me; paved the way for Sandy Duncan’s return to television. And, incidentally, pretty much put a stake through Valerie Harper’s career…
The solution is obvious, Laverne and the Man.
I still can’t understand how Big Bang Theory jumped the shark. It seems like it’s been one continuous story arch from the first episode on.
Adding Charles Emerson Winchester made it a different and better show, though the last season or two were pretty anemic.
Far from it. We’ve had considerable character development, and Leonard and Penny’s relationship has been off again, on again… hell, Leonard’s had multiple story arcs with different girlfriends, and Howard’s learned how to be a husband, and way less of a creepy jerk… to the point where he reacts badly to OTHER people being creepy jerks.
Meanwhile, Raj can talk to girls now, although his development hasn’t been real good; he used to be the only cast member who ever got laid, even when he couldn’t talk to girls. Now he’s kind of prissy with a dog he treats like a baby.
And then Sheldon… well… Sheldon’s exactly as much of an ass as the plot requires him to be, because he’s the breakout character, and we can’t change him until the series finale, when he finally marries Amy or something…
The whole point of the show is dialogue-based humor, with occasional bolts of situation humor. They haven’t been doing that very well since most of last season. I still find the reruns funny. But last season, we could sit and watch a whole episode with stony faces, and this season, not only can we keep the stone faces, but we practically have time to send out for pizza during the midpoint commercial break.
Speaking of shows shedding cast members, I remember having stopped watching That 70s Show and then, four years later, hearing that it was having its finale. No Simpsons, but definitely a case of going on far to long – long enough that I had assumed it ended years prior.
That’s the story arch. They were 20 something nerds, now they’re growing up.
You can say it’s not funny anymore, or that it should be cancelled, and that’s fine. I don’t think they are diverging hugely from what it’s always been.
Tom Bosley never left. In fact, he and Henry Winkler were the only actors that appeared in all 255 episodes. Marion Ross only missed 3 episodes.
Obviously, I disagree. Early MASH was edgy and subversive with a bit of manic energy. I feel that they dumbed it down and made it safe with corn ball characters and smaltzy dialogue after the early years. The first seasons still had some of the edge of the movie.
Seriously? Huh. Seems to me we never saw Tom Bosley towards those last few seasons, but then, by then I wasn’t watching the show much. I stand corrected.
To some extent, true. On the other hand, Margaret became more of a real person, they replaced caricature Frank Burns with a real person, Major Winchester, we replaced the bumbling cartoon Col. Blake with a much more real Col. Potter…
It wasn’t quite the same show, but I would argue that it was certainly no worse.
It’s not the kind of show being considered here, but Monday Night Football jumped the shark sometime in the 80s when the show itself became an event instead of just a football game broadcast. After the old trio of Cosell, Meredith, and Gifford were gone it reverted back. It could be credited with continuing for 30 years after it’s jump.
Another vote for the Simpsons. Though Sundays episode wasn’t bad.
I also think an argument could be made for MAS*H. When Alan Alda got in on the writing & production and stuck his ideology into every episode it definitely went down a few notches.
Now here is one that will surprise you: Gunsmoke! One of my favorite shows of all time. I won’t go so far as to say it jumped the shark, but it was appalling when they started ripping off plots from other shows and movies.
I’d thought about mentioning Gunsmoke earlier… because, yeah, those last few seasons were just goin’ through the motions. Then again, NO series had EVER run THAT long, up until that point…
No contest. Saturday Night Live.
Once a relevant, edgy show that took chances, broke barriers and featured musical acts that weren’t well known or popular but talented and unique. SNL was an alternative to the safe, standard prime time variety show. Since the 80’s it’s been nothing more than a standard, safe variety show.
A good enough agent could have arranged it.
Something similar happened with the early 70s comedy Western series Alias Smith and Jones. Late in the second season, co-star Pete Duel committed suicide. The production company wanted to stop production, naturally, but ABC wouldn’t let them, and apparently threatened to sue them if they didn’t continue to produce episodes on time. So, less than 12 hours after Duel’s death, the rest of the cast were on the set shooting scenes, while Duel’s role was hastily re-cast.
The show continued through the remainder of the second season, and was even renewed for a third season, but it never did recover from the loss of Duel. Fans never really accepted the new actor (Roger Davis), and there was a lot of criticism in the press for resuming production so quickly. It also didn’t help matters that the Western was pretty much a dying genre at that point.
So in that cast at least, the answer to “Why did they keep the show going” was that the network made them. I don’t know if Chico and the Man might have been a similar situation.
If you need to know one of defining “Jumped the Shark” moment for The Simpsons, some people have replaced “Jumping the Shark” with “Raped by a Panda” IIRC, that episode was particularly tedious for me. Merry Fishmas. Clever, but not funny. Also, not clever.
Perhaps we can focus on live-action. I agree that the Simpsons is so far gone that there are roughly 80% of all episodes I have now not seen. I used to consider myself an expert. I have no idea about it now.
I still like Supernatural, but almost everyone agrees that it has been in decline since season 6. Season 11 premieres next week. 113 episodes past its prime.
General Hospital has been on for 52 years.