# Worst TV decisions
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 14, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171 "2002-10-14T01:43:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/61 "2002-10-17T11:53:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by elf6c \*
> \*\*Cancelling **The Beverly Hillbillies**. It was either #1 or close to it at the time. The show is _still_ popular on Nick.
>
> Can you imagine that happening today? \*\*
Hell, how 'bout **Hee-Haw** : enormously popular but CBS(?) thinks it’s too cornball and gives them a low-brow image and cancells it.
For different reasons: **M.A.S.H**. Other than David Ogden Stiers(sp) there’s no reason to watch a post-Colonel Blake episode. And when Alan Alda started to use the show to promote his politics…and when Hotlips became sensitive and caring…and when Klinger stopped wearing dresses. Colonel Blake’s death should have ended the show and stopped the relentless descent into crap.
Fenris
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### Author:  [@Linus\_Van\_Pelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linus_Van_Pelt)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/62 "2002-10-17T12:14:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Fenris \*
> \*\*
> Hear hear!
>
> And stopping Robin Williams from ad-libbing. Apparently in the early episodes, the script would say “Mork discovers eggs in Mindy’s fridge. Mork thinks they’re miniaturized space travellers–3 minutes” and Williams would ad-lib stuff like the “Fly! Be free! /Burial at sea” routine. But that meant multiple takes and that cost money.
>
> But not as much as making the show boring would cost.
>
> Fenris \*\*
From what I’ve heard, a good portion of the death of “Mork & Mindy” was due to another irritating tendency of the networks that has already been mentioned here: Combat Scheduling. From what I’ve heard, when ABC(?) descovered that they had a surprise hit on their hands with “Mork & Mindy”, they moved it to Monday night to compete with “All in the Family” which had begun to slip. Unsurprisingly, “All in the Family” slaughtered it. The network execs, with their usual wisdom, started making other changes at that point in a desperate attempt to save the show (Merth, anyone?).
As a slight hijack on this - can anyone name _any_ new show that has attempted to take on a juggernaut (aging or not) and succeeded at it? Or does this just prove the idiocy of those who run the networks?
As for “The Beverly Hillbillies”, I saw something about it on “E” a couple of months ago. It seems that the people that were running CBS were embarrased at the “rural” nature of their hit shows and began deliberately killing them off in order to change thier image - they were afraid of being viewed as too unsophisticated. I agree that this is unlikely to happen today. The networks will, if at all possible, run a show into the ground as long as it’s still getting ratings.
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### Author:  [@roadrunner70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roadrunner70)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/63 "2002-10-17T12:39:23Z")
Did anyone ever watch “The Magic Hour?”
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/64 "2002-10-17T14:21:10Z")
The mention of Stephen Hill reminded me of another: kicking him off **Mission: Impossible** (if that had happened today, he could have sued the producers’ rumps off\*). He was the perfect leader of the IMF – a mastermind who planned it all. Peter Graves as a poor substitute.
\*He was canned because, as an observant Jew, he wasn’t available to shoot during the Sabbath. It was probably easier to accomodate him in “Law and Order,” since he only had one or two short scenes an episode.
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### Author:  [@Intaglio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intaglio)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/65 "2002-10-17T17:07:52Z")
M_A_S\*H - I actually liked Harry Morgan as Colonel Potter, better than McLean Stevenson as Colonel Blake. Hotlips becoming Major Houlihan - becoming more caring and sensitive made me want to watch her.
Also ABC cancelling the remake of Fantasy Island with Malcolm McDowell, I like him as Mr. Roarke, mind you I still like Ricardo Montebon(sp). I stories were better with the remake.
This is all my own opinion, worth exactly what you paid.
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### Author:  [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-tv-decisions/132171/66 "2002-10-17T17:47:59Z")
IMHO[ol][_]The termination of **Police Squad** (by ABC) after 6 episodes because viewers had to “watch too closely and think” Step out into my Japanese Garden[_]The termination of Eddie Murphy’s **What is Allen Watching?** (by FOX) after 2 episodesFree James Brown!: Probably the funniest thing on TV since SCTV’s _Battle of the PBS Netword Stars_ boxing match between Fred Rodgers & Julia Childs.[/ol]
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