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TV Shows that started out good and toward the end it changed totally

Started by roadman65, February 05, 2019, 10:22:26 PM

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Stephane Dumas

Quote from: bandit957 on February 08, 2019, 05:46:40 PM
Another show that has declined a lot is '60 Minutes'. It's a shadow of what it once was.

The same could be said about SNL (Saturday Night Live), it's also a shadow of its former self.


TheHighwayMan3561

Quote from: kphoger on February 08, 2019, 06:12:24 PM
Batman got pretty lame, and it really didn't take all that long.  In the second season, Batman ran for city mayor and encouraged people to vote.  Not exactly superhero escapades.

What I hear is notable is how the show went from #1 to cancelled in about two years.
self-certified as the dumbest person on this board for 5 years running

bandit957

'The Simpsons' was great for its first 27 years or so. Now it's nothing.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

KeithE4Phx

Quote from: Stephane Dumas on February 08, 2019, 07:42:00 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on February 08, 2019, 05:46:40 PM
Another show that has declined a lot is '60 Minutes'. It's a shadow of what it once was.

The same could be said about SNL (Saturday Night Live), it's also a shadow of its former self.

SNL hasn't been funny since the mid 1990s.
"Oh, so you hate your job? Well, why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called "EVERYBODY!" They meet at the bar." -- Drew Carey

bandit957

Quote from: KeithE4Phx on February 08, 2019, 11:12:53 PM
SNL hasn't been funny since the mid 1990s.

I read that in one of the first episodes of SNL, their guest host got upset about something and she walked off the stage and into the dressing room. According to the article, this is a "lost" episode, and whoever has the rights to SNL has not allowed it to be rerun ever since. But I swear I saw a rerun of it maybe 10 or 15 years ago. (I wasn't old enough for it when it first aired.)
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

KeithE4Phx

Quote from: bandit957 on February 08, 2019, 11:17:19 PM
Quote from: KeithE4Phx on February 08, 2019, 11:12:53 PM
SNL hasn't been funny since the mid 1990s.

I read that in one of the first episodes of SNL, their guest host got upset about something and she walked off the stage and into the dressing room. According to the article, this is a "lost" episode, and whoever has the rights to SNL has not allowed it to be rerun ever since. But I swear I saw a rerun of it maybe 10 or 15 years ago. (I wasn't old enough for it when it first aired.)

The show that had Richard Pryor as its host (12/13/75) ran on a 5-second delay because of Pryor's "colorful" language.  Two words (not specified) were bleeped before getting on the air.  AFAIK, Pryor did not walk off the set, nor did anyone else during the early days.  I wouldn't be shocked if that episode was kept out of reruns, though.
"Oh, so you hate your job? Well, why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called "EVERYBODY!" They meet at the bar." -- Drew Carey

Big John


KeithE4Phx

Quote from: Big John on February 08, 2019, 11:33:49 PM
Or another svene not allowed to be rerun: 1992 Sinead O'Connor

Who?  Her career fizzled for quite awhile after that episode.
"Oh, so you hate your job? Well, why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called "EVERYBODY!" They meet at the bar." -- Drew Carey

roadman65

Quote from: jp the roadgeek on February 07, 2019, 02:31:44 AM
Quote from: KeithE4Phx on February 06, 2019, 05:32:17 PM
Spin City jumped the shark when Michael J. Fox had to leave due to his Parkinson's Disease.  Unfortunately, they replaced him with Charlie Sheen and the show went downhill from there.


And speaking of Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men went to hell in a handbasket when he had his breakdown and had to be replaced by Ashton Kutcher.

And in keeping with the original Jump the Shark, Happy Days changed over the years.  The show started by focusing on the friendship of Richie and Potsie.  During the first season, Fonzie was a bit character, and Henry Winkler wasn't even included in the opening credits.  After the first couple of seasons, Fonzie became the breakout character, and Potsie was relegated to a minor character often paired with Ralph Malph.  Once Ron Howard left, Fonzie became the main character. 

Also to note that they had no storylines for Potsie once both Richie and Ralph left.  As he was supporting Richie and never had a good relationship with the other cast members. In fact Fonzie hated Potsie's guts and did everything to to keep away from him in all the years. If anything they exagerrated his stupidity for him to fit in with the others.

Its Spin off Laverne and Shirley got bad in the last season when Shirley left, and also you also saw less of Lenny and Squiggy as well.  In fact Michael McKean was not even in the opening credits of the last season as he left the show to produce a movie.  So Squiggy was solo in the few episodes he was in.  Even the last episode was a back door pilot for a show the networks did not pick up, which is why Carmine got a job in a Broadway play and never came back to Hollywood.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

bandit957

I swear there was one time when someone used the f-word on SNL. I was only maybe 7 or 8, but I was in the room when my parents were watching it. I burst out laughing and my parents got real mad.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

roadman65

Quote from: 1995hoo on February 08, 2019, 09:05:25 AM
Quote from: Rothman on February 08, 2019, 08:59:36 AM
Quote from: bandit957 on February 07, 2019, 10:38:07 PM
My mom used to watch 'Dallas' all the time. I was in the room when my mom watched the episode where Patrick Duffy said, "It was a dream, a horrible dream." That was about the dumbest moment in TV history, and I think my mom stopped watching 'Dallas' after that.
I thought there was one season where his character died and the woman he was sleeping with woke up in the first episode of the next season to see him in the shower.

That's what he's talking about. I assume it's not a spoiler to describe: Duffy left the show and they killed off his character, Bobby. Ratings weren't as good, so the producers negotiated to bring Duffy back to the show. At the end of the season, Pam wakes up to see him saying "good morning" as he dries off after a shower. That was the "cliffhanger ending" for that season. The following fall, she learns that the whole previous season, including Bobby's death, was a dream.

Apparently that whole thing made for some serious challenges in filming the show because everything else that happened during the "Dream Season" had to be walked back–so, for example, Sue Ellen Ewing had sobered up, but now she had to be an alcoholic again because her sobriety was a dream. Still, the "Dream Season" probably remains one of the most ridiculed stunts ever.
Also to note they could not continue that story line of the Downs Syndrome child that Ray and Donna had as he was adopted in the dream.  Also Ray and Donna had to go back to being separated as they were when Bobby died.

Then Jack, who was accepted by the Ewing family in the dream, had to go back to being the conman he was when he first came, as his character developed as he became a love interest for Jenna Wade during that season.   

Also the mystery of who framed Jenna never got solved nor mentioned as well as who was in the Far East clinic in the previous season that Pam was chasing after.  The clinic scene where Pam went across the world was the preamble to Mark Graison returning in the dream season.  Being Mark never returned we will never know who sent Pam to the Orient.

The only constant they kept was the fake Jock story as Steve Forest did return in the post Duffy return season to continue that storyline.


Then onto Knots Landing, with Bobby back alive that means that show was in Pam's dream as they did feature Bobby's death on that show as well due to it being a spin off and set in the same universe.  Gary took the death on the parent show hard and even his son was named after his brother in honor of him too.  However, writers did well there by not mentioning the Ewing family on that show after Duffy's return.

Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

sparker

Quote from: bandit957 on February 08, 2019, 11:44:45 PM
I swear there was one time when someone used the f-word on SNL. I was only maybe 7 or 8, but I was in the room when my parents were watching it. I burst out laughing and my parents got real mad.

That would have been the late Charles Rocket, who was on the show for one season -- the ill-fated "transition" in 1980-81, after Aykroyd and Belushi left; he did the news segment, and adlibbed "fuck", which got on the air on the East Coast (but was deleted from the feed to the westerly time zones).  The only saving grace from that year was the mid-season introduction of Eddie Murphy, whose presence for the next 3 years brought the show back from the edge of cancellation (also, the importation of a number of reasonably competent Second City players in the '81-'82 season didn't hurt the cause).  Rocket never had much of a career after that, bouncing from B-movies to TV guest shots -- but apparently, like so many other entertainers, was clinically depressed -- he committed suicide in 2005 at 56. 

hbelkins



Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

abefroman329

Quote from: bandit957 on February 08, 2019, 11:17:19 PM
Quote from: KeithE4Phx on February 08, 2019, 11:12:53 PM
SNL hasn't been funny since the mid 1990s.

I read that in one of the first episodes of SNL, their guest host got upset about something and she walked off the stage and into the dressing room. According to the article, this is a "lost" episode, and whoever has the rights to SNL has not allowed it to be rerun ever since. But I swear I saw a rerun of it maybe 10 or 15 years ago. (I wasn't old enough for it when it first aired.)
I think you're thinking of the Louise Lasser ep, and I think the "walking off the stage"  part was scripted, but she was apparently a pain in the ass off-camera.

There was a time when SNL was available online, first through Netflix and then through Hulu, and every episode from the first five seasons was available in its entirety, but after that, they would only show maybe 30-45 minutes of each ep, some not at all, and they even did this during the "good"  seasons. I don't know why that was the case.

texaskdog

Quote from: roadman65 on February 05, 2019, 10:22:26 PM
I was going through some old Dallas stuff on the internet and started watching old 3rd season episodes particularly A House Divided (the season finale where JR pulled that one big swindle causing all of Dallas to hate him and one to actually shoot him created the biggest whodunit ever for a soap opera) as it had Jim Davis on it playing the Ewing Matriarch along with other great story lines and character connections.  Dallas was at its prime and had the best story lines the first four seasons.

Many say it was Patrick Duffy leaving in the 1985 season that killed the show as the ratings never returned even when Duffy appeared that one season finale in Pam's shower to stay on until the saga ended in 2012.  I say it went dead after the incident when JR and Bobby both had the contest given to them to see who gets Jock's inherritence.  That and with Barbara Bel Geddes appearing in fewer episodes in the latter seasons as her health was bad caused the show to lose out.

Then when JR went to prison in the Hillbilly State (although writers never specified which state it was, we all can guess clearly which one it was)  just for sleeping with that girl Calle (whom he later married) was real bogus. I mean he did not even do anything mistameanor and it was just an act people do every day, and yet he went to prison without even a proper trial and reprensentation. Despite there are some ultra conservative cops and counties in our nation, that still was real dumb even for TV writers of a bizarre drama show.   Then JR busted out and forced to be a slave like it was the old old old south, even for a criminal like JR that was way too much.

All In The Family was another that was better in the first five seasons than those following.  When Mike and Gloria moved out the show, although still all right, was not the same as when they all lived together under one roof.

The A Team, was even a big disappointment in its final season after the CIA caught them and forced them into doing spy work in other countries over the show's original premise of being mercinaries helping typical folks with problems the cops could not handle.  That was the worst turning that show around the way they did as it was best when they were working for just plain people fighting domestic crime.

Mike & Gloria were in season 6 & 7 but yeah once they had that baby in season 6 there was a steep decline.  Jeffersons were gone too.  Agree on the A Team.  Gimme a Break once they got rid of the girls.  Facts of Life was so much better in season 1.  90210 was a fun show especially season 1.  After season 4 when Brenda left it declined.  try watching season 4 then season 10, truly awful at the end.

texaskdog

Quote from: KeithE4Phx on February 06, 2019, 12:11:07 PM
M*A*S*H went downhill after about Season 6, when it became The Alan Alda Show for all intents and purposes.  Were it not for Harry Morgan's great performance as Col. Potter, I really don't think it would have lasted more than another year or two.  He was the somewhat poltiically-incorrect anchor that held it together.

The first 3 with McLean were pretty good.

abefroman329

Quote from: texaskdog on February 09, 2019, 02:50:41 PM
Quote from: KeithE4Phx on February 06, 2019, 12:11:07 PM
M*A*S*H went downhill after about Season 6, when it became The Alan Alda Show for all intents and purposes.  Were it not for Harry Morgan's great performance as Col. Potter, I really don't think it would have lasted more than another year or two.  He was the somewhat poltiically-incorrect anchor that held it together.

The first 3 with McLean were pretty good.
And then his plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spiraled in. There were no survivors.

nexus73

Quote from: hbelkins on February 09, 2019, 02:45:33 PM
Quote from: KeithE4Phx on February 08, 2019, 11:12:53 PM
SNL hasn't been funny since the mid 1980s.

FIFY.

For me, once the original cast was gone, I was done with the show.  Haven't watched it since.

Rick
US 101 is THE backbone of the Pacific coast from Bandon OR to Willits CA.  Industry, tourism and local traffic would be gone or severely crippled without it being in functioning condition in BOTH states.

texaskdog

Quote from: abefroman329 on February 08, 2019, 12:58:51 PM
Quote from: Rothman on February 08, 2019, 12:54:18 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on February 08, 2019, 12:40:46 PM
People have a hard time realizing that "Dukes of Hazzard" was set in a fictional Hazzard County somewhere in the south, not the city of Hazard in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. However, the city embraced the confusion. The highest ceremonial honor they can bestow on someone -- think "give them a key to the city" -- is to name them a Duke of Hazard.
The series was set in Georgia...although it looked an awful like California... :D
The movie was a lot more explicit about Hazzard County being in GA than the show was.

The movie was also a steaming pile.

The movie was awesome....and check out the first 6 episodes of Dukes, it's a completely different show and hilarious.

Rothman

Quote from: texaskdog on February 09, 2019, 03:46:37 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on February 08, 2019, 12:58:51 PM
Quote from: Rothman on February 08, 2019, 12:54:18 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on February 08, 2019, 12:40:46 PM
People have a hard time realizing that "Dukes of Hazzard" was set in a fictional Hazzard County somewhere in the south, not the city of Hazard in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. However, the city embraced the confusion. The highest ceremonial honor they can bestow on someone -- think "give them a key to the city" -- is to name them a Duke of Hazard.
The series was set in Georgia...although it looked an awful like California... :D
The movie was a lot more explicit about Hazzard County being in GA than the show was.

The movie was also a steaming pile.

The movie was awesome....and check out the first 6 episodes of Dukes, it's a completely different show and hilarious.
Wrong.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

abefroman329

I'm not sure which was the bigger disappointment: The Dukes of Hazzard movie, or the Shaft remake with Samuel L. Jackson.

KeithE4Phx

Quote from: abefroman329 on February 09, 2019, 05:57:18 PM
I'm not sure which was the bigger disappointment: The Dukes of Hazzard movie, or the Shaft remake with Samuel L. Jackson.

Speaking of bad remakes, how about the 2005 regurgitation of Kojak with Ving Rhames on USA Network?  The only thing that Rhames had in common with Telly Savalas was his lack of hair.  Fortunately for Rhames, his career was saved when he found out that Arbys has the MEATS!!!!  :)
"Oh, so you hate your job? Well, why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called "EVERYBODY!" They meet at the bar." -- Drew Carey

abefroman329

Quote from: KeithE4Phx on February 09, 2019, 08:15:44 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on February 09, 2019, 05:57:18 PM
I'm not sure which was the bigger disappointment: The Dukes of Hazzard movie, or the Shaft remake with Samuel L. Jackson.

Speaking of bad remakes, how about the 2005 regurgitation of Kojak with Ving Rhames on USA Network?  The only thing that Rhames had with Telly Savalas was his lack of hair.  Fortunately for Rhames, his career was saved when he found out that Arbys has the MEATS!!!!  :)
Ving Rhames was awesome in Pulp Fiction and Out Of Sight, he can do whatever he wants.

sparker

Quote from: hbelkins on February 09, 2019, 02:45:33 PM
Quote from: KeithE4Phx on February 08, 2019, 11:12:53 PM
SNL hasn't been funny since the mid 1980s.

FIFY.

Beg to differ -- exhibit #1A:

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/close-encounter/2949239

and its equally funny followup, exhibit #1B:

https://archive.org/details/AnotherCloseEncounterSNL

Ryan Gosling not keeping it together is in itself almost worth the price of admission; Kate McKinnon is the best thing to happen to that show since Eddie Murphy!

Scott5114

Quote from: abefroman329 on February 09, 2019, 02:49:00 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on February 08, 2019, 11:17:19 PM
Quote from: KeithE4Phx on February 08, 2019, 11:12:53 PM
SNL hasn't been funny since the mid 1990s.

I read that in one of the first episodes of SNL, their guest host got upset about something and she walked off the stage and into the dressing room. According to the article, this is a "lost" episode, and whoever has the rights to SNL has not allowed it to be rerun ever since. But I swear I saw a rerun of it maybe 10 or 15 years ago. (I wasn't old enough for it when it first aired.)
I think you're thinking of the Louise Lasser ep, and I think the "walking off the stage"  part was scripted, but she was apparently a pain in the ass off-camera.

There was a time when SNL was available online, first through Netflix and then through Hulu, and every episode from the first five seasons was available in its entirety, but after that, they would only show maybe 30-45 minutes of each ep, some not at all, and they even did this during the "good"  seasons. I don't know why that was the case.

I don't know for sure, but my random guess would be complications having to do with licensing from and royalties paid to the guest hosts. People who appear in TV shows hold considerable power over how their face can be redistributed long after the show aired. For example, there are episodes of The Price is Right that Bob Barker has blocked from being rerun, because they gave away fur clothing, which runs counter to his reputation as an animal-rights advocate (he hadn't yet adopted the issue, and probably didn't have so much clout, in the early years of the show).
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef



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