Forums >Off the Beaten Path>Which long running TV shows never "jumped the shark"?
The Wire, also the best TV series ever.
Homicide: Life on the Street
DS9
24, some of the endings pissed me off, but...
Justified I hope, but is only just starting its 4rth season.
Deadwood, alas only made it to 3.
South Park
The Simpsons.
Good Bad & The Monkey
M*A*S*H jumped in stages. A little when Frank Burns left. A little more when Hot lips got too serious. And totally after Radar left. It wasn't funny anymore at all.
M*A*S*H changed. It became more serious. It did not jump the shark IMO just for becoming less of a comedy and more of a situational drama.
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Proboscis Colossus
King of the Hill
Futurama
I still liked TxF after Duchovny left - I liked how Scully turned into the character who "wanted to believe" vs. Agent Doggett's cynicism. That said, as they tried more and more desperately to make the Samantha/Alien Invasion plot make any kind of sense, I just lost interest. I don't think I ever even watched the final episode.
"God guides us on our journey, but careful with those feet." - David Lee Roth, of all people
an amazing likeness
Gilligan's Island. Got cancelled before Ginger hooked up with anyone or Skipper lost weight.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
Feeling the growl again
+1. Worth watching until the end, just for different reasons. Apparently, a lot of people were still watching at the finale.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
sugnim
This is hard. So many good shows either went downhill or got cancelled before 5 seasons. Here are my submissions.
The Simpsons
Queer as Folk
Roseanne
The Wonder Years
NOVA
I still believe that The Twilight Zone original series was the best thing that has ever aired in the history of television. All five of the original seasons are golden.
I owned this huge DVD box set with the five seasons of The Twilight Zone, and loved revisiting the episodes. A few months back, I sold that box set on Craigslist for $150, and used that money to buy the Blu-ray set of all five seasons. It's really quite spectacular, because most of The Twilight Zone episodes were filmed in 35mm and were given extensive restorations for the Blu-ray release, so the episodes all look as though they were filmed yesterday.
Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues.
One could argue that Dr. Who STARTED on the other side of the shark.
Can't argue with that. Rod Serling was the Mozart of TV writers and sci-fi. He even wrote the original screenplay for The Planet Of The Apes. Great stuff.
rectumdamnnearkilledem
After *trying* to watch some of the original 50 year old episodes I wouldn't argue with you. I'm astounded it ever took off...they are BAD!
Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to
remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
~ Sarah Kay
Doc, my tooth hurts
Saturday Night Live jumped when Bill Murray jumped ship. It had a breif resurgence from Billy Crystal thru Mike Meyers/Dana Carvey, but jumped again. Only funny in spots.
Whoa whoa whoa. I completely disagree with this viewpoint that SNL was once this "laugh every second" show. Yes there were some REALLY heavy hitters that got their start on this show, but a lot of the old ones and most of the episodes throughout the series are also only "funny in spots." The show has changed SOOO much though with the rise of the internet culture too. Before you would have to watch the whole show to see the funny things and might find a sketch that was a diamond in the rough. Now you just wait until sunday to watch the highlights of the really funny things. It's also not really so much about the cast now as it is getting a huge guest host and huge band so people tune in. Also most of the people on the show can do plenty outside of the show with the rise of cable and number of shows available. Same could be said in the rise of movies.
tl;dr Unpopular opinion, SNL is as good now as it's ever has been.
Lost interest the last few seasons. I'd catch a show here and there, but it was no longer must-see TV. I thought it became stiff. They were still trying to be funny, but it felt flat. Even Klinger lost his edge, because they stripped him of his desire to do anything to get out of the army. Alda seemed to be surrounded by lesser, stiff actors after all those characters were written out. I didn't feel that way about Jamie Farr and Loretta Swit before the change. Awesome comedic actors. Alan Alda never lost his edge and was alway interesting. He's a great actor. I did enjoy the finale, mainly because of Hawkeye's story line. He and Alan Arbus (Dr. Sidney Freedman) nailed their scenes. Wonderfully done--very moving. I was much younger then and knew little of the world, maybe I'll give it another try if it ever makes it to Netflix, and see if my opinion will change about the latter years.
jimmyb, interesting. My experience was very different. My enjoyment grew with each season. I still catch the old episodes as the roll around on random cable channels and cannot stop watching them, whether they are early or late episodes.
The finale was great.
Well, Trent, you and your superpower of persuasion just convinced me to give it another go round. I try not to be too set in my opinions (they can weigh ya down). I was 22 when that went off the air. Started watching it when I was 11. Now that I'm 52, I might have a different experience, now that I'm a responsible adult with many broken hearts and ridiculous mistakes under his belt.
I still believe that The Twilight Zone original series was the best thing that has ever aired in the history of television. All five of the original seasons are golden. I owned this huge DVD box set with the five seasons of The Twilight Zone, and loved revisiting the episodes. A few months back, I sold that box set on Craigslist for $150, and used that money to buy the Blu-ray set of all five seasons. It's really quite spectacular, because most of The Twilight Zone episodes were filmed in 35mm and were given extensive restorations for the Blu-ray release, so the episodes all look as though they were filmed yesterday.
I love TZ and have the blu ray set you mentioned, as well as the Zicree and Stanyard books.
One thing that made the series so great was that the various actors were really a "Who's Who" of character actors of the day: Robertson, Shatner, Burnett, Winters, Klugman, Young, Coburn, Meredith, Leachman, etc.
However, although I don't think the shark was jumped, I do think the consistency of the writing really tapered off after the third season when Serling cut way back and Buck Houghton left. There were still some excellent episodes in the last 2 seasons, but the overall quality was down, IMHO.
My favorite episode remains, "Walking Distance" with Gig Young.