TV Show Whose Decline Saddens You the Most

[Max]

Which TV show--past or present--has undergone a decline which saddens you the most? It certainly could be a daytime soap, but it doesn't have to be.

 

For me, The Price Is Right's decline has been the saddest to observe. While the format of the show is still the same (six one-bid rounds, six pricing games, two Showcase Showdowns, and the Showcase round), the feel of the show is entirely different from when Bob Barker was host. Certainly, Drew Carey is a lackluster emcee, but he's improved from the terrible performance that was evident during his first few years. The lion's share of the blame, IMO, belongs to Executive Producer Mike Richards. Under his "leadership," there has been one gimmicky show after another. And according to what I've read on golden-road.net, contestants are even told how to act. Also, virtually all the classic music cues that were so unique to TPIR have disappeared. Finally, TPIR's set--at least the turntable portion of the set--looks drastically different than it did under Barker; not only has a tacky blue floor has replaced the carpeting, but the turntable walls feature these hexagon shapes which display distracting visual graphics. (My apologies if that description of the turntable is too vague, but you'll have a better idea of what I'm talking about if you watch a recent episode of TPIR.)

 

The sad thing is that there was no need to radically overhaul TPIR after Bob retired. The show has gone from being my favorite TV program to being unwatchable. And I have long been puzzled over the fact that TPIR still gets good ratings.

[Franko]

It's cliche to say, but Saturday Night Live. I'm tired of the smug belief that it's adding to American political attitudes. I'm sick of the overexposed cast or guests, especially those who didn't or haven't brought anything (or anything new) to the table*. And everything I've ever read about the production model is enough to induce vomiting.

*Nearly 20 years ago, during an episode hosted by Alec Baldwin, they did a Christmas Carol takeoff. The SNL of Christmas Future cast included then-frequent guest John Goodman. Every so often, parody becomes close enough to reality.

[Khan]

After two and a half years of sexual tension, David Addison and Maddie Hayes consummated their relationship on "Moonlighting."  Unfortunately, as soon as the two characters finally "got together," the producers seemed intent on doing all they could to keep them apart.  (The show's creator/executive producer/showunner, Glenn Gordon Caron, blames Cybill Shepherd's (Maddie) real-life pregnancy for David and Maddie's forced separation, but I think there were more creative ways to handle CS' situation then merely isolating actor and character from the rest for episodes at a time.  And Maddie's sudden (and uncharacteristic) choice to marry dreary Walter Bishop mere hours after meeting him on a train did no one any favors either.)  Subsequently, by separating David and Maddie at a critical point in their relationship, the producers of "Moonlighting" ruined the couple's romantic momentum and sealed their show's fate.

 

 

SNL was already "old hat" by the start of its' second season.  The show has had numerous highs and lows since then, but nothing has ever recaptured the spirit of that inaugural year.

 

From the beginning, Lorne Michaels should have instituted a policy of "refreshing" the cast at the end of every season rather than allowing members to stay past their "sell by" date.  That way, SNL would have retained its' first-season freshness a lot longer, and it would have provided exposure for a wider range of talents, too.

[Franko]

"A Womb With a View," the miscarriage episode co-written by Caron, plays like an extended middle finger to Cybill's then one-year-old twins.

[Khan]

 

Agree.  However, incorporating Cybill's pregnancy was a mistake to begin with.  I'm just glad they chose in the end not to saddle David and Maddie with a baby.

[Soapsuds]

227

 

Things were going great and then they add Alexandria. The show was still good and cut their loses with her rather quickly.  But then they added awful  Toukie Smith, Barry Sobel, Stoney Jackson, and Paul Winfield  to the cast. 

[Faulkner]

Guiding Light. For me, its collapse ruined my enjoyment of soaps. Nothing ever scratched that itch for me again.

[Khan]

 

Even worse, Marla Gibbs' jealousy over Jackee's airtime and popularity caused a rift between the two (which has since been patched up) that resulted in the latter's making a limited number of appearances during the fifth and final season.

 

Speaking of Marla Gibbs, the last two or three seasons of "The Jeffersons" were nothing short of abysmal.  By that point, the producers had exhausted all the possibilities inherent in the series' original premise of an African-American family "movin' on up" in society.  Moreover, the major characters -- the Jeffersons, the Willises, Florence and Mr. Bentley -- had become worse than caricatures, with Louise becoming the biggest cartoon of all.  Watching Isabel Sanford mug her way through the episode where Florence meets Sammy Davis, Jr. (which contradicted history, since Florence had met Sammy years before on "All in the Family"), you knew that that "Wheezie" was a far cry from the intelligent, down-to-earth woman who had been Edith Bunker's neighbor and best friend.

[Bright Eyes]

How I Met Your Mother: I maintain that putting Barney and Robin together romantically was the beginning of the horrible choices TPTB made right up until their horrible finale.

[Khan]

I never watched HIMYM, but I've heard that fans H-A-T-E-D the finale.

 

 

I've always compared GL's demise to that of a patient being euthanized after years on life support.  GL was gone long before P&G finally remembered to cancel it.

 

Conversely, although ATWT had seen better days (and years), its' cancellation felt more like a murder, because there was nothing wrong with the show that a more concerned regime couldn't have remedied.  (Same goes for EON and, to a lesser extent, AW.)

[Faulkner]

Oh I had given up on GL years before they cancelled it. I’m thinking about 94-95 when it became so obvious that the great ensemble drama I loved wasn’t coming back, and everything felt dark and jumbled. Those great characters suddenly felt disposable. 

[Khan]

 

IA, even if I hung in a bit longer than you.  (I threw in the metaphorical towel around 2004, or whenever David Kreizman became HW.)  P&G could not (or would not) understand that GL was not DAYS or PASSIONS or even GH, but its' own animal.  

[David_Vickers]

I still love THE PRICE IS RIGHT.  Drew Carey is a great host. The show recently got a stage makeover beginning this season .  Also still love SATURDAY NIGHT LOVE.  Kate McKinnon is AWESOME,  Also love Alec Baldwin as Trump.

 

But on topic,  DALLAS and FALCON CREST both were ruined before they ended up getting canceled,   ATWT pretty much too.   PRIMETIME, I agree about 227 and the "new" additions to the cast.   HAWAII FIVE 0 is hit and miss now. Daniel Dae Kim and  Grace Park leaving, after the show refused to give them more money, which IMHO was b.s. and maybe racist.,  with the new characters Tani & Junor not as interesting.  Barely can stand  Beulah Kole who plays Junior. Also, hate the attempts at comedy the show ventures off on every now and then.

 

[I Am A Swede]

I have two:

 

EMMERDALE FARM: This long-running show holds a special place in my heart since it was the first "grown-up" show I ever watched. It came on after the early evening news when I was a child in the late 1970s, and since my mother watched it I got to stay up during it before going to bed. I didn't understand what they were saying, and I hadn't learnt how to read yet so I couldn't read the subtitles, but I still watched it lying on the floor under the livingroom table.

Re-watching those old episodes now as a grown up and comparing them to the current show is like comparing apples and oranges. Back then it was a slow-moving, realistic show about a farming family and their friends. A show with a clear identity and believable characters. Nowadays it's a generic soap with a lot of unpleasant characters and implausible plotlines. In hindsight I would like to say that the 9th of August 1994 was the day of doom for this show. That was when the first member of the Dingle family showed up. I can with total honesty say that I disliked that family from the start, but back then I had no idea the destruction they would cause and how they would come to monopolize the show.

 

HEARTBEAT: The first few years of this show was great. Taking place during the early 1960s it told the story of a young couple, PC Nick Rowan (Nick Berry) and his doctor wife Kate (Niamh Cusack) who relocated from London to North Yorkshire where Kate had grown up. A gritty, realistic look at life in the north of England with plenty of period music enhancing the authentic sets and clothes. The decline began early though. Niamh Cusack became pregnant and left the show so Kate was killed of with leukaemia. To give you an idea how long and slow (yet relentless) the decline was Kate died as early as episode 49 and the show ran for a total of 372 episodes. It did improve slightly when Nick and his new wife Jo Weston (Juliette Gruber) left and Mike Bradley (played by Jason Durr) took over the lead. I never could stand Jo and felt she was an poor replacement for Kate.

The show became increasingly far-fetched over the years, and the grittiness and social realism of the first years were replaced with repetitive stories and more of a feel-good quality. The fact that they kept pretending that it was still the 1960s after more than a decade also added to the decline. When the show finally ended in 2010 after 18 years it was more relief than sadness. It had by then almost become a caricature of what it used to be.

[NothinButAttitude]

EMPIRE. Even though the numbers are still decent, this show went from having all the potential in the world to being a flop of a mess. History stays being rewritten on the regular. For instance, Lucious was repulsed by Andre being married to Rhonda, a White woman, and now he has another illegitimate child with a White woman too? Andre and Jamal's "lovers of the moment" have grown old. At this point, we all know that they will end up going nowhere for the long haul. Anika, who was the perfect foil for the Lyons, was killed off prematurely. You kill a character like her on the final episode, of the final season. These insta-villains aren't helping either. Empire is basically becoming a horrid daytime soap that has a great time slot at night. Lee Daniels better hope Taraji is willing to ride with him till the wheels fall off because the second she leaves, this show is dead in the water.