Challenge: Shows that Deserved More than Four Seasons

[Ibrandul]

Season 32 was probably the best ever for CBS Evening News.

 

[eyeheartawk]

I nominate every show ever produced by Netflix.

"Two shows enter, no one leaves"
Nietzsche, probably, idk

 

[aco175]

Season 32 was probably the best ever for CBS Evening News.

I felt that they put more effort into season 31.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I felt that they put more effort into season 31.

Well, that's when Cronkite did the special two-night lengthy explanation on Watergate, which was (arguably) the dam breaking in terms of national coverage.

So not a bad choice.

 

[MGibster]

The Simpsons. I haven't watched it regularly since the late 1990s, but seasons 5-8 continued to be funny. Season 6 was worth it just for "Homer the Great" featuring the Stonecutter song.

 

[Gradine]

Eventually you're just scraping the bottom of the barrel for content ideas. I can't think of many shows that have gone for longer and maintained a similar level of quality past season 4. Some that did got better with age or extended their quality through filler episodes (TNG and DS9, I'm looking at you...) Others are episodic/procedurals with rotating casts where the quality varies wildly by season (your sundry Law & Order series go here).

Most shows just don't get that length of time anymore. Is it execs learning their lesson? Of course not! Execs never learn lessons.

 

[Ibrandul]

Well, that's when Cronkite did the special two-night lengthy explanation on Watergate, which was (arguably) the dam breaking in terms of national coverage.

So not a bad choice.

Such a bold narrative move to place that story beat right in the middle of season 32 rather than saving it for the finale. Anyway, the whole series makes a lot more sense if you watch from the beginning.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Most shows just don't get that length of time anymore. Is it execs learning their lesson? Of course not! Execs never learn lessons.

I think you're right, but I would go the other way.

Executive never learn lessons- but they sometimes learn the wrong thing.

Netflix Executive: So, you heard that shows go on for way to long, right?

Creative: Yeah ... what's your point?

Netflix Executive: Listen to me - instead of cancelling shows after they've reached their creative peak, we will do WAY BEFORE THAT! Sometimes even before people know what the show is about!

Creative: Oh ... I don't think that was the lesson ...

Netflix Executive: Of course it was! Also, you're not getting a second season.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I got to quibble with a few of these.

So far as I can tell, you only quibbled with the Wire. My premise was, "a four-year cutoff seems no better than any other," and I don't see any real quibbling with that otherwise.

Like South Park, The Simpsons are just riding on legacy fumes. Maybe 1-2 episodes worth watching a season at this point, but hardly worth keeping up with.

But was the end of Season 4 when it started sliding? I'd argue no. If the show only existed for four seasons, it'd probably be forgotten by now, as honestly much of seasons 1&2 weren't really that good (like TNG, it took quite a while to find it's rhythm), and seasons 3 through, oh, eight or so really had vaguely the same ratio of good to bad episodes.

Most shows just don't get that length of time anymore. Is it execs learning their lesson? Of course not! Execs never learn lessons.

One of the issues is that sometimes the execs learned lessons very well. If your goal is advertising dollars in hand, keeping that zombie cash cow going is often incredibly sound policy. Friends, Big Bang Theory, HIMYM, heck, Bonanza and Gunsmoke all had better ratings in their last seasons than a generic new tv show on the respective network at the time would have (not hard, I guess, since I think half+ of all new shows fail in 1 season). We all hate it (particularly if we used to like such and such an IP), but one has to remember that, especially with network TV, advertisers are the consumer, and we are the product, with the shows just being part of the production process (too jaded?).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I am generally of a mind that a good story has a good beginning, middle, and end. Trying to create a show that lasts forever eventually leads to bad storytelling (The Walking Dead probably being the biggest example. I thought the last season pretty good, but the seasons before that were...of mixed quality).

However, soap operas exist on a scale beyond almost anything else. Days of Our Lives and General Hospital are, what, approaching season 60? Generations have come and gone within their span of storytelling.