Biggest TV show busts in history

[Guest Steve J. Rogers]

I.e shows that were the hottest thing that all of a sudden lost steam and got cancelled or were just still around but never recapturing that magic.

 

Basically jumping the shark but not recovering enough to still be relevant after the shark jumping:

 

1. Ally McBeal

This was like the show that would kick off a new trend of comedies but instead just couldn't sustain the "qualitiy" of what made it popular and just flamed out to also ran status. To prove my point, I guarantee had that TV Guide Top 50 shows been out say 2001 or 2000 instead of 2003, Ally would be on it, not high but the show would be on it

 

2. Friends

Sure its made a comeback in recent years, but if it wasn't the consistant #1 hit show week after week I'd doubt it would have lasted past season 6. Definatly a show that proves that you can't just rest on your laurels after a hot first season

 

3. 90210

While always cheesy I think this show just fell too much for its own hype and turned too preachy and too soap opera style that it should have gone off well before it did

 

4. Twin Peaks

Another show that couldn't live up to its first year hype

 

Those are my top 4 off the top of my head, I'm sure there are dozens more

 

Steve

[Guest razazteca]

Action staring Jay Mohr on FX this show was too smart for its network, it ran 1 full season? It was a behind the scenes look at a big studio executive making power deals with big stars, if this was on HBO it could of been just as big or bigger than Larry Sanders or Arle$$.

[Guest LooseCannon]

The Arsenio Hall Show. It was hot for a while, before it sizzled out and was canceled.

[Guest red_file]

Actually, I believe Action only made six or eight episodes, only four of which aired on FOX. My numbers may be off. But a full season (twenty-two episodes) certainly would've been sweet.

 

I do agree that Twin Peaks probably has to take this honor. The first season was probably the most critically acclaimed thing on television; it vaulted Lynch from shadowy cult figure to America's premiere indie director, getting his picture on Time (or was it People?); and it got pretty good ratings because of people being interested in the murder mystery. All of that fell apart starting with the second season. It didn't just destroy the image that the show had produce, it also severely damaged Lynch's reputation (I still wonder why Frost didn't take a bigger hit) to the point where everything he had done was reevaluated as if he was a crackpot.

 

While it doesn't quite rank as big as Twin Peaks, I thought that Dark Angel could qualify as a big bust. It was heralded as Cameron's conquering of t.v. after being the king of action movie. Jessica Alba was the new it girl for that year. I remember seeing endless billboards and ads for the show. And then it barely got renewed for a second season, and then it was kinda a blessing when it was cancelled.

[Guest Steve J. Rogers]

The Arsenio Hall Show. It was hot for a while, before it sizzled out and was canceled.

Yes I forgot about Arsenio. Funny that I did as I always chuckle everytime I see him on the Jay Leno show (hell he even popped up on Jay's 10th anniversary show) as he said "I'm going to kick Jay Leno's ass" and then got cancelled.

 

I know its all buisness but I'm surprised Jay and Arsenio remained aquanticies since that quote came out. I mean its not like he is so hot that Jay HAS to have him on the show every now and then.

 

Steve

[Guest IDrinkRatsMilk]

South Park. It too, has made somewhat of a recent comeback, but there was a time when it shifted from the hottest shit on the market to the stupidest shit on the market.

[Guest Steve J. Rogers]

I also forgot the fact that if next season isn't a kick-ass knock-out 5 star season you might put The Sopranos on this list. Another show that really rested on its laurels and didn't do everything to keep the same hot quality that it had during the first season. Granted it has been quality TV but taken as a season-to-season show it has really gone south in terms of keeping up what made it an "it" show in the first place.

 

What I mean is, it really does seem to be moving in a movie pace. Setting up things as if you are watching the middle portions of a movie, but each season should be considered their own entity, not part of the entire whole. Part of it of course, but there needs to be better payoffs each year. But thats something for another thread, and another day

 

Steve

[Guest razazteca]

I thought a full season was something like 13 shows? But anyways I thought that the show was the only thing good Jay Mohr did outside of trying to be a comedian.

 

Arsenio Hall got cancelled because he had Louis Farakan on the show along with some other issues that killed the greatness that was the other late night talk show.

 

Miami Vice did not last long on tv did it?

[Guest The Fett]

Married With Children - those last few seasons were brutal.

[Guest razazteca]

The Ellen show that was on ABC, the last season with the lesbian BS ended her career.

 

The Rosanne show was stupid with them winning the lottery and Dan leaving then the sister was dating Ernest T the rich guy!?!? Last season was brutial.

 

Also the Rosanne day time talk show was funny as hell but it did not know what direction it wanted to go.....was it a skit comedy or a Regis N Cathy Lee clone?

 

Simpsons is now just boring, I can skip this on Sunday and just get my animated sitcom needs on Adult Swim or Comedy Central.

[Guest HollywoodSpikeJenkins]

Firefly.

 

Supposed to be a big Sci-Fi adventure from Joss Whedon, but was cancelled after a few episodes.

 

 

Atleast it has Jewel Staite in it. She = underrated damnit!

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

I won't even go there with the Simpsons, as I still laugh a lot during the show and just think that a lot of you are too hard on it. Oh well, it's all about personal opinion. Back to the original topic here...

 

Family Matters- This show was one of the funnier shows on the air for a while, but it slowly started to fall apart when everyone just started getting too old and new characters were being written into the show. After ABC dropped them and CBS picked them up, which I believe was only for a season, the show became utter shit. It had been bad for a couple of seasons, but that season was just awful and they didn't even have the same Harriet.

 

Full House- Flame if you will, but this was one popular show in its earlier years. The older eps. focus too much on DJ's problems, but there were a lot of episodes that were actually pretty good. Once again, when everyone started getting older and new characters were added, the show just became painful (or moreso in the opinions of some of you) to watch.

 

Boy Meets World- Another classic show that I still love to watch today. This was one of my favorites shows in its first four seasons, but once they hit their senior year, added new characters (see a trend forming here?) and everyone's problems became too serious, it dropped a lot in terms of quality. I know that life isn't all about easy problems, but when the show became a drama with dashes of comedy in there, I stopped watching. Until that point they had been able to deal with sometimes serious topics in a lighter tone. The later episodes just tried to tug at the heart rather than deal with something in a brighter tone.

 

As you can tell, I grew up on a lot of ABC sitcoms, but they once had an awesome lineup on Friday nights and then it all went to shit and eventually, the concept was dropped. It'd suck ass to be a kid now.

[Guest El Satanico]

South Park. It too, has made somewhat of a recent comeback, but there was a time when it shifted from the hottest shit on the market to the stupidest shit on the market.

Yes South Park lost it's major popularity, but it was still a good show. Then the last two years has brought it up to the great level.

 

I've liked the show from the first episode and through out the whole trend, but I actually found myself liking it even more after the trend died.

[Guest Kingpk]

- Lois & Clark: The Adventures of Superman: Once they got married, EVERYONE bailed on the show

 

- Pretty much any show that had cute little kids who got too old to be cute anymore (Full House is a ggod example)

 

- The XFL. Just look up the drop in ratings between the first week of the season and the second.

[Guest Eagan469]

Family Matters- This show was one of the funnier shows on the air for a while, but it slowly started to fall apart when everyone just started getting too old and new characters were being written into the show. After ABC dropped them and CBS picked them up, which I believe was only for a season, the show became utter shit. It had been bad for a couple of seasons, but that season was just awful and they didn't even have the same Harriet.

You could then add Step By Step - which was cute the first 2 or 3 seasons, but lost its charm after Sasha Mitchell (guy who played Cody) got arrested for something (I forget what) and got kicked from the cast. Then it moved to CBS along with Family Matters, added the guy who played Balki on "Perfect Strangers", a little girl, and went to shit.

[Guest bob_barron]

I completely agree on Family Matters and Step by Step.

 

Family Matters became a cartoon towards the end as every episode revolved around Carl and Urkel doing something stupid.

 

One they had Lily- Step by Step went down the shitter

[Guest starvenger]

You could then add Step By Step - which was cute the first 2 or 3 seasons, but lost its charm after Sasha Mitchell (guy who played Cody) got arrested for something (I forget what) and got kicked from the cast. Then it moved to CBS along with Family Matters, added the guy who played Balki on "Perfect Strangers", a little girl, and went to shit.

That reminds me of when Married... introduced that kid Seven. WTF were they thinking?

 

Oh, I think Sasha Mitchell was arrested for a beating his wife. Don't quote me on that though.

 

Rosanne was pretty much on life support at about the time they switched Beckys.

 

The Naked Truth started out pretty hot but sputtered through 3 seasons.

 

Alf had a great first season, then somewhere along the way EVERYONE found about him and the magic was gone.

 

Who's The Boss? once Tony and Angela hooked up.

 

That's all I can think of right now...

[Guest Crazy Dan]

I still love the Simpsons and South Park... both still make laugh.

 

As for shows just losing it. I give you:

 

The Cosby Show- The first seasons were funny. But you can add this to the list of shows where the cute little kids got too old and the addition of way too many charachters

 

Sienfeld - I think Jerry was smart to get out before the show got any worse. San the episode where Kramer sets up Merv Griffth's old TV set in his living room, I thought the last season was not very good. And the Series Finale was really weak (A clip show!?!?!?!) But the early episodes were good and make me laugh, I was just disapointed that is all.

 

The X-Files - This show went two seasons, too long. I think this show lost it's edge by moving to LA (Vancouver was the perfect location for the darkness of the series)

But the Series Finale was excellant, saving the show in the process. A good way to shove off into Movie-Land.

[Guest Steve J. Rogers]

Actually I don't count shows that got cancelled during their first season as "busts" or shows that were not well treated by its own network as "busts" so Action! (The Job can also be considered in that category as well) and FireFly don't count as they weren't given much of a chance to build a soild audience.

 

What I mean is shows that had an "It" quality and then went down hill after reaching their peak, rather dramatically and drasticlly

 

Steve

[Guest Steve J. Rogers]

Actually speaking of XFL, probably the one of biggest "busts" considering what I consider a "bust" would be WCW's "Monday Nitro" The show that started the "Monday Night Wars" ended up crashing and burning in a spectaular fashion.

 

I mean comparativly speaking I think as long as the WWE remains in operation there will always be a "Monday Night Raw" in some form and some station, no matter how low the current down cycle goes, the WWE will still have name reconigition. WCW so badly damaged their product that NO ONE wanted the WCW brand on their network

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

The guy who played Cody and Step by Step was indeed arrested for beating his wife. I believe he was trained in kickboxing and actually used it on her. That was sort of sad to hear considering he was so lovable on the show. He did it more than once too, but the final time when it was pretty big news, they dumped him and replaced him with that wacky Flash character.

 

As for Seinfeld, I don't see how anyone could not like that last season. Granted it was a bit different from the others (somewhat wackier storylines), but I loved it. There were quite a few episodes that I loved. The Merv Griffin one without question but I simply LOVE the Car Dealership one. Lots of people hate it, but I thought it was one of the best episodes of that season. "Mister Kramer the roooooooad!!!"

[Guest Zack Malibu]

This may shock most of you, but...

 

Saved By The Bell:The New Class

 

The original cast of this show was nothing more than a copycat of the original. A nerdy kid with an odd nickname (Weasel)? The tough guy and the prep butting heads over a girl (Tommy D. and Scott clash over Lindsay)? Gee, I swore I saw the same thing with the previous cast, except done better. The second season was a big improvement. By the third season, they had found a good niche by having the kids from Valley High transferring in, and having to deal with fitting in at a rival school. The crossover with Hang Time (the other popular TNBC show at the time) was pretty cool as well. But towards the end, when the focus was on Maria as the "leader" of the group, and that geeky looking blonde kid in the Zack role...oh man. Bad scene. So bad that even I, a longtime fan, didn't bother to tape the last episode ever.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Busts? Interms of expectations not being met, they are:

 

Birds of Prey

Twilight Zone (80's)

Star Trek: Voyager

Galactica 1980

XFL

[Guest SP-1]

Birds of Prey

Star Trek: Voyager

Agreed. I so wanted BoP to succeed.

 

And then I watched it.

 

 

 

Voyager had such a great premise, but B&B dug into it and DS9 was infinitely better as an overall show.

[Guest BorneAgain]

Voyager had such a great premise, but B&B dug into it and DS9 was infinitely better as an overall show.

I find it so amusing that while DS9 was once seen as the red-headed stepchild of the Star Trek universe, it became such a kickass show, while Voyager, a show that shilled so fucking much, ending up being such a dissapointment.

[Guest SP-1]

I find it so amusing that while DS9 was once seen as the red-headed stepchild of the Star Trek universe, it became such a kickass show, while Voyager, a show that shilled so fucking much, ending up being such a dissapointment.

Agreed. What's really strange is that it took a massive war story arc to save a series that's part of a franchise that has gone out of it's way to try and present peace as the greatest achievement. Which, that likely explains itself and isn't so strange. It turned Trek on it's ear.

[Guest BorneAgain]

I find it so amusing that while DS9 was once seen as the red-headed stepchild of the Star Trek universe, it became such a kickass show, while Voyager, a show that shilled so fucking much, ending up being such a dissapointment.

Agreed. What's really strange is that it took a massive war story arc to save a series that's part of a franchise that has gone out of it's way to try and present peace as the greatest achievement. Which, that likely explains itself and isn't so strange. It turned Trek on it's ear.

Indeed, seeing such a long story arc like that, especially when on the Original and TNG series, most of the episodes had nothing to do with each other, made you want to see all the episodes to understand everything.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

SP: Well, remember DS9 had gone out from the get go and tried to turn Trek on it's ear. It had a very grim, gritty tone and by the second season it had surpassed TNG (then in it's 7th) as far as quality. It was only logical then that the writers use a galactic war since no one of the Trek braintrust cared about them post-Voyager.

 

DS9 was only the red-headed stepchild to the guys at Paramount, who thought Voyager was the *true* sucessor to the mantle of TNG. The fans liked DS9 more from Day 1 of Voyager.

 

 

The only bad part of DS9 was the first season which went out and tried to be Babylon 5.

[Guest BorneAgain]

DS9 was only the red-headed stepchild to the guys at Paramount...

 

The only bad part of DS9 was the first season which went out and tried to be Babylon 5.

The first season is what I was refering to.

[Guest SP-1]

The first season very nearly turned me off. But yes, Zsasz, I agree with your assessment.