I know there is a site for when TV shows jump the shark, but I think we should have a thread of our own.

The reason I am starting this is because I just watched the Lost episode from last night, and I said to myself I am giving the show one last chance next week. If nothing worthwhile occurs related directly to the why of the show I will never watch the show again.

I think JJ Abrams went from clever edge of your seat writing and suspense, to watered down chaotic never ending distracted rants which just widen the scope instead of narrowing it.

I think this has become a fatal flaw of too many writers, who find success early. Writers end up making things so grandiose that they over think and write to the point that the shows is no longer clever it is frustrating because too many questions remain unanswered.

I think great shows like the Sopranos and X-Files were destroyed by their writers in similar fashion. Chris Carter (X-Files) had an awesome story arc then he destroyed it by not picking a direction and sticking to it. Ever 4th episode was about Mulder's sister being alive then dead, then alive he couldn't make up his mind so he would stretch the Arc to the point it no longer was exciting .

David Chase (The Sopranos) has done the same thing, he creates so many story lines that 1 out of 12 are resolved.

So what are some of your favorite shows that you ended up loathing, hating, or becoming indifferent to because of poor or chaotic writing?

JS:
GREAT THREAD START!
I watched LOST the first season. Now, hear me now and believe me later: I am THAT guy who "doesn't watch TV"--and I really don't. Not in a snobby way, because if I could, I'd watch it twelve hours a day and drink beer, and never get dressed.
Three daughters and a wife, and, well, there's only so much Lifetime TV you can watch before you start wanting to re decorate all your friends houses, if you know what I mean.
But LOST has LOST me. It's Soooo fucking weird, nobody is fucking, nobody is killed.
It's Gilligans Island without the laughs, and without the plot. At least the Skipper and Gilligan had a story line for us to follow. At least the professor could make a Ham Radio or a motorcycle out of a palm leaf and a dandelion. And at least we had a story to follow for that half hour.
And who could forget Thirston and Lovey?
Lost jumped the shark the minute they found that underground cave, with the button to push evey 12 minutes. Actually, the had me at the polar bear.

Three daughters and a wife, and, well, there's only so much Lifetime TV you can watch before you start wanting to re decorate all your friends houses, if you know what I mean.


That reminds me, Zip, I have that Meredith Baxter Birney movie poster that you wanted to buy from me. It was "A Woman Scorned", right?


EDIT: found it
http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000BKDNVM.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1128955957_.jpg

Are you sure it wans't "Married to a Transvestite"?

The Drew Carey Show was excellent for about the first 5 years or so.

I saw a more recent episode the other day (not sure if it's still running or if this was in syndication) and it was horrid.

How about Fraser? That show was great until Miles got together with The Nanny. I mean, come on, we could understand Miles and Maris, plus we never saw Maris, and besides, Miles was a fag.
But then he's all having dinner on the roof with the Nanny, and the show sucked after that.
Another thing that bugs me about TV shows from that era is that they were centered, or at least a big part of the show was a coffee shop. Not just a "coffee shop", but the new, snooty kind where people bring in a book they blow three inches of dust off at home but bring to the snooty coffee shop to lmake it look like they actually read something other than Cosmopolitan magazine. Yeah, some fat chick who just dropped her three brats off at school, and rolls up in a mini van really reads Shakespeare or some shit.
AND, the coffe shop on the shows usually had some catchy name that made me barf like "Cafe Nervosa", or "Central Perk" or "Grounds for Divorce" or "Fuck off and Die Yuppie".

Count "Around the Horn" as having just jumped the shark
Catholic boy wore his ashes on his forehead on camera the other day. Yeah, your a fucking martyr cuz you go to church twice a year, and one of those days you go to get a splotch of mud on your grille so the whole world can see how devoted you are.
Put that puttz down on my list of people to kick in the junk one day.
I don't think it's really ever right to kick a guy in the junk, but ash headed fucks on TV really need it.

I liked Friends when that first came out, but that show went down the crapper for me. I haven't watched it in a long time (before it was all repeats). ER also got stale for me. It became too much like Grey's Anotomy (a soap opera in the hospital).

I also don't watch SNL barely any at all these days. I loved the Sandler/Farley/Hartman/etc days and of course the better years before that. It's not the same anymore.

SNL has its moments but its not as good as the early-mid 90's. I may be a bit strange but I don't watch any shows on a consistent basis.

it's funny that your image in your avatar is matt foley, i was just watching him on you tube. Man was he funny, that was too bad how he died, if you search images in yahoo under chris farley you will see some pretty nasty pitures of his death.

I had never seen those Farley pictures before.

Disturbing...

Has Michigan Athletics jumped the shark?

Scooby Doo (The cartoon, not the shitty movies):
Jumped the shark when they started having "guest" stars in the show. One episode featured the Harlem Globetrotters. One featured Jonathan Winters. They were all horrible.
And then there was the abomination known as "Scrappy Doo".
You know, sometimes you have TV shows, and the kid characters start to grow up, and then all the sudden the parents do a ton of drugs, and they have a baby. The show tries to bring the "cute" factor back.
Who didn;t want to kill Oliver, the kid who invaded the Brady Bunch? How about Family Ties, and them having a kid? Fucking stupid, man.
Well, it didn't work for Scooby Doo and Scrappy, either. Scrappy Doo may have been the most annoying television character this side of Fran Dreshler.
I can not watch Scooby Doo to this day because of what Scrappy Doo did to that once proud beacon of Saturday Morning cartoons.

I couldnt really think of any shows myself. Personally I still love the Sopranos, yes there are too many loose ends but it keeps prolonging the end of the show and for that I am happy. I thought the last episode of Seinfeld was stupid. SNL hits it on the head though. I loved all the real early stuff with Steve Martin hosting every week with Bill Murray, Akroyd, etc. It fell off a bit in the 80s but came back in the early 90s. The only funny things in the last few years was Will Ferrel and Schweddi Balls. Other than that, the new season of Survivor hasnt excited me yet.

How about M*A*S*H*?
That show jumped early.
The day BJ Honeycutt walked into the Swamp, and Trapper John and Henry Blake walked out of our lives, that show was over. What a phony Mike Farrell was. I mean, in his first episode, he barfs after seeing blood.
He hated Hawkeye, and you could feel it.
By the way, Alan Alda never fooled me with that combover.
And how about Jamie Farrell? One day I'm watching Trapper John giving some shit to a beautiful woman with great fashion sense, I'm falling in love, and the next day I wake up and BJ Honeycutt is giving shit to a gigantic shnoz with hairy legs!
And I don't care how long I hadn't seen a real woman, I'd have fragged Hot Lips in about 20 seconds.
And Sherman Potter? Give me a break.
Yeah, I'm a doctor, but I'm gonna stay in the Army for 45 years instead of opening up a private practice in Mission Viejo and spending my life getting rich doing boob jobs and writing prescriptions for Viagra.

When did werollhard.com jump the shark?

MASH is one of my most hated shows of all time... just dont get it.