Which TV Shows Didn't Overstay Their Welcome?

The Good Place stuck to its plan and had 4 short seasons. Although, it probably would have been better with one less, they knew not to try and go indefinitely.

I'll Fly Away

A Year in the Life

Sports Night

Pasadena

Hand of God (with Julian Morris)

I will suggest some not mentioned before this post.

“The Wire”

“Chappelle’s Show”

“Veep”

King of the Hill

WKRP in Cincinnati (4 seasaons)

Cafe Americain

The Leftovers

The UK ones:

Fawlty Towers

The Office

Extras

Gavin and Stacey

Strangers with Candy

oh, and The Comeback

Looking

The Office (British version) and Extras. Ricky Gervais knows when it's time to stop.

The problem with threads like this is eventually every show that has ever been on TV will be listed.

Turn-On with Tim Conway.

The British Office was the perfect length and never got stupid.

"General Hospital," apparently.

Also: The Thick of It had a great story arc and came to a great end.

Ricky Gervais' Extras is another. He knows how to write and structure a sitcom.

Both of Sharon Horgan's shows: "Pulling" and "Catastrophe."

Ugly Betty and Arrested Development

[quote]Besides shows that were canceled prematurely/unwillingly, which shows went out on their own terms exactly when they should have?

A number of the shows listed, such as WKRP were cancelled and did not go out in its own terms. CBS did not treat that show well.

The Shield

Leverage

Frank's Place

Laramie

Underground

R20 I loved the first 3 seasons of Arrested Development. The 4th kind of let me down and I haven't bothered with the 5th, especially after that horrendous interview that left Lucille in tears.

ACTION, The short lived (one season) dark comedy series about a sleazy Hollywood producer. Hilarious, with Jay Mohr (at his hottest), Illeana Douglas, Buddy Hackett, and the reliably funny Jack Plotniick.

Ome Day at a Time

r13, you really think every show that's ever been been on television will be listed as a show that didn't overstay its welcome?

I thought Breaking Bad would have been mentioned by now--5 seasons (albeit with the last one split in two), told a complete arc, set its own ending and went out on its own terms.

Damages

Miss Marple (Joan Hickson) didn't try to stick Marple into other stories

Maude

R26. Obviously this poster wasn't being literal. It's simply true that these lists themselves go on and on and eventually overstay THEIR welcome.

My World and Welcome To It

Jay Mohr at his hottest R24? Barely tepid then.

To the Manor Born

Sienfield

Twin Peaks Season 3 should have been about Dale emerging from the Black Lodge and finding himself back in the year before Laura's death. Then he could have tried to save her. Those three season would have been enough and perfect. Instead, we got that idea spread out over a prequel movie and a revival series that was way too abstract and cold to add up to much.

Prime Suspect

The first three seasons of Arrested Development are a great story arc with a perfect ending. I know it got canceled, but they really pulled out those last few episodes.

Netflix should have left well-enough alone.

The original Star Trek. Only three seasons. All that has come much later is fine, but the original had that lightening in a bottle.

A critic once said that 1/3 of the original Star Trek episodes were fantastic, 1/3 were okay, and 1/3 were terrible. I agree with that assessment.

Hill Street Blues

Six Feet Under

Soap

Barney Miller

Women In Prison

Bakersfield P.D.

The Bob Newhart Show

Gilligan's Island

The Twilight Zone

Night Gallery

Tales From The Darkside G

Did you SEE the last episode of Seinfeld, R34?

My So Called Life

Rome (HBO)

Being cancelled is not the same thing as knowing when to stop.

TV Shows That DID Overstay Their Welcome-

Happy Days

Laverne And Shirley

Joannie Loves Chachi ( after the first episode the show had overstayed it's welcome)

Law And Order: SVU-23 seasons of this DRIVEL!- Make it STOP

The Wild Wild West. Clever scripts, memorable characters (Dr. Lovelace!) and the pleasure of charismatic young Robert Conrad.

Downton Abbey.

They could have kept going through WWII and ended with a war like they began.

Arrested Development definitely overstayed. The fifth season was awful. It kinda ruined the whole thing for me.

Non network shows general don't overstay these days. Their runs are short and sweet.

China Beach.

[quote]Non network shows general don't overstay these days. Their runs are short and sweet.

Not true at all.

Firefly.

Fawlty Towers - only 12 episodes Freaks and Geeks - one abbreviated season

Enlightened needed another season.

Miranda was the right length, I felt. Frasier started deteriorating, but it still went out on a high, which is impressive for 11 seasons.

One day at a time (the original, not that inferior remake) was pure gold all nine seasons. And could have gone more if Bonnie was still up to it.

It's a shame they didn't reboot the show when Bonnie was still around. I would have loved to have seen where the Romano's would have been in the 2000's.

Frasier WAY overstayed it's welcome.

The Simpsons, oddly enough

Frasier should have stopped around season 8. You can tell the last 2-3 seasons they were running out of steam and ideas.

The Bob Newhart Show also seemed to lose direction during the last season, season 6.

The Equalizer (the original)

This Is Us has been perfectly structured. It's ending right on time, a master class in dramatic writing over different time periods.

VH1's Pop-Up Video

Most shows that go past 4 ish seasons tbh.

Sopranos.

He & She, the precursor to Mary Tyler Moore and other grown-up sitcoms of the 70s, lasted only one season in 1967.

Gidget

The Munsters

Honey West

Gidget

Homicide: Life on the Streets

Psych

Monk

St. Elsewhere.

Cagney & Lacey.

Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Golden Girls.

Oz.

“St. Elsewhere” was perfect. It was the finest show of the 1980s. I wish it would’ve lasted much longer. The writing and acting were superb.

Shows like Full House, The Hogan Family, The Waltons, that one with Kirk Cameron. Also Threes Company.

Fish

And M*A*S*H.

I second MASH, and I'm potatoes about it.

The Colbys. It was time for that show to end when Fallon went up into that UFO. 😆😆😆

Good choice. MASH was an amazing long run series that never overstayed their welcome.

Bates Motel

Dark Shadows

Picket Fences.

Lotsa Luck

Mama's Family

R49, I second, third & fourth CHINA BEACH!

Mary Tyler Moore mentioned upthread really did overstay. After Rhoda and Phyllis left, the show became another workplace sitcom, albeit with some great episodes. The seventh and final season really creaks and groans in spots.

Soap did run a year too long. It ran out of steam, lost direction and started to wander.

I can’t believe that One Day at a Time is touted here. Datalounge has countless threads by traumatized Eldergays still processing the damage that show has done to them.

Boardwalk Empire. It ended abruptly IMO, I thought they could've done a couple of more seasons. Maybe it was too expensive.

[quote] Datalounge has countless threads by traumatized Eldergays still processing the damage that show has done to them.

We were traumatized by Bonnie Franklin's braless tits.

[quote] Shows like Full House, The Hogan Family, The Waltons, that one with Kirk Cameron. Also Threes Company.

These are your picks for shows that DIDN'T last too long??

The Waltons was a good show that stayed about three seasons too many. The others were just plain bad.

I thought "Homicide: Life on the Street", which had a rabid fan base, DID overstay its welcome. It stayed on much longer than it should have to begin with; the show never had good ratings but due to critical acclaim and a rabid fan base it hung on much longer than expected. But the last few years it was pretty bad. They even added Michael Michele as a "beauty queen detective." She was talentless (Michael Michele never changes her facial expression) eye candy. Other annoying actors added to the show were Callie Thorne and John Seda. But nothing worked and the show finally died. But their fans screamed to have big finale, so the network slapped together "Homicide: The Movie." It wasn't much good, but the ending was interesting.

HLOTS had some insane fans. There was a blog about the show and after it was cancelled the wacko fans insisted that of course another network would pick it up. I said no, that wasn't going to happen. And they became enraged; "YES HLOTS will be back on another network, yes it will, it will, IT WILL!" Poor things. I wonder what happened to them. I guess they just found another tv show to obsess over, probably Tom Fontana's "Oz."

Spartacus had 4 great seasons. I wish it had gone longer.

R88- How can you say such cruel things about me.

David, HOLD ME!

The Comeback. My So Called Life.

One life to live. Sea Lab.

Absolutely Fabulous (6 seasons- 39 episodes)

Xena: Warrior Princess (6 seasons - 134 episodes)

I Love Lucy. 6 seasons plus 13 one hour episodes spread out over 3 years.

It *was* sad, r90, watching post-Falsone and Ballard HLOTS. The show reeked ever after of NBC suit interference. Would I have wanted the show to be canceled after season 5? IDK, but I sure didn't like those two or Sheppard (Stivers didn't bother me; I loved Kellerman). I think I would have missed those final few years of Kellerman, Munch, Meldrick, Frank and Tim, and G.

Not that I can think of any specific post-Falsone episodes I would have hated to miss. Frank's stroke was awful. Yeah, maybe HLOTS would at least be a better memory if it had ended after season 5.

Luck

R98 we disagree

Treme--created by David Simon, creator of The Wire. It was excellent in capturing the post-Hurricane Katrina environment, culture, and music of New Orleans. It even had DL fave Elizabeth Ashley as a guest star!

Galactica 1980

Emerald Point, NAS

Blansky's Beauties

Cop Rock

The Greatest American Hero

There were endless possibilities for the suit (given that there was no instruction manual), but only 44 episodes produced. A writer's strike figured into that.

I honestly felt like the Wire went on 2 seasons too long. The ending of Season 3 is a perfect wrap-up to all the plot points we cared about. Season 4 with the schoolkids was depressing, and Season 5 seemed like Simon grinding old axes from his journalism career.

Angie

Another Greatest American Hero promo:

Happy Endings.

Gilligan's Island

Three seasons, ninety-nine episodes and some of the most hilarious were in the final season!

Including one of the best episodes, imo...

R41. The last episode of Seinfeld was an homage to a show overstaying it’s welcome. Like a single-episode version of the final season of Roseanne.

Flight of the Conchords

Barney Miller. Loved that show. The main characters so well written and acted. Great ensemble. Never jumped the shark.

I thought Ab Fab definitely overstayed its welcome. The writing got worse after the second season and it was all just repetitive retelling of the same basic story.

Seinfeld did overstay. The last two seasons without Larry David were not as good as the preceding 4, though they had some good episodes. It became gimmicky at times. It should have ended with Susan's death.

R35 The year before her death then? With everyone much older?

The Brady Bunch and The Lawrence Well Show

The Thunderbirds.

Lady Penelope had many more outfits to show off.

The Wire

Rome

A French Village

My So Called Life

Harper's Island. It was never really meant to be an ongoing series I suppose, but I really loved the vibe of that show and the whodunit premise. Imagine there being another season that resembled the movie Identity. That would be a lot of fun.

"Rome" had one of the sexiest entrances of all time, when Marc Antony goes to visit Cleopatra.

Justified

Batman

I'm Sorry

R121, bitch, please.

The Pruitts of Southhampton

Tales From the Crypt

Gilligan’s Island. Though I think 5 seasons could’ve been interesting (just to see how much more bizarre it would have gotten), three seasons were just right.

That Girl ran for the perfect amount of years, as fans were finding it more difficult to believe Donald wasn't getting poontang from somewhere.

CPO Sharkey.

Gilligan's Island wasn't a planned ending. It was collateral damage in scheduling shake-ups. Something to do with Gunsmoke or Bonanza and some exec's wife wanting to keep Gunsmoke / Bonanza instead of kill it.

"Keeping Up Appearances"

Wonder Years. I'm just glad they scrapped this alternate ending.

I think the ones that were planned to end are best, such as the Dick VanDyke show, Mary Tyler Moore, Six Feet Under…

The Fugitive

[quote] Gilligan's Island wasn't a planned ending. It was collateral damage in scheduling shake-ups. Something to do with Gunsmoke or Bonanza and some exec's wife wanting to keep Gunsmoke / Bonanza instead of kill it.

Gunsmoke. Both it and Gilligan's Island were on CBS. Bonanza was on NBC.

British comedies -- think Fawlty Towers -- always seem to end with you wanting a few more episodes. Benny Hill an exception.