I watched Jericho on DVD within a few days, and it was stupid, it turned into a show about dating and relationships after the apocalypse.
Where’s The Honeymooners?? Bam zoom!! To the moon Alice!!
Police Squad. Better Off Ted. Ctrl (magic computer keyboard)
Defying Gravity was good,,,not sure why it went under
I watch an interesting series until it starts trying to indoctrinate me about depravity like homosexuality. That’s when I pull the plug.
Married With Children
1) Firefly — obvious choice
2) Babylon 5 — would have been hard to come up with a new story line that could compete with the first, but a great cast (at least until the last season)
3) Blackadder — so many possibilities
Goes back to the 80s... Vampire, with Jack Palance. Really liked it. Yanked after a dozen or so episodes in Season 1. Nobody will agree with me because, apparently, I was the only one in the world watching it.
Now, some shows, like "Firefly", and to a lesser extent, "Jeremiah" and "Babylon 5: Crusade", were unjustly killed off for no good reason before they could reach an ending. "Crusade" was already a spin-off in a universe of many possibilities, and the the fact that it was cut off at the knees (and the "Legend of the Rangers" series never made it past pilot) is a shame because as a franchise, it should have gone on for a long time. "Jeremiah" was rushed into an unsatisfying ending when the studio kicked JMS out of the project, but at least it had some kind of ending.
"Stargate SG-1" had a good run, and indeed, may have gone on a season or two too long as it was, but again, spin-offs were possible. "Atlantis" was good, not as good as the original, but good enough to keep the concept alive. ("Universe", from all accounts, is useless, though.)
Some shows should absolutely have a definitive end. "The Prisoner", for example, no longer has any need to continue once Number Six finally figures out what's going on.
Some very few shows have it built into themselves to continue forever. "Doctor Who" is the prime example - the decision they made, when they replaced Hartnell with Troughton a few years into its run, to not try to make him the same, but to encourage the differences, allows the show to continually re-invent itself while sticking with the same basic concepts and backstory (and with time travel involved, changing the backstory when they need to isn't all that different).
My Picks:
Dallas
GLOW - Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling - even better camp than Batman!
The Original Crossfire with Buchanan and Braden - a conservative and a liberal who knew how to act like adults with each other
James at 14,15 and all the way through 80
Wonder Years - as good as a coming of age TV series as any
Underdog - my favorite cartoon growing up
Agriculture USA - the only game show dedicated to farming! Bonus points if you actually remember it
The Crystal Maze (I came across this one in England in the early 90’s) - the best game show I ever saw. Richard O’Brien created and hosted this (for those who don’t know he also wrote the Rocky Horror Picture Show and acted as Riff Raff in it).
Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf - you got to see the golf courses as the pros played them without so much commentary.
Get Smart - the combo of Don Adams and the red hot Barbara Feldon (still pretty hot at age 81!). Max, what’s that smell? Oh nothing. Funny, I thought I smelled a tarantula . . . well, you had to see the episode . . .
The only TV show which could have lasted forever, with suitable scripts, would have been the Twilight Zone and its spinoff, The X-Files. Every other show eventually loses the relevance race. But conspiracy theories and strange occurrences never go out of style.
Andy Griffith, Leave it to Beaver, Laugh-In, All in the Family,
AIN’T EVEN HEARD OF THEM!
Never have seen any of these... offerings.
Jericho???? That show was the most sophomoronic claptrap I’ve seen on TV since Roseanne was mercifully canceled.
“They just nuked Denver so let’s have a big community barbecue!”
Yeccccchhh.
Deadwood... agree with that.. many characters..all could have provided more episodes with more story arcs.
Rome.... same thing.. could have kept going and going..at least 5 seasons.
Alien Nation.
I loved that show. Pity it only lasted a season.