M*A*S*H*
Korean war-based sitcom M*A*S*H* began as a spin-off of the 1968 novel and 1970 film, but soon eclipsed both. The show’s huge popularity saw it endure from 1972 to 1983 – eight years longer than the Korean war itself. M*A*S*H*’s last episode may be the most watched TV show in US history, but the show had clearly more than run its course long before then.
The Big Bang Theory
When The Big Bang Theory premiered in 2007, it seemed groundbreaking in putting ‘geek’ culture center-stage. By the show’s end in 2019, its somewhat regressive take on gender, race and neurodiversity – not to mention its formulaic storytelling – had long since grown stale. With 279 episodes, The Big Bang Theory is officially the longest-running live action sitcom, but it definitely stuck around a bit too long.
Charlie’s Angels
Light-hearted detective series Charlie’s Angels hinged on the chemistry between its three female leads. When Farrah Fawcett quit after one season, Cheryl Ladd filled the void perfectly – but season three saw Kate Jackson quit, leaving Jaclyn Smith the only original Angel, and the balance was lost. Subsequent Angels Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts couldn’t fix things, nor could the final season’s upheaval from LA to Hawaii.
Lost
A time-hopping blend of survivalist thriller and character-based drama with metaphysical overtones, Lost captivated audiences on arrival in 2004. Alas, within a few years it became clear the show’s core mysteries would never be satisfactorily explained as the writers were simply making it up as they went along. In the end, Lost ran for six seasons, but many viewers stopped watching long before that.
Charmed
Supernatural drama Charmed was originally posited as Buffy for slightly older viewers, yet the longer it ran, the more juvenile it became. Rose McGowan replacing Shannen Doherty after three seasons wasn’t a problem, but when Kaley Cuoco joined the core witch ensemble in the eighth and final season, it felt like a desperate last-ditch effort to increase the show’s teen appeal and eye candy.
The Walking Dead
Like the zombies themselves, for many years The Walking Dead simply refused to lay down and die. The horror series was unlike anything else on TV back at the beginning in 2010, but as the years went on and more cast members left, all but the most diehard fans lost interest. 2022’s 11th season proved to be its last, but many feel it should’ve ended sooner.
Scrubs
Blending surrealistic humor and hard-edged medical drama, Scrubs took the sitcom in a bold new direction back when it premiered in 2001. However, the core cast of junior doctors was vital to the show’s appeal, hence the introduction of a new ensemble and new setting in season nine proved a misfire. They should have stuck to their original plan of making season eight the show’s finale.
The Goldbergs
For a few seasons, The Goldbergs proved charming with its quirky humor and over-abundance of 80s nostalgia. However, things got formulaic really fast, and as the younger cast members got older the set-up became less convincing. They really should have pulled the plug long before the fired Jeff Garlin was replaced by a creepy CGI double in season nine.
Supernatural
No one could dispute that Supernatural leading men Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are both ageing like fine wine, but does that really justify the action-horror series enduring for 15 seasons? Sure, the reality-bending premise meant they could explore avenues other shows couldn’t, but when it ended in 2020 it felt like they’d long since milked that particular cow for all it was worth.
Family Guy
For a time, the endurance of Family Guy seemed like a triumphant underdog story, as the twice-cancelled animated sitcom managed to come back both times thanks to popular demand. Even so, with (at the time of writing) 21 seasons made and no end in sight, what once seemed like anarchic, boundary-pushing entertainment now feels predictable, stale and disposable.
Friends
It might be the most universally adored sitcom of all time, but that doesn’t mean that Friends maintained a consistent level of quality throughout its ten years of runtime. The last season, in particular, felt like the writers had run out of ideas and were desperately trying to come up with enough material to prolong the show until Ross and Rachel inevitably got back together.
Pretty Little Liars
The first two seasons of Pretty Little Liars kept audiences hooked with the tantalizing mystery of A’s identity, and when the stalker was unmasked at the end of season two, it seemed a logical end point. Perhaps there was a way to keep the show from going stale, but the answer definitely wasn’t to introduce a bunch of new anonymous As, which is what happened.
The West Wing
The West Wing remains one of the most celebrated TV shows of all time, with series creator Aaron Sorkin – who also wrote the majority of the episodes – deserving much of the credit. Accordingly, when Sorkin left after series four the show should probably have ended. Unwilling to abandon a profitable project, however, the studio produced another three seasons, but the magic was inevitably gone.
The Vampire Diaries
Despite undeniably peaking in season two, The Vampire Diaries kept doggedly going, retaining just enough of a loyal fanbase to prevent studio execs from pulling the plug. When the show’s star Nina Dobrev made an exit at the end of season six it should have been curtains, but a further two seasons were inexplicably forced out before The Vampire Diaries was canned.
Desperate Housewives
The first five seasons of Desperate Housewives were a resounding hit, and many credited the show with helping to reverse ABC’s ailing fortunes. Unfortunately, the show seriously overstayed its welcome, and the last three seasons saw the wives of Wisteria Lane getting embroiled in increasingly farcical storylines that turned off many viewers and eventually led to the show’s cancellation.
Homeland
The first two series of Homeland were almost universally praised, but the quality noticeably dipped in the third. When Damian Lewis’ Brody died in the season three finale, many assumed the series was wisely calling it a day. Instead, the show kept limping along for another five seasons – each less compelling than the last – before Showtime finally gave Homeland the axe.
Weeds
The initial seasons of Weeds mined the show’s fish out of water premise for plenty of humor – as well as some genuine tension – and the combination of gangland intrigue and domestic drama was irresistibly compelling. While the writers inevitably had to keep raising the stakes to keep audiences hooked, most felt that the later seasons just got too bleak to be enjoyable.
One Tree Hill
Ending a show in a satisfying way is notoriously challenging, so when a golden opportunity to bring proceedings to a close comes along, it should be seized. On One Tree Hill, that opportunity was the end of season four, when the characters graduated from high school, and the attempt to keep the series alive by jumping four years into the future didn’t work at all.
Scandal
Political dramas often seem to suffer from an insecurity that viewers will eventually tire of watching political intrigue, leading to increasingly outlandish storylines that ultimately ruin what made the show special to begin with. This was absolutely the case with Scandal, which tried to stay fresh by introducing shady special forces organizations and killing characters off at a prodigious and completely ridiculous rate.
That 70s Show
That 70s Show remains the archetypal example of a show that crashed and burned after trying to forge ahead without its star. When Eric Forman left at the end of season seven, the show-runners should have congratulated themselves on a solid streak and wrapped things up. Instead they brought in the unanimously loathed Josh Meyers, ensuring even the most ardent fans despised the eighth season.
Once Upon a Time
The premise of Once Upon a Time – that fairytale characters are real and living in Maine, for some reason – was reasonably compelling, and the show’s deliberate optimism provided a refreshing counterpoint to the gritty realism that has come to dominate TV. However, by the end of season six a large chunk of the original cast had left, and the ill-advised seventh series was universally panned.
Glee
The first couple of seasons of Glee were widely celebrated for shining a light on the world of theatre kids, and the show enjoyed consistently strong ratings. Unfortunately, a good portion of the central cast graduated at the end of the second season, and the new cohort of musical misfits simply weren’t as likeable, with the show’s enjoyableness suffering as a result.
Gilmore Girls
Fans of Gilmore Girls are divided as to whether the show was ruined by season six – which swerved into much darker territory than previous seasons – or season seven, which clearly suffered from the departure of series creator Amy Sherman Palladino and was a general mess. One thing everyone can agree on, however, is that the show should have ended much earlier.
24
24’s unique formula of each season lasting 24 hours, with events playing out in real time, was certainly innovative. It also got really samey, really fast, and the time commitment it required got pretty draining; it’s hard not to reflect on how much of your life you spend watching TV when a show requires literally an entire day to get through a single season.
Smallville
Everyone went into Smallville for one reason and one reason alone: to watch Clark Kent become Superman. While this obviously had to be dragged out for a while (it would have been pretty anticlimactic otherwise), it most certainly didn’t have to get dragged out for ten entire seasons before giving fans the payoff they were there for.
Gossip Girl
As with other high-school TV shows, Gossip Girl faced the difficult problem of keeping the show going after its characters graduated. While the correct choice would have been to bring the show to a dignified end, the writers instead shifted the action to a college in Manhattan, which felt particularly forced considering multiple characters had previously stated their plans to leave the city after graduation.
The Office
The Office is the rare example of an American remake of a British sitcom that actually worked (and even surpassed the original, depending on who you ask). While all of the characters were strong in their own right, Steve Carrell’s Michael Scott was the glue that held the show together. When he departed at the end of season seven, it was never the same.
Happy Days
The phrase “jumping the shark” is used to refer to something that has exhausted its creative potential and has to invent increasingly ludicrous ideas to keep audiences entertained. The phrase’s origins can be found in a particularly unfortunate episode of Happy Days that many (correctly) interpreted as the definitive sign that the once-beloved show had lost its way.
True Blood
The first seasons of True Blood racked up a number of prestigious awards, with the blend of fantasy, romance and explorations of prejudice winning over fans and critics alike. Eventually, however, the writers got a bit carried away, and the introduction of fairies, demigods, werepanthers and all manner of other whimsical creatures eroded the show’s captivating grittiness and left unintentional comedy in its place.
How I Met Your Mother
After nine seasons of buildup, there was almost no way that the revelation of how Ted met his children’s mother could have lived up to expectations. But it could have been a lot better than it was. In light of the dismal payoff, it’s hard not to feel like the last few seasons of the show were almost completely pointless.
Modern Family
Praised for its snappy dialogue and emotional heart, Modern Family won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series five years in a row. Eventually, though, the writers seemingly ran out of ideas, and the show became overly formulaic, sentimental and no longer funny. Modern Family was eventually cancelled in 2020 after running for ten seasons, at least three of which were unnecessary.
Castle
Ross and Rachel’s will they won’t they relationship is arguably the true engine of Friends, and the writers wisely waited until the very end to give them their happily ever after. The writers of Castle, however, resolved the show’s romantic tension way too soon, and were then forced to try and inject it back in via domestic squabbles that completely detracted from the main storylines.
Two and a Half Men
While Chuck Lorre’s decision to fire Charlie Sheen after the actor viciously insulted him during a highly publicized meltdown was understandable, he should have realized it meant the end of Two and a Half Men. Instead, Ashton Kutcher was drafted in to plug the gap, but – despite Kutcher’s considerable talents – the spark was lost and the new dynamic just never quite clicked.
Dexter
The finale of Dexter is widely considered one of the worst TV endings of all time (although the reboot did go some way towards setting things right), but according to show-runner Clyde Phillips, the show had gone off the rails long before that. Phillips stated that the show lost its way in the later seasons because it changed Dexter’s character too much, alienating longtime fans.
Suits
Suits’ premise – a young, gifted lawyer who isn’t technically a lawyer working at a prestigious law firm – provided much of the show’s tension, but at its core it was a legal drama, and that’s why fans loved it. This is why viewership declined in the later seasons as the show increasingly focused on interpersonal dramas, becoming what some derisively labelled ‘a soap opera.’
Under the Dome
Under the Dome follows a town sealed off from the world by a large, transparent dome. Neal Baer, the show’s creator, had originally intended to make a single season, but after it became a hit CBS commissioned more. Predictably, this turned out to be a mistake, with the writers forced to come up with increasingly nonsensical storylines that eventually led to the show’s cancellation.
Sherlock
Sherlock season two ended with the detective seemingly splattered on the pavement, and fans couldn’t wait for the third season to reveal how he’d cheated death. When it quickly emerged that the writers couldn’t think of a convincing answer, choosing instead to leave it a mystery, this clearly indicated that the show was running out of ideas.
Skins
The first two seasons of Skins managed to balance drama, comedy, tragedy and unflinching portrayals of serious issues. The third season achieved the rare feat of introducing a new cohort of characters but keeping the quality high, but it couldn’t pull off the same trick twice. It’s hard to argue that the show shouldn’t have ended after season four’s relentlessly bleak conclusion.
Arrow
The first season of Arrow felt fresh, largely due to the fact that it followed a superhero who actually killed people. Even after Oliver Queen found a new code of ethics and started using his archery to non-lethal effect the show remained enjoyable, but in the later seasons it was clearly running out of steam, relying on an endless stream of new, mostly boring superheroes.
Arrested Development
At its peak, Arrested Development was arguably one of the funniest shows on TV. After the third season, however, the show moved over to Netflix and the quality nosedived. While the show originally relied on the dysfunctional dynamics of the Bluth family for much of its humor, later seasons misguidedly tried to change the formula by having each episode focus primarily on a single character.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer began as a sardonic yet upbeat exploration of teenage angst by way of fighting monsters. Alas, by its seventh and final season in 2002, it had degenerated into a sour-faced, joyless drudge in which the comedy all but disappeared and the focus was squarely on misery. The title character had died in the season five finale: maybe they should’ve left it there.
The Simpsons
Not many TV shows have enjoyed such longevity as The Simpsons. The animated comedy has been such a big part of the popular consciousness for so long, it almost hurts to say that the plug should have been pulled years ago. After well over three full decades in production, the iconic cartoon has been playing by the numbers for years and really needs to end.
The X-Files
Another series which briefly captured the zeitgeist but has long since ceased to be of any real importance to anyone outside the core, diehard fanbase is The X-Files. Though groundbreaking when it first hit the airwaves in 1993, a succession of improbable plot developments and an increasingly complex lore soon alienated the wider audience. The 2016 revival did little to win that audience back.
Xena: Warrior Princess
Thanks to its implied same-sex romance, Xena: Warrior Princess was considered one of the most progressive TV shows of the 90s. Sadly, restrictions of the time forced the showrunners to keep this ambiguous, and the show reached a tragic conclusion with the title character killed off, which actress Lucy Lawless has since admitted she regrets. With hindsight, it really should have ended sooner, and preferably on a happier note.
Game of Thrones
Few TV shows have gone from such widespread acclaim to near-universal disdain as Game of Thrones did in its final season. We can debate just when the rot set in, but everyone agrees that the final season totally failed to deliver a satisfactory conclusion. The fact that the writers ran out of George R.R. Martin novels to adapt was a big part of the problem.
Magnum, P.I.
Premiering in December 1980, detective series Magnum, P.I. made Tom Selleck one of the biggest TV stars of the decade – but the actor was more than ready to move on before the show finally ended in 1988. The seventh season even ended with Magnum dying and going to heaven, yet the network still brought him back to milk another season out of that cash cow.
Gunsmoke
Though nowhere near as popular as it once was, the western was for many years the most popular genre around, and one of the longest-running TV westerns was Gunsmoke. Remarkably, lead actors James Arness and Milburn Stone played their roles for the show’s entire 20-year run of 635 episodes. When they finally called it a day in 1975, it was well past due.
Criminal Minds
It often feels like you could literally watch nothing but police procedural shows, and still never run out of episodes to watch. Take Criminal Minds, which has been on the air since 2005 and shows no signs of slowing down, even though most of the original cast members have long since departed.
Dallas
If the only thing the show runners can think to do to keep the story going is to pretend that the entire previous season was a dream, you’ve officially been on the air too long. Infamously, Dallas did just that in their ninth season, with the long-since dead Bobby Ewing revealed as alive and taking a shower. They should have pulled the plug sooner.
Hawaii Five-0
Another cop show that stuck around far longer than it had any reason to was Hawaii Five-0. When it kicked off in 1968, the show felt very much in-keeping with the times, but by the time they finally closed up shop in 1980 it was painfully out of date. The latter-day reboot almost enjoyed the same longevity, running from 2010 to 2020.
South Park
When it first appeared all the way back in 1997, South Park was unlike anything that had been seen on television before. That distinctive mix of boundary-pushing satirical/scatological humor and self-consciously lo-fi animation had a greater popular impact than anyone could have imagined. However, after more than 25 years on the air, isn’t everyone a bit tired of the same old schtick by now?
Orange is the New Black
Perhaps the first original Netflix series to really capture the attention of a wider audience, offbeat prison drama Orange is the New Black presented something genuinely new and different in its earliest seasons. Alas, the longer it went on, the more it devolved into little more than a soap opera. It finally ended in 2019 after seven seasons, but should have wrapped things up sooner.
Bones
Police procedural shows, as we’ve seen, have the potential to more or less go on forever, and before Bones came to an end in 2017, many thought it would never end. Seeing Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz spicing up standard TV detective tropes with forensic anthropology and archaeology felt fun and unique for a while, but not after a whopping 246 episodes.
Beverly Hills, 90210
Launched in 1990, teen soap Beverly Hills, 90210 pretty much captured the zeitgeist for young people in the early 90s. However, as those people grew older, and more and more original cast members left, many were left wondering just who the show was really for anymore. Even so, the series endured in its original incarnation until 2000, and has since had two short-lived revivals.
Archer
Raucous animated spy spoof Archer proved one of the most unique and entertaining adult animations around when it launched in 2009. However, within the first few seasons they were already repeating themselves, and once original cast member Jessica Walter died in 2021, a key part of the chemistry was lost. 2023’s 14th season will be the last, but they probably should’ve thrown in the towel sooner.
Baywatch
Baywatch began in 1989 with at least some pretence of being a serious drama about Los Angeles lifeguards. Within a few short years, however, there were no illusions that the show had any other function beyond showcasing a revolving door of pretty people in swimsuits. The series somehow survived notorious spin-off Baywatch Nights and a move to Hawaii before the axe finally fell in 2001.
NYPD Blue
Considering how much darker and more explicit TV has become in more recent years, it seems strange that NYPD Blue’s harder-edged take on cop drama prompted massive controversy when the series began in 1993. Those early episodes seem tame now – and indeed, they felt tame long before the show finally ended in 2005 after 261 episodes.
7th Heaven
One of the final shows of famed producer Aaron Spelling, 7th Heaven is notable for giving actress Jessica Biel a professional launchpad. Otherwise, it was a pretty tepid family drama that didn’t offer much of anything new. Nonetheless, it managed to last 11 seasons before finally ending in 2007.
The Beverly Hillbillies
Culture clash comedy can only work for so long. When The Beverly Hillbillies began in 1962, it was easy to swallow the show’s central conceit of a backwater Missouri family being fish out of water in affluent Beverly Hills. However, once they’d been there for the best part of a decade, surely they’d have settled in a bit? Nonetheless, the comedy ran until 1971.
The Blacklist
James Spader is without doubt a magnetic actor, and his screen charisma alone can keep viewers tuning in. Even so, crime thriller The Blacklist clearly outstayed its welcome, the show’s initially intriguing premise having been stretched way beyond breaking point once it finally wrapped up after 218 episodes in July 2023.
NCIS
Prolific producer Donald P Bellisario (Magnum, PI, Airwolf, Quantum Leap) enjoyed his last small screen smash hit with NCIS. Launched in 2003, the series – which has spawned four spin-offs – is still going today. Come on guys, doesn’t there come a point when you want to move on to something new?
Chicago Fire
If cop dramas can keep running on TV indefinitely, why not shows about the other emergency services? Chicago Fire is still burning strong on screens after 11 seasons, and it doesn’t look like it’ll be stopping anytime soon. This series also spawned a small screen universe, with offshoots Chicago Med, Chicago PD and Chicago Justice.
Grey’s Anatomy
Kicking off back in 2005, medical drama Grey’s Anatomy is still on screens with 420 episodes produced to date and no sign of cancellation on the horizon. Naturally the cast has undergone many changes over the years, although Ellen Pompeo has remained throughout as title character Meredith Grey – but after almost 20 seasons, haven’t we all had enough?
The Waltons
Adapted by Earl Hamner Jr from his 1961 novel Spencer’s Mountain, The Waltons started out in 1972 as a sensitive yet oddly nostalgic look at life in rural Virginia during the Great Depression. It was dragged out longer than it should have been, the writers even incorporating the death of Grandpa actor Will Geer, and the debilitating stroke of Grandma actress Ellen Corby.
Everybody Loves Raymond
Sitcoms seem to make a habit of hanging around far longer than they should, and this was arguably the case with Everybody Loves Raymond. The simple, family-based setup of the show may have had a certain charm when it first began in 1996, but did anyone really need nine whole seasons of it?
The Flash
The second show in what became known as DC/The CW’s Arrowverse, The Flash came speeding onto screens in 2014 and didn’t speed away again until 2023. After 184 episodes of hot-footed superhero action, it’s fair to say that by the show’s end they’d long been ‘running’ on empty. (Get it?)
Sabrina the Teenage Witch
There’s a pretty big hint in the title, guys: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. She might have always been a witch, and she might have still had the same first name, but by the time the series ended in 2003, lead actress Melissa Joan Hart was 26 years old. Clearly she should have packed her wand and cauldron away a bit sooner.
Hunter
Essentially an attempt to do Dirty Harry as a TV series, Hunter first hit screens in 1984, and (its heightened violence notwithstanding) it was always one of the least interesting cop shows of the time. Despite this, it somehow managed to keep going for seven seasons, while even spawning a short-lived revival in 2003.
The Dukes of Hazzard
Thanks to the chemistry between the central cast, the car-driven action and (of course) the iconic shorts of Catherine Bach’s Daisy Duke, The Dukes of Hazzard was a huge TV hit at the dawn of the 80s. Things got formulaic quick, however, and when the original actors were replaced over a pay dispute in season five, it should have been clear the party was over.
Agents of SHIELD
You have to feel a little bad for the Agents of SHIELD team. Sure, the Marvel Cinematic Universe offshoot came with a ready-made fanbase, but this also meant it could never really stand on its own feet. By the time it ended in 2020, the show’s connection to the MCU was tenuous, and today – salt in the wound! – it’s not even considered canon.
