Category Archives: TV

TV

2014 cancelled TV shows…

…a handy-dandy list, complete with pictures!

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/12/showbiz/gallery/canceled-tv-shows/index.html

It’s a sad annual event for many, the death of TV shows.  Sad, of course, for the performers/creators/writers/directors, as their source of employment -and therefore livelihood- is lost, and sad for those who may have found something to like in one or more of the listed shows, and hoped for their continuation.

Of the later, alas, there were unfortunately too few.

Looking over this year’s list, there were very few shows I actively watched and plenty I saw one or two episodes (or less).  Trophy Wife intrigued me as I’ve always enjoyed actress Malin Ackerman, but what little I saw of the show didn’t do all that much for me.  Hostages and Crisis both looked intriguing, but it appears I’m still a little burnt out by 24 type shows (I’ve skipped the new mini-series) and wound up giving those shows a pass.  Surviving Jack, the one episode I saw of it, was hilarious and featured some truly memorable lines.  At one point in the episode I saw Chris Meloni, the star of the show, said something along the lines of “children are parasites that nature has conditioned us to love” and just I about fell on the floor laughing.  Having said that, it was somewhat difficult seeing Mr. Meloni in a comedic role.  Perhaps I’ve gotten too accustomed to seeing him in Law and Order.

There were two prominent sci-fi shows, Intelligence and Almost Human, that I watched and was not terribly surprised to see on the list of cancellations.  Intelligence began reasonably well, an updating, to my mind, of The Six Million Dollar Man, minus the superhuman strength.  The problem with the show was that it was so damn bland and never was all that gripping.  After seeing three or four episodes, I gave up on it.

Almost Human, on the other hand, was intriguing enough for me to watch every episode of its abbreviated run.  Having said that, the show had its share of problems.  Michael Ealy’s robotic Dorian was at times more annoying than interesting and as much as I’m a fan of Karl Urban (and I’m a REALLY big fan of his work), I felt his character on the show slipped into the cliched “grumpy old partner” mode a little too much for my taste.  Still, there was enough there to make this the one show I will if not miss, at least regret not seeing more of.

Finally, perhaps the one cancelled show that will have its fans the most upset is Community.  Unlike many of the other shows in the list, this one lasted five seasons.  I’ve watched several episodes of the show during its run and will be the first to admit it had some very, very clever writing…but despite that, Community never drew me in enough to follow on a regular basis.  Different strokes and all.

And so we wind up another TV season.  What gems (and misses) can we expect in the next?!

Stay tuned!

TV

Justified, Season 5 in conclusion…

Way back in January of this year, I wrote about the beginning of the fifth season of one of my favorite TV series, Justified, and my fears regarding it becoming long in the tooth, so to speak. (Read about it here)

To elaborate a little, I was worried the show might be reaching a point where the creative staff before and behind the camera might start “going through the motions” and the show may be, like others I’ve enjoyed before, wearing out its welcome.

Now that the season is done, were my worries…justified?

It really pains me to say it, but the answer is “yes”.

Now, before saying anything else, let me note the following: Despite some of the complaints I’ll mention below, season five of the show was still a pretty good ride and featured some very dramatic events and great tension.  Unfortunately, when all is said and done, I got the feeling this season was nothing more than a windup for season 6, which I suspect will focus on the final confrontation between Marshal Raylon Givens and criminal Boyd Crowder.

Looking back at season 5, the “big bad”, Daryl Crowe, was an imposing yet ultimately rather pathetic character whose greatest attribute appeared to be to get himself out of trouble with the law…usually by forcing others to fall on his sword.  Two of his original sidekicks, presented as a pair of very lethal characters, were dispatched in an almost offhanded way.  One of them never even got a chance to confront Marshal Givens (though I wanted to see it!) and the other -quite literally now that I think about it- actually fell on his sword!

For that matter, by the very end Daryl Crowe was taken out without Marshal Givens firing a single bullet, either.

As for Boyd Crowder, the long running nemesis of Marshal Givens, his season long story involved a) his struggles to make it in the heroin trade and b) his girlfriend Ava going from one jail to another and his being powerless to get her out.  Boyd’s struggles with getting into the drug business were at times darkly humorous and tense while his inability to help his girl get out of jail added pressure to his attempts to create a life for himself.

Ava’s incarceration and her struggles behind bars were never all that original, at least to me, nor as fascinating as it might have been.  In the closing minutes of the season this matter was abruptly -and conveniently- resolved but amounted to a big “to be continued” plot line for season six.

So, all in all, season 5 of Justified, despite some really good stuff here and there, was easily the weakest of the show’s five seasons so far, though given how good the show is, even sub-par Justified is far better than 90 plus percent of shows out there.

My big hope is that the creative staff have a terrific conclusion to the saga in mind, given that season six has already been announced as the series’ last.

Despite everything, I’ll most certainly be there for season six.

TV

David Letterman to retire…

By now the news is out: Next year, In 2015, Late Night Talk Show host David Letterman will retire.

A part of me is quite sad about this.  I was a fan of Johnny Carson and recall when he retired and, not all that long afterwards, passed away.  I loved Carson’s Tonight Show.  I loved the naturalism and curiosity, along with -of course- a great sense of humor, in the way he went about interviewing guests.  His guests seemed to be instantly at ease and he took what they gave and gave back in spades.  He was also superb with his monologues.  When the jokes were funny, they were funny, but when they bombed -which they did frequently!- Mr. Carson was at his absolute best, taking what for others might be humiliation and making it solid gold.

David Letterman, I suspect, was well schooled by what he saw Mr. Carson do.  Though his humor tended to be a bit “edgier”, he too was the master of taking a terrible joke and making it hilarious.  When Mr. Letterman rose up in the ranks and became a talk show host following the Tonight Show, it became THE show to see and I absolutely loved some of his bizarre yet delightful bits, such as his experimentations with different kinds of “suits”, the most hilarious of them being the one made of velcro (the must watch moment starts at the 3:45 mark)…

I watched Letterman religiously in the 1980’s and into the 1990’s and then …well… stopped.  I couldn’t tell you what happened.  Perhaps I no longer had the time to watch.  I was moving from college to work, marriage, and having kids.  Time wasn’t such a luxury anymore.  Perhaps it was also that the show, which moved from NBC to CBS, seemed to become a little more muted.  The bizarre humor slowly tapered off and maybe, just maybe, it no longer appealed to me as much as before.  Most likely, a combination of all the above ultimately made me stop watching.

Regardless, after not seeing more than a couple of minutes of Letterman here and there for over ten and probably closer to twenty years, I heard that actor Josh Charles would be on the show a couple of weeks back.  It was quite a coup for Letterman as Mr. Charles was at the center of one of the more …sensational… episodes of The Good Wife and, frankly, I was eager to hear what he had to say about the episode (Yes, I’m a fan of The Good Wife!)

So I set my DVR to record the show and the next day I watched it.

Wow.

The David Letterman in my mind remains the relatively young man of the velcro suit clip above.  I was shocked, though I probably shouldn’t have been, at how much he had aged since I last really had a good look at him.  I know, aging happens to all of us.  Carson aged over the years I watched him, but he always seemed to be Carson.  Even as he was retiring from The Tonight Show he appeared to be more or less the same person as before.  Letterman, on the other hand, looked haggard, tired.

His opening monologue featured some funny jokes, but I was surprised at how robotic his delivery was.  I know I may be guilty of reading too much into this, but seeing the monologue made me feel like Letterman was on autopilot and the monologue to him had become a boring routine.

The worst was to come.

I fast forwarded to the interview with Josh Charles, skipping President Carter (in retrospect, I probably should have given that a look), and found myself even more surprised and, frankly, saddened by what I saw.  If Mr. Letterman’s monologue looked like work done on autopilot, his “interview” with Mr. Charles was even worse.  Mr. Letterman seemed to barely care about the actor and, especially, his work on The Good Wife.  The questions Mr. Letterman asked him were obviously on a piece of paper he was reading off of and he looked (again, I might be guilty of reading too much into this) barely interested in the guy before him.  In the end, Letterman wound up talking about Mr. Charles’ marriage and honeymoon and riding elephants.

Seriously?

You just had one of the most fascinating hours of television the night before and then get the actor in the center of that episode to come on your show…and the host focuses on the man’s honeymoon?!

So, fast forward to last night, two weeks or so later, and the breaking news that Mr. Letterman announces his retirement.  Had I not seen the episode above, the news of his retirement might well have shocked the hell out of me.  Having seen that episode, though, I felt the complete opposite.

Mr. Letterman has been around for a very long time and I’ll always appreciate the laughs he’s given me.  But if that single episode I saw of Letterman’s show was any indication, perhaps Mr. Letterman realized it was time for him to move along.

I’ll probably catch some of his final episodes, just like I did with Mr. Carson.  When he does finally retire and is no longer on the air, at least I’ll have my pleasant memories…

Movies, TV

How “Breaking Bad” and “House of Cards” killed the Oscars…

I guess I wasn’t the only person not all that interested/invested in this year’s Oscars.  This article by Anne Thompson for Salon.com offers great insight into what may well be ailing the theatrical movie industry and why:

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/01/how-breaking-bad-and-house-of-cards-killed-the-oscars/

I agree with much of what Ms. Thompson’s analysis.  We’re entering a new age in so many ways thanks to the digital/computer revolution.  As I’ve mentioned many times before, stores we used to frequent, such as music and book sellers, are fading away when we can simply, easily, and conveniently download said material from the internet…hopefully doing this legally.

The theatrical movie industry is starting to feel the pinch as well.  Yesterday I noted (you can read it here) how few of the films nominated for the Oscars I had actually seen.  In going over that blog post, I didn’t make it as clear as I should how little I cared to see these other films.

These were the nominees for best movie of the year:

12 Years a Slave (the winner), American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

As I stated before, I’ve only seen Gravity.  Of the rest, the only one I’m somewhat interested in seeing is American Hustle.  But I’m hardly “dying” to see it.  It looks like it could be good, but then again so did Argo (last year’s big Oscar winner) and I found that film to be a pleasant enough diversion but, frankly, nothing exceptional.

A weak batch?  For me certainly, though I stress this is just my opinion alone.  For whatever reason, my personal movie interests didn’t coincide all that strongly with what was considered some of the best movies released this past year.

Yet there is another element to this picture, and that is what Ms. Thompson points out in her article.  The fact is that there are some really terrific TV series out there that draw my attention far more than many theatrically released movies.  Why?  Because these TV shows feature some of the best talent in Hollywood today, both in front of and behind the camera.  And instead of a story that is told in an hour and a half to two hours, TV shows have the ability to present viewers a longer, more involved, and deeper story than a single feature film can at times provide.

Sure, I can envision a Justified motion picture, but seeing the adventures of Raylon Givens and the motley crew of lowlifes around him play out is something that works extremely well in an hourly episodic fashion.  I suspect that’s what has drawn so many to Breaking Bad and House of Cards as well.  Again, a movie version could be made of each, but what thrills you is seeing the story play out in a longer format.  These multiple episode features, of course, are perfect for streaming services who have enriched themselves providing these services and therefore have deep enough pockets to pay for top talent in their features.

And this brings us to another element to the equation.  If the money is moving away from the theatrical releases and to the TV series, where do you think the talent will go?

As with many things, this may be a temporary change.  Perhaps in another year or two audiences will bore of long TV series and the theatrical movie making companies will get their mojo back.  It only takes a couple of big successes (witness Jaws and Star Wars) to revitalize and refocus an industry.

TV

The Spoils of Babylon (2014) a (very mildly) belated review

So actor/comedian Will Ferrell through his Funny or Die collective and along with creator/writers Matt Piedmont and Andrew Steele, presents The Spoils of Babylon, a mini-series parody of…1970/80’s era mini-series.

And it is quite funny…if (a BIG if) you’re familiar with the format they’re parodying and are therefore clued in on the jokes.

I suspect there are going to be many people who are not at all familiar with those mini-series of the past and therefore likely shut this show off after giving it a only a few minutes of their time.  But, again, having experienced those old, sometimes turgid romantic/quasi-historical/soap-opera-esq mini-series in the past, this parody proved to me quite entertaining.

Having said that, I’ll also grant you aren’t going to have laugh out loud sessions with this like you would, say, the movie Airplane!  The Spoils of Babylon at times comes perilously close, especially with its plot, to outright emulating those mini-series from the past.  In fact, if it were played “seriously” and released back in the late 1970’s, I suspect it might well have been a hit!

The story involves the mighty Morehouse family and their rise from the 1930’s to their fall in the 1970’s.  Patriarch Jonas Morehouse (Tim Robbins) is a low down and very poor dirt farmer hoping to find oil on his property.  One day while driving along with his daughter, Cynthia (played as an adult by Kristen Wiig), they pick up the young Devon (played as an adult by Tobey Maguire).  The young Devon is walking about in the sun with no memory of who he is or if he has any family, so Jonas adopts him.  Because they are of roughly the same age, Cynthia and Devon develop feelings for each other.  When Father Jonas finds out, he forbids the “brother” and “sister” (though they have no genetic link) from being together.  It is Devon and Cynthia’s lustful temptation and forbidden love which fuels the “tragic” plot to follow.

In short order Jonas and Devon find oil on their property and the family becomes a powerhouse in the business world and hugely influential within the U.S. government.  But the coming War, generational changes, and Devon’s attempts to follow his adoptive father’s orders to not get involved with his sister lead to murders, drug abuse, a bastard child, and, ultimately, a Greek-like tragedy.

You know, your typical late 70’s early 80’s mini-series story!

Those who are in on the joke will find plenty of stuff to enjoy, from Kristen Wiig’s wonderful, expressive acting (she really looks to relish her role as the femme fatale/spurned lover/feminist/murderer/temptress Cynthia).  Tobey Maguire, while quite humorous in many sequences, has a more sedate/straight-man role.  Will Ferrell gets to show up as the Orson Welles-esq Eric Jonrush, “author” of the best-selling potboiler novel that was the basis of this mini-series and director of the same.  His introductory and concluding comments for each episode are alternately loopy, bizarre, and at times quite hilarious, as is his cameo within the feature itself.  Val Kilmer also shows up for a couple of scenes as part of the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex, and his dry readings are also very funny.  Haley Joel Osment delivers a loopy turn as the unhinged Winston Morehouse, the bastard child of Devon and Cynthia.

Again, I freely admit The Spoils of Babylon might not be for everyone, especially the young ‘uns who don’t have any idea of what this mini-series is parodying.  Those who do, however, should find plenty to enjoy.  The Spoils of Babylon may not always be a “laugh out loud” type experience, but there is plenty of dry humor and cheese to enjoy.

Recommended.

TV

Last look at The Love Boat

For those who don’t know a thing about it, the original Love Boat was a very successful comedy/romantic TV series that lasted an astonishing 10 years from 1977 to 1987.

The ship you see in the credits above, the actual “Love Boat” of the title, was at the time called The Pacific Princess and later was known as the MS Pacific.

The passage of time has not been kind for the ship.  As beautiful as she may look in those opening credits (this is assuming you enjoy looking at cruise ships), the fact is that the more modern cruise ships with their voluminous amenities and much, much bigger size (which equals more passengers which in turn equals more profits) have rendered the poor Pacific Princess an unprofitable relic.

The Pacific Princess is now docked at a Turkish scrapyard and taking on water.  It is listing to its side and waiting to be torn apart.

For those curious to see what this once majestic ship looks like today and before she’s gone forever, click here:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/cruiselog/2014/01/29/cruise-ship-tour-love-boat/5011661/

To whet your appetite, here’s the first of the many photographs from both outside and inside the ship presented on the above website:

In August of 2013, one of the world’s most cherished cruise ships barely limped into a Turkish scrapyard after developing a leak and taking on a severe list while under tow from Genoa, Italy.

I don’t quite know why, but seeing this ship lying in such a state of disrepair makes me sad.  While I was never a terribly big fan of The Love Boat (and haven’t seen so much as a minute of the Robert Urich starring The Love Boat The Next Wave), I can’t deny having seen some of the original show and finding it, at the time, entertaining.

Ah well, time moves on and as for Pacific Princess, may she rest in peace.

TV

Helix (2014) a (mildly) belated TV pilot review

Whenever I look over movies, TV shows, books, or music, I try to give the people who created the work the benefit of the doubt.

This is a relatively new thing for me as I used to have very stringent standards for what I perceived as “good” works vs. those that were “bad”.  Perhaps its a sign of mellowing with age.  Perhaps its the realization that all works were created by people like me who certainly had no intention of making something “bad”.

In the books I write, the only deadline I have is my own.  I will not release any of my works until I’m satisfied they are about as good as I can get them.  And even then I know the works aren’t perfect.  A typo or two might have escaped me.  A passage might have worked better had I written it this way versus that way.

While I have the luxury of time and budget (as a novel writer, there is no budget!), others aren’t so lucky.  A project can be greenlighted and the people before and behind the scenes may have a very limited time and an equally limited budget to create their work as best as they can.  Long, loooong hours may be invested to make sure the project gets to the screen at a given time and sometimes compromises are made.  A work that looks like it “can’t miss” therefore comes out looking sloppy and not at all well thought out.

Which brings us to the SyFi network’s Helix.

Just before the show aired its pilot and first episode back to back last Friday, there were posts on the blogs that I frequent talking about how good the show was and how it would be a “must watch” in the future.  The show involved a group of Center for Disease Control (CDC) officers sent to a remote arctic base where a mysterious virus has been released.  The CDC officers are trying to find and contain the virus while dealing with the fact that the people behind the base are keeping secrets…and one of their own members may be in cahoots with the base’s brass.

Now, this description sounded OK to me.  Not great, I would admit right off the bat, but not all that bad.

But then I watched the two episodes.

Ouch.

While the show features decent actors and a decent “look”, the story presented veered from the dull to the absolutely preposterous.  The head of the CDC, Dr. Alan Farragut (Billy Campbell) is sent into this situation along with his estranged wife (Kyra Zagorsky) and have to deal with a survivor of this mysterious virus, his brother (Neil Napier) who happened to have slept with his wife!

Are these the people you want to send into a potentially Earth threatening hot zone?  Do we need this potential drama between professionals who should be focused on their jobs?!

But it gets worse.  There is a military officer liason and another CDC Doctor who break from the others and explore the facility essentially on their own.  They do not report back to their superior for what appeared to be two days or so despite quickly finding evidence that the head of the research facility was withholding information/lying to them about the research center.  I mean, come on, shouldn’t you tell the others that the head of the base might in fact be a bad guy?  Are you going to let your teammates stumble around a couple of days not knowing the man they’re dealing with may be about to make them victims?  Then again, the head of the research center was only missing a thin twirly mustache and the name “Dr. Evil” to fully cement his persona.  If the others didn’t realize he was holding back, perhaps it was their own damn fault.

No, I did not like the show at all.

One wonders how some of the talent involved in The X-Files, Lost, and the excellent Battlestar: Galactica reworking could also have had a hand in this show.

The answer is we’ll never really know…unless we were there.  Perhaps the writers were rushed.  Perhaps the directors and actors and crew didn’t have the time necessary to fully flesh out the characters and scripts before filming began.  It’s far better to think that than to think these two first episodes are exactly what their makers were hoping to create.

Needless to say, a pass.

TV

Justified, Season 5

One of my favorite current TV shows is Justified.  Entering its fifth season this week and based on a short story by the late Elmore Leonard, the show stars Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens.  Justified often delivers a healthy dose violence -and death- along with an equally healthy dose of hilarity, a mix that when it works, it works incredibly well.  The writing on the show is often razor sharp and a great cast surrounds the taciturn Marshal, who at times walks through the scenery as if he’s a mellow Grim Reaper.

Having said that, this generally negative review by Willa Paskin of the fifth season’s first two episodes had me worried:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2014/01/justified-season-5-review-timothy-olyphant-s-pants-look-great.html

A while back I noted a link to a story involving TV shows that had gone on “too long”.  I ended the blog entry with examples of TV shows that I felt ended “right on time”, where you could see that the cast/crew/writers/directors/etc. were perhaps starting to lose interest and were beginning to release substandard episodes just before the shows were cancelled (you can read all that here).

One thing I realized belatedly when I wrote that entry was that many of the shows I felt went on “too long” -and those that ended “right on time”- seemed to fall apart around their fourth or fifth season.  There seems to be something make or break -more often break– about a show reaching that magical time.  As much as I adored The Simpsons, I grew bored of it around its fifth season and never bothered to watch it again.  Two of the shows I listed as having ended “right on time” were the original Star Trek series (cancelled after three seasons) and The Wild Wild West (cancelled after four seasons).  Thinking about it some more, Torchwood was another series that flopped toward the end, when it reached what was effectively its fifth (or would it be considered fourth?) season long story episodes.

That’s not to say that there are exceptions to this rule (Doctor Who) and, I would hastily note I’m speaking for myself here, but it is curious how I tend to reach my fill with series after a while.

So after reading the review I sat down and, with great trepidation, watched the fifth season premiere of Justified.

Was the negative review…justified?

I can only give a very ambivalent answer here: Yes and no.

The episode was certainly watchable, but the body count in that first hour (I have yet to see the second episode which the reviewer has) was beyond ridiculous.  There were somewhere in the neighborhood of ten people killed within that one hour of time (I actually lost track!) and I couldn’t help but think the writers simply wanted to shock us with all that violence.

However, for a kickstarter for a season, the story itself was surprisingly…small.  Not a whole lot happened here from a story standpoint, certainly not enough to clue you in on where this season will go.  Other seasons have grabbed you by the throat and not let go until the end.  This episode felt almost like filler/backstory despite the incredibly high body count.

In the end, I have to agree with Ms. Paskin’s review.  While still quite watchable, I hope this episode isn’t a sign of things to come but an anomaly, a “let’s catch the viewers up” type of deal meant for newbies more than those who have been around the previous four seasons.

I still have a great deal of interest in Justified and sincerely hope it once again reaches the levels it has in the past.  But this opening episode didn’t do all that much for me.

TV

Duck Dynasty…

My family really likes the show…they consider it quite hilarious.  Apparently, so do other members of my extended family.

Myself?  Never watched it…until -coincidentally enough- over the past weekend when I was “treated” to two Christmas themed episodes (I was a captive audience).

The fact that I put the word treated in quotes -and noted I was a captive audience- should clue you in to my ultimate feelings about what I saw.  I won’t deny there was some humor to be had in a couple of scenes, but for two hours of watching, I found the whole thing to be a chore.  Later, I was told these episodes were pretty mediocre compared to some of the better episodes of the show, but when -really if– I ever find the time to see them, I’ll judge for myself.  Just don’t count on it.

Anyway, a couple of days after seeing the show for the first (and very likely the last) time, came the controversial (to say the least) statements of the show’s patriarch, Phil Robertson regarding homosexuality and, we’re now learning, race.  His comments have earned him a suspension from his own show, and naturally his family have come to his defense as have, apparently, the show’s very many fans…

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/20/showbiz/duck-dynasty-suspension/index.html

What struck me about the article was the following quote which was part of a statement released by the Robertson family on Phil’s behalf:

We are disappointed that Phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right.

I’m a VERY big proponent of the First Amendment.  I very much believe in the Freedom of Speech.  But what many people who find themselves in trouble for the stupid things they say don’t realize is that Freedom of Speech goes both ways.  You certainly are free to state whatever opinions or ideas you have, even if these ideas are arguably hateful and/or downright stupid.

HOWEVER, others have the same Freedom of Speech to express their opinions regarding your speech: That they feel what you have said amounts to hateful or ignorant comments.

In this case A&E, the television company airing Duck Dynasty, has every right to be bothered (the kindest word I could think of) by Mr. Robertson’s statements, even if the family feels the statements he made are “his beliefs…grounded in the teachings of the Bible“.

I can’t help but wonder where this will go.  Despite my lack of enthusiasm for it, Duck Dynasty is a very popular show.  Will A&E drop it?  Will the Robertson family force it to do just that?  If so, will there be another network out there that will take it (Spoiler: I suspect so).

Stay tuned…

TV

12 TV Shows…

…That Went On Way Too Long, at least according to Daniel D’Addario for Salon.com:

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/11/12_shows_that_went_on-way-too-long/

One of their top choices -and I don’t think this requires spoilers- is The Simpsons.  Man, do I agree with that choice.  I vividly recall when the show first appeared way, waaaay back in 1989 and being completely entranced by it.  To me it was absolutely must see TV, a show that provided seemingly non-stop laughs.

Then, something happened.

I can’t even put my finger on what exactly what it was but all of a sudden…I had my fill of The Simpsons.  More than my fill.  I haven’t seen an episode of the show -new or otherwise- in more than fifteen years.  Perhaps even as many as twenty years (the show is on its twenty fifth season).

Mind you, at the time I finally dropped the show I don’t think it had changed in any significant way.  The humor remained roughly as before but after five or six seasons of faithful viewing I no longer felt the need to continue doing so.

There are other shows on the list, like The X-Files and The Office, which reached a point they should have ended, particularly when one of the lead actors took off and were replaced by actors audiences didn’t care about quite as much.  There are other shows that have reached the proverbial point where they “jumped the shark” (a reference to a particularly stupid episode of Happy Days which sealed the fate of that show and became a point of reference when TV shows do something so silly or preposterous that a significant chunk of viewers are forever turned off from the series).

Looking beyond this list, let me indicate some shows that probably ended right on time.

My first nominee would be one of my favorite series: The Wild, Wild West.  The show lasted four seasons from 1965 to 1969, the best season of which was probably the very first.  The second and third seasons, however, weren’t all that bad either.  If you’re a fan of the show like me, though, and you bought the four seasons on DVD (I wasn’t around to see it during its first run), you can’t help but notice that the fourth season of the show, despite some good episodes here and there, features a clear drop in quality.  Some of these episodes feature a sloppiness not found in the early seasons, a sense that perhaps the cast and crew were focused on getting these episodes done as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Having said all that, The Wild, Wild West’s last season wasn’t a total disaster, but I suspect if the show had gone on to a fifth season, that may well have been the case.

Another show that ended in the proverbial “nick of time” was the original Star Trek.  Lasting only three seasons between 1966-69, the show was never a ratings darling and it is a wonder it lasted as long as it did before cancellation.  It wouldn’t be until after it was done and in reruns that the show achieved its cult, and then very real, hit status.  In retrospect the first two seasons of the show are considered the best while there is a marked drop in quality with the series’ third season.  But, like The Wild, Wild West, there are some good episodes to be found in that season along with outright clunkers such as Spock’s Brain and Turnabout Intruder.  Had the show continued with a fourth season, I suspect the bad might have started to overtake the good.  Again like The Wild, Wild West, I can’t help but feel that the cast and crew of Star Trek had grown tired of the series and weren’t as dedicated at making each episode as they were earlier on.

Finally, The Prisoner.  Lasting a mere 17 episodes from 1967-68 (one season), this fascinating, mind-bending show was meant to have a conclusion and boy-oh-boy did it ever.  Even in this short episode run, however, there were a couple of “lesser” episodes in the batch and a conclusion some have felt was way over the top.  While I would love to live in an alternative universe where The Prisoner -and, for that matter, Star Trek and The Wild, Wild West– lasted a little bit longer than they did, I also recognize that sometimes you have to appreciate what you have and realize more doesn’t mean better.

Anyway, just my humble opinion…