The Catholic Message Board

Doesn't happen often. Shows usually seem to outwear their welcome and popularity.

Take The Office, should have ended after season 5. Because after season 5 it became like an SNL skit where everyone was trying to "out funny" the other guy. Nobody played the straight role to Michael Scott. Gene Wilder had good insight on comedy when working with Pryor when scenes started becoming more adlibbed. Wilder said one of the worst things to comedy is for people trying to out funny the other guy. He realized that if he tried to think of something funnier to say than Pryor, it ended with unfunny results. That playing the role straight helps the humor not spin out of control.

I was pretty young when Cheers ended, but I still watched the show with my parents and grandparents. The last season was still popular. The last moments of that episode: Sam tells the silhouetted figure at the door that "the bar is closed" and then goes, in the last moment, to straighten a photo on the wall of Geronimo... which was a photo owned by the man who played Coach.


Calvin and Hobbes. Had fond memories of this one. My dad, for as quiet as he was, enjoyed reading Calvin and Hobbes. He had numerous collections of the comic strip. After my dad passed my sister gave some of those collections to my son (who was only 4 at the time) but he loved them. I remember the very last comic. It wasn't trying to be funny, just reflecting on the possibilities afforded in the old world when looking new after being covered with snow.

Any you can think of?

The only way that a show can not decline in quality over time is if it is of very short duration. For example, Police Squad, 6 episodes.

Or British comedies, Fawlty Towers has 12 episodes.
Yes, Minister has 12 episodes, and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, has 16 episodes.
Keeping Up Apperances is a long running series by comparison, as it has a whopping 44 episodes

The Peanuts gang, by philosopher-artist Charles Schultz. Alas, we never would find out if Charlie Brown was destined to kick that football after all.

In addition to the years of enjoyment, he also stipulated that his work was his alone, and nobody was allowed to carry it on, sparing us of the indignity of Blondie, which should have ended fifty years or so ago, along with a host of other sorry retreads.

It was his children who insisted the strip end with his death, he himself didn’t care under the entirely reasonable belief that once he was dead he would have more important things to worry about

Wonder Years is one that I recall ending on a high note.

Daniel Stern has a good voice for one of those soliloquy send-offs.


I was pretty young when that show was on and had this sense that it was on for years (at least 5... which by kid estimates is at least 5 decades).
Stunned to see that the show ended after only 2 seasons.

Riverboat wrote: ↑Mon Jun 02, 2025 10:25 pm The Peanuts gang, by philosopher-artist Charles Schultz. Alas, we never would find out if Charlie Brown was destined to kick that football after all.

There is a strip where Lucy holds the ball instead of pulling it away and Charlie Brown misses the ball and kicks her finger.

p.falk wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 10:14 am Wonder Years is one that I recall ending on a high note.

Daniel Stern has a good voice for one of those soliloquy send-offs.


I was pretty young when that show was on and had this sense that it was on for years (at least 5... which by kid estimates is at least 5 decades).
Stunned to see that the show ended after only 2 seasons.

The reboot was 2 years. The original was 4 1/2 years covering 4 years of high school. At the time that it aired, I didn't realize that the time frame was '68 - '72, the same years that I was in high school. I might have tuned it in had I known. As it is, I only watched a few episodes years later.

anawim wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 12:40 pm

p.falk wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 10:14 am Wonder Years is one that I recall ending on a high note.

Daniel Stern has a good voice for one of those soliloquy send-offs.


I was pretty young when that show was on and had this sense that it was on for years (at least 5... which by kid estimates is at least 5 decades).
Stunned to see that the show ended after only 2 seasons.

The reboot was 2 years. The original was 4 1/2 years covering 4 years of high school. At the time that it aired, I didn't realize that the time frame was '68 - '72, the same years that I was in high school. I might have tuned it in had I known. As it is, I only watched a few episodes years later.

Ha! I was really wondering there. I knew nothing about the recent reboot.

p.falk wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 10:14 am Wonder Years is one that I recall ending on a high note.

Really? I thought the series finale was really bad. Paul isn't even in it until the last scene.

I think, in general, the entire last season, or even the last two, are pretty bad. Certainly, the massive decline in ratings after the 4th season reflects that. It was consistently in the top 10, but then it was cancelled due to low ratings in 1993. I remember not liking the last season or so, and I especially hated the finale (which was never intended to be a finale but became a finale after it was abruptly cancelled) in which Kevin and Winnie drift apart and end up marrying other people. That may be realistic, but we just spent 5 years following their relationship and it ended up being completely pointless. Why is adult Kevin telling this story (to whom exactly?) if the relationship at the center of the series goes nowhere?

Doom wrote: ↑Fri Jun 06, 2025 9:31 pm I think, in general, the entire last season, or even the last two, are pretty bad. Certainly, the massive decline in ratings after the 4th season reflects that. It was consistently in the top 10, but then it was cancelled due to low ratings in 1993. I remember not liking the last season or so, and I especially hated the finale (which was never intended to be a finale but became a finale after it was abruptly cancelled) in which Kevin and Winnie drift apart and end up marrying other people. That may be realistic, but we just spent 5 years following their relationship and it ended up being completely pointless. Why is adult Kevin telling this story (to whom exactly?) if the relationship at the center of the series goes nowhere?

I have to say that this is a really good point. Following their relationship for so long only to get smacked with “the gritty realism”… when, that’s not why anyone tuned into a show called WONDER Years.

I didn't watch too many episodes, but even I thought the finale one was bad.

And I have to correct myself. It lasted 5 1/2 years, and included at least part of what used to be called Junior High School, which has been changed at least in some areas to Middle School. The setting for the show was '68 to '73.

Re: The Office. I found Michael Scott so off putting that, when I rewatch an episode, I skip through scenes where he is featured. I understand his use as a comedic foil, but I found his histrionic personality disorder repulsive. IMO, he soiled everything he touched. I kept wondering "Why don't these people just quit?". For that reason, I admired Stanley. I could not suspend my disbelief that Michael kept his job past about episode 3 of the first season.

Re: Peanuts. Peanuts is eternal.